Information for companies

All students complete the MSc robotics with a thesis. A thesis can also be performed at a company. The thesis work is the student’s individual masterpiece. Students have to dig deep into a research or development topic, show their theoretical knowledge and creativity, and generate new knowledge or develop a new design. They have regular meetings with their supervisor(s) and show their responsibility in work, writing, and time and project management. 

• Duration
  Our thesis projects are divided into two parts. The first part is the Literature Study (10 EC, 7 to 8 weeks), and the second part is the Thesis Research (35 EC, 6-7 months), totalling 45 EC which corresponds to 8 to 9 months of full-time work (including writing the thesis).

• Time period
  The nominal time for performing Thesis Projects is in Q2-Q4 of the academic year (November– June), though students may also start their thesis research at a different moment. Typically, students will start looking for internship opportunities during the end of their first year, or beginning of the second year (April– November).

• Defining a project
  Compared to the Internship Project, a Thesis Project involves more open-ended research and engineering. These projects typically address an R&D challenge at the company that requires new research because there is no ready-made solution. Students need to investigate the problem, review current knowledge, propose solutions, and test these solutions through experiments to gain new insights or create new designs. Successful thesis projects start with a scientific research question from the company, a basic understanding of current knowledge, and access to necessary company resources (e.g., relevant data, hardware, and dedicated daily supervisor). The initial Literature Study helps the student refine the research question and identify key papers before beginning the formal Thesis Research.

• Finding an academic supervisor
  An academic supervisor is required before the start of the Thesis Project. The company should ideally identify a suitable academic supervisor from the CoR department before advertising the project. The CoR supervisor should be an expert in the topic and ensure that the Thesis Project will provide sufficient academic challenge for the student to complete a thesis. By involving the academic supervisor from the start, it can be guaranteed that there is a supervisor willing to engage in this long-term collaboration, and that the advertised project will be of sufficient academic quality.
   
• Supervision
  Daily supervision during the project should be provided by a company supervisor. The academic supervisor will have additional meetings with the student (and daily supervisor), check the research plan and its execution and monitor the timely completion of the requirements for the Literature Study and Thesis Research.
   
• Deliverables
  For the Literature Study, students will write a short literature review and present their achievements in a public colloquium for other students at TU Delft. They will also need to attend ten student colloquia themselves. For the Thesis Research, students will have to write their research objectives, approach, experiments, and conclusions in a well-structured scientific thesis. Finally, they will defend their thesis both publicly and privately before a graduation committee.
   
• Grading
  Students receive separate grades for the Literature Study by their academic supervisor, and for the thesis work and overall process by the graduation committee. The daily supervisor from the company may also be involved in the grading.
   
• Embargo
  Once the thesis is completed, it must be uploaded to the TU Delft library and will become immediately publicly available unless an embargo of max. 2 years is requested during thesis submission. Please discuss expected embargos with the academic supervisor and student already before the start of the thesis project.

Further information:

• Contact one of the staff members of the CoR department to discuss the topic of the project you have in mind.
• Mechanical Engineering student MSc Forms, see section Graduation at a company for information on UNL Internship agreements.
• Robotics Literature Study, course code RO57010-20 in the study guide.
• Robotics MSc Thesis, course code RO57035 in the study guide.