Master's Thesis

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The Master's Thesis (TFM) of the Master in Data Science has 30 ECTS credits and can be done in the Facultat d'Informàtica de Barcelona, in a company (national or international) or in another university (national or international).

The FIB has a large number of agreements with companies and foreign universities to give students the possibility of completing the Master's Thesis in one of these modalities.

Academic Regulations

Master's Thesis regulations (in Catalan)

 

What you should do and when:

 Registration: when you have passed a minimum of 60 ECTS credits for subjects.

 Enrolment: when you have passed a minimum of 78 ECTS credits for subjects.

You can check the 6 steps to make your TFG / TFM a success.

Procedure for the Master's Thesis

From an academic point of view, any successful TFM requires fluent communication with your supervisor / tutor with periodic meetings. From an administrative point of view, most of the procedure is performed via Racó, from where you will be guided throughout the process. This document highlights the main administrative steps of the TFM but it is not meant replace the need to read the master’s thesis regulations.

 During the progress milestone is the only moment where it is possible to update your master thesis title and description.

 

1. TFM registration

Registering the TFM is necessary to inform the faculty you agreed on a master thesis topic and you will start working on it.

Importantly, you cannot start working on your thesis until you meet the following requirements and successfully register it: 

  • Students may register for the master’s thesis when they have passed the minimum of credits stated in the regulation.
  • Registration needs to happen one semester before enrolment.

You must register your TFM via Racó, in a new tab that appears to students meeting the requirements described above. The inscription must be accepted by the TFM supervisor or tutor.

 

Registration period

1st semester: Thursday 05 September 2024 to Saturday 01 February 2025 - 23:59
2nd semester: Monday 10 February 2025 to Friday 11 July 2025 - 23:59

 

2. TFM enrolment

You can enrol in the TFM when you have passed the minimum of credits stated in the regulation.

If you registered your TFM in the previous semester, during your enrolment, a new course will appear to enrol the TFM.

 

Enrolment period

2nd semester (registrations done during the 1st semester of 2024-2025 academic year): 3 February 2025
1st semester (registrations done during the 2nd semester of 2024-2025 academic year): TBC

 

3. Defence period

At this point you must choose when to defend your thesis at Racó. For each enrolment there are two defence periods:

Ordinary period

TFM enrolled in the 1st semester: Monday 20 January 2025 to Friday 24 January 2025
TFM enrolled in the 2nd semester: Wednesday 25 June 2025 to Tuesday 01 July 2025

Extraordinary period

TFM enrolled in the 1st semester: Monday 12 May 2025 to Friday 16 May 2025
TFM enrolled in the 2nd semester: Monday 21 October 2024 to Friday 25 October 2024

The extraordinary defence period requires paying the academic taxes (not the credits).

Important: you must discuss with your supervisor / tutor a feasible and reasonable plan. Therefore, you must choose the defence period when you are certain about meeting the targeted period. If the deadline comes and you are experiencing problems to meet the ordinary defence period you are advised to choose the extraordinary defence period.

 

4. TFM progress review milestone

This milestone is meant to reflect the status of your TFM and the chances to properly defend your thesis on time. Without conducting this milestone on time you will not be allowed to defend (regardless of the defence period chosen).

Before the deadline set in Racó, you must upload to Racó a document, agreed with the supervisor or tutor, with the following sections:

  • Fulfillment of the work plan and objectives
  • Adjustments made and justification for these changes
  • Work plan for completing the master’s thesis

The supervisor / tutor must accept the document and assess. The assessment includes the sections in the specific regulations of the degree or, failing that, the following aspects:

  • Autonomy in carrying out the thesis work
  • Autonomy in writing the thesis
  • The work plan developed and work carried out to date
  • Communication with the thesis supervisor or tutor

This assessment can be modified in the final milestone. 

Deadline for the follow up meeting

Ordinary period

TFM enrolled in the 1st semester: Friday 20 December 2024 - 13:00
TFM enrolled in the 2nd semester: Friday 23 May 2025 - 23:59

Extraordinary period

TFM enrolled in the 1st semester: Friday 11 April 2025 - 23:59
TFM enrolled in the 2nd semester: Thursday 19 September 2024 - 13:00

Be aware that by the progress review deadline your supervisor / tutor must have accepted and assessed your progress.

 

5. TFM report

After completing the progress review milestone, the next step is to upload the master’s thesis final report via Racó
There is a strict deadline to submit the final report one week before your defence (check Racó to know the deadline).

Importantly, your supervisor / tutor must accept the master’s thesis report before the set deadline. Failing to meet the deadline will result in your automatic defence withdrawal.
It is mandatory to use the cover (front page) automatically generated by Racó in your final report. Just use the service available in Racó to generate it with your TFM metadata.

The report is free format. It is compulsory to include the standard TFM cover page (which students can generate themselves using the mechanisms established by the FIB), a summary of the work (or abstract) and include an analysis of sustainability and ethical implications according to the agreement of the Governing Council of 07-2023.  

As a guideline, it is recommended that the report should include the following sections: 

  • Cover page
  • Summary
  • Index
  • Introduction, motivation and objectives
  • State of the art
  • Specification and design of the solution
  • Development of the proposal/technique/work that has been carried out
  • Experimentation and evaluation of the proposal/technique/work
  • Sustainability analysis and ethical implications
  • Conclusions
  • List of references used
  • Annexes with complementary information

MEI students

In addition, it is mandatory to include a section on project management and work planning. The following structure is recommended:

  • Background analysis
  • Planning
  • Sustainability report
  • Feasibility, overall economic analysis and comparison with other alternatives
  • Risk assessment

MDS students

The mandatory report on sustainability and ethical implications is carried out through the gender competence associated with the Master's thesis.

 

6. TFM defence

The student must defend the thesis in a public session in front of an evaluation committee. The evaluation committee shall be designated at least fifteen days before the date chosen to defend the TFM. In the following days after being appointed, the commission will communicate the precise date and place for the defence. The evaluation committee will have access to the progress review and final reports. The thesis evaluation is a numeric mark between 0 and 10.

Additionally, to promote transparency, the commission will provide a rubric-based assessment supporting the evaluation emitted.

 

Each item will be assessed as unsatisfactory, satisfactory, good, very good, and excellent.

  1. Results
    • Quality of the results
    • Quantity of the results
    • Complexity of the problem
  1. Written report
    • Structure
    • Clarity of the research question formulation
    • Discussion of related work and context
    • Clarity of presentation and correctness of arguments
    • English usage
    • General appearance (layout, figures and tables, etcetera)
  1. Presentation
    • Structure and contents
    • Quality of the slides
    • Presentation skills
    • Suitability for audience
  1. Questions and answering
    • Ability to cope with technical questions
    • Ability to cope with questions about the context