Index

Miniproject

General information

The miniprojects should be carried out in one of the institutes of the Chemical and Biological Engineering or Materials Science and Engineering Departments. The miniproject can also be carried out at another department or faculty, or at an external institution (HIERN, Helmholtz), provided that a supervisor from the WW or CBI departments is willing to co-supervise. The suggested project should be concise, have a realistic goal that takes into account the short timescale and enables a certain degree of independent work from the student. The work includes a review of current literature on the chosen topic, the planning and execution of experiments and simulations to expand existing knowledge and the critical interpretation and discussion of the results of the study in a (graded) written project report (10 ECTS; workload of around 250-300 hours). No “splitting” of the miniproject is foreseen.
The grade will be based on your carrying out of the project and on the report.
A miniproject cannot be combined with a job as a student assistant (“Hiwi”).
Deadline for students to submit the miniproject report: at the latest 6 months after the starting date

If the student chooses to gain Additional Qualifications in research or industry, an additional miniproject of 10 ECTS is taken during the 3rd semester.

Step by step

    1. For registration of the MAP miniproject please use the registration from which you can find in the MAP StudOn templates section (login needed). The registration of your miniproject needs to be confirmed by your principal supervisor by signing the registration form as stipulated. At this stage, you don’t have to inform the MAP office.
      Once you have finished your miniproject, please hand in your report directly to your supervisor for grading, either an electronic version or the original paper version, depending what your supervisor prefers (please check beforehand!). At the same time, you need to upload your report as PDF file and insert some further information (such as final project title) in the on the MAP StudOn curriculum section (login needed, please choose the specific semester there).
      After your supervisor has graded your miniproject and has added the grade and his stamp (or that of his chair/institute) on the registration form, please hand in the original document to the MAP office.
      The last section on the miniproject registration sheet will then be filled in by the MAP office staff. We will also forward your grade to the examination office for registration.
      Another possibility is, to ask your supervisor to send your graded miniproject to the MAP office. For legal reasons, the scanned version can only be sent to the MAP Office by the supervisor in person.
    2. The number of working hours given (250 – 300) are to be understood as a guideline for a miniproject with 10 ECTS. The work load does not only refer to the time you do practical lab work but as well to the time you spend on preparing and studying at home or in the library.
      Thus, it depends a lot on the nature of your project, how much time you will actually spend with practical work in the lab. Your supervisor might be able to better judge this time frame, depending on the topic and the expected development.
    3. Before you can register for your Master’s thesis, you need to have successfully fulfilled all requirements of the MAP primary course, which is the case once you have achieved 90 ECTS.
      Any additional courses – either the full 30 ECTS block of the Additional Qualifications or individual courses – need to be graded and registered either on campo or with the MAP Office before you hand in your Master’s thesis. After this date, the Examinations Office cannot accept any further course achievements for your transcript.

      Especially if you plan to do an second miniproject within the Additional Qualifications, we strongly recommend to have it finished before you start with your Master’s thesis, as you need to consider some time for grading as well.

General recommendations

Based on our experience with MAP miniprojects we can give a few tips in order to ensure successful establishment and execution of the projects:
  1. Rather than approach professors about potential miniprojects, you might want to take a look at institute websites and see which doctoral/postdoctoral researchers are working on what topics. Ideally you should read some of the researchers’ relevant journal papers. Approach them regarding your interest (which should be as genuine as possible – don’t say you read a paper when you just read the title/abstract!) and ask if they can define a miniproject topic. Very often researchers have little “side projects” which they would like to carry out but do not have the time for themselves. These are good miniproject topics because you may get to do something completely new and you help out your supervisor at the same time.
  2. Be sure to tell your direct supervisor from the start what is expected of you. Make sure they know that you have to write a report by a certain deadline and preferably get their commitment “up-front” that they will check drafts of your report.
  3. Communicate well with your direct supervisor. That means you should make it clear from the outset what is and what is not expected and also when you will work on the miniproject. We do hear from supervisors that students agree to do a miniproject and then simply do not appear. This sets a very poor impression and is likely to count against you in the final grade.
  4. Conversely to the previous point, we also sometimes hear MAP students complain that their supervisor has vanished off the face of the earth. This is another case of poor communication, either on the part of the student, the supervisor or both. Since the miniproject might stretch over the summer months, be sure to check with your supervisor when they will be not there. If they are away for a long time then ask for a “fill-in” supervisor who you can turn to in case of questions/problems. This is especially critical if your direct supervisor has to do some characterization of your samples which you cannot do (SEM, TEM, XPS etc).
  5. Your direct supervisor will be a PhD or Postdoc researcher – these are often highly stressed people with many responsibilities. For the most part, the supervision of MAP miniprojects goes very smoothly. However, the direct supervisors are also people still undergoing their professional training and like all humans have their strengths and weaknesses. If you feel that your direct supervisor does not supervise your miniproject in a satisfactory way (be reasonable here, we are talking about things like if they communicate the problem unclearly, do not satisfactorily answer your questions or do not adequately train you in necessary techniques or safety measures) please make an appointment to discuss your concerns with the professor. Professors should deal with this appropriately and in a confidential way. Please do not leave any potential problems with your supervisor to simmer and just write up the report anyway. This can backfire on your grade and by that late stage a professor will always side with his or her PhD/Postdoc if you make a complaint because they will assume you just want to improve your grade. Any problems you bring up prior to submission of the report would be easier to negotiate. Of course, any issues can also be discussed with the MAP Chairs on a confidential basis.
  6. Remember that most professors will probably ask the direct supervisor to suggest a grade. Therefore, make sure you prepare the report in sufficient time that your direct supervisor can check it. If your direct supervisor requests changes to your report then once you have made those changes show him/her the report again. Do not assume that once you have made requested changes everything is fine. Scientific reports often take several iterations to get complete. Only go ahead and submit your report when your direct supervisor gives you a clear OK.

Forms and templates

All forms and templates are available at our MAP StudON section (login needed).

De-registration or prolongation of deadline

In line with the stipulations set by the Central Examinations Office, a prolongation is only possible under very specific circumstances and with the required proof documents (e.g. doctor’s certificate). A withdrawal is not permitted after topic allocation.

Failure/ late hand in

It is your responsibility to find a new miniproject with a new supervisor during the next semester.