Master
Degree

Master Thesis

33 credits are devoted to the master thesis, roughly split into 27 credits (675 hours, corresponding to about 5 months of work) for the thesis project and 6 credits (150 hours, corresponding to about one month of work) for the drafting of the thesis document. The master thesis project is carried out under the guidance of a teacher of the Master’s programme.

A thesis project is a significant work, in terms of breadth and depth, which allows you to become familiar with advanced themes in computer science. It typically leads to the development of original research results or innovative software products.

There are various ways of carrying out the thesis project:

To stimulate thesis projects with Startup-View and Internships, the course of study organises Company-student meetings with the support of the partners.

When to start and how to find a supervisor

The Master Thesis is the concluding activity of the study path. Since it is intended to lead to the realisation of a relevant piece of work, it requires the student to work regularly and with limited distractions. For this reasons, the Master Project should be started after finishing the course exams or, at least, when the number of course exams still to be given is limited (say, 2/3 at most).  Ideally, this should happen at the beginning of the second semester of the second year (but in case you are late with the exams, first concentrate on them).

When you feel ready to start, the fist step consists in finding a supervisor (this applies also to the case in which you might be interested in realising your project in a company). There is no formalised procedure for this: simply contact the professors of the courses that you liked most and/or in the area where you’d like to realise your project, and discuss the possible thesis themes.

Evaluation of the Master Thesis (since July 2023)

The final degree grade is calculated as the sum of the master thesis grade and the weighted average of the exams passed, normalized on a scale of 0 to 110 (i.e., average * 110/30).

The master thesis is evaluated according to the following grading scheme:

• 0-3: sufficient
• 4-5: good
• 6-7: very good
• 8-9: excellent (requires the opinion of an independent reviewer)

The supervisor proposes a grade, possibly asking for the opinion of an independent reviewer. The student presents the thesis in front a graduation committee (the discussion is in English). The final grade is decided by the graduation committee through a majority vote. The distinction (laude) is awarded to students who demonstrated very good or excellent quality in the curriculum, in the thesis, and in the final thesis defense; it requires unanimity.

The following bonus points are added to the thesis grade:

• 1 point for completing all exams by July of the second year;
• 1 point for graduation by December of the second year.

Working students will be able to obtain the following bonus points on the final evaluation:

• 1 point for completing all exams by September of the third year;
• 1 point for graduation by July of the fourth year.

A document providing more details on the procedure is available at the following [link].