A Master Thesis Project at ICT/KTH

1. A Master Thesis Projectat ICT/KTH Some practical guidelines by Vlad Vlassov and Thomas Sjöland IMIT/ICT/KTH

2. Choosing a project to perform • In which area (topic)? • 2G1004 Software technology; 2G1001 Computer Systems; 2G1021 Telecommunication Systems, etc. • Should correspond to your specialization. • See: http://www.imit.kth.se/courses/html/exjobb/Exjobbpage.html • Where? • At a company • The project work is usually paid • At a department • A project work is not paid, as it’s considered as a ordinary course • Examiner and supervisors: • An examiner. Check a list of examiners assigned to topics • See a list of IMIT examiners at: http://www.imit.kth.se/courses/html/exjobb/examiners.exjobb.html • An academic supervisor (can be also an examiner) • An industrial supervisor

3. Types of projects • Development • Expected results: a prototype, results of evaluation (comparison) • Research-oriented • Expected results: surveys, design choices and issues, design (use cases, architecture, protocols), a basic prototype, evaluation procedure, evaluation • Evaluation • Expected results: models, evaluation/simulation procedure, a simulation environment or/and an evaluation test-bed, simulation/evaluation results • In either case, a project includes literature study • Relevant technologies; related work (if any)

4. 4. Description of use cases system architecture, protocols, etc. 1. Specification (in 2 weeks) 2. Detailed working plan TOC (Table of Contents) 5. A system prototype 6. Evaluation results 3. Lit. study report 7. Thesis draft P 0 1 2 3 4 5 5-6 month ~20 weeks Reading, studying Design, development Implementation and evaluation Writing and revising the report, Prepare presentation A typical time plan and deliverables

5. 1. A project specification • Should clearly define the amount of work and expected results • Important to agree on the specification in the beginning • Can be written by • an industrial advisor (together with a student) • an academic advisor (together with a student) • a student • Should include: • Background information • Motivation for the project (whether it is worth a master degree) • Problem statement. Requirements • Expected results • How results must be evaluated

6. 2. TOC (Table Of Contents) • To be delivered by the end of the 1st month • TOC is a Detailed working plan • Shows a structure of the thesis • A short abstract for each chapter • What is it about • Expected results • Should include timing • TOC will be revised while the project progresses

7. 3. Literature study • Expected that • you will apply a knowledge you got earlier • you will get a new knowledge needed to perform the project, to make and to motivate design and development decisions and solutions • You show your ability to search, select and study relevant literature (papers, books, tutorials, manuals, etc.) and related work • A literature study report should be delivered by the end of the 2nd month

8. A literature study report • It’s an introductory part of your thesis • Should include: • Background • Motivation • A detailed problem statement. Requirements • Expected results • How to evaluate • Related work (survey and discussion) • Existing solutions (systems, etc.) • Survey of relevant technologies, environments, tools, etc. • You should choose technologies, environments, etc., to be used in the project, and motivate your choices • Some conclusions

9. Information sources: papers • In proceedings • Workshops • Usually include papers describing work in progress, ideas (which might be not yet properly validated and evaluated) • Conferences • Usually include papers describing rather completed work with strong evaluation • Symposiums • Usually Include papers describing some completed work (project) with strong evaluation • Different scale: international, local • Sponsored by IEEE and/or ACM • You should find major workshops, conferences, symposiums which are most relevant to your topic. Ask you advisors to help. • In journals • IEEE, ACM, Elsevier-published journals; Transactions • Journals specialized on specific topics; special issues; surveys

10. E-Libraries • KTH Library Full text e-journals, conference proceedings, etc: http://www.lib.kth.se/kthbeng/full.html • IEEE digital library (a.k.a. IEEE Xplore) http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/DynWel.jsp • Find the link at www.ieee.org • The ACM digital library http://portal.acm.org/dl.cfm • Find a link at www.acm-.org • You get free access, if you access from a computer with an IP address in the KTH domain

11. Other sources • Books • Specifications • User manuals • Tutorials • Technical reports • Theses • Courses • Much information is available on the Web • Web pages

12. What to read?What can be skimmed or skipped? • Should be critical to what you are reading and selective in what you are reading • Who are authors? Affiliation? • Industry (.com): can be just an advertisement. However, most of information is trusty when it’s related to research and development • Which company? IBM, Intel, Sun, Microsoft, … • Academia (.edu): can be a “raw” idea not properly evaluated • Which university? North America (MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, CMU, Caltech,…), Europe, Asia, Australia, Central or South America • Which research group? (well established, well known in this area, etc.) • Which project? (scale, competed or in progress, etc.) • Consortium (.org), e.g. OMG, Globus • Where it has been reported? • Level of a forum (conference, workshop, symposium) • Level of a journal

13. Typical structure of a thesis • Abstract • Introduction • Background • Method • Presents use cases and a system design (architecture, protocols, diagrams, etc.) • Implementation • Describes implementation • Analysis • Validation, Evaluation • Conclusions and future work • References • Appendixes (if any)

14. How to describe • Design and development: • May follow RUP (Rational Unified Process) • Vision, use cases, UML diagrams, etc. • Should describe • a structure of the system; • how it operates; • typical usage. • Implementation • Describe only most essential and important classes, interfaces, modules, etc. • Should give an estimate of the amount of code you have developed • If required, docs, sources and user manuals (if any) can be placed in appendixes • Indicate problems (if any) that you have faced when implementing a system prototype

15. Evaluation of results • Validation • Functionality tests should show that a system prototype works as expected • Use cases can help • Evaluation • Evaluation procedure: evaluation flow, input and output parameters • How good is your application • Define a notion of quality, e.g. performance, scalability, reliability, etc. • What is performance in your case: throughput, response time, or execution time, etc.? • Requirements should help to define a quality measure • How and what to measure. Ranges of input parameters. Sensitivity analysis. • Evaluation environment: a test-bed, benchmarks, test applications

16. Conclusions • Summary • What have you done, achieved, solved • Conclusions • Future work

17. Final stages • A first thesis draft should be delivered to supervisors 1-1,5 month before the presentation • May require several revisions • A final draft should be given to an opponent 2-3 weeks before the presentation • The time depends on the opponent: how fast he/she can read your report and write an opposition protocol • Opponent: • Should come up with an opposition protocol to be sent to the examiner a few days before the presentation • The examiner can make a decision whether to proceed to the presentation, or to postpone the presentation until the thesis is revised (if needed)

18. Presentation • 20-45 minutes (20-30 slides) • May have more slides (hide some slides) to answer questions • Put all figures (and tables) on slides to avoid drawing • Discussion with an opponent • Questions

19. More advices • A text editor • Select an editor (e.g. MS Word) that provides an automatic update of cross-references, spelling and grammar checker, changes tracker, convenient drawing tool, comments, etc. • Literature study • Keep a list of references • Take notes when reading • A project web site • Helps to keep a list related links and show how the project is progressing • Take and keep notes of project meeting • Diary • Protect some sensitive data with a password