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A master's thesis is an individual research project of 30 credits on a topic related to your advanced studies, documented as a written report. The thesis is based on existing scientific knowledge, and it is conducted according to the principles of scientific research, following good engineering and scientific practices and ethical guidelines.

Completed master’s theses can be browsed and viewed in the Aalto doc archives. () 

In order to begin your Master's thesis, you must have received approval for your study plan in Sisu. According to the 2-year model schedule of the programmes, the thesis is written during the Spring semester of the second study year. You must reserve time for the planning phase as well, to get started with your thesis in due time. In certain special cases, the thesis can be started already during the 2^nd year autumn. If you wish to do so, please discuss this with your programme coordinator / planning officer.

The target time for completing the thesis is 6 months (full-time) and primarily it is not a project that you work on over a longer period time (eg. Part-time). A schedule other than 6 months must always be agreed upon with your supervisor. Please also consider your programme’s graduation schedules and the scholarship period (if applicable).

Exceeding the target time (or other duration as agreed with the supervisor) may affect the grading of the thesis. The start time is the moment when the student and the supervisor agree that the project has started.

Working on your thesis and completing courses at the same time? The 30 cr of master's thesis is equivalent to 810 hours of work, on average. Ideally you should reserve 6 months of full-time work for the thesis alone. However, you can take courses at the same time. For justifiable reasons, you can agree with your supervisor on a target time exceeding 6 months. It is important to inform your supervisor if there are any changes.

Finding a topic might take time! You should prepare for some months of searching.  You should also reserve time for handling other practicalities (possible HR practicalities, agreeing on the supervision and the initial schedule etc).

The timeline presented below follows Aalto’s semester schedules. Please find information on the partner university’s schedule and process on their website. 

Create a thesis record by entering the thesis information on the Mystudies page, under the Thesis tab. (mystudies.aalto.fi -> Thesis)

On the Thesis tab, you can create a preliminary plan for your Master's thesis before the official confirmation of the thesis topic, supervisor, and advisor by adding the basic information of your thesis. You can edit the basic information at any time until you submit the information for supervisor and topic confirmation. Once the basic information of the thesis is added, the staff of your degree program will also be able to see the details of your thesis. 

Add the following information concerning your thesis on the tab:

• Your degree programme
• Basic information of your thesis, i.e., the preliminary topic and language. At this stage, the topic can be a preliminary draft, and you can change the topic later.
• Supervisor and advisor. You can leave the supervisor and advisor fields blank if you do not yet have a suitable supervisor and advisor. You can complete this section later when the approval of the thesis topic, supervisor, and advisor is relevant.
• Start and end date, i.e. the period during which you plan to work on your thesis (the default duration is six months, and typically the thesis is scheduled for the spring term of the 2nd year of studies)
• Additional information: briefly write here whether you are considering doing your thesis for a company, a university, or another commissioner. You may also add a list of potential supervisors or any other additional information about the thesis.

The goal is for all 2^nd year students in ELEC to have the basic information of their thesis plan added to the Mystudies during the autumn term of their 2^nd year of studies.

Keep your thesis plan up to date. Please DO NOT send your plan for approval before you have agreed on the final topic and supervision by e-mail etc. or in person (see next step).

The supervisor of the thesis must be a professor, a university lecturer or a staff/senior scientist working in Aalto University (staff/senior scientist only if working in ELEC).  The supervisor’s responsibility is to provide guidance on the scientific validity and format of the thesis and the thesis as a whole.

You must also have one or two advisors for your thesis. A master's thesis advisor must have completed at least a master's degree. Eg. for company topics the advisor is typically your local instructor at the company or other organisation.  The advisor's role is to take care of day-to-day guidance and support the student in the planning and execution of the experimental part of the thesis as well as in the writing process. 

The supervisor of the thesis can also work as the advisor.

In CoDaS and SpaceMaster programmes: 

The student must also have a supervisor from the partner university they have/are studying in. Having a supervisor from both universities is required to complete the programme and graduating with a double degree. The thesis is conducted by joint supervision of both universities. It is important that the student familiarizes themselves with the instructions, rules and schedules given by both universities and follows them.

As a rule, the main responsibility of the thesis supervision is where the student is physically located. The supervisor from the partner university is encouraged to participate in the process and provide feedback; however, their main role is to fulfil the formal role of thesis supervisor at the partner university. 

Students are mainly responsible for finding the thesis topic themselves. There are no general lists of available topics (exceptions: in SSIs and SpaceMaster programmes, the topic can be chosen from a list provided by the programme in second-year autumn). Students may look for topics from the sources below.

• topics offered by companies, public sector organisations etc. If applicable, you can ask your employer or former employers about thesis topics, or you can approach companies that interest you. Companies do not necessarily advertise directly for open master’s thesis positions. There is also some recruitment by public sector organisations (e.g. VTT Finnish National Research Centre for Technical Research, Finnish Meteorological Institute, etc.).
• topics offered by research groups in Aalto. Departments hire students as research assistants to do their master’s theses as part of ongoing research projects. Professors typically advertise potential positions in their master's courses, for example. You can also ask professors directly about positions opening up in the near future. Especially if you are interested in pursuing doctoral studies, a master’s thesis in research groups is a recommended option. Other forms of master’s theses do not, of course, exclude the possibility of doctoral studies.
• Independently agreed topics. An independently agreed topic means agreeing with a potential supervisor on a topic for a master’s thesis that is not part of a funded research project but is still a master’s thesis topic of a comparable level in terms of scope and requirements. The school is always obliged to arrange an independent master’s thesis topic for the student when the student is ready to start work and has not found a suitable topic through other channels. You can contact professors directly whose field you are interested in and ask about possible topics. You can also tell them yourself what kind of topic you would be interested in working on.
   

In all cases, you should contact a potential supervisor directly by e-mail or by agreeing to a meeting and negotiate on the topic and/or supervision. The supervisor (and the topic) may also be from another school within Aalto as long as the topic is related to your advanced studies. Note that you must always agree on the topic with a supervisor first before proceeding with any topic and also agree on the process with the supervisor (more info in Getting Started).

Descriptions of possible thesis topic areas by ELEC supervisors in each department:

A master's thesis is a study attainment and is therefore not automatically a paid project. However, in engineering fields, companies typically offer paid master's thesis positions, and in such cases, the salary should be in accordance with recommendations (such as those from TEK).

Most commonly, the funding for a master's thesis comes from the salary received through an employment relationship with a company, university, or other organization. If a company or similar entity cannot or does not want to sign an employment contract with the student, it can also donate the equivalent amount through the foundation supporting technology students. /en/foundation-for-aalto-university-science-and-technology

Please note that if you are already receiving funding from the European Union within your programme (e.g. Erasmus Mundus scholarship), you cannot benefit from another EU funded scholarship scheme to fund your thesis work.

Aalto University does not have other forms of support or grants for those doing a master's thesis Students receiving financial aid can continue to receive support during the period of their master's thesis. 

Create or update your thesis record in MyStudies. Prepare a preliminary plan of the thesis preferably together with the advisor from the company. Include the proposed topic/title and describe the research problem, the motivation and goal of the thesis, some ideas on the methodology/implementation of the possible experimental part and a preliminary outline of the content. The plan should be max 1 page at this point.

Contact a potential supervisor(s) whose research area corresponds best with your topic offer. Attach or show your preliminary plan. If you are not sure who to contact, ask the professor responsible for your major first (names are available on the curriculum page of your programme).

You should receive a response from a potential supervisor in a couple of weeks. If a response is delayed or if you are not able to find a supervisor for your topic within a reasonable timeframe, contact studies-elec@aalto.fi. 

Once the supervisor (from both partner universities, if applicable) has agreed to supervise your thesis, proceed to the section Getting Started.

Create or update your thesis record in MyStudies and include a preference list of topic areas and/or supervisors. Contact the potential supervisor(s) whose areas you are most interested in by e-mail or in a meeting.

You should expect a response within a couple of weeks. If a response is delayed or it seems you are not able to agree on the topic, contact studies-elec@aalto.fi. 

Inform everyone else you have asked about a topic once you have agreed on one. 

When you get a topic offer from a supervisor, move to section “Getting Started”. It is important to clearly agree with the professor whether you will start working with the topic and agree the next steps. 

Apply for the approval of your thesis supervisor, advisor(s) and topic in  (mystudies.aalto.fi) by creating a thesis record in the Thesis tab of MyStudies. Instructions on how to create the thesis record can be found from MyStudies. It is strongly recommended that you apply for approval of the supervisor, advisor(s) and topic as soon as you have agreed on a topic with your thesis supervisor.

CoDaS and SpaceMaster: In MyStudies, the supervisor from the partner university should be marked as an advisor, even though they would be the main supervisor of the thesis in practice.

For the application it is sufficient that you have agreed on the topic in a broad sense, i.e. the field of the thesis. The final title of the thesis will be developed during the thesis work, and the final title must be within the field of the original approved topic. Supervisor, advisor(s) and topic approval applications are approved continuously and there are no certain application deadlines. Applications are processed within a month.

The application is processed by the suggested thesis supervisor and another decision maker, who is either the programme director or major responsible professor, depending on your programme. The application is processed within a month. You will be informed by email and in MyStudies when the application has been approved.

Please note, that the supervisor, advisor(s) and topic must be approved in MyStudies before you can submit the final version of the thesis for evaluation. Application must be submitted in MyStudies at the latest a month before submitting the thesis to ensure, that the supervisor, advisor(s) and topic approval is processed before submitting the thesis.

The target time for completing the thesis is six months. Time used for completing the thesis affects the thesis evaluation. Note, that this time period is not calculated from the approval date of the supervisor, advisor(s) and topic but from the actual start date of the thesis as agreed and judged by the thesis supervisor.
In the thesis record you can set planned start date for the thesis and estimate of when the thesis will be completed. These dates are non-binding. They are intended to serve as a framework for your thesis work, and you should agree on the target time for thesis completion with your supervisor and advisor(s).

At the beginning of the thesis process, the supervisor and the student (and possibly advisor(s)) should organize an initial master's thesis meeting. Initial master's thesis meeting template is available in the webpage for master’s thesis instructions.

CoDaS and SpaceMaster: It is recommended to organize a kick-off meeting online with your supervisor from Aalto, advisor from partner university and advisor from company (if applicable) to agree on the practicalities and the schedule.

If ELEC-E0210 is part of your major's compulsory courses, remember to register for the course as soon as you have agreed on the topic with your supervisor. You can register for the course at any time during the teaching periods. Please note that for the summer period there may be some restrictions.  Register in Sisu and then proceed to the further steps according to the instructions on the course's MyCourses page. The course supports you during the initial stages of your thesis. It includes eg. a preparation of a research plan.

The course is compulsory in many programmes in ELEC but students from programmes where it is not compulsory can also attend and include the course in the elective studies. 

If you are attending ELEC-E0210, the research plan is prepared as a part of the course.

If you are not attending ELEC-E0210, you can prepare a research plan according to the following outline:
The research plan should be 2-3 pages long and include the following sections:   

1.  Definition of the research problem and the research questions. 
2. Description of the state-of-the-art. How has the problem been approached so far (by others)?
3. What will be your methodology? 
4. Your milestones - preliminary schedule for the thesis project (based on the research plan, schedule the next steps on a monthly basis). 
5. A preliminary list of references (5-10 references)

Support courses for thesis writing:

• ELEC-E0210 Master's Thesis Process. If you are not attending the course, take a look on the course material e.g. regarding the structure of the thesis.
• LC-1322 Thesis Writing for engineers (MSc) (w)
• LC-1315 Tools for Master's Thesis
• LC-7109 Tieteellinen kirjoittaminen maisteriopiskelijoille

Other support services:

• Writing clinic (language support for writing in English offered by the language center)
• Starting Point of Wellbeing’s Theses & Tomatoes
• Turnitin (online tool for practicing scientific writing and prevention of plagiarism). Detailed instructions in the section 'Turnitin as Part of Thesis Writing.'

Write your thesis on a master's thesis template. Two templates are available:

• (recommended). For LaTeX use Aalto provides free accounts for students on Overleaf (a web-based Latex tool) or you can download a  on your own computer.
• .

CoDaS and SpaceMaster: Using Aalto’s thesis template is compulsory. If another template is required from the partner university, you will need to make two versions of your thesis with different templates. For SpaceMaster students, those turning in the thesis to LTU must use LTU's thesis template. 
 

Make sure that before submitting the final version of your thesis to MyStudies, you have generated a Turnitin report of its draft.

The Turnitin check is performed to provide feedback on your work, to appropriately correct similar text for the next version, to avoid plagiarism, and to ensure your thesis is ready for submission. When you submit your final thesis version for evaluation, grading, and archiving, the system will automatically generate a Turnitin report for your thesis. It is not possible to edit the thesis you have submitted for evaluation and grading after the submission deadline. Therefore, using Turnitin while writing the thesis and before submission is highly recommended. 

Ensure that you get a Turnitin similarity report of the draft of your thesis and abstract either 1) independently or 2) under your supervisor's supervision.

1. Independent Turnitin originality check 
   There is a MyCourses workspace  for students, where you can submit a draft of your thesis into "Submission for drafts" section. See also  University Turnitin manual for students.
2. Using Turnitin under supervision
   Your supervisor might have a personal MyCourses workspace for creating a Turnitin report.
   Using your supervisor’s workspace to create the report enables you to receive guidance and assistance in interpreting the report. Check the list of existing supervisors' workspaces here.

If your thesis supervisor does not have a workspace for generating the Turnitin report and you would like feedback on the report you have independently generated in the student workspace, contact your thesis supervisor.

Read more about plagiarism and the responsibilities and rights of Turnitin users.

The master's thesis is conducted in accordance with the practices of scientific research, adhering to good scientific practice and ethical principles.

You are responsible for the content of your thesis. Scientific research requires the use of original source materials. AI is not a scientific, original source of information. However, using AI tools to support learning is permitted with certain limitations at Aalto University. These general principles also apply to theses: /en/services/tips-for-using-artificial-intelligence-for-students

AI tools should primarily be used to clarify text and its structure and paraphrasing. Do not use AI to create text based on the keywords or themes/ideas of your work.

Transparency is essential. If you have utilized AI in conducting research or producing text, this should be disclosed with appropriate references (see the link above for further instructions).

During the submission phase, the work will undergo a mandatory Turnitin check. Turnitin can also detect AI-generated text, so take the aforementioned principles into account when writing your thesis.

Please note that a master’s thesis is a public document once it has been approved. The thesis cannot have any confidential sections. If there are confidential sections, only the "visible" part of the thesis will be evaluated and the thesis must form a coherent whole without the concealed parts. Read more about theses as public documents.

A seminar presentation about the topic of your thesis is a compulsory part of the thesis approval process. You must agree on the schedule and arrangements of your seminar presentation with your thesis supervisor(s). When applying for approval of your thesis you must indicate whether you have already held the seminar presentation or provide the date of the upcoming presentation.

Please note that the seminar presentation must be completed at the latest by the deadline for submitting theses and applications.

Once you have completed the seminar presentation, your thesis supervisor will mark the seminar presentation completed in MyStudies at the same time with the thesis evaluation.

CoDaS and SpaceMaster: The student must also meet the requirements of the seminar presentation / thesis defense of the partner university. It is recommended to organize the event in a way that the supervisor from other university participates online, or that the event is held fully online.

According to the Universities Act 794/2004 students are required to complete a maturity essay. The abstract of your thesis will serve as the maturity essay. Hence, you don't need to agree on writing a maturity essay separately with your supervisor. When you submit your thesis with an abstract completed according to the instruction in the master's thesis template, your maturity essay is considered done.

To have your Master's thesis approved:

• check the application deadlines below
• convert your thesis into pdf/A format (instructions). Please make sure that your thesis file is not too big (less than 100 MB).
• in  (mystudies.aalto.fi -> thesis), fill in all the required information concerning the thesis, upload the final pdf/A version of your thesis and accept the Turnitin conditions.
• if you also want to apply for graduation, see the instructions under Graduation. 

Please make sure that the electronic version submitted in the application is the final and corrected version of your thesis. After submission it is no longer possible to modify the thesis.

Based on the final version of the thesis

• the Turnitin similarity report, which is visible to both the student and the thesis supervisor, will be automatically generated
• your supervisor will write the evaluation statement
• the degree programme committee will make the thesis evaluation
• the university will archive the thesis and it is used for example as the official copy of the thesis in thesis grade appeal cases.
   

The degree programme committee evaluates and grades the thesis based on the written statement and grade proposal provided by the thesis supervisor. The evaluation statement will be provided to the student in MyStudies after the Committee meeting and at the same time when the student receives information on the Committee's decision. The evaluation decision is subject to appeal, i.e., students dissatisfied with the evaluation may submit an appeal.