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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.