For students already writing their thesis with Prof. Francesco Longo at STRATUS Lab: the paperwork, the day-to-day work, the templates and the submission. Questa pagina è disponibile anche in italiano: basta cliccare sul pulsante in alto a destra.
How is the thesis request made official?
With the Department form, which is different for the bachelor's and the master's degree. It must be filled in, countersigned by the supervisor and handed to the officer in charge of student applications, whose name and contacts are written on the form itself.
The request must be submitted at least 90 days before the start of the first available graduation session for the bachelor's degree, and at least 6 months for the master's degree. What counts is the date the form is recorded in the register, not the day it is handed in.
The form is addressed to the Director of the Department and to the Coordinator of the degree programme, but the only signatures to collect are the student's and the supervisor's, plus the co-supervisor's where there is one: the Director's approval comes afterwards.
The title and the topic written on the form are provisional. The topic is not strictly binding, and the final title is communicated with the graduation application. A co-supervisor is foreseen only for the master's degree, and requires a statement from the supervisor about their scientific or professional standing.
All the forms are in the Department's teaching forms, in Italian.
How is the internship activated?
The internship is worth 225 hours, 9 credits for the bachelor's degree and 175 hours, 7 credits for the master's degree.
It can be done at STRATUS Lab, and in that case the form for internships within University facilities applies. Otherwise an internship in a company can be arranged: the lab works regularly with large, medium and small companies in the region in embedded systems, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, and the most long-standing partners are listed on the home page.
- Internship application within University facilities, for the internship in the lab
- Internship application with companies and institutions, for the internship in a company
Both forms are addressed to the Coordinator of the degree programme, name Prof. Longo as the teaching tutor, the hours and the credits, and require having attended a workplace safety course.
How is the internship closed?
With the closing forms, which are on the same Department page as the activation ones. They are the attendance register and the certificate with the final assessment, which comes in two versions depending on where the internship took place.
- Attendance register, a spreadsheet, the same in both cases
- Certificate with assessment, for the internship within University facilities
- Certificate with assessment, for the internship with companies and institutions
Who signs depends on where it took place. For the internship in the lab the certificate carries the signature of Prof. Longo as university tutor and that of the Coordinator of the degree programme. For the internship in a company it is signed by the host tutor, with the assessment questionnaire and the completed attendance sheet attached, and then by the Coordinator.
The signatures are digital: there is nothing to print.
How does the work go while writing the thesis?
Prof. Longo opens a Teams chat dedicated to the thesis. Every communication about the thesis goes through it. Meetings are arranged from time to time, online or in person, to check how the work is going.
A OneDrive folder is created as well. It holds the code produced and everything needed to reproduce the work, the chapters of the thesis as they are written, and the final presentation. The links to the uploaded files go in the chat: that is how the supervisor and the other members of the lab find them, read them and suggest improvements.
The code also goes in a GitHub repository created by the student, whose link goes in the chat. The lab forks it into its own organisation, so that authorship of the code is on record.
How is the thesis written?
There are ready-made templates, with the title page, the structure of the chapters and guidance in grey italics that is deleted as the writing proceeds. What is left is a thesis laid out the way the Department wants it.
Bachelor's thesis, in Italian
Master's thesis, in English
The two formats produce the same document, so the choice is only a matter of habit. For LaTeX, Overleaf is recommended: the archive is uploaded with New Project → Upload Project and compiled with pdfLaTeX, with nothing to install.
Artificial intelligence tools may be used to improve the form, the clarity and the correctness of the language, not to generate content, results or arguments that the student cannot explain and defend.
How is the thesis submitted, and how does graduation work?
The graduation application is made on Esse3, where the procedure opens 40 days before the graduation date. Four documents are uploaded:
- a valid identity document;
- the signed title page;
- the final content of the thesis;
- every file returned by the plagiarism-detection system.
The title page does not need printing: it is filled in, sent in the thesis chat, signed by the supervisor and sent back there.
The plagiarism check produces a receipt and a report: formally the report is the one required, but it is safer to upload everything the system returns.
Within the same window the supervisor must approve the thesis: that approval is the last step of the deposit, which must be completed at least 7 working days before the final examination. This is also the minimum gap required between the last course exam and the graduation examination.
How is the presentation prepared?
The presentation lasts 10 minutes for the bachelor's degree and 15 minutes for the master's degree, plus 5 minutes of questions from the examination board.
The slides follow this outline:
- the first one mirrors the title page of the thesis;
- the second one is an outline of what is about to be said;
- theoretical introduction and background are kept to a minimum;
- most of the time goes on the problem and on the work done, which is what the board has to see and what deserves to be brought out;
- where there are experimental measurements, and at master's level there usually are, they deserve more time;
- the second-to-last slide carries the conclusions and the future developments;
- the last one gives thanks and stays open to questions.
The rule that holds for all of them: plenty of graphics and little text. A slide full of lines gets read instead of listened to, and ten minutes are not enough for both.
There is no template to download, because a presentation is a personal thing and it shows when it is not. The guidance above, however, is to be followed.
Before the day of the graduation Prof. Longo usually holds a rehearsal, in his office or online: that is the moment to get comments both on the slides and on the way they are delivered.