This version of the course guide is provisional until the period for editing the new course guides ends.

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Master's Degree Dissertation

Code: 42257 ECTS Credits: 12
2024/2025
Degree Type Year
4313136 Modelling for Science and Engineering OB 0

Contact

Name:
Silvia Cuadrado Gavilan
Email:
silvia.cuadrado@uab.cat

Teachers

Ana Cortes Fite

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

None


Objectives and Contextualisation

The objective of the Master’s Thesis is to prepare students for future work, a doctoral thesis or a project in a company. The ultimate goal is to have a public presentation and defense of the written report (Master Thesis) in some topic depending on the specialization of each one of the students: Complex Systems, Data Science, Mathematical Modelling or Modelling for Engineering, under the appropriate guidance by an expert in the field.


Competences

  • Analyse complex systems in different fields and determine the basic structures and parameters of their workings.
  • Analyse, synthesise, organise and plan projects in the field of study.
  • Apply specific methodologies, techniques and resources to conduct research and produce innovative results in the area of specialisation.
  • Apply techniques for solving mathematical models and their real implementation problems.
  • Communicate and justify conclusions clearly and unambiguously to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Formulate, analyse and validate mathematical models of practical problems in different fields.
  • Integrate knowledge and use it to make judgements in complex situations, with incomplete information, while keeping in mind social and ethical responsibilities.
  • Isolate the main difficulty in a complex problem from other, less important issues.
  • Look for new areas to open up within the field.
  • Recognise the human, economic, legal and ethical dimension in professional practice.
  • Solve complex problems by applying the knowledge acquired to areas that are different to the original ones.
  • Solve problems in new or little-known situations within broader (or multidisciplinary) contexts related to the field of study.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Aggregate the solutions, integrating them all into a general model.
  2. Analyse the initial problem to find the best solution, breaking the problem down into easier-to-solve sub-problems.
  3. Check the validity of the model with regard to the behaviour of the real system.
  4. Communicate and justify conclusions clearly and unambiguously to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  5. Design mathematical models that represent the system and its behaviour.
  6. Identify the parameters that determine how a system works.
  7. Implement the proposed solutions reliably and efficiently.
  8. In the master's dissertation, describe the steps taken and the specific methodologies used.
  9. Integrate knowledge and use it to make judgements in complex situations, with incomplete information, while keeping in mind social and ethical responsibilities.
  10. Name and describe the main problems to be addressed in the study.
  11. Provide novel solutions that bring added value.
  12. Provide specific solutions to the problems posed.
  13. Recognise the human, economic, legal and ethical dimension in professional practice.
  14. Solve mathematical models efficiently.
  15. Solve problems in new or little-known situations within broader (or multidisciplinary) contexts related to the field of study.

Content

There are not theoretical contents for this module.


Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Supervised      
Regular meetings with the supervisor 25 1 5, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15
Type: Autonomous      
Elaboration of the report 275 11 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 11, 14

-Methodology:  At the end of October or in November each student will meet with the Master’s Coordinator in order to talk about the topic of the Thesis and also about the place to do the Internship in Companies and Institutions. At that moment it will be decided if the student wishes to follow a research program (and look for a Research Center) and/or to do a more applied project in a company (and look for the appropriate company). After, the student and the Master’s Coordinator will meet again and then, they will decide the topic and the advisor of the Master Thesis. Once the student has been assigned his advisor, they will meet regularly during the second semester.

Concerning the report and the dissertation of the Master Thesis.

General guidelines: the report should be between 35 and 70 pages long and should contain:

-        A first page with the title, author's name, director's name, date.

-        Abstract

-        Acknowledgements

-        Contents

-        List of Figures, Tables, (if necessary)

-        Introduction chapter

-        Other chapters.

-        Conclusions

-        Bibliography

We recall that any paragraph taken from the Internet or from existing books must be written between quotation marks " " and carefully referencing the source.

Each student will have between 25 and 30 minutes to focus the question, lay the objectives, explain and put the results in context, and present the conclusions. Afterwords the jury will have a maximum of 30 minutes to ask questions and discuss with the student.

Calendar

The main period for thepresentation is from the 04th to the 9th of  July.

During the first days of June each student must inform to the Master's Coordinator the title, the advisor and the abstract of the Master's Degree.

Delivering the Master Thesis.

Each student must send the TFM report to the subject's virtual campus before June 27.

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Contents of the work 50% 0 0 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15
Oral dissertation 20% 0 0 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13
Written report 30% 0 0 1, 4, 5, 7, 11

The Master’s Thesis will be evaluated by a committee of three persons created especially for each presentation. The advisor of the thesis or a member of his team, could be part of the court but should not chair it. At least one member of the board should be from UAB. Once the members have accepted to be part of the board, it is arranged the date and time of the reading, adapting it to the proposed period.

The grade will be divided as follows: 30% for the written report, 20% for the oral dissertation and 50% for the work itself.


Bibliography

There are no specific references.


Software

There is no specific software.


Language list

Information on the teaching languages can be checked on the CONTENTS section of the guide.