K.U. Leuven, POC Engineering sciences Chemical Technology
Master thesis Chemical Technology
Civil Chemical Engineer
The master thesis is an important component in the curriculum of the Master of Engineering –
Chemical Engineering In this document, some practical guidelines are given that are of
interest in the selection, the writing process and evaluation of the thesis. These are
complementary to the guidelines at faculty level, which you can find on the following URL:
http://eng.kuleuven.be/english/education/masterthesis.
A. Scope
The purpose of the master thesis is to confront the students with a problem, related to the
research or technology development in one of the domains of Chemical Engineering. The
problem ought to be interesting to warrant the effort needed for 24 ECTS. Preferably it
contains practical as well as theoretical aspects. The process of writing a thesis should
consist of:
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An investigation of the literature status related to the problem at hand;
An identification of the remaining questions and problems;
A program to work towards a theoretical or experimental solution;
A presentation of a written report and a presentation of the obtained results.
Depending on the subject, a master thesis is completed alone or with two students. The
promoter is responsible for the general coordination, but the daily supervisor is the direct
contact who will work very closely to you and will assist you in dealing with problems of
theoretical or practical nature. Apart from an extensive technical report about the presented
work (aimed at fellow chemical engineers), you are also asked to make a poster (see
template), aimed at an audience of technically trained readers (exact scientists and
engineers), in which the subject and the obtained results are situated in a broader framework.
B. Subjects
Each year, the faculty members involved in the education present the subjects to the student
of the first master during an info session around the Easter holidays. The subjects can
relate to an industrial problem or to the current research activities within the department.
Occasionally the opportunity is granted to combine the master thesis with an internship at a
company or research facility. Students, who want to suggest a subject themselves, can
contact the program director, who will assess the suitability. Companies are contacted by the
promoters.
Important: Every student needs to contact the promoter and/or daily supervisor before
making the final choice. This is of utmost importance to gather clear information about the
nature of the expected activities (lab work, internship, theoretical or computational work).
The students give a list of their five preferred topics to the POC-representatives, who will draft
a list of choices. The program director will formalize the final list in consultation with the
students during the second week AFTER the Easter holidays.
C. Time schedule and planning
The master thesis matches a study load of 24 ECTS. The workload of the master thesis for
the student is therefore 600-720 hours (24 ECTS x 25-30h/ECTS). During start-up of the
thesis, it is recommended to contact the daily supervisor and promoter in order to make up a
research plan. The master theses have to be submitted by a date fixed by the P.O.C.
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K.U. Leuven, POC Engineering sciences Chemical Technology
Recommendations
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It is strongly recommended that the students make an appointment after the
deliberation of their first master year, with the daily supervisor or promoter to fix a
starting date.
Keep in touch with the daily supervisor: a few times every week in the beginning and
afterwards once a week in mutual agreement.
Take note of all activities: every meeting, every read publication, every book
consulted. In the final phase, the master thesis is written in a few weeks.
Make proper arrangement when working with two.
D. Reports
One of the most important aspects of the master thesis is to report in a clear and substantial
way on the presented work. There is a faculty template, for the cover as well as for the text:
http://eng.kuleuven.be/english/education/Masterthesis.
The content of the master thesis should contain a distinct structure. Below is an example:
Title page: see template (MANDATORY)
1. Preface: In the acknowledgements, persons, services or companies are mentions that
assisted you in your work. (~ 1pg)
2. Abstract: This page summarizes the subject and discusses the approach and main results.
(~ 1 to 3 pg)
4. Table of contents (~ 3 pg)
5. Introduction: The subject is situated in an actual context and the aims and goals of the
thesis are explained together with the used methodology. (~ 5 pg)
6. Literature survey: If necessary, terms and concepts need to be defined. Furthermore, a
concise and critical survey of the literature is shown which should allow the reader to situate
the problems of thesis and identify the existing knowledge or know-how at hand. (~ 15 pg)
7. In the subsequent chapters the following topics should be covered:
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Experimental methods and/or,
Mathematical modeling and/or,
Numerical methods for calculations,
Results and discussion.
Each chapter is written with for a specific purpose. This purpose is defined in the first
paragraph of each chapter. Next, the text in other paragraphs is constructed. Propositions are
always backed-up by a reference, by experiments or by theoretical evidence. Each chapter
closes with a short conclusion that checks whether the aims of the current chapter have been
realized. (total ~ 50 pg).
8. General conclusions: the general conclusions are built up in line with the proposed
objectives from the introduction and with the conclusions of the different chapters (~ 3 pg).
9. Reference list: In this list, the references, books and articles, to which has been referred in
the text, are arranged in a systematic fashion (alphabetically or according to appearance in
the text). This can be done using the template. References to books have to be given
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completely (authors, title, publisher, and year). Articles have to be given with the indication
of all authors, the title, the journal, the volume, the pages and the year.
Example: Order of appearance.
[ 1] Bly, R.W., Avoid These Technical Writing Mistakes, Chem. Eng. Progress, 6, 107112 (1998).
In the text, a reference can be made as follows: "...as discussed by Bly [ 1] ...". In case
of two authors both names are given. In case of more than two authors, the abbreviated
for may be used "Bly et al.".
Example: Alphabetical:
Bly, R.W., Avoid These Technical Writing Mistakes, Chem. Eng. Progress, 6, 107-112
(1998).
In the text, a reference can be made as follows: "...as discussed by Bly (1998)..." or "…
(Bly,1998).". In case of two authors both names are given. In case of more than two
authors, the abbreviated for may be used "Bly et al.".
10. List of symbols: The different symbols that are used are listed here, with their respective
units.
11. Appendices: If necessary, appendices can contain all parts of the text that are essential
for the content, but drastically reduce the readability, e.g. listings of programs, detailed
measurement data, detailed mathematical derivations or technical drawings.
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Practical:
Total number of pages: a part of the assignment is to report in a clear and concise way.
Unnecessary ballast needs to be avoided. A well written master thesis should not exceed 100
pages!
TEMPLATES: http://eng.kuleuven.be/english/education/masterthesis for LaTeX as well as for
Microsoft Word.
Drawings and graphs: a drawing or graph should contain all data to be understood without
reference to the text and without being cluttered. Each figure has to be enumerated and
supplied with a caption. Axes need to be provided with a clear caption. The scale should be
clearly visible and provided with units. Typically, experimental results are indicated by a
symbol, theoretical predictions or interpolations by full lines. Technical drawings need to meet
the current DIN or NBN standards.
Symbols and units: only SI units are allowed. The symbols that are used for different
quantities are usually standardized and contained in a standard (NBN X02-001 tot -003).
PLAGIARISM
Particular attention will be asked to prevent plagiarism. With the modern possibilities for ‘cut’
and ‘paste’, there is often too little attention for copyrights and plagiarism is committed
(consciously or not). Literal translations are not allowed. Taking over figures is also not
allowed without consent of the author or owner of the copyright. For further information,
please visit the following website: http://www.kuleuven.be/plagiarism/
E. ORAL PRESENTATIONS
There is an intermediate oral presentation during the first week of the second semester of
the academic year. It is organized by the division of your promoter. Also master theses that
are outside of the division have to be discussed then. For this presentation, attention goes to
the time management and planning for the next part of the master thesis.
The master thesis is publicly defended at a final presentation, which will take place at the
date, fixed by the POC. The presentation will take up 20 minutes at a maximum, after which
the audience can postulate their questions for up to 10 minutes. These presentations are
organized at the level of the department and all presentations are held within a limited period
(2 days at the end of June). The presence of a sufficiently large delegation of faculty
members and assisting staff (PhD’s and post-docs) ensures a more uniform assessment.
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G. Evaluation of the master thesis: Procedure and Criteria
The evaluation of the master theses will be conducted according to a well-defined procedure.
The aim is to judge all the master theses according to the same criteria and to judge
according to same rating scale over the different divisions.
Jury
The jury consists of the promoter, the daily supervisor and two assessors. At least one of the
assessors has to be from another division than the promoter. At least one of the assessors is
a member of the faculty. The promoter and daily supervisor vouch for 50% of the grades and
mainly assess – apart from a number of content related elements – aspects like commitment,
independent working, critical sense and attitude. The assessors judge apart from the content
related matters of the thesis, especially the text and the presentation. They each vouch for
25% of the grades.
The promoter(s) and assessors submit their grades to the program director. At first, a
weighted average is made of the grades. When the discrepancy is too large (more than 1.5
points of difference between the highest and lowest score) further deliberation is needed. As
much as possible, a consensus in the assessment is sought. The promoter(s) and assessors
first discuss the assessment. After that, a final discussion will be held by the professors of the
department CIT to determine if a relative ranking of the master theses is realistic. If no
consensus is possible, a blind numerical average is made by the program director.
Guidelines for daily supervisors
To create some clarity for both students as well as daily supervisors, here are some
arrangements.
Role of the daily supervisor at the initial phase:
1. Ensure that the aim and purpose of the assignment is clear
2. If desired, postulate some key questions to put the student on the right track
3. Provide a list of basic literature
4. Fix the planning together with the student
• Begin and final date
• Contact for problems (responsible for company, promoter)
• Technical and other courses that have to be taken
• External dates, moments for evaluation
• Intermediate reports
• Communicate the required time for proof reading
Daily supervision for the research and adjustment of it if necessary
1. Indicate structure
2. Feedback
3. Intermediate reports
It should be ensured that the boundary between supervision and patronizing is not exceeded.
Students also have to accept that there are limits to the availability and responsibility of the
daily supervisors. These aspects are fixed in agreement with the promoter, especially in
doubt.
Contact moments between promoter-supervisor-student
The initiative should come from the students. They need to make an appointed through and
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with the daily supervisor. As a guideline for this:
• Meet on a monthly basis with the promoter
• Meet on a weekly basis with the daily supervisor
Final phase
The text of the master thesis remains at all times, the responsibility of the student. The
influence of the daily supervisor on the text should be limited to allow a fair judgment of the
thesis. As for the proof reading: the literature survey is read extensively and in detail.
Furthermore, one chapter will be read in detail on a linguistic level with general guidelines for
the improvement of all other chapters. The remaining chapters are read only for the content
and structure. Beforehand, student and supervisor should agree on a planning when the text
should be submitted for proof reading.
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