TALLINN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
FACULTY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
A GENERAL GUIDE TO WRITING AND DEFENDING MASTER'S THESIS
MARM – Industrial Engineering and Management
Accepted: Council of Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
….................. . ….............. 2009
Priit Kulu
Dean of Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
Tallinn 2009
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………….
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1 . WRITING A PAPER …………………………………………………
…….3
1.1. Cooperation with supervisor ……………………………………………………….3
1.2. Topic of master's thesis
……………………………………………………….4
1.3. Requirements to master's thesis …………………………………………………..4
1.4. Language of the paper …………………………………………………………….5
2. DEFENCE PROCEDURE….......................................................................................6
2.1. Submitting of the theses and applying to defence ………………………………6
2.2. Reviewing and defending ………………………………………………………..8
Annex 1 …………………………………………………………………………………9
Annex 2 ..………………………………………………………………………………10
Annex 3 ..………………………………………………………………………………11
Annex 4 ..………………………………………………………………………………12
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INTRODUCTION
This guide to writing and defending papers is to help students prepare the research
and graduation papers of Master’s Thesis. The Guide provides the requirements set by
EN and ISO standards, TUT regulations for these papers, which are obligatory for all
research papers, bachelor’s and master’s thesis.
Master’s Thesis is a research or development paper written independently and
personally under the guidance of a supervisor, in which the author in a comprehensive
manner discusses and works out a topical theoretical or practical problem.
The objective of the Master’s Thesis is by using R&D methods to solve specific
important problems on a level worthy of the academic master’s degree and to give
students experience of managing individual research projects and deep understanding of
manufacturing planning, production engineering and management or economic analysis
of production technology route. A successful Master’s Thesis shall be based on the
knowledge acquired during general, basic and core studies. Research problem is
selected according to the specialization.
After completing the master thesis student will accept:
 the experience and skills of compiling an academic R&D work, that
corresponds to an international level of selected research topics;
 the scientific literature and other informational materials needed for solving
specific engineering and management problems;
 the deeper knowledge of the functioning and some existing problems of
manufacturing planning and management, production development area.
1. WRITING A PAPER
1.1. Cooperation with supervisor
The Master’s Thesis shall be written under the guidance of a supervisor.
Supervisors of research papers are appointed by the head of the study programme. For
Master’s Theses the students can themselves choose a supervisor. Supervisor may be a
TUT's faculty member who has at least an equal diploma or academic degree, or an
equivalent qualification with the academic degree to be awarded to the student. If
necessary (e.g. for a subject requiring expert-specialist in a specific field), an associate
supervisor may be appointed from some other organisation or company.
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Finding a supervisor is a responsibility of the student. In case the student has a
problem with finding supervisor, he/she might turn to the head of the curriculum.
Supervisor is neither a co-author nor editor of the paper. The student alone is
responsible for the scientific quality, language grammar and formatting of the paper.
Supervisor provides guidance and advice on formulating the topic, defining the
problem, setting aims, and organising the paper. The student coordinates timetable with
the supervisor, plan research work and literature. The supervisor points out the mistakes
and deficiencies, strong points and weaknesses, evaluates the use of terminology, thesis
style and language. The student is obliged to regularly contact the supervisor, inform
about the progress of work, problems, possible changes, etc.
The student’s declaration on the reverse side of the title page (Annex 4) shall be
signed by the student certifying that the work has been performed independently. In the
event of a positive opinion the supervisor shall sign on the reverse side of the title page.
The research paper shall be submitted in time to the supervisor and then to the dean’s
office.
1.2. Topic of Master's Thesis
The student selects the topic independently. The supervisor could help to find a
suitable topic. There are several ways to find the topic, for example:

the topic from enterprise where student works, in this case a special
agreement between TUT and enterprise will be signed. Co-supervisor from
the enterprise has to be appointed and his name should be fixed on the
reverse side of the title page;

the topic is from list of available topics from Faculty of Mechanical
Engineering or Faculty of Economics;

the topic is related to some current/finished research work from Faculty of
Mechanical Engineering or Faculty of Economics.
After the topic is selected and agreed with the supervisor, student fills Master's
Thesis task form (Annex 2), which will be later bind with Master's Thesis. Master's
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thesis topic (at least the research area), and a supervisor should preferably be selected at
the end of the second semester.
1.3. Requirements to Master's Thesis
Master’s Thesis should be based on the product development, production
engineering and management areas or should be connected with the research work of
the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering or Faculty of Economics. In most cases the
Master's Thesis is connected to research and development projects running in
enterprises, where student work, or master's thesis is a real project work ordered by
enterprise. A research work may be connected with the Estonian or international
economy or any kind of their combination. Because of the specifics of MARM
specialization, master's thesis should consider research parts of industrial engineering
and management integrated into a single research work. An industrial engineering part
should consider specific to industrial engineering research objectives, like product
development, concurrent engineering, product lifecycle management, production
process modelling and simulation, etc. The engineering part should include with the use
of general information presentation methods also engineering specific research
methods, like mathematics, modelling, optimization, etc. The usage of these methods
requires to use in the master's thesis different relevant to engineering information
presentation techniques, like schemas, drawings, tables, and others. A management part
should consider economic aspects, like marketing, managerial accounting, operations
management, business logistics, organisational behaviour, etc. These parts should be
integrated to form a single research work with logically represented structure, which
demonstrates the ability and skills of author to handle research work in both fields
simultaneously on high level and to achieve expected results. Students of MARM
speciality strongly differ from the students of other specialities, because they are able to
rise and solve different problems from the area of industrial engineering keeping in
mind numerous possible economic factors, which could in a different ways considerably
impact accepted engineering solutions.
Master's Thesis must be an independent exploration, development-oriented or any
other creative work, which includes an analysis of the problem, and a corresponding
solution. Master's Thesis must demonstrate the author's level of maturity of the
knowledge derived from study of research problem, ability to use scientific, technical
and economic innovative solving methods.
Master's Thesis consists of the explanatory part (the contents of a minimum of 60 pages
of A4), and graphical part (drawings, schemas, illustrations).
Master's Thesis must include:

introduction to clear problem definition, reflected in the research or
development necessity and feasibility, and novelty compared to existing
solutions, exploring object description, and problem-solving methods
general description;

clearly defined work objectives (goals) and tasks (3-4 tasks);

description of the work done and results obtained in the analysis
(quantitative and /or qualitative assessment of the results of the work);

summary of the main results, their importance and remained unsolved
opportunities.
Chapters of the work must be submitted to their logical sequence, and they must
include characteristics of modern theories/methodologies. Student must demonstrate
skills to use mathematics, IT, data analysis (including the processing of experimental
data), etc. The review part of research should include a comparative analysis of the
potential alternative solutions, providing either a quantitative (engineering or economicbased) or qualitative assessment of the work of the proposed solutions. Each chapter
must end with the conclusions.
Final chapter should be the list of references (minimally 20 references). It is highly
recommended to use newest/modern sources of information and bibliography, it is
recommended that at least half of references are not older than five years. All references
should be indicated in the main text. Web based references should include date of use.
Author is responsible to archive used web materials, in case later used links are not
active the referred materials can be proved either from digital copy or paper printout
copy.
Master’s Thesis main text font is Times New Roman, 12 pt, with line spacing equal
1,5 lines.. Main text is aligned as Justified. Tables and Figures headlines font size is 10
pt. Page margins in A4 pages are as follows: left 3 cm, right 2,5 cm; top 2,5 cm and
down 2,5 cm. Headlines and sub headlines are aligned left, 14 pt, bold, sub headlines 12
pt.
All tables and figures should be indicated in the main text. All tables have numbers
and headlines. Numbers are continuously through all work (like Table 10, Table 88) or
depending on the chapters (like Table 1.12, Table 4.33). Figures have signatures and
they are numbered like tables (Figure 10, Figure 88 or Figure 1.12, Figure 4.33).
1.4. Language of the paper
As a rule, the papers are written in English. The papers must be grammatically
correct (it is recommended to pay attention to spelling, capitalisation, abbreviation,
numerical
expressions,
punctuation).
Master's Thesis must include a summary of 3-5 pages in Estonian language.
2. DEFENCE PROCEDURE
2.1. Submitting of the theses and applying to defence
Fulfilment of all requirement of the curriculum is a prerequisite for submission of
master's thesis for protection. A graduate wishing to defend the thesis shall prepare an
application and submit the application signed by the supervisor to the Dean’s Office.
(application
form
-
Annex
1).
Completed work shall be submitted to supervisor for review at least 2 weeks before
defence date. The reverse side of title page (Annex 3) contains author's declarations to
be filled by the applicant (Annex 4).
The supervisor may make a proposal to arrange the preliminary defence session,
which must take place at least 10 days before the meeting of defence commission. The
arrangement form of preliminary defence procedure is established by the Head of the
Department.
The supervisor writes an opinion on Master's Thesis, where he/she evaluates the
work done by applicant, his/her ability and initiative to solve independently engineering
problems and skills to present obtained results. The opinion is not public and supervisor
have to give it to secretary of Department (where defence will be arranged) one day
before the defence commission session date. If the work meets the requirements for
final papers, supervisor no later than 10 days before the defence session date in
accordance with the Chairman of defence commission recommends a reviewer. The
reviewer must have the same or an equivalent academic degree of MSc. The student
presents Master's Thesis with the "reviewer reminder ", which is available from
secretary of department, to the reviewer. Errors and deficiencies, indicated by the
reviewer are not allowed to be corrected and improved. Written by the reviewer opinion
must be available to applicant and members of defence commission at least 2 days
before the date of the defence.
The Master Thesis, signed by student and supervisor, has to be submitted to
chairman of defence commission not later than 10 days prior to the defence session.
Become acquainted, chairman of defence commission within one week will decide to
accept
the
work
for
defence
session
or
reject.
The supervisor and chairman of the defence commission shall sign the reverse side
of the title page confirming the graduation paper is eligible to defence. If the paper does
not conform to the requisite level, the above named persons have the right to refuse
from accepting the paper to defence.
Student has to give Master's Thesis to secretary of department not later than 2 days
before the proposed defence date. The presentation has to be prepared on the CD or
memory stick in PPT or PDF formats.
The need of technical equipment for defence should be agreed with secretary
before. The paper-outs, the drawings and posters, which are larger than A3 size, should
not be folded before the defence session. The drawings, diagrams, posters and other
graphic material, which in original format are larger than A3, could be bound with
master's thesis in corresponding smaller zoomed format in case it remains readable.
The deanery issues not later than 3 days before the date of defence session the
certificate of student's educational credits to verify that there are no formal barriers for
the defence session.
The defence session is arranged as a public academic discussion, the time and place
of the session shall be announced by the faculty advertisement notice at least 3 days
prior to defence session date.
The defence session will take place when the applicant and at least 2 members of
the commission including the chairman are present.
The chairman of defence commission determine the working language, generally
this is language of master's thesis.
In special cases the chairman could arrange closed type of defence session with
registered participants.
2.2. Reviewing and defending
Graduation papers are graded on the basis of the TUT grading scale (5 − excellent,
4 − very good, 3 − good, 2 − fair, 1 − passed, 0 − fail).
Master’s Thesis are defended twice a year, on dates indicated in the academic
calendar. Graduation papers are defended publicly in front of the defence commission.
The defence commission consists at least of 3 persons; two of them shall have the PhD
or corresponding qualification.
The main stages of the defence procedure are:

the candidate’s presentation;

listening to review(s) (if a review was required) and answering the questions;

general discussion (questions asked by members of the commission and other
attending persons);

final word of the candidate.
The defence speech of a Master’s Thesis defendant is 10 minutes long. A defence
speech must describe the problem, objective, object, methods, conclusions and results.
The Master’s Thesis are evaluated by taking into consideration:

the paper;

defence speech and answers to the questions

reviewer’s opinion (if required) and supervisor’s opinion.
Defence commission decide and graduate academic degrees during the closed session.
Decision will be notified immediately after the meeting, and shall be final. Master’s
Thesis are graded according to the common grading-scale of TUT. All positive marks
denote successful defence. Marks of Master’s Theses are announced by the defence
commission at the end of defence.
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Annex 1
MASTER'S DEFENCE APPLICATION
Attn. Dean of Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
First/Last Names ….....................…………………..……………………
State-funded MSc student/Self-funded MSc Student/External student
mark as appropriate
Applicant Student Code
Curriculum
…………….............……………..………………..…..
………………………………….……………........….
code
ID number / date of birth
…………………………….……
…………………………………………….……..….
Address
Contact phone /e-mail ……………………………….…….
Please accept my Master's Thesis for defence
………………………………………………………………………………………........
Master's Thesis code and topic
………………………………………………………………………………………........
…………………………………………………………………………………………....
…………………………………………………………………………………………....
topic in English
Request of academic degree of Master of Industrial Engineering and Management
………………………………
……………………………………...
date
signature
Supervisor: ……………………… ………………..............…
name
signature
……………….
date
_____________________________________________________________________
To fill at deanery:
The applicant has passed curriculum of …………… credit points in total
with average degree of ………………
and fulfilled with this all of curriculum ….......................…… terms and conditions.
Code
……………….......……
name
…………………….......……
signature
…………….……...
date
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Annex 2
TUT Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
Master's Thesis task
20.... /20.... academic year ……… semester
Student: …………………………………………… ………… (name, code)
Field of study ……………………………………………...…………
Supervisor: ……………………………………………..……… (position, name)
Consultant(s): ……………………………………………....(name, position, phone)
Master's Thesis topic (in Estonian and English languages):
……………………………………………………………………………………………
…
……………………………………………………………………………………………
…
……………………………………………………………………………………………
…
……………………………………………………………………………………………
…
Tasks and timeframe for their completion:
Nr
Task description
Completion date
1
2
3
4
5
Engineering and economic problems to be solved:
…………………………………………………………………………………………...
…………………………………………………………………………...........................
……………………….......................................................................................................
Defence application submitted to deanery not later than …....… Deadline ……...........
Student ……………………. /signature/
………..………….
date …..........………
Supervisor……………………… /signature/ ……….…….……. date …..........………
Phone ………………
E-mail: ………………………
Enterprise based confidentiality and other terms to be formulated on the reverse side if needed
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Annex 3
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.
Karl Kask
OPTIMIZATION THE PRODUCTION LINES THE…
TOOTMISLIINIDE OPTIMEERIMINE ETTEVÕTTELE....
Author applies for academic Master of Industrial Engineering and Management degree
Tallinn 2009
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Annex 4
(Reverse side of title page)
Author's Declaration
I have written the Master’s Thesis independently.
All works and major viewpoints of the other authors, data from other sources of literature
and elsewhere used for writing this paper have been referenced.
Master's Thesis is completed under .......................................................... supervision
“.......”....................20…..
Author .............................. signature
Master's Thesis is in accordance with terms and requirements “.......”....................20….
Supervisor …......................................... signature.
Accepted for defence
.............................................................. chairman of defence commission
“.......”....................20… .
............................. signature