22507 - Master's Thesis, incl. Presentation and Symposium Modulübersicht

Module Number: 22507 - module is no longer offered from SS 2015
Module Title:Master's Thesis, incl. Presentation and Symposium
  Master-Arbeit einschl. Präsentation und Symposium
Department: Faculty 2 - Architecture, Civil Engineering and Urban Planning
Responsible Staff Member:
  • Gastprof. Casper, Jens
Language of Teaching / Examination:English
Duration:1 semester
Frequency of Offer: Every summer semester
Credits: 30
Learning Outcome:Upon completing a Master’s thesis, the graduates will be capable of independently designing, planning and realising construction assignments in different cultural and economic contexts, as well as developing, communicating or visually presenting architectural and urban concepts or planning processes in international work contexts. The Master’s thesis shall demonstrate that the candidate is capable, within a specified period of time, of critically examining the questions that arise within the programme’s spectrum and applying scientific and/or artistic methods to resolve the tasks that result; it should also show whether the student possesses the necessary abilities to make use of the practice-related technical knowledge and skills required for the scope of architectural tasks within the European cultural sphere, whether s/he possesses the language, presentation and communication skills to adequately convey his/her work to others, and whether s/he has gained the knowledge needed to for the transition to professional practice. The student will defend his/her work results in an auditorium, either alone or in a group.
Contents:Instructor: V.Prof. Dr. Ing. Dagmar Jäger
Leadership and integration of instructors in the study programme.

The candidate developes a topic for the Master’s thesis in coordination with the responsable professors. In the thesis, one of the topics from the eight previous workshops will be selected and dealt with in-depth from both a practical and a theoretical point of view, or one of the superordinate issues developed in the workshops will be dealt with in-depth from both a practical and a theoretical point of view. The topic of the Master’s thesis will be developed earlier in the module Reflection 2. The thesis work may be carried out either in interdisciplinary teams or individually. The public presentation (final examination) and exhibition of the Master’s theses will take place as part of an evaluative symposium attended by all of the university lecturers involved in the theses or programme. The location for the final event will rotate between the countries and partners involved.
Recommended Prerequisites:None
Mandatory Prerequisites:For permission to undertake a Master's thesis, students must have earned 90 credits in the Architektur.Studium.Generale programme.
Forms of Teaching and Proportion:
  • Study project / 4 Hours per Week per Semester
  • Self organised studies / 840 Hours
Teaching Materials and Literature:Subject-related research on the material shall be conducted independently by the students.
Module Examination:Unspecified - Specification from winter semester 2016/17 required!
Assessment Mode for Module Examination:Students will have five months to complete and submit their Master’s thesis. Defence of the thesis will take place 2-4 weeks after submission. The Master’s thesis shall consist, to the extent appropriate, of drawings/graphics and models/objects and written descriptions/calculations, as well as texts that are necessary for understanding the thesis.

Sequence:
  • A schedule will be announced prior to beginning the Master’s thesis.
  • The Master’s thesis topic will be issued and supervised by a professor at one of the partner universities in cooperation with a professor at BTU. These persons can be proposed by the students. The Examination Board is responsible for appointing them as examiners for the Master’s thesis.
  • Work on the Master’s thesis shall take place at BTU. In the case of on-location research work, students are obliged to independently arrange their stay in the partner country. The location of the presentation will be announced prior to beginning the Master’s thesis.
  • The thesis may be done as a group project if the contributions made by the individual candidates can be clearly differentiated and assessed through identification of who is responsible for particular sections, page numbers, or other objective criteria that enables an unambiguous distinction.
  • The Master’s thesis must be submitted in the English language. Exceptions are regulated by the Examination Board.
  • The master’s thesis is to be submitted to the advisors in duplicate and bound (drawings reduced) and additionally in electronic form (data carrier). Objects and models must be included as reproductions.
  • If the thesis is submitted late with an acceptable justification, the defence of the thesis will be postponed after personal consultation with the examination committee. If the thesis is submitted late without an acceptable justification, the thesis will be disallowed.
  • The Master’s thesis must be accompanied by a German, an English and, if applicable, a native-language summary.
  • The Master’s thesis includes an interim presentation, held following a working period of 4 weeks and open to all members of the university, in which the current state of work is presented. No grades will be issued for this presentation.
  • The works will be exhibited openly by the authors.
  • The defence of the Master’s thesis takes place at one of the partner universities in the form of a public presentation of the results. The defence of all Master’s theses from one cycle takes place in front of the two issuing university professors as first examiners, and a group of other university professors to be appointed by the Examination Board. A recording secretary and two students will be assigned to the group of examiners.
  • At the conclusion of an examination cycle, the respective individual grades will be compared and aligned with comparable theses that have been defended. The grades suggested by the first examiners will be compared with those suggested by the participating members of the examination group and a mutual decision will be reached. A final grade will then be set.
Evaluation of Module Examination:Performance Verification – graded
Limited Number of Participants:None
Part of the Study Programme:
  • no assignment
Remarks:As part of the final event - presentation, defence and exhibition of the Master’s theses - an accompanying symposium, to which all of the teaching staff from the programme are invited, will take place. The aim of the symposium is to evaluate, both substantively and didactically, the topics dealt with during the year, and to develop new perspectives for the next year’s class.
Module Components:Participation in research clusters is mandatory.
Components to be offered in the Current Semester:
  • no assignment