ntnu phd thesis submission

Graduation Procedures

Graduation procedure and submission of theses/dissertation, undergraduate students.

• Please log into the "Graduate Student Information Portal" with your NTNU student number and password. ※If the account is not activated, please visit the NTNU Web Single Sign-On Service to activate your account.
• Make sure all the library materials borrowed are returned and overdue fines paid.
• The R shown on the system means it is completed. The student does not need to visit the library for the procedure. It there is no R shown, please visit the Main Library or Gungguan Library to complete the phase.

Graduate students

• 1. Please log into the NTNU Theses & Dissertations Services with NTNU student number and password to upload the these/ dissertation electronic PDF file. Please refer to Guide for submitting electronic theses and dissertations for guidance. ※If the account is not activated, please visit the NTNU Web Single Sign-On Service to activate your account.
• 2. Next, please proceed to the Main Library or Gungguan Library to complete the graduation procedures. The required documents: (1) Submit 2 copies of the printed theses/ dissertations. (The thesis cover, order, numbering should follow the format as listed in Office of Academic Affairs . ) (2) Submit three copies of Thesis/ Dissertation Authorization. (Print with the watermark after the review has passed. The students need to sign the signature and on top of the authorization letter should have barcode. Please submit one to the library counter, two for the printed theses/ dissertations.)
• For postponement of the public access to Thesis/ Dissertation, please follow the regulation of the Office of Academic Affairs
• Make sure all the library loans returned, including NTNU library and multi-library loan service, and overdue fine paid.
• The opening hours for theses and dissertation submission in the Main library and the Gungguan library are the time when library is open during weekdays. The counter is closed on weekends.
• The graduate theses / dissertation upload and submission can be done during the graduating semester. It cannot be proceeded in advance.
• The format of the printed thesis and dissertation (1) Printed thesis and dissertation need cover, including the information on the spine, title page same as the cover, NTNU thesis approval form and the content. For the relevant format please download at the Office of the Academic Affairs – Graduation forms. (2) To print the thesis/ dissertation please submit the required cover, spine, approved thesis PDF file with watermark, thesis authorization letter, and the signed thesis approval form. (3) hesis order and numbering format please refer to the regulations of the Office of Academic Affairs . (4) Either paperback or hardcover binding is fine. No restrictions on the cover color. Glazing film for the paperback binding is recommended. (5) The content in color or black and white is up to the author. The clear presentation is the principle.
• Outstanding library materials can be returned to the circulation desk, book drop, or posted to the library.
• The overdue fines can be paid at the circulation desk, via the e-card machine, or the credit card payment and the convenience store transaction via the library payment flow service.
• The materials borrowed through multi-library loan service or the interlibrary card should be returned to the cooperative library. If return by post, please make sure the library receives the delivery. The overdue fines should be subject to the cooperative library.
• The lost book can be compensated by a new identical copy or newer edition returned to the library counter or posted to the library. If the book cannot be sourced, please contact the library for cash compensation. The price can be paid at the library counter or via the online payment flow system.
• The two copies of the printed theses / dissertations and the authorization letter can be submitted to the library counter or posted to the library. Before posting, please make sure the print format is aligned with the Office of the Affairs regulation and the department has completed the graduation review procedures.
• Please post the relevant documents with registered mail to National Taiwan Normal University Library - No. 129, Section 1, Heping E Rd, Da’an District, Taipei City, 106. Leave a note to indicate the parcel is for library loan return, loss book compensation or thesis / dissertation submission.
• Each stage of the procedures requires 2 to 3 working days. Please make sure there is enough time to proceed all stages.
• With the completion of the graduation procedures, the privileges of using library resources are terminated. If the user wants to enter the library as a visitor, please follow the Reading Rules to change for the temporary access card with a valid ID card or enter with the NTNU alumni card. For applying for alumni card, please contact the Center of Public Affairs .
• 2. For alumni to borrow library resources, please visit the main library to apply for the alumni library card .

Engineering Cybernetics (PHTK)

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Engineering Cybernetics

Ie - krysspublisert admission.

The conditions for admission to a PhD programme are that funding is in place and that a five-year higher education programme, or some other equal education, has been successfully completed. The grade requirement is B or better from master’s programmes and C or better from bachelor’s programmes

A brief PhD project description to be enclosed with the application for admission is required. The project description must be prepared in consultation with the main supervisor and approved by the head of the programme council. The project description is not meant to be a static document. Following discussions between the candidate and supervisors, the candidate is responsible for keeping the document updated on an annual basis and the main supervisor shall ensure that this is the case.

Admission requirements and application process

Ie - krysspublisert admission requirements and application process.

The general admission criteria consist of a master’s degree with B as minimum average grade (minimum: 3.5) (or for the last two years of a five-year course of education), or an equal documented academic background. In accordance with the requirement set by the regulations for “a strong academic background”, basic competence from the bachelor’s programme (corresponds to the first three years of the five-year course of education) with C (minimum 2.5) or better as average grade is required.

Candidates with an experience-based master’s degree , for which the three-year bachelor’s degree has formed the basis for admission, may be admitted to the PhD programme provided that the candidate’s master’s thesis is considered to research based. The assessment is made by the head of the programme council for the doctoral degree programme to which admission is applied for. Moreover, prior to admission, the candidate has to take supplementary courses at master’s level in order to obtain a total of 120 ECTS credits at master’s level. The requirement regarding average grade for admission to the PhD programme is the same as for other applicants.

Special assessment of equal education must be made in writing by the Head of Department and the head of the programme council to the faculty through the Vice-Dean for research. The faculty requires that the candidate is able to refer to a thesis (master’s thesis) or works that are sufficient in scope and evaluated as research-based. The assessment is made jointly by the head of the programme council for the doctoral programme to which admission is applied for and the Vice-Dean for research.

With respect to applicants with a degree from other countries, a written evaluation of the formal qualifications must be submitted by NTNU’s international section or by a member of NTNU’s faculty who is very well acquainted with the education system and the applicant’s education institution. A written assessment must submitted prior to appointment and admission.

Applicants with weaker grades may be considered if it is documented that the candidate has relevant work experience and/or has produced scientific works that can be accepted for publication. The department, through the Head of Department or the head of the programme council must provide documentation showing that the candidate is particularly well suited for a PhD education. The decision is made by faculty through the Vice-Dean for research and/or the committee for research and research education.

The faculty may require that candidates take qualification courses prior to admission. The qualification courses must be taken within the discipline to which admission is applied for and must have been agreed on with the programme area to which admission is applied for. As a main rule, the examination in qualification courses must be taken in connection with the first ordinary examination after admission. The grade B or better is required for each course.

Documentation of funding only applies to candidates who are not employed by NTNU. PhD candidates with their own funds are given an access agreement and not an appointment at NTNU and must have a minimum gross income of NOK 17,000 per month.

PhD candidates with their main affiliation at the IE faculty, NTNU, should normally have a salary level corresponding to that applicable at all times for the PhD positions at the faculty.

As regards the admission of applicants who do not have full funding through scholarship schemes, it is required that at least 50 per cent of the working hours during the doctoral degree programme are available for research education, cf. the PhD agreement. Normally, a minimum of 80 per cent of the working hours during one year must be allocated to full-time studies. The funds at the disposal of the candidate for the full period of study must be clarified prior to admission.

The work on the doctoral project must be carried out under individual supervision. All supervisors must have a doctoral degree or equal competence in the discipline and be active in their field. At least one of the appointed supervisors must have previous experience as a PhD supervisor, normally until the completion of the doctoral degree.

The supervisors shall give advice regarding the formulation and limitation of topics and problems, discuss and assess methods and results, discuss plans, implementation, forms of documentation and presentation and contribute to orientation in the relevant academic discourse. The candidate must receive supervision regarding academic and research-related ethical questions related to the doctoral work.

Project description

A brief PhD project description (4 – 6 pages) to be enclosed with the application for admission is required. The project description is not meant to be a static document. Following discussions between the candidate and supervisors, the candidate is responsible for keeping the document updated on an annual basis and the main supervisor shall ensure that this is the case.

How to apply

The application for admission to the PhD programme must normally be initiated immediately in connection with start-up and be prepared and completed parallel to the doctoral degree agreement and the project description. The agreement in connection with admission to organized doctoral education , the doctoral degree agreement, regulates the rights and duties during the PhD education period. The PhD agreement must be completed prior to admission and must be signed as soon as possible after admission, and no later than three months after start-up.

The application is sent via the department to the faculty and must be approved by the candidate, recommended by the main supervisor, the head of the programme council and the Head of Department. Normally the application must contain the following:

• Documentation of the education that will form the basis for the admission
• A project description including an academic review of the project and a progress plan
• Documentation of funding
• Documentation of special needs regarding academic and material resources
• Plans for visits to other institutions
• Plans for academic dissemination
• Information regarding any intellectual property law restrictions to protect the rights of others
• Plan for the coursework part
• A proposal for main supervisor and co-supervisors, as well as specification of the affiliation with an active academic environment for research or artistic development work
• An account of any legal and ethical problems raised by the project and how these may be settled. It must appear from the application whether the project is dependent on permission from committees of research ethics or other authorities, or from private individuals (informers, patients, parents, etc.) If possible, such permissions must have been obtained and enclosed with the application.

The faculty may specify any further documentation requirements.

Administrative contact : Department: Berit Dahl and Lill Hege Pedersen Faculty: Anne Danielsen

Academic contact: Morten Omholt Alver

  [email protected]

Kristoffer Gryte

Researcher on Software for Autonomous Systems

• Dept. Eng. Cybernetics, NTNU
• NTNU website
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Guidelines for Master and PhD students

The intention of this document is to make the collaboration of you, the student, and me, the supervisor, as fruitful as possible. To achieve this, we need to establish a foundation.

I will also include some useful hints related to working on a thesis. There are many good sources of information regarding this, but I would like to point out a few:

• “Tips til planlegging og gjennomføring av fordypningsprosjekt og masteroppgave” , in Norwegian by ITKs Prof. Mary Ann Lundteigen, referred to as (Lundteigen 2022) . Written as a step-by-step guide.
• NTNU intro to the master thesis gives a good general overview. Pay particular attention to the grade scale for project/master thesis; it is important to know how your work will be evaluated.
• “Report writing guidelines” (“Tips til å skrive rapport”), in Norwegian by ITKs Prof. Mary Ann Lundteigen, referred to as (Lundteigen 2020) . I can send you this upon request.
• (Primarily) for PhDs: “Syllabus for Erics PhD students”

Note that these guidelines are somewhat opinionated. You will not fail your project if you do not follow them, but I hope they are useful and that reading this document will give you a head start.

Style of supervision

As a supervisor I will try to show you how to fish, but you will be the fisherman. The perhaps biggest challenge with master/phd projects is that they are research based, and thus have never been done before. This makes them difficult to plan. Fortunately, I have some years experience with this and am here as a resource that can guide you through your project, but it will be your project and you will be responsible for the progress. Enthusiasm is contagious, so the more interest you show, the more interest I will have :)

It is my current understanding that there are two main ways of doing this (but feel free to suggest other ways :)). I will let you decide which approach we should choose, a decision you should take based on how you know yourself to work best (I have no knowledge of this, and thus no preference).

• some work better under pressure and deadlines. Then I suggest that we schedule short meetings every N weeks where we discuss your past findings and future milestones.
• some work better with more freedom. Then I will leave it more up to you when you feel it is time for a meeting.

A mix between the two strategies could be that we schedule a deadline every M weeks before which you will send me an email with an update on your status, to ensure progress while maintaining freedom.

I will of course be available for questions over email outside of these meetings. Formulating a question in an email is a good strategy for sorting ones thoughts! (I have started writing a lot of questions in emails, only to realize that I had the answer myself, or have been able to find it). I will generally be very available on email, at least for shorter replies, and if needed we can schedule syncs for longer discussions. Note that I say “work better”, as opposed to “prefer”. Be critical; there is no free lunch, and there will be work involved no matter what approach you choose. Regardless of the strategy we choose, I expect that you will be well prepared for our meetings, which means being well informed about your recent findings, current problems and have an idea about what should be your next milestone (which we will agree upon at the end of each meeting/sync).

I also recommend that you share the report and/or work log with me (see “Writing a report” below). Then I can drop by to give comments and view your progress from time to time, or per request. This also applies for the code you are writing.

Kick-off meeting: the first meeting

See Step 1 in (Lundteigen 2022) .

In the kick-off meeting we will

• Discuss the topic for the project
• What can you expect from me?
• What should I expect from you?
• What do you expect from yourself?
• What motivates you? (both in general and regarding this project)
• Pushing vs freedom
• Style of supervision, see above. How often? How should we communicate?
• Go through any questions from this documents
• Discuss how to plan the project, see (Lundteigen 2022) section 2.1. Note that this is not compulsory, and its form can vary, but “Failing to plan is planning to fail”.
• Plan for the “MSc seminar”, after 2-4 weeks, where all my students present the topic of their project to each other.

Supervisor meetings

The day before each meeting you should communicate the following information:

• What is the current status of your work? (What has changed since our last meeting?)
• A list of what you would like to discuss or questions you may have; an agenda. Can also be non-technical. It is advisable to start with the most important, to make sure we have time for it.
• What (do you think) will be your next step? We will agree on this during the meeting.

This is motivated by

• You are forced to take a step out of your project, and get an overview. Perhaps you discover that you are heading in the wrong direction?
• I can “prime” my brain, to make our meetings more effective.
• It is emphasised that you run the project. I’m here to guide you along the way.
• It enables more efficient use of our time together (Don’t waste meeting time by e.g. changing the code to plot some weird behaviour; plot it in advance)

This communication should be informal, for the sake of efficiency (but formal enough to get the message across). I would prefer if we did this through google docs or Office365: create a document based on this template and invite me to the document (for google, my email is the same as my NTNU email, but @gmail.com). We will use the same document throughout the semester, by adding the newest meeting at the top of the document. Also send me a notification when you have added the material for the next meeting, to remind me.

See (Lundteigen 2020) .

Also, keep in mind my favourite quote: “A plan is nothing, planning is everything” (Churchill). Things rarely go as we plan, since research by definition is to do things that have never been done before. But we should try, and we learn a lot from the planning process itself.

Various tools exists for planning, such as Gantt diagrams, but do not over-do it! The power of pen and paper should not be underestimated. I personally use a simple todo-note application (Todoist), that lets me sync my todos/refs/thoughts between my phone and computer. One simple “planning tool” is to start writing the table of contents as soon as possible. Although the project will almost certainly change, thus also the table of contents, this trick will make it aparrent what gaps you will need to fill.

If you want feedback on your final report, plan to finish at least one week before the deadline and “book” time in my schedule. I have several students, and several other projects, so time around report deadlines tend to get busy.

Writing a report

See (Lundteigen 2020) and NTNU Academic writing , in particular “Using and citing sources” (covers reference management tools, plagiarism/copyright), Latex+bib(la)tex, Planning, structuring and writing your thesis.

• another approach is to have two separate documents; one as a “work log” that you can use to document your progress and questions, and which we can communicate through comments.
• the report should not be a mere work log (first I did this, then I did this, then I realized that I had screwed up and went back to the first step), but an academic document. This means that sometimes there is a very nonlinear relationship between time spent doing something and how much space it is given in the report, but this is how it is and is something the sensor will know :) (In my PhD I spent around two months on work that resulted in the sentence “The inertia matrix was found to be …”)
• Introduction: Focus on motivation. Why are we doing this? What has been done before, and why is this not adequate (why is our additional contribution needed?)? What is the research question or hypothesis that is investigated? Should not be under estimated, see “Litterature study” below. Sometimes it helps me to sort my thoughts under the three headings motivation, problem statement and outline.
• Theory: The theoretical background needed to understand the rest of the work, including notation. Consider your reader; what does he need to know? (Hint; he probably already knows e.g. matrix multiplication and the definition of rotation matrices).
• Method: How did you arrive at the results? Explain what you did (why this way, and not another?). Should be clearly separate from the result section.
• Results: the outcome of the experiments. Try to be objective.
• Discussion: what are the implications of the results, in a bigger context? Is this as expected, wrt previous work/common sense/established truths?
• It should be the final section (apart from maybe appendicies), definitely after the discussion and future work, as it conludes these sections as well.
• No new arguments or views should be brought up in the conclusion
• Ask yourself; Who is the reader? A rule of thumb regarding the level of detail to include (for project/master theses) is to write to someone in your grade that is working on a different topic for their thesis, or to write what you would have liked to read when you started this work.
• Writing well is more difficult, rewarding and important than writing long. Do not add material simply to fill more pages. No one likes to read more than they have to, this also applies for sensors.
• Consider how you can get you message across as easily as possible; would a figure make this more intuitive?
• Consider the thesis an hourglass; it is at its widest, most general in the beginning of the introduction. The writer should ensure that the reader follows the arguments as the pyramid narrows. When reading the theory and method it should be apparent why this material is included. Towards the end, in the discussion and conclusion the thesis widens its focus again, linking back to the introduction and considering implications.
• Do not include a “List of Figures”, “List of Tables” etc. This is my opinion, but no one reads it so it only wastes paper. A notable exception is of course the table of contents.
• Do not include figures “at random” (particularly; do not merely add plots to the result section as “proof of work”). Each figure should have a clear purpose, which should be explicitly stated in the text, and you should be sure that the figure illustrates this in the best possible manner. Create the figure based on what you want to illustrate/emphasise (example; your controller performs similar to the benchmark-controller except for in the down-wind turn, where yours reduce the crosstrack error. Zoom in on this section of the dataset) (another example; plotting roll/pitch/yaw for a long dataset is often not very interesting because the interesting (small-scale, e.g. a two degree difference in the roll response) details are invisible when viewed alongside the (large-scale, e.g. a roll angle change from -40 to +40 degrees) motion of the vehicle).

At the end of the master thesis I ask my students: “What would you have done differently if you were to start over?”. The unanimous answer is: “Starting to write sooner”. There are a number of reasons why this is a good idea:

• writing forces you to face, and understand, all the aspects of the material.
• writing a report is a maturing process: most writing improves by revisioning, and the sooner you start the more you will reconsider and revision the material.
• by writing you will see connections between the different topics

However, there are also some drawbacks of writing early:

• early in the process, before the final results are ready, it is difficult to know exactly what the conclusion will be. Thus, some material might need to be re-written slightly when we have the full picture.
• easy and endorphin-fulfilling to write (“copy”) too much background theory, since it feels like you are doing something useful. But this can be a waste of time, battling Latex equations etc. To be clear; writing is an excellent way to learn, but be critical on your time consumption and don’t spend time on e.g. pretty formatting for things that does not end up in the report.

Goals/objectives

The introduction should make it clear for the reader, and the sensor, what your goals and objectives are for this work.

One word of advice; think ahead to the results, discussion and conclusion when you set these objectives, and plan how you can show that you in fact have accomplished them:

• be specific: “make it work” is a very vague objective. It is also somewhat limiting for the thesis, as “it worked” is a very minimal conclusion. Instead say that you will compare your solution to some other algorithm (compare your MPC to a PID), (and plan how you will compare it). This will lead you to discuss your work in a much greater detail, and show that you actually know what is going on, which often is what the sensor is looking for.
• use metrics: to compare different solutions, some “objective” way of assessing their quality is needed, to motivate your conclusion and to show what you have emphasised. This could be as simple as the mean error and standard deviation, or could also be a (possibly weighted) assessment of more subjective metrics as “complexity”. Regardless; this needs to be presented.
• think big: why is this problem important in a bigger context, and how good must the solution be to be applicable?

Literature study

This step is often under estimated! When doing research, the majority of the time is spent familiarizing with others peoples work, to understand what is the current “state-of-the-art” within a field of research. How do these solutions relate to the problem you are trying to solve? Can they be applied directly, or will they need some modification?

I like to think of the shared knowledge of all mankind as a large sphere. When you are born, your knowledge only spans a very small, central volume of that sphere, but by the time you start primary school it has grown significantly, in many directions. As you choose your high-school discipline, your knowledge-volume will grow more, but in a bit more narrow direction. Throughout university, this growing and narrowing continues. At the start of your master project, you are quite close to the boundary of the knowledge sphere in areas related to engineering cybernetics. The goal of the project and master thesis is to take you all the way to the boundary in the topics covered by your project. When you are at the boundary of the knowledge sphere you can answer the question; will the shared knowledge of all mankind be sufficient to solve the problem of my project, or will I have to push the boundary slightly further?

My advice is therefore to not underestimate the literature study. It might seem counter productive and less fun to read how other people solved a problem, compared to solving the problem yourself, but I can promise you that it beats spending a lot of effort to solve the problem yourself first only to find that it was solved more elegantly by some Russian in the 1850s.

It is also very easy for the sensor that is evaluating your work to guesstimate if your work has merit. If your literature review seems inadequate, which is often seen from a poor introduction chapter in the thesis, chances are that your work does not have a sufficient foundation on the current state-of-the-art. To avoid this, I would recommend that you keep your introduction section in mind as you read thorugh the literature, and that you aim to include at least 15-20 quality references in the introduction (as a rule of thumb, for a master thesis). The aim of the literature study is not to show that you have read a lot, but to argue that your way of solving the problem makes sense. The literature study will often be on the form “these people solved this part of the problem by method X, which was later improved by this other group by considering Y. However, the problem considered herein is more complex, as adds . The work presented in this thesis extends method X by applying , to account for ”.

Make it a habit to

• take notes when you read new material, both as a cognitive hack, as you learn better when doing this, but also to help the future you when you have forgotten what you read (this will happen!). This applies to everything from academic articles to code review. There are many different thoughts around this, but find something that works for you. Personally, I have found Joplin to work well (but now I use a personal wiki written in Markdown using vim (specifically wiki.vim ), but this is probably too nerdy for you).
• keep track of academic articles you read, and keep them organized, i.e. using tools like Jabref or Mendeley, so you don’t forget what topics they where on. Possibly add a quick “remember to cite kalman1960new as the origin of the Kalman filter” to you manuscript. I use a consistent naming scheme for papers and citation keyes: authorYYYYfirst_word_of_title. The paper “ A new approach to linear filtering and prediction problems ” by Rudolf E. Kalman from 1960 is saved as kalman1960new.pdf, and is referenced as \cite{kalman1960new} . (The “A” in the beginning of the paper title is ignored, as this is the default behaviour of Jabref)
• take notes in your own words! Not only will this help you understand the material better, but you will also avoid issues with plagiarism}
• visualize concepts, ideas and thoughts (“A picture is worth a thousand words”). Paper drawings are fast, trigger your brain, and work well for sketches, but for the final report it is advisable to digitalize them. It is often tempting to re-use a figure from a web site or a previous publication. To avoid problems with plagiarism and copyright infringement, it is important to 1) reference the original source and 2) obtain permission to use the figure (by contacting the author/publisher or using figures that have an open licence, such as Creative Common licences that apply to e.g. everything on wikipedia).

Tips on how to find good references

• See NTNUs information on Literature search and master thesis
• Search engines: I primarily use Google Scholar (open) and Scopus (accessible for NTNU students and faculty). I find Google Scholar more user friendly, but Scopus has more advanced search options which is useful to narrow down a search with many results. Another option is IEEE Xplore , but everything there is also indexed by Scopus and Scholar.
• When on a new topic, it is tempting to start by a very general search (“Adaptive control”), which will produce overwhelmingly many results. I advice you to instead find one or two very relevant sources, and continue from there. By reading these you will become more familiar with the topic, and can refine your future searches. You can also leverage the research community; what relevant sources are cited by the sources you read (in the list of references)? Unfortunately, this limits you to sources that are older than the original source. Both Scholar and Scopus provide details on who has cited the source you read (i.e. after it was published). Another interesting tool is Connected papers , which creates an connected graph of relevant papers based on your input. It used to be free, but now it is only free for up to 5 graphs per month. Keenious tries to find relevant research to any text.
• references of other articles
• who has cited
• other work by the same group?
• obtaining the article/book: most articles are available online, as long as you are on the NTNU network/VPN. If not, the University Library can help
• reflect on the quality of the source. Most academics seek to publish in the most prestigious publication channel that will accept their work, so be sceptical to work found in “strange” and unknown conferences/journals, but there are exceptions. To assess what is a prestigious publication channel, consider e.g.  Google Scholar Metrics .

Serious reports are written in LaTex. Find a template that you like (from e.g. a friend, or the internet where I found this ), and make sure that it follows the NTNU printing requirements. Do this first thing, as fixing latex problems introduced by changing templates can be annoying! A friend with latex-skills could be useful at some point, so make sure to buy him/her lunch :)

Many students prefer to write the report in Overleaf/Sharelatex . Make sure to link it with your NTNU email to get a “premium” account, which will allow you to share it with multiple people. Other, local latex editors are also applicable (again I use vim (with vimtex), and again it is probably too nerdy for you), but make sure you have a backup of your work, through e.g. OneDrive or git.

• For making figures for latex documents, check out inkscape (particularly the ability to export the figures as pdfs with a separate tex file containing the text , which ensures that the figure has the same font as the rest of your thesis), Ipe and draw.io (both online and downloadable)
• Check out Mathpix: AI powered handwriting recognition, document conversion, and digital ink / for converting image/screenshots to Latex (100 images per month for education purposes)

Useful packages

• siunitx: \SI{0.5}{\meters\per\second} . Ensures typographically consistent units. Perhaps a bit overkill for master theses, but very useful for articles, since different publishers might have different requirements on how units should be printed ( m/s or ms^-1 , which then easily can be re-defined in the preamble). Also provides the table-alignment mode S , that aligns table columns on decimal points.
• todonotes: \todo{make sure to fix this} . Add a nice, visible box with a reminder for you. Also includes \missingfigure{Figure of a ship} , so that you can start referencing your figures in the text before you have included the actual, final figure. \listoftodoes creates a (temporary) list of todos. But the best part is; by simply adding the argument disable before you hand in your thesis ( \usepackage[disable]{todonotes} ), all the todos are magically hidden and you can be sure that there aren’t any silly “is this correct?” notes in the version you hand in.
• cleveref: Unifies referencing to equations/figures/tables/chapters/sections/.. You only have to write e.g.  \cref{eq:newtons_first} (as opposed to “ Equation \ref{eq:newtons_first} ”), and cleveref will figure out that eq:newtons_first is an equation, and appropriately add “Equation”. Simple to specify if you want it to say Equation 1, equation 1, eq. 1, Eq 1, (1), or any other style. It is also possible to write “In this \namecref{chap:intro} …”, which will read “In this section” or “In this chapter” depending on whether “chap:intro” is a section or a chapter (maybe you move them around?)

Continuing the project thesis into a master thesis

When continuing the topic from the project thesis in the master thesis, the project thesis should be submitted along with the master thesis so that the sensor has access to both. Keep in mind that the master thesis will be publicly available, while the project thesis is an internal document which is not accessible to others. It is possible to re-use material from the project thesis directly in the master thesis, but this should be explicitly stated (“The following section on X is copied directly from the project thesis”). It is advisable to keep this to a minimum (rephrase where possible). Sensibly, equations can be re-used so you do not have to re-invent math or change variable names :)

Working on a (large) codebase

Make backups.

While walking around in Trondheim, looking for a place to live before I started my studies, the city center was covered with notes saying something like “Dear you who stole my Mac! Please return it, as it contains the only copy of my master thesis work!”. Needless to say; this should be avoided, by taking backups.

There are several alternatives for backup (Dropbox, SVN, memory stick copy,…), but for code, the #1 tool is git. If you are not already familiar with git, it is highly advised that you spend some time learning the basics (clone, pull, push, commit, merge, rebase). Do some google searches for “git howto”, “git guide”, “git tutorial” etc. See for instance this guide, and Learn Git Branching is an excellent interactive guide. Create a github-account, experiment. See also this extensive list of common commands . Also, stackOverflow usually has you covered.

Other git resources:

• Simple git guide
• Git flow is a well-known workflow practice, documented also here and here
• GitLab intro to version control with many useful links to related topics, notably git version control best practices

When times get tough

Keep in mind that progress is inherently nonlinear; it is completely normal to get somewhat “stuck” from time to time. Do not get stressed about getting stuck (remember; “Det er i motbakke det går oppover”), but keep pounding the problem. Talk to a friend, can you look at the problem from another angle? what is the cause of the problem? Try writing out the problem as explicitly as you can, for example in an email to a friend or in your work log to me, and see if that makes you understand it better.

Sometimes, life throws you a curve ball. In my experience, most problems are bigger inside ones own head, so I encourage you to talk/write about it. Your well being is important to me, so do not hesitate to contact me. If you feel uncomfortable by talking to me about your problems, there are some NTNU resources that I would like to inform you about:

• NTNU Health and wellness , an overview of the different physical and psychological services provided by NTNU and SiT.
• Psychosocial Advisor for the IE-Faculty, Kristoffer Halseth . He is easy to reach and has a duty of confidentiality.

Lundteigen, Mary Ann. 2020. “Tips til å skrive rapport.”

———. 2022. “Tips til planlegging og gjennomfœring av fordypningsprosjekt og masteroppgave.”

• NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology
• Posted on: 23 September 2024

PhD Candidate in Clean heat pumping technologies and AI

Job Information

Offer description.

This is NTNU

NTNU is a broad-based university with a technical-scientific profile and a focus in professional education. The university is located in three cities with headquarters in Trondheim.

At NTNU, 9,000 employees and 43,000 students work to create knowledge for a better world.

You will find more information about working at NTNU and the application process here.

About the job

Through a collaboration agreement between CERN and NorCC (Norwegian Centre for CERN-related Research), this position is one of a number of jointly-funded NTNU-CERN PhD vacancies in the field of the technological sciences (engineering projects). The successful candidate will spend 18 months at NTNU followed by 18 months at CERN, while remaining active in the PhD Programme at both institutions for the full 36 months. For the position of PhD Candidate, the goal is the completion of doctoral education at NTNU and CERN, including an obtained doctoral degree from NTNU.

A jointly-funded NTNU-CERN PhD vacancy is available at the Department of Energy and Process Engineering (EPT) at NTNU within the Refrigeration research group on the topic of " Integration of clean heat pumping technologies and AI to enable energy efficient distribution of District Heating and Cooling – [short: Clean&AI based heat&cold @CERN]".

The Refrigeration research group has well-established expertise and networks in the field of vapour compression systems applying natural working fluids for various applications within different industrial sectors. In close cooperation with CERN, the research group is involved in several national and international research projects. The PhD Candidate will be integrated in the research teams at both NTNU and CERN and will benefit from the knowledge of senior researchers during the PhD work, having access to research facilities at both institutions. Workshops will be organized to bring experts in the field together to share and transfer their knowledge, both from outside and inside the two organizations.

The project aims to develop and describe advanced energy systems by integrating new clean heat elevating technologies and artificial intelligence to optimize and enhance the energy efficiency of distribution systems. Various heat sources (e.g. surplus heat from process plants etc.) and possible thermal energy storage devices will be considered and integrated. Focus will be on building up a dynamic model of an entire energy distribution network validated by IoT devices, and smart grid technologies to describe and create a robust, adaptive, and efficient energy management system, supported by AI algorithms.

The proposed system architectures will be validated by monitoring and analysing energy consumption patterns, predict demand, and manage supply in real-time, with the aim to minimize use of primary energy (avoid wastage of high-quality energy) and improve overall system efficiency. By integrating AI, the control system can learn from historical data, adapt to changing conditions, and as an example, may provide predictive maintenance to reduce downtime and operational costs.

Key components of the PhD work include:

• Development/use of dynamic energy conversion and distribution models of typical sites
• Integration of IoT sensors for real-time monitoring and data collection for validation
• Implementation of smart grid technologies (heat pumps and thermal energy storage) for adaptive energy distribution
• Development of AI algorithms for energy demand forecasting and optimization (cost, fossil versus renewable, environmental impact, etc.)
• Development of a user-friendly interface for energy system monitoring and management

The application of the developed system architecture will be tested and validated on CERN’s infrastructure.

The project's goal is to create a scalable and replicable model for the CERN district heating/cooling systems that can be applied to all the CERN buildings and energy processes. This will contribute to supporting global efforts in energy conservation and sustainable development and open-access dissemination will enable others to follow.

Your supervisor is Professor Armin Hafner at NTNU and Guillaume Rouge at CERN.

Duties of the position

• Conduct literature reviews on current clean energy technologies and AI applications in energy systems
• Develop a dynamic energy distribution model, enabling various supply and demand side scenarios
• Develop and test AI algorithms for energy demand forecasting and optimization
• Design and implement IoT sensor networks for real-time data collection for validation
• Describe and integrate smart grid technologies into the district heating/cooling system
• Analyse collected data and utilize them to optimize the overall system performance
• Collaborate with the expert team designing and operating CERN’s campus technical infrastructure and other researchers in the field to develop, test and implement innovative and applicable solutions, scalable to even larger sites.
• Present research outcomes at conferences and workshops, publish findings in scientific journals

Required selection criteria

• You must have a professionally relevant background in refrigeration engineering.
• Your education must correspond to a five-year Norwegian degree program, where 120 credits are obtained at master's level.
• You must have a strong academic background from your previous studies and an average grade from the master's degree program, or equivalent education, which is equal to B or better compared with NTNU's grading scale. If you do not have letter grades from previous studies, you must have an equally good academic basis. If you have a weaker grade background, you may be assessed if you can document that you are particularly suitable for PhD education.
• Master's students can apply, but the master's degree must be obtained and documented by 30.09.2024 
• You must meet the requirements for admission to the  Faculty's Doctoral Programme .
• You must have experience in dynamic modelling of energy systems with heat pumps.
• You must present a strong interest for the modelling and simulation of complex multi-physical systems including heat- and mass transfer.
• You must have experience with experimental investigations and data analysis from energy distribution systems.
• Good written and oral English language skills.
• You must be a citizen of a CERN Member State or Associated Member State as listed in CERN Member States .

The appointment is to be made in accordance with Regulations on terms of employment for positions such as postdoctoral fellow, Phd candidate, research assistant and specialist candidate and  Regulations concerning the degrees of Philosophiae Doctor (PhD) and Philosodophiae Doctor (PhD) in artistic research national guidelines for appointment as PhD, post doctor and research assistant 

Preferred selection criteria

• Scientific publications are an advantage
• Good written and oral Norwegian language skills

Personal characteristics

• enthusiastic: to encourage other students during supervision of MSCs candidates
• competent: able to communicate with colleagues 
• conscientious: ability to plan ahead
• extrovert: you prefer being sociable, outgoing and talkative

Emphasis will be placed on personal and interpersonal qualities.

• exciting and stimulating tasks in a strong international academic environment
• an open and  inclusive work environment with dedicated colleagues
• favourable terms in the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund
• employee benefits

Salary and conditions

The PhD candidacy begins with a contract of employment at NTNU for a duration of 18 months, followed by a contract of association and corresponding stipend at CERN for a duration of 18 months. You will remain active in the PhD Programme at both institutions for the full 36 months. Your NTNU supervisor will assist you with your applications to the NTNU and the CERN PhD Programme. A travel allowance is available when travel between NTNU and CERN is deemed appropriate by your supervisors.

Contract of employment at NTNU

During the 18-month period at NTNU, you will have a contract of employment as a PhD candidate (code 1017). PhD Candidates are normally paid NOK 532 200 per annum before tax, depending on qualifications and seniority. From the salary, 2% is deducted as a contribution to the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund.

Appointment to a PhD position requires that you are admitted to the  PhD programme in Engineering within three months of employment, and that you participate in an organized PhD programme during the employment period.

The engagement is to be made in accordance with the regulations in force concerning  State Employees and Civil Servants , and the acts relating to Control of the Export of Strategic Goods, Services and Technology. Candidates who by assessment of the application and attachment are seen to conflict with the criteria in the latter law will be prohibited from recruitment to NTNU.

It is a prerequisite you can be present at and accessible to the institution on a daily basis.

Contract of association at CERN:

During the 18-month period at CERN, you will have a contract of association and will be a member of the CERN Doctoral Student Programme, the conditions of which, including details of the monthly stipend, are described in CERN Doctoral Student Programme | SmartRecruiters . You will not be employed by NTNU during this time.

The employment at NTNU is to be made in accordance with the regulations in force concerning State Employees and Civil Servants , and the acts relating to Control of the Export of Strategic Goods, Services and Technology. Candidates who by assessment of the application and attachment are seen to conflict with the criteria in the latter law will be prohibited from recruitment to NTNU. After the appointment you must assume that there may be changes in the area of work.

About the application

The application and supporting documentation to be used as the basis for the assessment must be written in English.

Publications and other scientific work must accompany the application. Please note that your application will be considered based solely on information submitted by the application deadline. You must therefore ensure that your application clearly demonstrates how your skills and experience fulfil the criteria specified above and that all required documentation is included as follows:

• CV and certificates
• Transcripts and diplomas for Bachelor's and Master's degrees. If you have not completed the Master's degree, you must submit a confirmation that the Master's thesis has been submitted
• A copy of the Master's thesis. If you recently have submitted your Master's thesis, you can attach a draft of the thesis. Documentation of a completed Master's degree must be presented before taking up the position
• Name and contact information of three referees
• Publications or other relevant research work if appropriate

If all, or parts, of your education has been taken abroad, we also ask you to attach documentation of the scope and quality of your entire education, both bachelor's and master's education, in addition to other higher education. Description of the documentation required can be found  here . If you already have a statement from NOKUT, please attach this as well.  We will take joint work into account. If it is difficult to identify your efforts in the joint work, you must enclose a short description of your participation.

In the evaluation of which candidate is best qualified, emphasis will be placed on education, experience and personal and interpersonal qualities. Motivation, ambitions, and potential will also count in the assessment of the candidates.

NTNU is committed to following evaluation criteria for research quality according to  The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment - DORA.

General information

Working at NTNU

NTNU believes that inclusion and diversity is our strength. We want to recruit people with different competencies, educational backgrounds, life experiences and perspectives to contribute to solving our social responsibilities within education and research. We will facilitate for our employees’ needs.

NTNU is working actively to increase the number of women employed in scientific positions and has a number of resources to promote equality.

The Department of Energy and Process Engineering (EPT) has established EPT Women in Science . The group is focused on supporting female PhD Candidates, Postdoctoral Fellows, Research Assistants and permanent academic employees within the Department. This support aims to help develop the careers of female PhD Candidates, Postdocs and Research Assistants, and is also made  visible to our student body to encourage them to consider an academic path. As part of the EPT Women in Science initiative we are building an international network, inviting prominent female academics within and beyond the field of Engineering to speak at our events.

As an employee at NTNU, you must at all times adhere to the changes that the development in the subject entails and the organizational changes that are adopted.

A public list of applicants with name, age, job title and municipality of residence is prepared after the application deadline. If you want to reserve yourself from entry on the public applicant list, this must be justified. Assessment will be made in accordance with current legislation . You will be notified if the reservation is not accepted.

If you have any questions about the position, please contact Professor Armin Hafner,  [email protected] (NTNU) and Guillaume Rouge,  [email protected] (CERN). If you have any questions about the recruitment process, please contact Megan Norris,  [email protected] .

The city of Trondheim has a population of 200,000. It is a modern European city with a rich cultural scene and is known as the innovation capital of Norway . The Norwegian welfare state, including healthcare, schools, kindergartens and overall equality, is among the best of its kind in the world. Professional subsidized day-care for children is easily available, as is children`s education (including international schools). Trondheim has low crime rates and clean air quality and offers the possibility to enjoy nature, culture and family life.

If you think this looks interesting and in line with your qualifications, please submit your application electronically via jobbnorge.no with your CV, diplomas and certificates attached. Applications submitted elsewhere will not be considered. Upon request, you must be able to obtain certified copies of your documentation.  

Application deadline: 07.10.2024

NTNU - knowledge for a better wo r ld

The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) creates knowledge for a better world and solutions that can change everyday life.

Department of Energy and Process Engineering

We conduct research and teaching covering the entire energy chain, from resources to the end-user. We look at how energy is produced and used by humans and machines in a sustainable way with regard to health, climate change and the resource base. The Department of Energy and Process Engineering is one of eight departments in the Faculty of Engineering.

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