The defense procedure
----------------------
Candadate: Aneta Vulgarakis
Advisors: Ivica Crnkovic. Cristina Seceleanu, Paul Pettersson
Assessor: Tiziana Margaria
Examiner: Björn Lisper


Licentiate degree is a specific Swedish degree and it corresponds to a half PHD. 
By a lic. degree a student has to show his/her research work and ability to perform it 
- however the full research results (of the PHD level) still not to be achieved. 
The thesis and defense is a very good means for providing the students the comments 
and ideas for further research towards the PDH. The formal requirement for a Lic.
thesis is at least one research paper presented on an conference - for our research 
centre the requirement is somewhat higher:  two or three papers accepted and presented 
on conferences, preferably international conferences.


Prior to defense:
=================
The thesis should be available in the form close to the final form 2-3 weeks before 
the defense.

On-line version is usually available one or two weeks before the printed version.

The printed thesis will be sent to the assessor and the examiner as soon as it is available, 
but latest one week before the defense.

The assessor (often called the opponent) and the examiner are supposed to read the 
thesis and to prepare the discussion questions. If some of them have serious objections 
to the thesis he/she should contact the adviser and discuss the problems.


Defense
=======
The main role of the assessor is to discuss the thesis and related topics with 
the candidate during the defense.
The examiner decides whether the defendant has passed or not the defense.

Please note, that the guidelines provided here are meant to clarify and not to tell 
exactly how to perform your task. The objective is to focus on the expectations 
at a defense, and not on how you should actually pursue the discussions

At the defense (open to the public):
=====================================
The defense process goes as following.
1. 
Presentation of the participants.

2. 
The candidate presents the main points in the thesis. The objective is to highlight 
the area. The presentation should be understandable to people with a technical background 
(typically computer science, computer engineering or electrical engineering) although 
not experts in the particular topic.
Duration: approximately 30 minutes.

3.
The assessor questions and discusses the thesis with the candidate.
He/she may start with his/her impression of the thesis, but this also can be done at the 
end of the questions session. The questions should primarily be directed towards the 
work conducted. In particular, issues which need to be clarified or challenged, 
for example, in terms of why you have not done it in this way and so forth.

The main objective is to make sure that the defendant knows the subject and 
is able to defend and explain his work.

The assessor is not expected to conduct a general inquiry about software engineering 
or computer science, although some questions may challenge the defendant in areas 
closely related to the thesis. The focus should be on the research and questions 
related to the research. The actual questions and things to cover are very much 
up to the assessor. For example, a discussion about future work, can be of great 
interest for further work of the defender.

At the end of the session, the assessor is expected to summarize her/his impression from 
the thesis and the defense. The summary is typically 1-2 minutes long.

The discission duration: approximately 45 minutes. It may continue for longer 
if the assessor does not feel that the work has been covered enough.

4. The examiner is next to put questions to the defendant. Normally, the examiner adds 
a couple of questions to highlight some aspects that he/she feels are not sufficiently 
covered or he/she has additional questions.

Duration: approximately 10-15 minutes

5. It is now opened up for questions from the audience. Normally, only a couple 
of questions are asked by the audience.

The decision process
=====================

6. The examiner, assessor and advisor(s) meet after the defense (closed meeting). The examiner 
brings the decision (pass/not pass) after a short discussion with the assessor and the 
advisors. The decision is usually positive otherwise someone should have objected before 
the defense.

7. The examiner announces the decision, and the procedure is over.


In addition to the thesis (which should be equivalent to 1 to 1.2 years full time work, 
the licentiate includes 0.8 - 1 year of course work.
The courses are not part of the defense. They are approved by the advisor.