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--- master-thesis-at-ufal [2013/07/24 15:48]
zeman Original assignment.
+++ master-thesis-at-ufal [2013/07/24 16:18]
zeman
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 The supervisor puts the assignment into SIS (the information system) and also prints one hardcopy, signs it and gives it to Ms. Brdičková, the ÚFAL secretary. This must be done before the deadline announced for each academic year (typically first half of November – look for “harmonogram” at http://www.mff.cuni.cz/studium/). The student office will later send back the hardcopy stamped and signed by the vicedean. Ms. Brdičková will keep it until the end of the academic year. The student will then have to pick it up and include it in one of the printed copies of the thesis (mandatory part, this copy goes to the faculty library).
-When the student plans their classes for the academic year (and has them registered at the student office, in SIS and in their index book), they should also register for the three pseudo-courses reflecting their work on the thesis: NSZZ023 Diplomová práce I, NSZZ024 Diplomová práce II and NSZZ025 Diplomová práce III. At the end of the summer semester they will (hopefully) get the credits (in SIS and in the index book) from their supervisor. This is not directly connected with the fact that the thesis will be (can be) defended. The credits just reflect the fact that the student has invested significant time and effort into doing the work and preparing the thesis. The supervisor will not be able to award the credits if SIS does not know that the student wants them, i.e. if the student has not registered for these pseudo-courses! While the registration can be completed just before the submission of the thesis, it may complicate the situation because the assistance of the student office is needed, the staff may be out of office (vacation time!), you may be traveling from the other end of Europe, trying to find all the people and get all the signatures within one afternoon etc.
+When the student plans their classes for the academic year (and has them registered at the student office, in SIS and in their index book), they should also register for the three pseudo-courses reflecting their work on the thesis: NSZZ023 Diplomová práce I, NSZZ024 Diplomová práce II and NSZZ025 Diplomová práce III. At the end of the summer semester they will (hopefully) get the credits (in SIS and in the index book) from their supervisor. This is not directly connected with the fact that the thesis will be (can be) defended. The credits just reflect the fact that the student has invested significant time and effort into doing the research and preparing the thesis. The supervisor will not be able to award the credits if SIS does not know that the student wants them, i.e. if the student has not registered for these pseudo-courses! While the registration can be completed just before the submission of the thesis, it may complicate the situation because the assistance of the student office is needed, the staff may be out of office (vacation time!), you may be traveling from the other end of Europe, trying to find all the people and get all the signatures within one afternoon etc.
 ===== Preparation of the thesis =====
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 It is strongly recommended that the abstract in your thesis differs from the abstract in the official assignment. Even though in theory you could claim that you did exactly what was in the assignment, it is better to show the reviewer that it is not //just a copy.// Typically, the assignment is more vague because you do not know what exactly you will do after you see the results of the first experiments. In contrast, the abstract should summarize what you actually did. Even if your thesis closely matches the assignment, the abstract probably should highlight your main achievement(s) (e.g. “we were able to improve the state of the art by 50%”).
+===== The defense =====
+Prepare a presentation (PDF, Microsoft PowerPoint or LibreOffice Impress). A laptop will be available (or you can use your own), with a dataprojector.
+You will have only **10 minutes,** which is very short time! The committee will be NLP-literate, but not necessarily specialized in your problem. Keep the introduction very short: the area I selected is XXX, the concrete problem is YYY, it is a problem because ZZZ (impact, motivation). Then another slide introducing methodology, then possibly a few interesting details from your research, then results. As with every presentation, avoid slides with too much text or too many numbers (or if you believe you need many numbers to be able to answer questions, highlight the one or two numbers that the audience should not miss). Avoid complicated formulas or anything that may take some time for the audience to grasp (remember, you will not give them much time because you will not have it). Avoid too many slides (1 minute per slide should be minimum).
+Present the slides to yourself **aloud,** possibly several times. Try to arrange a dry-run with your supervisor. Get confident about what you are going to say. Check the timing.
+There will be two written reviews of your thesis: one by your supervisor, the other by an opponent. Both reviews shall be available to you at least one week before the defense. The reviews may contain questions that you will have to answer during the defense. If so, prepare the answers. You may prepare slides to back the answers if applicable. In that case, don't include these slides in your main presentation. They don't count towards your time limit. Wait until asked, then show them (they may be part of the same presentation file, e.g. you may put them after the Thank You slide).
+Typically several students defend their theses before the same committee on the same day. The defense is open to public (except for the part when the committee discusses your grade). The scenario is as follows: the chair shortly introduces you, then you get your 10 minutes to present the work. Then the supervisor reads (or summarizes) their review, possibly asks questions, you answer them. Then the same for the opponent. Then the other committee members may ask questions (yes, these will be questions you did not know about in advance), then the other guests. Then you and all other non-committee-members will be sent out of the room, the committee will negotiate, call you back and announce the verdict. Altogether it should fit within 30 minutes but unfortunately it is often longer.

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