Master thesis
Every student of the Master in HPC has to do a master thesis as a part of the master program. This master thesis will be defended at the end of the master and its presentation and defense are a requirement to obtain the master's degree.
Contents
Regulations
The realization of this master thesis is regulated by the following document (in Spanish).
Award for the best Master Thesis 2024/25
The following documents provide information about the awards for the best master's thesis. In the 2024/25 academic year there will be two awards: one for students enrolled at USC and another for students enrolled at UDC. Remember that the deadline to submit will be September 23rd, 2025.
What to do before the master thesis
As a previous step to the realization of the master thesis, the student has to select a topic and one or several directors/tutors. This can done following different paths:
- In January, there will be a special process in which a number of master topics will be offered to the students by the teachers of the master. The students will select those that are of their interests, and after that, there will be an official assignment of topics (+tutors/directors) to students.
- If a student has a special interest in a topic, he can contact directly to a tutor/director with her proposal. In that case, the student and the director/tutor has to present a preliminary project describing the work to be done by the student. This document has to follow the following template and it has to be sent by email to one of the master coordinators (Jorge González/Pablo Quesada) before the deadlines specified below.
- Preliminary project (in Spanish)
The master thesis
After the project is finished, the student has to present a document describing the process and results of the realization of the master thesis. This document has to follow the following format. The approximate length of the document has to be around 50 pages, although this length can be exceeded if necessary:
- Format of the master thesis documentation for UDC students
- Format of the master thesis documentation for USC students
Alternatively, in those cases that the Master Thesis will be submitted to a research journal or conference the students can directly present that manuscript in the same format that was submitted to the journal/conference. The student must also present a proof that the manuscript was already submitted to the journal/conference (at least the confirmation email).
How to submit the master thesis
For the presentation of the project, the students must follow the steps in the virtual secretary of the university where he is enrolled. Then, he has to send the following documents to one of the master coordinators:
- The pdf with the master thesis documentation
- Any source code or supplementary material that the student wants to handle as a result of her project
- The proof obtained from the virtual secretary that he has uploaded the master thesis.
Contact to Jorge González (in case of UDC) or Pablo Quesada (in case of USC) if you have doubts about the procedure of the virtual secretary.
Important dates
- Period to apply to one of the topics proposed by the teachers of the master: January 2026
- Assignment of the students to the teachers' proposals: February 2026
- Advanced call (only UDC students with preliminary project approved before July 2025):
- Deadline for the deposit of the master thesis: 27th November 2025
- Defenses of the master thesis: 9th-11th December 2025
- First call:
- Deadline to present the preliminary project: 18th December 2025
- Deadline for the deposit of the master thesis: 5th February 2026
- Defenses of the master thesis: 16th-20th February 2026
- Second call:
- Deadline to present the preliminary project: 14th May 2026
- Deadline for the deposit of the master thesis: 25th June 2026
- Defenses of the master thesis: 6th-10th July 2026
- Extraordinary call:
- Deadline to present the preliminary project: 18th June 2026
- Deadline for the deposit of the master thesis: 29th July 2026
- Defenses of the master thesis: 2nd-4th September 2026
