Master's degree in Energy Engineering

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Final Master's Thesis Regulations

Index

 

Introduction

In the last stage of the Master's in Energy Engineering studies, the student must perform a Final Master's Thesis (TFM) of 30 credits of effective dedication. The work must be a synthesis of the skills acquired in the training process.

The TFM will be aimed at the evaluation of the student's own competencies and skills associated with the degree.

The completion of the TFM should be subject to the Academic Regulations of the University Master's of the UPC approved annually by the Governing Council of the University and must meet the requirements of specific standards developed by the Academic Master Committee.

 

Definition and Objectives

The aim of the Final Master's Thesis is to make an individual project that applies and integrates the knowledge acquired throughout the degree, thus allowing comprehensive assessment of the professional competence and degree of scientific-technological training of the student as a prerequisite to achieve the title of Master's in Energy Engineering.

All of the Final Master's Theses will be named with a title and will have specific objectives which the student will aim to achieve with the work carried out by the specific deadlines. Upon completion of the work, the student under the supervision of a Director, must make a written report which will reflect the objectives, the methodology expended, the results obtained and the conclusions.

The time of completion of the Final Master's Thesis (30 ECTS credits) implies an approximate dedication of 800 to 900 hours for each student.

 

Requirements

  • The registration of the TFM is done prior to the public defence of the TFM.
  • Each Final Master's Thesis will have a director responsible who will advise and direct the student over the course of the work. The authorisation of the director will be necessary to be able to submit the report of the Final Master's Thesis to an evaluating committee before proceeding, within the prescribed period, to the public defence.
  • For the defence of the Final Master's Thesis it is necessary that the student has passed all credits.
  • If the student chooses a specialty, the TFM should be framed within it.

 

Organisation

The coordinator of the Master's in Energy Engineering will collect proposals of PI's (principal investigators) of the departments and institutes involved in teaching these studies. At the beginning of each semester a list of possible Final Master's Thesis topics will be published which include the title of the work, the name of the proposed director and basic unit of organisational affiliation, as well as a brief thematic description. The list of possible topics will be published on the website of the Master's of Energy Engineering and will be filed in the secretariat of the Master's.

All students who have passed more than 50%of the credits of compulsory and optional courses of the Master's and enrol in the remaining course credits may request, after making the list of proposed topics public, the assignment of a topic and a director of the work through a form available in the secretariat of the Master's.

The coordinator of the Master's will approve, by the proposal of the director, of the final allocation of the work. 

In the case that the Final Master's Thesis is carried out at a company, the current regulations on internships will continue. 

The director of the Final Master's Thesis may notice in writing to a student if the requirements of the planned work are not met. The director of the Final Master's Thesis may request from the coordinator, in writing, an annulment of the allocation of the work. 

In the case of overwhelming effort, the student may request a change of title or director of the Final Master's Thesis. The request will be submitted to the coordinator once the director of the original work is informed. 

 

Registering for the TFM

The student will formalise the recording of the TFM in the secretariat of the Master's within the time limits.

 

Enrolment for the TFM

The student may enrol in the Final Master's Thesis provided it meets the criteria mentioned above. 

Each academic year periods of registration, delivery of the report and public defence are established. The registration entitles the student to a presentation and defence during the semester in which it has been finalised. 

Once the report is delivered, the work will be publicly defended by the student before an Evaluation Committee, which will qualify the work. In section 7 the characteristics of the Evaluation Committee are defined. 

In the case that the student does not make the public defence of his/her work within the deadline, he/she can re-register for the TFM, keeping the same work and director.

 

TFM Deposit and Public Defence

The public defence of the TFM can be performed in the school periods of the academic year enabled. On the date set in the academic calendar, the student shall deposit the following documentation at the secretariat of the Master's:

  • A copy of the TFM in A4 format in a box of suitable projects in this format. This copy will also include the cover, the acceptance of the presentation of the work by the director and the assessment records of the work (all of these forms are available on the website of the Master's).
  • CD/DVD with the TFM recorded in PDF format (in one or more documents). The cover should include at a minimum, the author, tutor and title. A summary document should also be included here that will be submitted by the coordinator.
  • The report of the external director, in his case.
  • The authorisation document for dissemination of UPCommons academic work.

There should be a minimum of eight working days between the deposit and the defence. The recording of the TFM on CD/DVD will arrive from Academic Management in the library of the EUETIB so that it is incorporated into the open digital repository of UPCommons academic papers.

The dissemination of the work will be performed by default under the license Noncommercial Recognition without Derived Work (1) of Creative Commons, or similar (2). In the case that the author and/or director of the TFM is unwilling, for reasons of confidentiality or other, to deposit the document in UPCommons, he/she must inform the library of the EUETIB so as not to broadcast until ten years after the defence, extended at the request of the student and/or director.

After the exhibition of the recording in a maximum time of 40 minutes and the public defence in a maximum time of one hour, after deliberation of the Evaluation Committee, the secretary will complete the corresponding record. The certificate and a copy of the report that will remain in the secretariat of the Master's will be signed by all members of the committee, stating the qualification.

The qualification will be like any other subject of education.

 

(1) The coordinator of the Master's will establish the composition of the Evaluation Committee, the president of which will announce to the secretariat the place, date and time of the public defence, within 72 business hours in advance.

(2) In the case of an unexpected event duly justified by the president of the Evaluation Committee, one of its members may be excused. In this case an alternate member will be appointed.

 

Evaluation Committee

The function of the Evaluation Committee will be to qualify the work presented. 

The evaluation committees will be appointed by the coordinator of the Master's, with the agreement of the director of the work.

The Evaluation Committee will consist of three PI's of the departments and institutes who teach in education, with the possible involvement of an external member of the collaborating institutions. An alternate member is also appointed. All committee members will be chosen based on the theme of the work, which can include the director of the work. Among the members of the committee, the positions of president, secretary and member will be assigned.

The composition of the Evaluation Committee will be officially communicated to the applicant and to the members themselves.

 

Directors of the Final Master's Thesis

The director of a Final Master's Thesis will be a PI of departments or institutes who are assigned to teach in the Master's of Energy Engineering. In the case that the director is not a PI of any department or institute involved in the teaching of education, there will have to be a co-director appointed who is.

The director(s) is responsible for deciding when the Final Master's Thesis is suitable for public presentation in front of the Evaluation Committee.

 

Report of the Work

One copy of the written report in A4 format and a full copy of the Final Master's Thesis on CD/DVD (in a universal format such as PDF) will be delivered. The printed copy must be included in a project box with the title and name of the student printed on a sticker affixed to the back; the cover of the CD/DVD should give at least the author, tutor and title.

The binding of the report is flexible, but the cover must follow a certain format. The last page of the report should be the full qualification. Both the qualification sheet and cover format are available on the website of the Master's.

For more information, see the section “TFM Deposit and Public Defence”.

 

Structure of the Report of the Work

The written report may not exceed a maximum length of 100 pages and should consist of:

  • Cover, according to the format published on the web.
  • A first page with the signature of the director of the work (doc). 
  • A second page with a summary of the report (maximum 100 words).
  • A table of contents of the report.
  • Working bibliography.
  • The last chapter should include the conclusions which relate the objectives achieved and those not achieved, as well as possible improvements.
  • Full qualifications must be the last page of the report.
  • All additional documentation to the report (lists, figures, CD...) will be delivered as annexes to the report.
  • The binding of the report is flexible.

The student will deliver a summary in electronic format of a maximum of 5 pages (including the DVD to be submitted in the deposit), which will be sent to the coordinator of the Master's.

 

Evaluation of the Final Master's Thesis

The evaluation of the final work will be based on a report and an oral presentation of it. In cases where a prototype is made of hardware and/or software, a technical demonstration of its operation and an economic study, if applicable, will be performed. In all cases it will be assessed whether the student has analysed the potential applications of the work to develop.