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M.EIC Dissertations

Welcome to the M.EIC Dissertations Microsite.

Quick start

Here you will find all the info regarding the dissertation process, whether you are:

For students

The dissertation is a major component of M.EIC and an opportunity for students to mature their skills in research and development, either in academic or business environment.

For that purpose, by the end of the Master’s first year, students will have to apply to available dissertation topics, which can be proposed by teachers/researchers or external organizations. They should proactively try to reach an agreement with a proponent/proposal as soon as possible before the end of the first year (July), so that they can start early in the second year.

The main stages of the process are the following (see detailed dates here):

  1. Preliminary contacts with teachers - as early as possible
  2. Proposal browsing, expression of interest and proponent contacts - (June-July)
  3. Agreements and written contract - until end of 1st year (July)
  4. Preparation of the dissertation - 1st semester, 2nd year (September-January)
  5. Dissertation work - 2nd semester, 2nd year (February-June)
  6. Dissertation defense and finalization - end of 2nd year (July)

This information page includes the conditions that must be met by students and the overall description of the process from the student’s perspective. A list of relevant links is also included at the end. As a companion resource to this page, you can also check this presentation regarding M.EIC dissertations.

Conditions

Students should take into account the following considerations when approaching and while in the dissertation process:

  • The dissertation has a significant R&D component, it is NOT a “pure development” project.
  • It is the student’s dissertation, so they should be proactive in looking for the topic, researching it, and seeking for support from supervisors and external tutors.
  • It is advisable that students are aware of the conditions associated to supervisors and external organizations proposals (here and here) and make sure that they are being respected.
  • 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.
  • Students should ensure that they enroll in both the Dissertation Planning and Dissertation courses in the second year of M.EIC.

Preliminary Contacts with Teachers and External Organizations

Students with well-defined interests in specific areas should contact teachers/researchers in those areas as soon as possible, to get to know available opportunities.

In some cases, the teachers already have some specific topics in mind that they can present to the students. Teachers are also usually open to prepare a topic proposal based on a student’s idea if there are common interests and the idea is feasible as a dissertation.

If you have contacts with some external organization that would be willing to propose a dissertation topic of your interest, share the link for the external organizations’ information page with them and try to find a teacher willing to support and supervise a joint proposal.

Either way, a formal proposal has to be submitted by the teacher or external organization as indicated in their corresponding processes. If you reach an informal agreement with the supervisor in advance, that should be mentioned in the proposal and the following step can be skipped.

Proposal browsing, expression of interest and proponent contacts

By the mid/end of June (specific dates here), the set of valid proposals from teachers and external organizations are published to students.

After the proposals are published, a matchmaking period takes place between students and supervisors/proponents.

Students will have a short period to express their interest in proposals by following the corresponding process. As a result, each proponent will have access to the list of students that expressed interest in their proposal and may contact those students for an interview.

Students are highly encouraged to contact the proponents as early as possible, even before registering interest if necessary, to present themselves, obtain details about the proposal and make well-informed choices.

Students that have a mobility placement (e.g. ERASMUS) planned for the preparation semester should inform the proponents about it as soon as possible in the process.

Agreements and contract

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

In the case of proposals involving external organizations, a written contract between the student, the proponent organization, and FEUP is generated (sample document 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 be analyzing the problem and possible solutions, as well as producing a state-of-the art report.

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

Some students may have a mobility placement abroad during this period. More information about this topic can be found here.

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

During this time, it is expected that there will be regular interaction between the student and the supervisor (and the tutor, if applicable).

Supervisors (and tutors) are welcome to attend the two presentations that are held during the semester in the context of PD and the student should keep them informed about those.

Dissertation work

This semester should be devoted in full to developing the work according to the planning defined in the dissertation planning 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 supervisors and tutors 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 the supervisor (and tutor, if applicable).

If so stated in the initial agreement, the students should perform their work at the facilities of the organization 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 takes place in mid-July.

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

For teachers

The department’s teachers/researchers are a key element of the dissertation process, as they propose a significant part of the dissertation topics sought by students and are responsible for scientifically supervising students in this major component of their Master.

Additionally, as a teacher/researcher of one of DEI’s scientific subareas, you may be invited to oversee the evaluation of proposals within your fields of interest coming from external organizations, and possibly to supervise some as well. External proposals will only be accepted if there is a supervisor associated to it.

Finally, proactive students interested in your research activity may contact you in advance to try to identify possible topics, or propose their ideas of topics, to craft a proposal with you.

Regardless of the topic proposal origin, after accepting to supervise a proposal you will be the contact point for the process internally at FEUP. Additionally, if the proposal is bound to an external organization, there will be a tutor from the organization as external contact point as well.

The process is divided into five stages (see detailed dates here):

  1. Proposal submission - at the end of 1st year (May-June)
  2. Proponent-students contacts, agreements and contract - until end of 1st year (July)
  3. Preparation of the dissertation - 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 information page includes the conditions that must be met by teachers submitting proposals and supervising dissertations, and the overall description of the process from the supervisors’ 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 for teachers/researchers.
Nevertheless, make sure you are aware of the overall conditions and stages of the process described below.

Conditions

A teacher/researcher proposing or supervising topics should take into account the following considerations:

  • A teacher can propose at most 8 (eight) topics
  • The main supervisor:
    • must have a PhD;
    • has to be a professor at FEUP (can be invited) or a researcher at one of the associated institutes.
  • At least one of the supervisors must be a DEI teacher.
  • 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, there must be sufficient disclosed information for the examiners to be able to evaluate the student’s work.
  • If validating/supervising an external organization’s proposal, ensure that the conditions that apply to organizations are met.
  • 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.

Proposal submission

  • Teachers/researchers should submit their own proposals via the proposal process for teachers/researchers.

  • If invited to validate/supervise external proposals, you should validate it and discuss the details with proponents if necessary. If the proposal reaches the conditions for acceptance, the final version should be submitted by the supervisor in the internal proposal process.

  • These steps should be completed until the end of the validation period (see dates here).

Proponent-students contacts, agreements and contract

After the proposals are published, a matchmaking period takes place between students and supervisors/proponents.

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

In the case of proposals involving external organizations, 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 Dissertation Planning - PD course.

Keep in mind that some students may have a mobility placement abroad during this period.

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 student and the supervisor (and the tutor, if applicable).

The supervisors are 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 tutors, if applicable) 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 the supervisor (and tutor, if applicable).

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.

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. ↩↩

Important Dates

Proposal submission and topic selection

Stage Start End
Preliminary proposals 27/05/2024 14/06/2024
Validation of proposals 17/06/2024 28/06/2024
Proposals published to students 09/07/2024
Students register interest 09/07/2024 26/07/2024
Contacts and agreements 09/07/2024 26/07/2024

Dissertation submission and defense

Stage Start End
Status and final details submission May (day TBD) May (day TBD)
Examiner and session definition May (day TBD) May (day TBD)
Session president definition May (day TBD) Early June (day TBD)
Preliminary documents submission 30/06/2025
Preliminary documents approval 30/06/2025
Dissertation defense 07/07/2025 18/07/2025
Final documents submission 07/07/2025 25/07/2025
Final documents approval 07/07/2025 29/07/2025

Documents

Contracts for external organizations

Be sure to check the details regarding the contract signing process in the agreements page

  • Sample Contract: (EN) (PT)
  • Confidentiality agreement (if applicable) - (EN) (PT)

FEUP Dissertation Regulations

  • Normas de dissertação: (PT)

Dissertation templates

Other

Process

Proposal Submission

Dissertation proposals can be initiated by different parties and some details of the submission vary depending on where the topic originates from.

Organizations

If you are a representative of an external organization willing to propose dissertation topics, you should do a preliminary proposal submission for validation following the process detailed in the page for organizations.

Identifying a possible supervisor to cooperate in the proposal in advance is highly recommended.

For preliminary proposals that are submitted without a supervisor in advance, the coordination team will help in trying to identify one.

Teachers

If you are a teacher/researcher and have topics to propose, use SIGARRA to submit them in the process - details in the page for teachers

Students

If you are a student that has an idea early on of a field that you would like to work on, you should try to contact a teacher or researcher within DEI in that field as early as possible and either ask for more specific topics or suggest topics that might be of mutual interest - details in the page for students

Dissertation selection, agreements and contract

After proposals are accepted and published, the process of matching students to proposals takes place. In this process:

  • Students express their interest in the published proposals.
  • Students are encouraged to contact proponents to learn more about the proposals.
  • Proponents will have access to the list of students interested in their proposals.
  • Proponents are encouraged to contact the students to accelerate the agreement process.
  • As soon as an agreement with a student and supervisor is reached, all parties should confirm it to the coordination using the agreement process.
  • If an external organization is involved, a contract needs to be signed by the student, the proponent organization, and FEUP (See below for details about the contract signing process).
  • After this process, proponent, supervisor and student should arrange an initial meeting to bootstrap the dissertation work, ideally before the end of July.

Students expression of interest

This takes place in the M.EIC dissertations platform. Detailed information available there at the appropriate period.

Agreements

This also takes place in the M.EIC dissertations platform. Detailed information available there at the appropriate period.

Regarding contracts with external organizations

When an external organization is involved in the dissertation work, a written contract must be drawn up between the student, the organization and FEUP (a sample of the contract is available in the documentation page)

The parties must supply the necessary information to fill the contract, so that the secretariat can produce the final document and distribute it for signing. When the contract is finalized, there are two options for signing it:

  • Digital signatures (preferred): a single PDF document is generated and signed by all parties in the following order:

    1. Student and supervisor;
    2. Director of M.EIC;
    3. Organization representative and tutor;
    4. Vice-President of the Scientific Council of FEUP.

    The contract will circulate by e-mail between the parties. When fully signed, it will be e-mailed to the student, who will, in turn, send it to the external organization for archive and future reference.

    NOTE: only digital signatures (with citizen card or digital mobile key) shall be deemed valid. Any contract with scanned signatures will be considered invalid.

  • Manual signatures: three original copies of the contract must be printed and signed by all parties in the same order indicated above. All pages of the three copies must be initialed, except for the last one which must have full signatures.

    When all copies are fully signed, one will remain at FEUP and the student will be contacted to pick-up the other two copies (one for the student and the other for the external organization).

    In exceptional and dully substantiated cases, the external organization may be the last party to sign. In such cases, the contract must be printed out and manually signed.

Dissertation Preparation

The student will be enrolled in the curricular unit Preparation of Dissertation - PD, consisting of classes, tutorials and talks related to scientific research, literature review, research planning, scientific writing, evaluation methodologies, ethics, among others.

It is expected that there will be regular interaction between the tutor, the student, and the supervisor.

  • The main outcome of this stage is a report including:
    • Problem,
    • Research questions,
    • Literature review of the state-of-the-art and findings,
    • Solution design proposal,
    • Work plan for the implementation.

The tutors are welcome to attend the presentations that are held during the semester.

The students also attend additional classes during this period, so PD corresponds to roughly 20% of their workload.

Dissertation Work and Writing

  • This semester should be devoted in full to developing the work laid out in the dissertation planning stage, including:

    • development and refinement of the solution or prototype,
    • validation,
    • evaluation,
    • analysis of results,
    • dissertation writing.

  • The main outcomes of this stage are the artifacts produced from the prototyping and development phase, as well as the dissertation report that documents the process and findings.

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

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

Periods abroad

There are two common cases in which students may be placed abroad during the 2nd year:

  • Under an ERASMUS-like mobility placement in the first semester, during the Dissertation Preparation, in exchange with other course
  • In the context of developing the dissertation itself, in the second semester, if the initial proposal contemplates that.

More details are given below regarding these two scenarios.

Dissertation Preparation abroad

In this case, the students will have already their placement agreed in advance. They should make sure that they inform the proponents they contact about it, as some may not be able to accommodate such cases, or need to adjust to that.

The students will attend remotely to the Dissertation Preparation classes and presentations, and should keep regular contact with supervisor (and tutor, if applicable).

Dissertation Abroad

Sometimes students develop their dissertation work abroad. In such cases, there must also be a formal record of the situation at FEUP for academic and insurance coverage purposes.

This formal record can be made by one of two methods:

  • Signing a contract with the external organization as explained for regular cases. Please note that FEUP must be included in this process in order for it to be binding for FEUP.

  • Applying for an Erasmus+ Internship scholarship, which is managed at FEUP by the Academic Recruitment and Cooperation Unit. For this purpose, you must fill in an online form and will later be contacted by the OUTgoing Mobility division in order to continue the process. With this process, your work abroad will be duly registered, you can obtain a scholarship and you will also get valuable information regarding all the documents you will need abroad.

Defense Sessions

The dissertation defense is an academic procedure, in which the students present their work before a jury with three elements:

  • the president,
  • an external examiner, and
  • the supervisor from the University

M.EIC defenses usually take place in mid-July, being the date decided by the end of June, by agreement with the elements of the jury. The defense session must take place at FEUP and students cannot participate remotely.

  • The defense sessions are open to the public. The organization’s tutor and other representatives are welcome to attend.
  • The defense is organized in terms of time as follows:
    • 20 minutes for the student to present their work;
    • 20 minutes of interaction with the external examiner;
    • 5 minutes of final interventions from the supervisor and the president.
  • The jury will convene after the end of the session to evaluate the work. Afterwards, it will communicate the classification to the student.

The student will be given some days to make any changes the jury may have suggested and to submit the final version of the Dissertation and Abstract in SIGARRA. These documents must be approved by the supervisor for the Dissertation process to be completed.

Postponements

September season

Students that wish to postpone their dissertation submission and defense for the September season must make a request in the status submission (see dates), duly justifying the reasons. It is important to note that:

  • The reasons must result from proven unpredictable factors external to the student or proven health issues;

  • The request must be validated by the supervisor.

If the request is approved, the indicative completion dates are the following (exact dates TBD):

  • Deadline for preliminary documents submission: beginning of September

  • Dissertation defense: middle of September

  • Deadline for delivery of final documentation: end of September

Next academic semester

If delivery is not feasible in this edition, students must transmit this information as soon as possible (no postponement request is necessary). You will then need to enroll for the following edition of the Dissertation Curricular Unit.

Contacts