The bureaucratic procedure to apply for the final examination (deadlines and tasks to accomplish) is available from the university wesite, at this page. Please read the instructions and follow the carefully.
The final exam will consist in a thesis containing original results and developed under the guidance of a supervisor. Student will work on a problem proposed by a research laboratory or a company. The student will have to analyze the problem and understand what are the most effective tools to solve it. Students will be required to present the results of the analysis in a clear and understandable way.
Supervisors are typically members of the faculty. Students can also find a supervisor working in the institutions involved in the master program, but not members of the faculty. In this case, students need to ask for authorization by email to program coordinator. There can also be one or more co-supervisors, also from external institutions (e.g. companies, foreing research labs). These have to be communicated by email to the coordinator before the final submission of the thesis. Note that if your thesis is done in a company or a research lab not officially part of the program, you need an internal supervisor which acts as a bridge.
The thesis should be written and discussed in English. The final exam consist in two discussions of the thesis in front of a committee.
- The first discussion is called pre-laurea, and it will be a technical presentation lasting roughly 40-45 minutes plus questions, using slides as a support. It will be held in front of a committee composed of the supervisor and two other faculty members (or members of partner institutions), typically not co-supervisors. At least one member has to be in the faculty This committee has to be identified by the supervisor, possibly with the help of the coordinator, and comunicated to the program coordinator in due time – in any case before the prelaurea defense. The committee will prepare a short report, to be sent via email to the coordinator or the president of the graduation committee (in case a member of the pre-laurea committee is also a member of the final graduation, this report can be provided directly at graduation time). The report should contain a judgement and also a proposal of increment of the final mark (in the range 0-10), including whether the committee is favourable to assign the “laude” to the student.
- The final and official discussion is called laurea, and it will be given during the graduation session, typically starting at 3pm in the afternoon (unless otherwise communicated). The candidate has to give a short presentation of the work lasting 10-12 minutes maximum, using slides as a support. Longer presentations will be stopped and count negatively for the final mark. At the end of the presentation(s), the committee – officially nominated by the head of department – will privately discuss about the candidate and assign the final mark. Then then candidated will be officially graduated.
Additionally to official upload of the work in the university repository, a pdf of the thesis must be sent to the pre-laurea committee and to the coordinator and president of the graduation committee in due advance, in any case no later than one day before the defense.
The final mark will be based on the evaluation of the curriculum, the content of thesis, the discussion and on the other formative activities conducted during the courses. It is computed by taking the weighted average of the exam marks (weighting them by the corresponding credits), and adding a mark for the thesis, typically in the range of 0-10 points (really outstanding thesis works may be given more points, unanimously by the committee). The final mark is in 110ths, and the candidate may be assigned a “laude” – also decided by the committee, taking into account the career, achievements, and the thesis work.
See the course rules for further details.