Course content

The bachelor thesis is defined within the various relevant disciplines, and preferrably in cooperation with a local company. The candidate chooses her-/himself the subject of the thesis from a defined list of problems or challenges. The thesis can be experimental or practical, defined by NTNU or be defined according to the students' own desire. The candidate shall through her/his thesis gain experience in independent and systematic engineering project work, as well as plan and control the implementation of a larger project. The project content shall be based on the skills and knowledge that the candidate has acquired up to this point in the course, but it can also include learing new methods and tools to solve the challenge. The result of a project can e.g. be a finished product, a prototype, an investigation, a testing programme, etc.

Learning outcome

Knowledge

The candidate:

• Has in-depth knowledge of a selected topic within the subject area.
• Has knowledge of research and development work within the topic.

Skills

The candidate can:

• Identify, formulate and solve a relevant engineering problem.
• Apply knowledge and relevant results from research and development work to solve theoretical, technical and practical problems within the topic of the bachelor thesis and justify their choices.
• Apply engineering methods and work methodically.
• Document and disseminate engineering work.
• Plan and carry out engineering work.

Competence

The candidate:

• Communicates professional knowledge to various target groups both in writing and orally in Norwegian and English.
• Has insight into scientific honesty and understanding of ethical issues.
• Has insight into the environmental, health, social and economic consequences of products and solutions within their field and can put these into an ethical perspective and a life cycle perspective.
• Integrates previously acquired knowledge and is able to acquire new knowledge in solving a problem.

Learning methods and activities

Pedagogical methods: The bachelor thesis is produced as an independent task, with supervision from the university staff as well as from the company providing the thesis definition. All thesis definitions are to be approved by the institute before the thesis commences.

The theses shall be performed as a group project, with two to three students per group, but can also exceptionally be performed individually if approved by the university staff. The group submits a common thesis report signed by all group members. Language can be either Norwegian or English.

In addition, the following mandatory requirements exists:

• Approved pre-project plan or project description.
• Regular status reports as agreed with supervisor, to document the progress and the process.
• Project poster at project initiation and at submission.
• Presentation of the thesis upon submission, as well as status presentations at defined milestones.

NTNU reserves all rights to internal bachelor thesis, unless other agreement is made. For projects with external clients, the copyright is agreed in each individual project.

Further on evaluation

The bachelor thesis is submitted digitally in Inspera as a single file in PDF format.

The task and any product are considered as a whole.

The grade is given to the group on a scale of A - F. Although the assignment is group work, the group members can in some cases be given different grades if different work efforts are documented.

UHR's Grade descriptions and assessment criteria for grading of bachelor theses in engineering are followed. Karakterbeskrivelser og vurderingskriterier for sensur av bacheloroppgaver i ingeniørfag

If fail the student must submit a new report. Improvement/rework is not sufficient. The new report can build on the same theme and the same empiri/data. If the report is assessed as passed, the student is not given the opportunity to submit an improved report.

Postponed exam (= New and postponed exam): Next semester.

Specific conditions

Required previous knowledge

To start on the bachelor's thesis, the student must have passed a minimum of 110 credits out of 120 study-planned credits from the first two years of the education. In addition, all compulsory courses and courses that are included in the study plan, but which are not credit-bearing, must be approved in order to start the bachelor thesis.

Course materials

All documentation and litterature that the candidate has acquired and used earlier in the course. The candidate is also expected to obtain further relevant documentation and information as needed when relevant.

Credit reductions