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Master thesis research

On this page we have collected all the necessary information regarding preparation, writing and defending your Master Thesis work.

A chance to collaborate with the industry

Girl in front of a SEI roll up, smiling.

"For my thesis I had supervision from KTH and Stockholm Environment Institute . I did an assessment of the potential of biochar as a land-based emission mitigation measure in Colombia. It is amazing that collaborations like this exist within KTH". /Eileen Morales, student at the SEE programme

Young man in front of the Scania Technical Center building

"My thesis topic is 'Impact of Aeration on heat transfer'. Working at KTH and Scania  is great! I've been feeling very welcomed by my colleagues since the beginning."

/Chirag Sagare, student at the SEE programme

Here, you can sort proposed topics for Master thesis research by subject area. You can choose among them, read through and contact the responsible person for details before you decide on what you will work on. The topic of your thesis can also be chosen by the student, according to own preferences. In this case, finding funding and supervisor is the responsibility of the student.

Your thesis work, step-by-step

1. Decide on your research topic and find a supervisor

Please see detailed instructions on what to do to find a topic for your thesis work, a supervisor and other logistics in the Instructions on finding a thesis topic and a supervisor (pdf 112 kB)

See all thesis proposals:

All master thesis proposals

2. Apply

Fill in the form: Application for thesis project (pdf 664 kB)   sign and pass it to your supervisor. If you are doing your thesis at a company, this Thesis agreement (pdf 142 kB)  must also be signed.

Registration of your thesis in Library catalogue (DIVA):  Please be aware that a KTH-student thesis is always accessible to the public under Swedish freedom of information legislation (offentlighetsprincipen). A student thesis can be archived, rather than published, if a student does not wish for a project to be automatically visible. We must however release the thesis if anybody requests to see it. Try to ensure that the copy submitted does not contain confidential information. Discuss this with your supervisor.

When your application is ready, your supervisor will fill in the corresponding course code, sign and send the form to the ITM administrator  with a mandatory copy to the EGI administrator  for registration.

3. Start your thesis work

While your thesis is being registered, you can start your thesis work which should last about 20 weeks. Start and end dates should be discussed and set together with your supervisor.

Good examples of thesis work:

Jenny Trinh "Techno-economic assessment for optimised renewable jet fuel production in Sweden"

Sidharth Kapoor "Energy Usage in Railway Wayside Object Heating: Modeling of melting of Ice, Estimation of heating power requirement in Switch and Renewable energy feasibility for a Railway system"

Fabian Galli "Predicting PV self-consumption in villas with machine learning"

Astrid Ortis "Comparative life cycle assessment of two desiccant wheel dehumidifiers with industrial application"

Martos Tóth "PV self-consumption: Regression models and data visualization"

Hjörtur Brynjarsson "Review and Design Adaptations of a SrCl2-NH3 bench-scale Thermochemical Heat Storage system"

Jindal Saksham "Accelerated Testing of the End-plate Assembly of a Redox Flow Battery"

Felipe Quintero Suarez "Early Anomaly Detection in Electrical Bushings Manufacturing at Hitachi Energy"

4. Write the report

You can use this thesis template (docx 528 kB)  for writing your report (please make sure that your supervisor agrees with using it and that there are no additional requirements, as it can slightly differ from one division to another within the Department of Energy Technology).

5. Present your thesis

At the master thesis days  in June and August you will present your thesis. If you are not able to present during these two days you need a special permission from the programme director to proceed further.

a. Thesis presentation

  • The thesis shall be presented at the Thesis Presentation day in mid-June (if you have a late start with your thesis project there will also be a presentation day in August).
    NB! Latest start date is 1 March for normal master programme students.
    During the presentation days three parallel sessions (one per profile) will be held.
  • External supervisors and industrial partners will be invited to the thesis presentation day when the program is finalized.
  • 1st year students will be invited as well.

The sessions will take place in a lecture room, but exceptions may be given to Zoom presentations, for example for students presenting from abroad. However, we urge you to present physically at KTH inviting your family, friends and the teachers.

You sign up to present in the thesis day. After scheduling the day, you will be assigned to a presentation time slot of 45 minutes (each presentation will start 15 min past the hour, so in case of extensive or detailed discussions there is additional time for the discussion). Plan your presentation to be 20 minutes (rehearse and adapt the number of slides and slide contents to your presentation pace).

The remaining time is dedicated to opposition by another student and a discussion with the audience.

During the opposition you discuss your work with the opposing student. The discussion is led by the opposing student.

Participation during half of the thesis presentation day is mandatory (morning or afternoon depending on when you present), although you are very welcome to attend the full day.

b. Opposition of a colleague's work

You will be assigned to do a peer review of another student’s thesis. You will receive a final draft one week before the seminar.
An opposition protocol and instructions can be found here: Thesis opposition protocol (docx 66 kB)

At the seminar, following the presentation of that student, you have 10 minutes to discuss the work and ask questions that you have prepared in advance.

A written opposition report (using the opposition protocol template above) shall be submitted within 3 working days after the seminar.

6. Finish your thesis work

When you are approaching the defense of your thesis work, please follow the steps below. Make sure that both you and your supervisor/examiner are familiar with the procedures and follow them.

a. Get a thesis number

Ask your examiner /supervisor to send and email to ITM administrator  and request a registration number for the thesis. For that, the student's name and the supervisor's /examinor's name should be provided.

When this number is received by the Supervisor it will be communicated to you.

b. Provide a final version

When the final version of your thesis is ready and a grade has been awarded, the Supervisor/Examiner sends in the approved final thesis in a pdf file with the file name Lastname Firstname Thesis registration number.pdf along with the grade awarded to your project to the ITM administrator  with a mandatory copy to the EGI thesis administrator .

Please thus help your supervisor by sending in the final, approved, graded version of your thesis after inserting the thesis registration number on the Thesis in the designated place. Please also make sure that you have an abstract of the thesis both in Swedish and English at the begining of the report before you send in the very last version of the same to your supervisor (even if the thesis had been written in English it is required to have the abstract both in Swedish and English).

c. Get a thesis grade

Thesis grade will appear in LADOK and My Pages within 3 weeks after the submission of the final thesis file and the grade to the MSc thesis administrator.

d. The thesis is published in DIVA

According to KTH President decision all theses will be published in DIVA by MSc thesis administrator.

A printed version of your thesis is not required. However, if you wish to print your thesis work, you can discuss this possibility with your supervisor or do it on your own. The department is not covering these expenses. Just make sure that you use the KTH template for the cover page  when ordering a printout.

e. Apply for your degree certificate

After thesis grade registration you can apply for your degree certificate.

Good luck with your Thesis Work!

Page responsible:Oxana Samoteeva
Belongs to: Energy Technology
Last changed: Feb 05, 2024