Master's Thesis in Scientific Computing

This CANVAS-page is for master's thesis project.

  • SF250X: Students studying the Computational mathematics (COMA) track of the master's programme applied and computational mathematics
  • SF259X: Students studying the second year at KTH of the master's programme in Computer Simulations for Science and Engineering (COSSE)

Goal

The goal of the master's project is to give the student experience in carrying through herself/himself a large project in scientific computing and to give deeper knowledge and understanding of the subject. 

Prerequisites

SF250X: All courses in year 1-3 from your bachelor, or courses required for issuance of a bachelor's degree and at least 60 credits of advanced level courses must be completed. The courses on advanced level must include SF2520 Applied numerical methods and SF2521 Numerical treatment of differential equations or SF2561 Finite element method, as well as a course in the theory of science and research methodology. Moreover, additional courses may be required before starting the work depending on the subject of the assigned project.

Contents

The master's project is a 30 ECTS credit course, i.e. approximately five months of full time work. The project is individual. No group projects are allowed. The project includes:

  • A literature search, where adequate text books, articles and reports are studied.
  • Investigation of a problem in Scientific Computing, to be presented in a thesis, a scientific report.
  • Taking part in some seminar activities in Scientific Computing at KTH, in particular at the NA department.
  • Oral presentation of the thesis.
  • Opposition, i.e. to give constructive criticism of another person's master's thesis.

Examination

The course is examined by an independently written thesis, an oral presentation and an opposition of another thesis.  The quality of the report contents, the report form, the presentation, the opposition and the work process all contribute to the final grade. For more details, see course syllabus. All these aspects are taken into account in the grade.

SF250X: Grade  P/F scale.

SF259X: Grade  A/F scale.

 

Practical information

Before the course

Before starting the course you need a project that is approved by an examiner. Below is a checklist of what you need to do. NB! If you are a computer science student in the CDATE program you also, additionally, need to get the project approved by your program director. Please contact him/her at a reasonably early stage in the process.

  • Verify that you are eligible to do the master thesis.
    Check that you fulfill the prerequisites above. If you are uncertain, you should talk to your student councellor or program director.

  • Find a project.
    Start by searching for a project. You may look for proposals in the KTH's Degree Project PortalLinks to an external site.. You may contact a company or a research group directly and ask for proposals. Note that Scientific Computing is an interdisciplinary subject. Many research groups at KTH use extensive computations in their daily work. You may also propose your own project. If you need help, contact a researcher or teacher whom you intend to have as a supervisor.

    The project should be an academic study, where the main part consists of a thorough investigation and analysis of a problem related to Scientific Computing. Although projects are typically set in an applied field such as physics, fluid dynamics, data sciences or electromagnetics, the focus should be on the computational mathematics part. At the center of the project there should be a nontrivial mathematical/numerical problem. Only a small part of the work may be routine work and then as support for the analysis. If programming is involved its purpose should be to verify methods and theories that have been developed in the project.

  • Write a preliminary project plan.
    Write a short description of your project where you briefly explain the background, the application and the main mathematical/numerical problems involved. Outline your ideas on how to tackle the problem and a time schedule for the work. List some references (books/articles) that you think can be used as a starting point for the work. The project plan should be written by the student, possibly with feedback/help from a supervisor.

  • Find a supervisor.
    Once you have your project you need to find a supervisor for your work. You may contact a reasearcher or teacher at the NA group directly. Any examiner can be a supervisor: https://www.kth.se/student/kurser/kurs/SF250X?l=en . Postdoctoral researchers or PhD students may also be supervisors, but then a faculty member needs to be examiner; see list of members https://www.kth.se/math/naost/members-1.1314516.

    Please observe that the one you contact may not have time to be your supervisor. So searching for a supervisor may need some effort. If you intend to do your project outside of the math department (e.g. at a company or another KTH department) you will need supervisors from both the NA group and the external partner.

    Show your preliminary plan to your supervisor(s). Discuss it with him/her and update it according to the feedback you get. The supervisor(s) should approve the plan before you can continue.

  • Start up meeting for external projects.
    If you do your project at a company you should set up a meeting (e.g. on Zoom) with your external supervisors, your NA supervisor and the examiner where the goals and organization of the project can be briefly discussed. The company also needs to sign a contract Download contract with KTH before the project can be approved.

  • Final approval and registration to the course.
    Send the following documents to the  supervisors:
    • Filled out master thesis application form Download master thesis application form.
      (Fill out also the second part; ignore the "filled out by the examiner" bit.)
    • Project description.
    • Contract signed by the company and yourself (if applicable).
    • Students studying CDATE need to confirm relevance to the programme. Send a project description and plan to the PA for CDATE and ask for permission.The NA supervisor (or NA examiner) sends signs the master thesis form and sends the above documents to gruadm.

If the examiner accepts your project, you will be enrolled in and registered to the course. Note that all this must be done before you start working on your project.

Then carefully read through the information on this page. Observe in particular the grading criteria and the part about the thesis work below.

Thesis work

Organize the thesis work together with your supervisor(s) and make suitable arrangements so that you will be supervised continuously during the project. Make sure to have regular contact with your supervisor(s). Before the main work starts you should find literature and read through the basic background material necessary to carry out your project. This should lead up to a final project plan, with a project specification and a time schedule for the work.

In addition to the actual thesis project and the writing: 

  • Taking part in a research seminar.
    The seminar can be in the NA group or another research group, but it should deal with problems of Scientific Computing. Ask the seminar organizer to email your supervisor who can approve this task. Please upload a selfie while the seminar takes place or is it about to start. You should attend in person (not digital), unless agreed otherwise with the supervisor. NA group seminars are found here:
  • Be the opponent of another Master's candidate.
    This is usually done at the same time as the presentation of your project. (See below for more info.)

Report

The report should include

  • General problem specification
  • Background putting the work in context,
  • Description of the mathematical model(s) of the problem
  • Mathematical/numerical methods used
  • Results

Discuss the structure of the report with your supervisor. It is advisable to start the writing early and have your supervisor give (general) comments also on preliminary versions.

Practicalities:

Presentation 

The first rounds of presentations are held in the beginning of June. To be able to present at that time, the thesis must be completely finished, submitted and approved by your supervisor before the end of May. After the summer there will be a second round of presentations.

The presentation should be around 30 minutes plus and additional 15 minutes for opposition and questions by the audience. 

Before the presentation you should submit some information necessary for the final reporting of your thesis and its registration in DiVA. This is done using the following form

https://www.kth.se/form/diva-registration-mathematics

Opposition

When you have signed up to present your thesis, you will be designated as opponent of another thesis. You will receive the other thesis at least one week before the opposition.

Your task as an opponent is:

  • Before the opposition:
  • At the thesis seminar, after the author finished his/her presentation (total ca 10 min):
    • to give an oral assessment of the report;
    • to ask questions about the report and the presentation;
  • After the thesis seminar:
    • present your opposition report and the commented thesis report to the author;

Finishing the course

After the presentation, you and your supervisor should consider the remarks and questions raised during the seminar for a possible inclusion in the report. 

At this point, please fill out the information about publication of the thesis https://www.kth.se/form/diva-registration-mathematics

Please send the finished report (with cover etc as described above) to the examiner / supervisor who will report it to the administration.

Note that you will not receive your examination document without having fulfilled these formal requirements.

Now, you are done.