Supervision approach

I not only have several pieces of project advice, I also strive to implement some of that. Below are the most pertinent points for students supervised by me.

Constraints

• Thesis/report in English (preferably in LaTeX)
• The intention is that your thesis forms the basis for a scientific article
• Thesis will be put online in the OU repository and on my personal webpage
• Source code of any code will be made open source and publicly available
  Typically under the GPL v3 license.
• No supervision between 15 July — 20 August

Communication

• My role during the project: motivator / inspirator
• Short written report after each meeting, e.g.:
  • Points discussed
  • actions to be taken
  • Targets set for next meeting
  • Date/time of next meeting
  • A hint of where the project is in the planning
• Any documents sent to me:
  • in PDF format please
  • Please make clear what you expect from me: what to read, what parts to give feedback on, what type of feedback (on the structure, high-level, detailed, ...), etc.

Initial phase

• The final project is different from any other course.
  The goal of the final project typically is that you apply the things learned in the course of your studies to a specific case study. That means that you're supposed to take the initiative and determine for yourself what to do. You're given a lot of leeway, instead of clear goals.
• Find a sparring partner / study buddy.
  Try to find someone in the same study who is also working on the final project to act as a study buddy. Having someone to bounce ideas of will tremendously benefit both your projects.
• The goal of the "Voorbereiden Afstuderen" report is that the idea of the project has become your idea.
• 30 minute meetings every max 40hrs of work on the project
  For OU students, this typically means every 2-3 weeks

Final phase

• Detailed feedback.
  When you ask for detailed feedback on your thesis-in-progress, I will provide detailed feedback for one chapter per review session. Past experience shows that that gives us enough to discuss - and enough that also will impact other chapters.
• Code review.
  We meet once before end of project, face to face, where the project members walk me through the code and show how to install / use the program.
• Handover.
  At the latest at the final presentation, you provide me a USB key that contains all files for the project:
  • source code,
  • compiled binaries,
  • thesis in PDF form
  • thesis source (LaTeX or DOCX),
  • any manuals,
  • any data collected for the project,
  • any formal models created (e.g. ProVerif source code),
  • anything else that is relevant (posters or papers due to the project).