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For organizations

M.EIC has a longstanding record of cooperation with external organizations - companies, institutes, NGOs, etc.

One way for organizations to materialize this cooperation is by submitting dissertation topic proposals to the M.EIC Dissertations coordination. These topics may then be selected by students who will carry out the work under guidance of a FEUP supervisor (a teacher or researcher) and a tutor from the organization.

The dissertation is a major component of M.EIC. From the organizations’ point of view, the process is divided into five stages (see detailed dates here):

  1. Preliminary proposal submission - at the end of 1st year (May/June)
  2. Proponent-students contacts, agreements and contract - until end of 1st year (July)
  3. Dissertation Planning - 1st semester, 2nd year (September-January)
  4. Dissertation work - 2nd semester, 2nd year (February-June)
  5. Dissertation defense and finalization - end of 2nd year (July)

This page includes the conditions that must be met by organizations and proposals, as well as the overall description of the process from the organization’s perspective. A list of relevant links is also included at the end.

If you are familiar with the process…

… you can go directly to the proposal process.
Nevertheless, make sure you are aware of the overall conditions and stages of the process described below.

Conditions

The organization proposing topics should make sure that the following conditions are met:

  • The dissertation proposal needs to have a significant R&D component, it must NOT be seen solely as a traineeship or internship (“estágio”). Proposals that focus purely on development will NOT be accepted.
  • There must be a tutor from the organization supervising the student, with a commitment for regular and direct support and supervision of the student’s work, as well as regular follow-ups with both the student and the University supervisor.
  • The institution must provide in a timely fashion all the resources necessary for the proposed dissertation that may be specific to it (hardware, software, datasets, content, institution support). Exceptional cases should be discussed and agreed beforehand with the University.
  • The students must be able to present their work in public during the defense at the end of the dissertation. Therefore, even if there are some confidential data or results, all necessary information must be disclosed for the examiners to be able to evaluate the student’s work, both in the report and during the defense.
  • If the organization intends to offer some monetary compensation (such as commuting and food expenses, a scholarship or other type of payment) to the student, such conditions should be dealt directly with the candidates. The proposal should not include values, only the general conditions.
  • The organization must not deviate the students for projects or tasks that are not part of the dissertation plan previously agreed.
  • An organization can propose at most 8 (eight) topics.
  • More details regarding the conditions can be found in the contract sample.
  • Any issues that may arise throughout the process should be communicated to the coordination as early as possible, so that they can be dealt with accordingly.

Preliminary Proposal submission

  • Preliminary proposal submission takes place through the Preliminary proposal process, in which you must register before being able to submit a proposal.
  • The proponent should try to identify beforehand possible supervisors among DEI’s researchers and their research interest. The coordination may also help.
  • If a supervisor is identified, they should be invited to participate in the preparation of the proposal and should be mentioned in the proposal form.
  • Preliminary proposals will be validated against the conditions and may be rejected if those are not met.
  • If a proposal is valid but does not have a supervisor mentioned, the coordination will try to identify and assign one that is adequate and available.
  • Valid proposals with supervisors associated (either through the proponent or the coordination) will be published to the students for the following steps.

Proponent-students contacts, agreements and contract

After the proposals are published, a matchmaking period takes place between students and supervisors/proponents. Students and proponents are encouraged to contact one another and clarify details about the proposal, candidate, and other conditions (including possible mobility placement1).

For each proposal, the process ends as soon as an agreement is reached between the three parties and is communicated to the coordination through an agreement process.

Based on this agreement, a contract between the student, the proponent organization, and FEUP is generated (sample contract here), which then needs to be signed by the three parties.

The details of this process can be found in the matchmaking, agreements and contract page.

Dissertation Preparation

During the first semester (between September and January), students will analyze the problem and possible solutions, as well as produce a state-of-the art report.

To support that work, students will be enrolled in the curricular unit Dissertation Planning - PD.

Students will also attend other courses, so PD is roughly allocated 20% of the student’s curricular workload. Also keep in mind that some students may have a mobility placement abroad (e.g. ERASMUS) during this period1.

More details about this semester and the state-of-the-art report can be found in the dissertation preparation page.

During this time, it is expected that there will be regular interaction between the tutor, the student, and the supervisor. The tutors are also welcome to attend the two presentations that are held during the semester in the context of PD.

Dissertation work

This semester should be devoted in full to developing the work according to the planning defined in the dissertation preparation stage, including development and refinement of the solution or prototype and validation. More details about this process can be found at the dissertation work page.

Interaction with students and supervisors is very important and must be frequent and regular to ensure there are no significant deviations from the work plan.

That interaction is also important to ensure that the dissertation writing progresses during the semester and the student gets timely feedback from both supervisor and tutor.

If so stated in the initial agreement, the students should perform their work at the facilities of the organization, under the conditions stated above, and should abide to the overall rules and procedures of the organization (more details in the sample contract).

Dissertation Defense

The dissertation defense is an academic procedure, in which the students present their work in public before a jury, which usually take place in mid-July.

The details about the session can be found in the defenses’ page.

  1. Students that have a mobility placement abroad (e.g. ERASMUS) planned for the preparation semester will already have that information when applying for proposals, and should indicate that to the proponents as early as possible. ↩↩