Administration Rules and Process for Degree Project in Media Technology (DM228X)

Media technology is the main research topic in our master thesis course. You are eligible to take this master thesis course if you follow the Media Technology “Civilingenjörsprogram (CMETE or MEDIA)”, the Master program in “Media Technology” (TMETM) or the master program in “Media Management (TMMTM)”. If you follow the master program in Human-Computer Interaction, you should probably join their master thesis course instead. If you have followed the “Sound-track” in CMETE or MEDIA you have the option to take one of their master thesis courses.

Requirements: There should be 210 hp (or 240 hp for those who do a 300 credit-exam) in your Ladok records. See your student advisor on the 4th floor of CSC (Helen Lindkvist <svl-media@csc.kth.se>) in order to register for the course. 

There are four times to apply for this course and the application deadlines in each year are: Jan 15 / Mar 15 / Sep 15/ Nov 15. Please make your application in advance and get approved before deadlines.

Time span: The total time to finish your master thesis work is 20 consecutive weeks. Time is counted continuously so that all thesis work is equally evaluated under the same time frame.
There are three phases during this 5-month period: (1) about 4-5 weeks for developing the thesis specification, (2) about 13-14 weeks for the main thesis work (3) about 2 weeks to prepare for the presentation.

Thesis specification: When application forms reach the master thesis coordinator, you will then be put into a project group in Bilda where you upload your thesis specification. You (on your own) should write and upload your first specification draft that describes: (1) the research problem that you want to solve, (2) how you plan to solve it and (3) why you have chosen your research problem. This should be done within a week. After this, the course administrator will assign an examiner and a supervisor to you (if you don’t have one) based on your topic. (Supervisors from other universities are allowed.)

The examiner will comment on your specification draft. You and your supervisor will then continue to revise it until it is approved by the examiner. The specification will contain a preliminary thesis title, a detailed description of the scope/background, goals, literature, methods, expected results and a time plan.

There might be several iterations for modifying your thesis specification with your supervisor and examiners. However, your thesis specification should be approved within five weeks. If your thesis specification is not approved on time, you can switch to next thesis period or keep yourself in this batch but take the risk of a delayed schedule. Late thesis work—not finished on time—will be graded lower by one level.

The degree project should treat an interesting problem in the area of media technology. Please make sure about the academic/scientific value and the technology portion of your thesis work. For the media management students, the technology part may mean scientific ways to analyze the use of media in various settings such as in marketing, customer relations, digital vs. print media and so on. It is always wise to discuss this issue with your assigned supervisor and examiner. Suggested thesis work that contains only a literature study will be rejected.

Main thesis work: Students will normally do the thesis work in a group supervised by one supervisor and examiner. Two supervision meetings per month are suggested after the specification has been developped and approved. After your report has been submitted and approved by your supervisor, you have approximately 2 weeks to prepare for your presentation. Plan ahead so that the report can be approved two weeks before the presentation.

The presentation and opposition: Get approval from your supervisor when you are ready to present and send your thesis to the examiner and opponent at least one week before the presentation. Upload your thesis in Bilda as well. Your presentation should be about 20-25 minutes. Prepare a written opposition on the thesis that you are an opponent on and bring it with you when you are an opponent. You can use this template for the written opposition: http://www.nada.kth.se/utbildning/grukth/exjobb/dokument/OppositionEng.pdf

For those who cannot finish the project in 5 months, an extra presentation will be arranged. However, your score will be automatically downgraded one step since the process of thesis work itself is also an item being examined. Delays due to irresistible factors can be exempted.

After presentation: Revise the report, taking into account the examiner’s and the opponent's comments. Then upload the final version in Bilda and include your last name followed by your first name in the beginning of the file name. The final version must include a Swedish and English abstract. Plagiarism control will be performed. Before your grade is reported, you should also be the opponent for a thesis presentation, and attend at least one presentation where you are also required to prepare questions. The examiner will bring an attendance list to the thesis presentation.