Final Master Project

The graduation mentor will support you during the Final Master Project (FMP). You are encouraged to involve other experts, clients and stakeholders.

Contracts with External Parties

Are you planning to do your Final Master Project in cooperation within an external party or company? You can consult the Collaborating with a company page. You can contact our Internship Coordinator for more information on contracts.   

It is necessary that the end product of your Final Master Project can be assessed according to TU/e rules, and that the result will be known and can be archived for educational (and assessment) purposes.

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Deliverables

• Demonstrator (as demonstrated on the demo day)
• Report (maximum 10.000 words; decide in consultation with your graduation mentor what type of report/number of words suits your project)
• Portfolio (maximum 3000 words)
• Presentation/Oral Exam

As you reflect on your project in your portfolio, a separate project reflection is not needed as deliverable.

Demonstrator

Via multiple iterations in your project, you will develop a robust prototype that features at least (part of) an intelligent system; and/or provides a clear experience (of a service) for the considered stakeholders.

Before the graduation presentation you have an opportunity to receive formative feedback from your graduation mentor on your project; and show your demonstrator in an exhibition-like setting, using a clear (visual) design identity; this moment is called the demo day. The demo day is a part of your competence assessment procedure and is a formative assessment moment. Participation on the demo day is required.

During the demo day, you pitch your ideas to a broad audience. In your pitch, you have to address your project result (using the “demonstrator” as is described above), the (design) process and integration of expertise areas.

You will be informed on the set-up of the demo day via the newsletter. When your project entails a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), please read the procedure for organizing your demo day on the NDA page.

Report

Via the report you must show that you are able to independently draw a clear and professional picture of the design (research) challenge. You must provide a clear description of different perspectives and potential approaches. You must provide arguments for choices that have been made and use references to external sources correctly.

You may decide upon the layout of the report yourself. Discuss the structure of your report with your mentor in advance; and check its alignment with your project and chosen Track/career direction.

 On Canvas you will deliver your report (pdf-A format) before the deadline as indicated on the Year Planning (on the Forms and files page). The digital copy of the report will be archived and published in the TU/e Repository. As such, these reports will be retrievable for an internal as well as external audience. In case of a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), inform the Master Coordinator in time, so that a special NDA assignment can be created on Canvas. In this case your report will only be archived but not published. 

Portfolio

In the course of a semester, you essentially go through iterative learning loops at two levels: a loop of competency development in each learning activity you do, and a loop of growth as a designer over the semester as a whole. For each learning activity, you save the deliverables, together with your reflections and feedback.

In these reflections, you look back on what you have achieved (reflection on action) and how this will direct and shape your future development (reflection for action). Deliverables, feedback and reflections are evidence that can be used for building your portfolio. Note that a portfolio in the context of our education refers to a learning portfolio reflecting on your development over our master program. This is not to be confused with a business portfolio (e.g. used for a job application) showcasing the best projects. You start already early on in your master with building your portfolio and discuss this during the semesters with your mentor.

At the end of your Final Master Project you have to build a portfolio that represents you as a designer. Your portfolio is visual and interactive. You review all deliverables, feedback, and reflections to determine how they have contributed to your overall development and growth as a designer. In order to create/update your portfolio you carefully select deliverables and enrich them with reflections on your development as a designer. You underpin your overall development with links to evidence from your learning activities. The frame for this development is on the one hand the Final Master Project rubrics, and on the other hand your own long-term goals for your individual growth as a designer.

The portfolio communicates your development as a designer and the development of the overall competence of designing, fitted in with your history as a designer up to that point. You include your development over the whole master program. Your portfolio is assessed at the end of the master program.

Proposed structure and content:
To support you in creating your portfolio, we hereby propose a minimal structure and content overview.

• Professional Identity: describe the developed professional identity.
• Vision: describe the developed vision.
• Past: reflect on your activities before your Final Master Project; and how this affected you as a designer.
• Present:reflect on how the courses and electives were integrated in the project and describe your level of development within the five areas of expertise, professional skills, professional identity and vision. Reflect on your overall growth.
• Future: describe your future plans.

On Canvas you will deliver your complete portfolio (pdf-A format, for archiving) and a link to an interactive document/webpage (you can include this on the front page of the .pdf file) before the deadline as indicated on the Year Planning (on Forms and files page). The rubrics are attached to the portfolio assignment on Canvas. Via these rubrics you receive feedback.

Examiners

The graduation panel consists of three examiners: including the graduation mentor. The expertise areas chosen by you as specialization during the master program are covered in the graduation panel (in e.g. the graduation mentor and expert). In order to assure objectivity, at least one of the three examiners in the panel is member of a different ID research group than the mentor. At least one* of the examiners has already examined you during the M21 semester. The panel is approved by the Examination Committee and will be communicated to you via CSA-ID.

In the Final Master Project assessment, we distinguish three roles:

• Independent examiner/chair
• Graduation mentor
• Expert examiner

Each panel member has another role in the Final Master Project assessment. The independent examiner/chair will chair the assessment meeting. The chair will both safeguard the assessment process and review the portfolio/overall competence development. The expert examiner will review the report/project. The graduation mentor will review both the report/project and portfolio/competence development.

You can find more information on the roles of the panel members in the FMP Assessment Procedure (on the Forms and files page).

_{*Depending on the generation of students one or two examiners was/were involved in the FMP Proposal and M21 Option assessment.}

Assessment Meeting

During your assessment meeting, you will present your work to the Graduation Panel. The assessment meeting itself consists of four parts. Only the first part of the meeting is open to the public (family, friends, clients, fellow students and staff).

1. Presentation.
You will present an overview of your Final Master Project  and competency development throughout the whole Master Program in approximately 20 minutes; this presentation is open to the public. The time spent on discussing the FMP and portfolio/competence development should be balanced, i.e., approximately 10 minutes each.

The presentation must be in English.

2. Oral examination.
The second part is the oral examination, which is closed to the public and involves only the student and the examiners. The duration of this is approximately 40 minutes and involves both questions about the overall competency development and the Final Master Project.

3. Deliberation.
The third part of the assessment meeting is a deliberation of at most 25 minutes between the three examiners, where the items included in the Final Master Project Rubrics are used to structure the discussion. The major outcome of this deliberation is a grade on a scale of 0-10 in full or half marks that all examiners agree upon.

4. Feedback.
After the committee deliberation, you will be provided with a short 5 minutesqualitative feedback on your performance. The actual grade is not shared.

CSA-ID will make the schedule for the graduation presentations with the student and the three examiners in the graduation panel and will inform you by mail or by sending a meeting request.

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Half of the assessment is based on Overall Competence of Designing and Scientific and Professional Skills; the other half is based on Professional Identity and Vision and Competence Development.

1. Overall Competence of Designing
   • Integration of Expertise Areas (Project)
   • Design and Research Processes
   • Demonstrator
2. Scientific and Professional Skills
   • Presenting
   • Reporting and Dealing with Scientific Information
   • Organizing and Planning
   • Reflecting
   • Cooperating
3. Professional Identity and Vision
   • Professional Identity
   • Vision
4. Competence Development
   • Integration of Expertise Areas (in the Competence Profile of the student)

You can find all criteria, topics and standards in the Rubrics Booklet (on the Forms and files page).

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During the deliberation part of the graduation session, the criteria in the Final Master Project rubrics are used as a lead for the discussion amongst the examiners. Based on the outcome of this deliberation, all three examiners agree upon a grade on a scale of 0-10 in full or half marks. The Graduation Mentor completes the rubrics on and collects feedback that is approved by all examiners and can be included in the rubrics. The independent examiner/chair has to approve the content of the rubrics before they will be published on Canvas. Note that you cannot be assessed if you do not deliver deliverables.

• In case all assessment criteria (Overall Competence of Designing  (OCD), Scientific and Professional Skills (SPS), Professional Identity and Vision (PIV) and Competence Development (EA)) are passed, the examiners agree on a grade on a scale of 6.0-10.0 in full or half marks. This grade does not need to be specified as a weighted sum of scores on individual assessment criteria.  
• Failing Overall Competence of Designing (OCD) implies an insufficient grade (of 5.5 or below) for the FMP assessment without the possibility for a retake.   
• In caseany criterium except Overall Competence of Designing (OCD) is judged insufficient , then the examiners discuss the requirements for raising the level to at least ‘sufficient’ (as defined in the FMP Rubrics). In case the examiners are of the opinion that fulfilling these requirements is feasible within the 3-week period available for the FMP retake, they propose a grade of at most 5.0 with a possibility for a retake and formulate the conditions for the retake. In case they are of the opinion that fulfilling the requirements is not feasible within the 3-week period available they propose an insufficient grade (of 5.5 or below) without the possibility for a retake.  
• No show/no deliverable(s): NV.

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You will receive a grade rounded to the nearest half grade on a scale of 0 to 10. You need a 6.0 or higher to pass. The Examination Committee of the Department of Industrial Design formally approves the list of grades of all graduating students before they are published by CSA-ID in Osiris.

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In case of a retake the student has to (based on the feedback of the examiners) redo the deliverables below:

• Improve the demonstrator
• Improve the report
• Improve the portfolio

The maximum deadline for the retake is 15 working days after the original grade is recorded in Osiris (≠ the publication date of the feedback/Rubrics on Canvas).

In case the student has to improve the report as part of the retake; the student should upload the complete (and updated) report in the retake assignment; this will be the report that will be published in the TU/e repository. As an addition (separate .pdf file), the student delivers a cover letter with information about the improvements done in the report.

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In case the student has failed the project or retake, the student can redo the Final Master Project the semester after. The student has to develop a new FMP Proposal. Deadlines for the Retry FMP are published in the Year Planning (on the Forms and files page).

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With passing your FMP assessment you have taken a major step in graduating for the Master Program. In order to receive your diploma you will need to have fulfilled all requirements for the master program. Read more about the requirements for the graduation procedure on the graduation page and subpages.

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