Resources
Homework and Thesis resources for Students
In this section, you will find some advice on the preparation of thesis documents or for the final reports relating to the exam (term paper).
In particular, as regards the dissertation, usually it consists of three parts:
experimental code;
final documentary report;
PowerPoint presentation (15-20 minutes).
Experimental Code
As concerns the programming code, it must be drafted and organized in an orderly manner and must be commented on in all its parts.
The type of programming language and any software libraries depends on the application and will be appropriately agreed upon.
It is strongly discouraged to use absolute paths. The code must be easily portable to alternative hardware and eventually OS. It is necessary to take note of the versions of the main libraries necessary for the correct functioning of the code. In this regard, a README file can be drawn up to be inserted in the main folder of the code and also inserted this information in the report, organizing it in an appropriate table. It is necessary to save, where possible, the images showing graphs, etc. in vector graphics or high-resolution format. It is necessary to save the results in an orderly manner in specific data structures so that they can be accessed later. It is necessary to assign correct and clear names to the files and variables in such a way as to make the code and the structure of the scripts easily understandable.
Final Report
As regards the preparation of the final report, the use of LaTeX and the English language are recommended, even if they are not mandatory. Alternatively, you can use MS Word and the Italian language. The report must be drawn up following, at the content level, the template of a short scientific article.
Therefore it must contain at least:
an introduction,
a part relating to the state of the art,
a section/chapter concerning the methodology,
a section/chapter relating to the experiments,
a section/chapter of conclusions,
an eventual Appendix.
Where necessary, the text must contain bibliographic references to technical literature or to any Web sites. The document must be clear and complete and may contain appendices where a reference guide to the source code can be attached.
It is very important to report information relating to websites or blogs considered essential for the development of the work. It is also important to report the references and information of any available datasets or codes (e.g. GitHub repository). As mentioned above, it is important to insert a reference guide to the software (the explanation of the various script/class, IO variables and how-to) and a table indicating the main software libraries used, the versions and a brief explanation of their role.
Here is the LateX template ready for download and here is the MS Word template. For further detail on how to carry out a bibliographic search for a Thesis or a Homework (english version), please check the material below.
Students can use Overleaf.
Managing the Bibliography in LaTeX and MS Word
The bibliography plays an important role in a scientific report or paper. In LaTeX the bibliography is managed using specific packages and there are two modes: biblatex or bibTEX. Here is a good tutorial on how to manage bibliography in LaTeX.
As for MS Word, although the text processor has a built-in way to manage the bibliography, it is better to use the external plug-in Zotero. Zotero is a free stand-alone software that allows you to archive bibliographic information, both related to digital sources (e.g., sites, code repositories, etc.) and paper (e.g., books). Zotero relies on two plug-ins. The first is for the browser and you need to install it. Through this plug-in it is possible to capture bibliographic references from the major online repositories of articles (Google Scholar, Scopus, etc.) and from generic resources such as websites, PDF documents, or source code repositories (e.g., GitHub). The second plug-in should be installed automatically and is related to inserting bibliographic references in MS Word.
Final Presentation
It is possible to prepare the presentation using PowerPoint software.
The presentation must be a brief, tidy and aesthetically curated summary containing the main concepts of the thesis, the objective, the methodology and description of the experiments and related comments. 15-20 minutes for the presentation of the contents are ok.
Here is a simple .pptx template.
Interesting things (off-topic)
property of CIPAR TEAMS © - 2024