Métodos de Avaliação

The goal of the course:

The young researcher (Master’s student) must propose a scientific project for a Master’s thesis to the scientific committee of the course. This committee is constituted by the supervisor(s) and by the course’s lecturer. In the preparation of the proposal, the student can and must take advice from lecturers, researchers and experts. In particular, the student can use the thesis (project MEFT) portal to find a research project. Nevertheless, if the student finds a research topic and a supervisor that are not in the thesis portal, he/she must inform the supervisor in order to make a formal submission of the research topic to the MEFT project portal before the deadline. This step is necessary to guarantee the MEFT-IST requirements.   
 

Evaluation Methods:

The evaluation of the Master thesis project focuses on a scientific proposal (SP) submitted by the young researcher for evaluation. All the material of this course will be in English. Although we recommend the use of the English language, the documents and presentation of the SP can be either in English or in Portuguese. The scientific proposal (SP) dossier is constituted by:  

  1. a report (max 10 pages); 
  2. an exam presentation (max 10 min); 
  3. a workshop presentation (*): summary of the scientific project + discussion (11 min). 

(*) This presentation must include a promotional video (max 4min).

 The rules to write the report are the same as in previous years, if not stated otherwise. A latex macro for the report can be found in this link (available by courtesy of Prof. Vasco Guerra): https://fenix.tecnico.ulisboa.pt/downloadFile/1970943312322049/Archive.zip

All these documents must be uploaded to the fenix portal by the fixed deadline(s). If necessary, under request and approval from the course’s lecturer, other materials could be accepted to be included in the SP dossier such as prototypes, experiments, etc. The request must be made by email.     


The evaluation of the scientific proposal (SP) will be done in two phases:

Phase I: Examination and assessment of the quality of the scientific project. 

The student will present his/her proposal to a scientific panel constituted by the supervisor(s) and the course’s lecturer. The examination starts with a 10-min presentation followed by a 15-min discussion about the research proposal (presentation and project report’s). A 5-min period, in the end, is reserved for deliberation.   

The supervisor(s) will be responsible for the examination (which must include tough questions), under the advice of the course’s lecturer. The supervisor can examine the student's project as he/she founds appropriate. However, the assessment should give a weight of 30% to the written report and 70% to the presentation, discussion and supervision. The student must also be prepared to answer any questions about the project and other generic topics in physics.

The supervisor will give the final grade of this component under the advice of the course’s lecturer (who will provide information to the supervisor about other projects and presentations). If the scientific proposal has the required quality, and the supervisor accepts to make the supervision of this master’s thesis (otherwise the student fails this course), the candidate will be invited to pass to the second phase of the SP evaluation.  

The grading by the supervisor will be split into two stages, by giving a class grade: A (20-17), B (17-15), C (15-13), D (13-10) and E (fail) and by suggesting a specific grade (number).     


Phase II: One-day project-MEFT workshop.

The goal of this event is to allow the students (young researchers) to present their projects to a broad audience made of their peers, very much in the same spirit found in any international scientific conferences.  Each student is invited to make a 11-min presentation (that includes a video with a maximum duration of 4 min) and a summary powerpoint presentation of her/his project, followed by 4-mins of questions from the audience (which consists of the course’s lecturer and other invited lecturers). 


A team of invited lecturers will give the final grade of this component.  This evaluation will consider the following items:  video, presentation, answers to the questions made by the audience, and the grading made by their colleagues. 

This event is an opportunity for the young researcher to celebrate the start of their scientific or engineering career. The student must use this opportunity to take ownership of their project’s master thesis. 

The video component is mandatory. If the quality of the video is not sufficient, the course’s lecturer can ask the student to remake the video as many times as necessary. However, each time this request is made, the final grade is decreased by one. The best videos (if they have a very high-quality) can have a bonification of 1 point if the researcher has a grade smaller or equal to 17.   

The organisation of the workshop is of the responsibility of a team of students. These students can have a bonus of up to 2.0 values (in 20) in the grade of Phase II. 

Grade:

The final grade corresponds to 80% (Phase I) + 20% (Phase II). The grade will be made public to all students at the end of the semester, after a comparative analysis (only to avoid possible bias) of that academic year’s grades to the grades in previous years. 

Calendar:
  • October 6  (at 12 am in Zoom)   – First Lecture: Presentation of the syllabus (of the Project-MEFT).
  • October 12 (at 11 am in Zoom) - workshop preparation (creation of workshop teams: website, poster, program, student grade system, chairpersons, workshop hardware, workshop day organisation)
  • October 26  (at 11h00 in Zoom) - Lecture: how to make the workshop webpage, Prof. Violetta Sagun (invited lecturer) (**). 
  • November 23 (at 11h00 in Zoom) – Lecture: how to make the video, Dr. Sonat Duyar (invited lecturer) (**,****).  
  • December 14 (at 11 am in Zoom) - Last lecture before workshop.
  • November 23  to November 27 - Period for contacting Daniel Mendes Lála, Office Laboratory (***)  
  • November 30  to December 18 - Period for recording the videos in the IST.  

(**) This lecture is mandatory for all students. 

 (***)  ext. 3057, daniel.mendes.lala@tecnico.ulisboa.pt, to mark the recording date of the video (Optional).  Choose an appointment for the video recording in the doodle (https://doodle.com/poll/zxv67tizw2zpy7uk?utm_source=poll&utm_medium=link). It is, of course, possible to record the videos independently without resorting to the IST, as long as there is a guarantee of good sound and image quality.  

(****) https://videoconf-colibri.zoom.us/j/84713796374?pwd=eTRsNmNVS0tYSXNMVFYrSG5IU3p0dz09 (password ver email)

Preparation, presentation and discussion of the project:
  • September 11 to October 18 – Period for a supervisor to submit the proposal for the Project MEFT in the Fenix Portal.  
  • October 19 to October 31 – Period for the students to choose the topic of Dissertation in the Fenix Portal.   
  • October 19 to November 8  – Deadline for acceptance of the student by the supervisor. 
  • January 6 – Deadline for submission of the report and examination presentation. 
  • January 24  – Deadline for submission of short workshop presentation and video delivery (**). 
  • January 11, 12 and 13 (extra day maybe)  (in Zoom "to be announced" or DF seminar room)  - Presentation / Discussion 
  • January 28 and 29   – Workshop (in Zoom "to be announced" or Amphitheatre Abreu Faro) 
  • February 7 - MEFT project grades (to confirm)


Acknowledgement:

The current lecturer responsible for the course “project-MEFT” is grateful to the previous lecturers and collaborators for their advice, comments and suggestions during the years. To mention a few (apologies if I forgot someone, please kindly remind me): Vasco Guerra, Fernando Barão, Pedro Brogueira, Teresa  Peña, Joao Pedro Bizarro, Joao Paulo Silva, Susana Freitas, Filipe Mendes, Rui Dilão, Luis Lemos Alves.