ISM-E5001 - Master's Thesis Seminar, Lecture, 5.9.2022-8.6.2023

Topic outline

• Course syllabus
  1    Mandatory requirement

  • You must at least go through the materials for the Introductory lectures
  • Presentation x 2 (Research plan and Thesis presentation)
  • Opposition x 2 (Research Plan and Thesis Presentation)

  Note:

  1.  You are recommended to enroll and start attending the Master's Thesis Seminar already 3-6 months before you begin to write your Master's Thesis in order to gain the required participation.
  2. The introductory lectures are given twice a year: once at the beginning of the autumn term and once at the beginning of the spring term.
  3. As of 1.8.2020 separate maturity test is no longer needed as it is replaced by the Abstract of the thesis.
     

  2    Grading

  • Credits: 3 cr
  • Grading: pass or fail

  3    Assessment method

  • You pass the course by doing the presentations and oppositions listed in section 1 above.

  4    Selecting a supervisor

  Based on your topics of interest, you should contact potential supervisors with similar research interests as yourself. Their contact information can be found on the Supervisors and Topics section. Please include the following information, when contacting a potential supervisor.

  • Research area(s) of interest
  • Short description of your research approach where you identify how you are going to conduct your research and what you are going to accomplish with the research

  If you don't know where to begin or have no solid topic(s) of interest, you can also send an email to one of the seminar instructors with a few ideas as to what you'd like to work on and your major subject.

  5    Seminar time

  A seminar will happen if and only if at least 2 presenters, and at most 4 presenters attend (unless there are special circumstances). Each seminar will last approximately 2 hours:

  • Research Plan Presentations: 10-15 min.
  • Research Results Presentations: 20-25 min.
  • Discussion and comments: ~10 min.

  Discussants (or other audiences) should give comments on the structure and contents of the theses/plans, constructive feedback, on how to improve the theses, and present new viewpoints, if possible. The discussion is informal and relaxed.

  6    Learning method

  After introductory lectures, the seminar course will be organized by a composition of the following methods:

  • For a presenter, you are required to reserve a presentation time
    • There are four important rules for the presenter:

  1. Before reserving a presentation slot, you must have your supervisor's permission! 
  2. Slots are open for reservation 4 weeks before the presentation. 
  3. You must submit your plan/thesis to the forum 8 days prior to the presentation because discussants and teachers need time to prepare. For example, if you reserve a registration time for Wednesday, you must submit your material on the preceding week’s Tuesday. 
  4. Each seminar can hold up to 3 thesis presentations + 1 research plan. In contrast, seminars with less than 2 reservations are bound to be canceled.

  • There are two steps in a new presentation registration process:
  1. Reserve a presentation slot in the scheduler. Presentations are primarily done in the group you belong to i.e. ISS, BA, or Logistics. So, go to “ISS Rossi, Logistics Kuula, or BA Halme”, then “Presentation booking”, and click on “Book slot”
  2. Submit your thesis/research plan to the forum. Go to “Submitting  ISS/Logistics/BA research plan/thesis”, and add a new discussion topic with the following details:
  • Subject: date + seminar group + research plan/thesis + topic e.g. “9.10. ISS – Thesis: *example topic*”
  • Attachment: your thesis or research plan document.

  • Note: if your research has already progressed farther than being a plan (you've already put some work on it), do not restrict yourself with the plan template. Please, make sure that the "plan" reflects the actual current status of your research. Also, email your presentation slides to the opponent beforehand in a case where the presentation contains more information than the uploaded plan.  

  • For an opponent (discussant), you are required to reserve a discussant time
    • Discussant times will be reserved on the forums by the students themselves. You must be a discussant for one plan and one thesis in your group i.e. ISS, BA, or Logistics, so be active!
      
    • Upcoming presentations will be listed in the seminar’s MyCourses at forums “Submitting ISS/Logistics/BA research plan/thesis” under each group.
    • You can download the thesis/research plan from the post.
    • Discussant times are reserved on a first-come, first-served basis i.e. first one to comment under the presentation announcement is the discussant. Typically one discussant for one presentation.
    • There is no formal message you have to write. Something along the lines of “I will act as a discussant” would be okay.
    • Please review Discussant Guidelines
    • Note that your comment about acting as a discussant is binding.

  7    Course material

  Main study material: Introductory lecture slides, videos, potential topics, presenter's post, and forums.