To graduate, all students must complete a thesis, either alone or working with one additional student.

This page covers the thesis process for the programs in Software Engineering and Technology (Chalmers, DATX05) and Software Engineering and Management (GU, DIT910).

If you do not follow this process, you will not be able to complete your thesis. Pay attention and ask questions if any aspect is unclear!

Submission Links

Table of Contents

Introduction and Timeline

The general work flow (timeline and tasks) for master's theses in Computer Science and Engineering can be found here, and may provide additional information beyond what is described on this page.

These slides present an overview of the thesis process.

Timeline for "standard" 30-credit thesis (Spring semester, LP3-LP4):

Thesis timeline, also described below.

To complete your thesis, you must complete the following tasks:

Meet the prerequisites for the thesis course (see "Prerequisites, Syllabus, and Learning Objectives").
Submit topic preferences, and be assigned a topic, supervisor, and examiner (see "Thesis Topic, Supervisor, and Examiner").
Submit (and have approved) a thesis proposal (see "Thesis Proposal").
Attend mandatory seminars on research methods and writing (see "Mandatory Seminars").
Submit and present a half-time report to your examiner (see "Halftime Report and Meeting").
Submit and present your final thesis (see "Final Thesis and Presentation").
Attend two presentations as an audience member (see "Opposition and Audience Member").
Serve as opponent to another thesis (see "Opposition and Audience Member").

Completion of these activities is documented on a work card.

Note that, unlike in other programs in Computer Science and Engineering, we do not require a planning report.

If you are completing a 60-credit thesis or a 30-credit thesis under an alternative timeframe (e.g., LP1-LP2), you can largely translate the timeline to your context (e.g., January -> September). However, please discuss your special circumstances with the thesis coordinator. For example, you may need to make up missed seminars.

Contact Details

Thesis Coordinator: Linda Erlenhov (linda.erlenhov@chalmers.se)
Program Manager: Gregory Gay (ggay@chalmers.se)

Prerequisites, Syllabus, and Learning Objectives

The entry requirements, syllabi, and learning objectives for master's theses at Chalmers and the University of Gothenburg can be found here.

In short, to gain admission at Chalmers:

Students pursuing the five-year Master of Science (Civilingenjör) education must have acquired at least 225 hec before beginning work on a master’s thesis project.
Students who only take part in a Master’s program must have acquired at least 45 hec within the program before starting the master’s thesis work.

At the University of Gothenburg:

A first cycle (Bachelor) degree is required.
60 hec of advanced level (master's) courses are required, with at least 45 in the main field of study (Software Engineering).

In addition, at both universities, you must submit (and have approved) a thesis proposal.

Getting a Thesis Topic, Supervisor, and Examiner

Theses in software engineering must focus on a research topic within the software engineering field. The Software Engineering Body of Knowledge provides a list of topics, which can be used as a (non-exhaustive) starting point.

To get a thesis topic, students can either:

Work on a pre-defined topic suggested by a supervisor.
Propose their own topic. This can either be a well-developed idea or, at minimum, a specific problem area that a student is interested in (e.g., automated test generation).

To ensure all students have an appropriate thesis topic, supervisor, and examiner, all students are required to follow the process outlined on this page.

By October 1st, a complete list of supervisors will be posted with their areas of expertise and specific pre-defined topics that they suggest.
Before November 1st, each student (if working individually) or pair of students (if working in a group) must submit their topic preferences. This is a ranked list of topics, either pre-existing or proposed by the student/group.
Then, before November 15th, each student or group will be assigned a topic, based on their preferences, as well as a supervisor and examiner.

Click here for more information on getting a topic, supervisor, and examiner.

Submitting a Thesis Proposal

MPSOF and N2SOF has their own proposal template that requires more details than proposals in other CSE programs. However, no planning report is required during your thesis.

What to Submit

Before the due date (shortly before the start of each study period), you must submit the following to the appropriate Canvas assignment:

Thesis proposal (one per group)
Registration form (one per group)
Ladok transcript (for each student)

The SE proposal template can be found here.

For an example of an accepted thesis proposal, click here.

Note that you may adjust this template (e.g., writing your document in Latex instead or adding additional sections), as long as the required information is present.

Registration forms:

Registration form, Chalmers students (submit this web form at the same time you submit your proposal)
- If you or one of your group members is a student in a program outside of Computer Science and Engineering (e.g., MPCAS), you should use the master's thesis exemption form instead of the web form. This form can be found at the above link. Submit this form as part of your Canvas assignment.
- If you or one of your group members is a student of a non-MPSOF program inside Computer Science and Engineering (e.g., MPCSN), you should use the normal web form.
Registration form, University of Gothenburg students
- Submitted with proposal to Canvas assignment. Submit one registration form per GU student.
(Both forms need to be filled in for groups with one student from Chalmers and one student from GU)

On the registration form, list the examiner that you were assigned when you received your topic and supervisor.

If you were assigned both an examiner-in-practice and an examiner, list only the examiner.

Submission Dates and Links

Standard submission (to do your thesis in the Spring semester, LP3-LP4):

December 18th, to start in LP3 2024/25

Alternative submissions (requires approval of thesis coordinator):

After submission, your proposal will be assigned one of the following verdicts:

Accepted: You will be registered for the course.
Revision Requested: You will be required to submit a revised proposal within a timeframe defined by your examiner (generally 1-2 weeks).
Rejected: You will be required to wait until the next study period to submit a new proposal for review.

Mandatory Seminars

There are three mandatory seminars that all students must attend:

Seminar on research methods
First seminar on technical writing
Second seminar on technical writing

Software engineering specific meetings and seminars:

October 2nd, 10:15 - 12:00, Alfons: Information session about master's thesis process (slides)
October 24th, 10:15 - 12:00, Alfons: Mandatory seminar on research methods (required reading, slides)
- If you miss the research methods seminar or are doing your thesis at an alternative time that is incompatible, you must contact Richard Torkar (torkarr@chalmers.se) for a make-up assignment.

Mandatory seminars on technical writing:

Information and times of the two mandatory seminars on technical writing can be found in the Master's Thesis lobby.

Note that there is only one field for mandatory seminars on the work card. Use this field for the writing seminars. Your examiner will check internally that you have participated at the research methods seminar.

Halftime Report and Meeting

The halftime meeting should take place roughly after half of your thesis work is done. Normally, this is done in the second half of March.

There are no predefined slots for this meeting. You are responsible for reaching out to your examiner and agreeing on a date and time for the meeting.

Before the meeting:

Send the current version of your thesis one week before the meeting to your examiner.
- It does not need a complete draft, but generally, students should have completed the introduction, background, and related work, and have a reasonable draft of the methods chapter.
Submit this draft both via e-mail and here (for plagiarism checking).

During the meeting:

The presentation is normally less than 30 minutes, followed by discussion (depending on how much feedback the examiner has/how many questions the students have for their examiner).

The exact format of the presentation is up to the examiner. Generally, the presentation should cover:

Current status
What has changed since the proposal
An overview of the remaining activities and time plan for those
Any questions the students want feedback on from their examiner

The supervisor is welcome to attend, but their attendance is not required.

Final Thesis and Presentation

Work Card

A digital word card is used to confirm that you have participated in all compulsory activities:

Chalmers students: https://chalmers.instructure.com/courses/232/files/2154581
GU students: https://chalmers.instructure.com/courses/232/files/2154580

The work card documents the following mandatory elements of the SE master's thesis process:

To fill out the work card:

Only use Adobe Acrobat to fill the work card! Changing the document with other tools or via browser plugins will lead to errors later in the process!
Fill in the header information about yourself and your thesis project on the work card
For mandatory seminars, presentation attendances, oppositions, and your own presentation and thesis, you need to collect an electronic signature from the event's examiner on your work card.
- Pre-fill the corresponding information that you want the examiner to sign, e.g. when you attend a presentation, fill in date, department (in most cases CSE), and title of the presented degree project.
- During the event: make sure that the examiner gets you name when they note down the list of attendees.
- After the event: email your work card to the examiner of the event and tell them what you are requesting their signature for, e.g. presentation X on day Y.

Sending the work card to your examiner:

When you are ready to graduate, you send your work card to the examiner. Before you send your work card to the examiner, make sure that

The header of your work card is filled correctly.
All required tasks have been completed and have signatures (except for tasks your examiner must sign for).
Fill in and SIGN the electronic publication agreement part of the work card at the end.

Note that there is only one field for mandatory seminars on the work card. Use this field for the writing seminars. Your examiner will check internally that you have participated at the research methods seminar.

Thesis Template

You may use the following latex template available in sharelatex for your final report.
- To ensure proper paragraph spacing, add "\setlength{\parskip}{1em}" to the start of each chapter.
If you do not want to use the latex-template, you need to follow the regulations about the title page, and other pages in the beginning of the thesis, see the information at the Student Portal.
- Use the common Chalmers/GU template ("Word-template Chalmers/GU with/without image")
- The page also has information about the title page, the imprint page, and the abstract page
- Be sure to replace all occurrences of "Chalmers University of Technology" by "Chalmers University of Technology and University of Gothenburg"
- To avoid trouble with formalities, we advise you to follow the content of the latex-template as closely as possible, especially for pages I - III in the latex template.

Preparing for Your Presentation

Before the presentation:

You should agree on a date/time with both your examiner and opponent(s).
- If is nice if your supervisor can also attend, but it is not required that they do so.
This presentation should normally fit into one of the official time slots listed on the schedule page.
- We have pre-booked rooms for these slots (the last two weeks of May and first week of June).
- Presentations can occur at other times if there is a reason for it (e.g., constraints from a company). However, we try to have as many presentations at these time as possible.
Your examiner should add the presentation to the schedule page.
One week before presentation, at latest, you need to send the thesis to your examiner and opponent(s). Failing to do so is a reason to cancel the presentation.

During the presentation:

The presentation should take no more than one hour. Of this hour:

25 minutes are reserved for your presentation.
- Do not go over 25 minutes.
~10-15 minutes for the opponent(s).
- The recommendation is that each opponent should aim for 5 questions, of which at least 1 question should challenge the methodological design of the thesis. (It is fine if you are slightly below this, but try to come up with some tough questions)
- You have access to a template for an opposition report.
Opportunity for the audience to ask questions
Time for the examiner to ask questions.

All presentations should be held in-person, unless a sufficient reason exists to hold it online (e.g., emergency, visa complication, etc.). Exceptions must be approved by the thesis coordinator.

At/shortly after the end of the presentation:

Ask the examiner to sign your work card. There are three types of signatures that are normally given:

Signatures for students who attend the presentation (every student needs to attend at least 2 presentations)
Signatures for the students who acted as opponents (every student needs to do that once)
Signatures for the presenters

After the presentation:

Your examiner will give you feedback on your thesis. Normally, you should expect to make some corrections, then submit the final version to be graded. The final version is normally due within 1-2 weeks of the presentation.
You should submit the final version both on Canvas (for plagiarism checking) and to your examiner via e-mail.
Once you submit the final version, your examiner will perform a plagiarism check and see if you have made all required corrections. You should also provide your workcard, with final signatures already obtained for all required components (except those being graded at this time).
Your examiner will then sign everything that remains (if they approve) and send the work card to the student office, together with the final version of the thesis. The student office will then submit the grade to Ladok.

Opposition and Audience Member

All students must serve as an opponent for another thesis. Normally, if you work as a pair, you should have two students as your opponents (and the two of you will serve as opponents for another group).

As an opponent, your role is to provide critical feedback and questions for the thesis you are opposing. This is done by:

Writing an opposition report
Asking questions at the presentation of the opposed thesis.

The opposition report should be a compact summary of your notes, feedback, and questions that you write down in preparation for the opposition.

A template for the opposition report can be found here. Note, that the whole opposition report will probably not be longer than two pages, and that is fine.

The opposition report should be submitted here at least 24 hours before the presentation. It is also recommended to send it to the examiner of the opposed thesis as well (so that they don't ask the same questions).

In addition, all students are expected to attend at least two additional presentations as an audience member. These presentations are in addition to the one where you serve as an opponent.

Finding Opponents

Students are responsible for finding their own opponents.

However, we also list students search for opponents (or volunteering to be opponents for others) here.

Presentation Schedule

Click here for the presentation schedule for Software Engineering theses.

You may also attend presentations in other programs within the Department of Computer Science and Engineering as an audience member or opponent.

Other

Generative AI Policy

Click here for general advice on the use of Generative AI in Software Engineering courses..

If you haven't yet read this advice, we recommend that you do so. Below, we explain our policy on the use of Generative AI as part of your thesis.

Use of Generative AI as part of your research methodology/technical solution:

This covers situations where you use tools like ChatGPT as part of your technical solution to a research problem. For example, you ask a Generative AI tool to make a prediction or generate test cases.

Generative AI is generally acceptable in these situations, as it is no different than other machine learning approaches to solving a problem.
You should state which tools you used, as well as versions of the tools used (just as when other tools are used in your research).
Your threats to validity should acknowledge the technical and ethical limitations of such tools (just as when other tools are used in your research).
You should active discuss any technical solutions with your supervisor.

Use of Generative AI in preparing your thesis:

This covers the use of Generative AI to produce material that is included in your thesis, such as text or images.

Generative AI may not be used as part of your thesis in an uncredited and/or unmodified manner.
- For example, you may not use ChatGPT to write sections of your thesis for you.
- Due to the limitations of such tools, you should not even use them to write a "first draft" that you modify. Do NOT use Generative AI to produce any section of your thesis text for you.
You may quote the textual output of Generative AI tools, as long as you properly acknowledge the source of the text.
- For example, if your research involves prompting ChatGPT, you can quote the result of a prompt, as long as it is clear that the text was produced by ChatGPT.
- You should also provide the prompts used to produce the text.
You may use Generative AI as a tool to produce visual elements of your thesis. However, you should properly acknowledge non-trivial use.
- If you use ChatGPT to produce a plot from data in the same manner that you would use a standard plotting tool (e.g., gnuplot, Excel), you do not need to specify that ChatGPT produced the plot.
  - However, make sure that the data being plotted is correct and matches your data
- If you use a tool like DALL E 3 to produce more complex artwork, you should acknowledge the use of the tool (as with quoted text).
You may use Generative AI to suggest grammar corrections, in the same manner as a tool like Grammarly.
- However, all original text being improved should come from you first. It can be used to suggest improvements, but not additions to your text.
- You must briefly explain this usage in your threats to validity.
- LLMs often tend to overuse certain words and write in a particular style that "reads like AI wrote it". We recommend reading the recommended changes closely and taking them into consideration as feedback, rather than just pasting the text into your thesis directly.
Your supervisor and examiner must approve of any non-trivial use of Generative AI as part of preparing your thesis.

Feel free to ask questions if this policy is unclear!