Goals

The goal of the master thesis project in systems engineering is to provide an occasion for practicing systems thinking and quantitative systems engineering methods on practical problems, and to practice how to present their work in both writing and orally.

Applying

If you want to apply for a master thesis project in systems engineering you should contact Per Enqvist. You should supply a short written description of the planned project. Fill out the following form (to the best of your ability) form.
If your application is accepted, then you will be given an examiner at the division. When you have an examiner you should send an application to the faculty (fakultetsnämnd) to get their permission to do the master thesis project. (This is normally done through the student councellor, form ).
The formal requirements can be found at KTHs regelverk(unfortunately only available in swedish)
Above this, it is required that a sufficient level of specialization in the subject has been achieved, which normally means that the basic courses in the systems track of the Aerospace master thesis program have been passed. Thus, you have to have passed the following courses:

One of the following two basic optimization courses:
- SF1861 Optimeringslära (för T)
- SF1841 Optimization
SF2863 Systems Engineering
SF2852 Optimal Control
EL2520 Control Theory, advanced course
Furthermore, a specialization that amounts to passing at least one of the following four courses:
- SF2812 Applied Linear Optimization
- SF2822 Applied Nonlinear Optimization
- SF2832 Mathematical Systems Theory
- SF2842 Geometrical Control Theory
- SF2866/SF2868 Applied Systems Engineering

Choice of Project

It is up to the student to choose the project. The Project is usually performed at a company, but it can also be performed at a foreign university or in some cases at out department. Master thesis projects are announced by companies on their homepages and on sites like KTH Degree Project Portal. It is also possible formulate your own project and contact a suitable company about it. Sometimes, we get contacted about projects, and then we publish them on our home page or on the billboard at Lindstedtsvägen 25. A number of contact persons at companies is available below under a separate headline.

Planning

Before the project starts, you, your examiner, and the supervisor at the company, should agree on a working plan that describes the assignment, the goal of the project, and a time plan. In particular, a time limit for the project should be set.

Pre-study part

The thesis project is started with a pre-study part where you are specialized on a subject that is relevant for the particular project. It is not a new course that you should take, it is usually a selection of scientific articles and/or selected parts of a book. Suitable litterature is selected/approved by the examiner and supervisor. The pre-study part is normally "examined" by a presentation at the division, where you explain the studied material, describe how it applies to your project, and respond to questions from those present.

Implementation

The thesis project should demonstrate that you have the ability to implement your knowledge and can handle the assignment in an indepent way. This does not mean that you do not ask people about their advice about the project. It it recommended that you agree with your supervisor about regular meetings, where you can lift questions that have been accumulated since the last meeting, and that you make sure you are proceeding along the proposed project plan. There should also be regular contacts with the examiner, maybe twice a month, where he is informed about the progress, and sometimes more detailed discussions should be arranged. It is important that you document what you are doing in parallell and continuously with the project work, and do not wait with the report writing to the end. Usually the report writing takes longer time than expected, and when you start writing you formalize the work and often you will discover a lot about the project in the writing process. (It has happened that errors have been found in late report writing that forces a lot of work to be redone.)

The Report

Every student should write their own master thesis report. The report can be written in english or swedish. In some cases, other languages could be possible, but then it has to be approved by the examiner.

Final Oral Presentation

In addition to the written report, the master thesis should be presented orally at a seminar at the department. It is also common that an oral presentation is given at the department.

Questions

If you have questions regarding these issues, contact Per Enqvist.

Finished master thesis projects

You can find finished master thesis projects in DIVA.

E.g., projects with Per Enqvist as examiner.