Dissertation Project

Code:

MEB0038

Acronym:

PD

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Biomedical Engineering

Instance: 2021/2022 - 1S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Course/CS Responsible:	Master in Biomedical Engineering

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
MEB	0	Syllabus	2	-	18	13	486

Teaching language

Suitable for English-speaking students

Objectives

The learning objectives are focused on the student developing an analytical and methodical approach, as well as learning to autonomously plan and organise own work, sustaining lines of argument in a research-based and/or development-based (R&D) dissertation project. Each dissertation builds up on the knowledge acquired thourghout previous courses, promoting further reflection, R&D activities within the chosen topic.

By successfully completing this course, students are expected to achieve competences to:

- apply standard R&D processes to relate the state of the art understood from the literature in the realm of biomedical engineering onto own practical work, and vice versa;

- develop and formulate an individual research project, knowing what a project description should contain and how to formulate it;

- to give comments on others' work;

- exercise self-scrutiny and -reflection in the realm of academic thought and discourse, both written and oral.

Learning outcomes and competences

The student must strengthen his/her skills in the search of scientific information and acquire specific skills that allow him/her to begin the work of the dissertation with a good theoretical basis and updated knowledge on the subject to be developed. The student must also characterize the problem being addressed and identify the most appropriate strategy and methodologies for the project to be developed in the dissertation.

The student starts assembling his/her master dissertation design as a coherent research (and practice-applied) plan, encompassing all the stages and elements of an academic and complex academic output:

- Title of the master dissertation;

- Brief description of the problem or issue— define the existing situation, present data, prior research or practice that makes the chosen problem or issue as significant as worth dealing with;

- Purpose, aims and users — define the overall project-cum-thesis purpose that makes the process meaningful and relevant; stating specific and measurable objectives, potential target audience or users as well as how the project will reach them;

- Methods — describe in what way, with which tools and from which perspectives the data of the thesis was or will be gathered and processed;

- Expectations and hypotheses — What results are to be expected, based on the existing data or prior research and practice; possible predictions of probability as to the outcomes of the research/development/creation process

- Limitations and disturbances — Which are the limits that the process will probably reach, but not overcome;

What factors may disturb or threaten the research/development process;

- Foreseen structure of the contents— stating the foreseeable major chapters of the dissertation structure and possible division into subchapters;

- References/Sources— books, articles (paper or electronic), internet resources, existing research results, observations or other documentation;

- Time plan — drafting the entire plan of activities, subsequent or parallel, of producing the final work, including all necessary (sub)steps (e.g. research, literature review, drafting, structuring, writing, final editing as well as preparation for presentation, i.e. oral defense), possibly as a Gantt chant or related graphic representation

Working method

B-learning

Pre-requirements (prior knowledge) and co-requirements (common knowledge)

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Program

This course is not subject to a common program for all students. After choosing the dissertation topic, each student will have an individual work program, consisting of bibliographic research on the dissertation theme resorting to databases, published articles, books, web page consultation or other documentation.

Additionally, preliminary laboratory work will be carried out leading to the preparation and proof of means and methods to be used in the experimental work, and even to obtaining the first results.

The student will write a description of the research project for the dissertation in which this literature (including the relevant theory) is accounted for and commented on. It should include a clear formulation of the problem, a description of the development strategy to be followed, and a detailed calendar of how the various tasks are organized in the time available for the dissertation.

Mandatory literature

Autores diversos; Adaptada ao tema da dissertação

Complementary Bibliography

Mauch James E.; Guide to the successful thesis and dissertation. ISBN: 0-8247-8972-5
Durão Diamantino Freitas Gomes 1944-; Teses de mestrado e de doutoramento. ISBN: 972-8883-72-2

Teaching methods and learning activities

This course explores research methodologies and literature review leading to writing the state-of-the-art of the master's dissertation, and preliminary experimental work for the preparation and development of prototypes is carried out. 

It is therefore a methodological prerequisite for completion in the following semester of the Master's Dissertation course, even if some incomplete work is allowed.
The student prepares an extended abstract of the dissertation (in collaboration with his supervisor) presented as a coherent academic text (structured, argumentative and grounded in theory), which can later be used for the final dissertation. Students attend regular group seminars and meet regularly with their supervisor.  By the end of the semester they submit a preparation of the dissertation report, present it orally and discuss it before their peers.

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation without final exam

Assessment Components

Designation	Weight (%)
Defesa pública de dissertação, de relatório de projeto ou estágio, ou de tese	30,00
Trabalho escrito	70,00
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

Designation	Time (hours)
Apresentação/discussão de um trabalho científico	12,00
Elaboração de relatório/dissertação/tese	60,00
Trabalho de investigação	90,00
Total:	162,00

Eligibility for exams

Terms of frequency: Elaboration, presentation and discussion of a final report.

Calculation formula of final grade

To obtain approval, the student must make an oral presentation of the main findings of the literature search made within the course, including a preliminary plan for the work on the dissertation.

The final grade is determined considering the evaluations made by the course coordinator (20%), an external jury (30%). and the supervisor (50%), of the report  (weigth of 70%) and the oral presentation (weigth of 30%) performed by the student.

Examinations or Special Assignments

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Internship work/project

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Classification improvement

Failure to pass this curricular unit implies a new attendance in the following academic year.