Thesis document and hand-in
Thesis is due electronically on the first Monday of exams, in the second project semester via submission website (for due date and time check the project timetable on http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~engg4801/).
REMEMBER: your document will be checked by plagiarism detecting software.
Printed copies of the thesis and a CD-Rom containing all work done on your thesis and the reference material (that can reasonably be included in a CD) is due to the School office (78-217) on the same day.
REMEMBER: Your electronically submitted copy is the same document as the printed one and in case of discrepancies you can be heavily down marked.
In order to make sure your printed document is submitted without any issuses.
When getting the printed copies bound, make sure you ask for thermal / permanent binding (thesis with comb binding will not be accepted)
Print a 'thesis marking sheet' and put in both copies of your printed thesis.
Put the CD-Rom in a sleeve and tape it inside to the cover of the thesis document.
Put a sticker with your supervisors name on the copy with the CD-Rom and a sticker with your examiner name on the other. This will allow the School staff deliver the copies promptly.
The printed copies of the thesis may be retained by your supervisor and examiner if they wish. If they are going to keep the printed thesis and you want a copy for yourself, then you should organise additional printed copies at the same time.
Please remember: penalties for late submission apply (check the course profile).
If you need to apply for submission deadline extension:
1. talk to/email your supervisor
2. your supervisor forwards your email and his/her suggested extension to the course coordinator
3. the course coordinator emails you and your supervisor with confirmation/rejection of extension
Content of your thesis (in addition to info in course profile):
Two pages which can cause confusion and which have been very inconsistent between theses in previous years have been the title page and the letter stating originality. An example of how we would like you to present these two pages this year is Moh Kim Ken NG's thesis from 2002. The letter should be addressed to Head of School, School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, Professor Paul Strooper. We recommend you don't put your address on the letter as it will be published on the web. A suitable high quality UQ logo is linked here for use on your title page.
This (old) example skeleton thesis file shows the preferred order of content in a thesis. That skeleton was created using LaTeX. If you are keen, here is the LaTeX skeleton thesis source.
Remember that University of Queensland plagiarism rules apply to all submitted material and your thesis document will be extensively checked for potential plagiarism.
Creating your thesis pdf file:
For the pdf which you submit to the school, you can use the school's virtual pdf printer. Info about this service is linked from the LHS menu of the itee student help page (the "PDF Creator" link). The settings create a high quality output with a reasonable file size.
For the printed thesis, if you are using Acrobat distiller directly, you may use this Acrobat distiller job options file supplied by the printery to generate the pdf file for printing. Save this into the settings folder of Acrobat Distiller (version 5), ensuring it still has the dot job options extension (filename.joboptions). It will then appear in the drop down menu on the front page of Distiller. Select this option before distilling any files. Please note however that it can generate very large pdf files.
This file is a text readable file, and if using something other than Acrobat, please try and use as many of these options as possible.
Some extra comments sent by the printery are as follows:
- If students want to use screens in tables we recommend they use a minimum of 15% screen.
Here are some extra comments to achieve a professional looking result:
- Page numbering may be best if it is centred at the bottom of the page.
- You may use equal margins on both sides, 25mm works well. Alternatively, you can use a 30mm inner margin and 20mm outer margin.
- Each new chapter normally starts on the right hand page when printed double sided. To achieve this it is the responsibility of the student to insert blank pages (breaker pages) at the end of preceding chapters as appropriate (or some other automatic mechanism). Check the result using Acrobat - view -> page-layout -> facing. (NOTE: Odd numbered pages are right hand pages and even numbered pages are left hand pages)
Naming your thesis pdf file:
For the submit website and the printery, you should name your thesis pdf file in the following manner: studentnumber_familyname.pdf, for example 31234567_walker.pdf. This will allow the printer and ITEE staff to identify your thesis more easily when working with them. This naming scheme will also allow us to automatically link the thesis on the innovation expo website.
Printing your thesis (and paying for that)
The printing of your thesis should be organised immediately following your electronic submission.
You may also wish to get extra copies printed and bound at this time. Your thesis document will be (should be) something your look back on with pride.
The order form for printing with POD is HERE . Arrange printing as early as possible to avoid long queues and meet the hand in deadline.
You are not forced to use POD (print on demand) to print your thesis, but for uniformity, you must use them to bind your thesis. Their rates are reasonable for B&W. For colour, I recommend you print your own colour pages and insert them manually yourself. POD costs are as follows:
- $0.08 per single sided B&W page
- $0.60 per single sided colour page
- The cost for fastback thermal binding depends on the number of pages
- Up to 110 sheets $2.80
- Up to 230 sheets $3.30
- Up to 250 sheets $4.30
- Spine printing is $3.50
- $2.00 for CD pockets
- $5.00 for CD burning
- $1.50 charge for per file downloaded from removable media
- A full price list can be found here
Your colour PDF can be sent to a B&W printer and printed in grey scale automatically for B&W prices, as you would expect.
If you ask for your thesis to be printed in colour, B&W pages are still costed at the B&W rate. However, even one dot of colour on the page registers as a colour page and you will be charged accordingly if you have asked for your thesis to be printed in colour. Be careful of colour in headers and footers. Discuss this with the printer for more detail.
POD is located in the UQ Bookshop in Staff House Road. Map and opening hours
Creating Thesis CD-Rom
Burn a supporting CD-Rom which contains all the files related to your thesis. Lay it out in a useful and self explanatory directory structure and include some readme.txt files if necessary. Leave all the files there - students continuing your topic and supervisors would prefer rather all the files than a tidy selection that is missing the one they need. Burn a second CD-Rom for yourself to keep as you may need that in the future. Submit the CD-Rom together with your printed copy of the thesis document to the ITEE Office (78-217).