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--- master-thesis-at-ufal [2013/07/24 15:53]
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+++ master-thesis-at-ufal [2013/07/24 16:29]
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 LCT students typically select the topic at the beginning of their second year, i.e. during October. At the same time they must find their supervisor (typically among ÚFAL professors, researchers and Ph.D. students, although the supervisor may in theory come from other departments of Charles University). Those doing their second year at another university still must find a co-supervisor at ÚFAL. They will also have to come in person and defend the thesis at Charles University, regardless what other procedures are required at their second university. Along the same lines, students doing their second year at Charles University should check with their first-year university and/or with the program coordinators (drs. Lopatková and Kuboň) what additional steps might be required by the other university and whether they need a co-supervisor there.
-The student and his supervisor put together the title of the thesis and the description of the work (abstract): this will constitute the official assignment. It should be broad enough to allow deviations once the student gets their first results and realizes that the originally anticipated course of experiments is not the best one to follow. Later changes of title and topic are in theory possible but it is an administrative hassle that is better to avoid.
+The student and their supervisor put together the title of the thesis and the description of the work (abstract): this will constitute the official assignment. It should be broad enough to allow deviations once the student gets their first results and realizes that the originally anticipated course of experiments is not the best one to follow. Later changes of title and topic are in theory possible but it is an administrative hassle that is better to avoid.
 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).
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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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