Thesis document and hand-in
Thesis is due electronically Week 13 of second project semester via submission website (for due date and time check the project timetable on http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~engg4801/).
Printed copies of the thesis and a CDrom containing all work done on your thesis are then to follow to the School office within 7 days. 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.
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 Bailes. 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.
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 printery 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 demo day website.
Printing your thesis (and paying for that)
The printing of your thesis should be organised immediately following your electronic hand-in (this probably means Thursday). We have deliberately separated the hand-in of your printed thesis from the electronic hand-in to reduce the pressure on you and on the printery. 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.
You are not forced to use the printery or the bookshop POD (print on demand) to print your thesis, but for uniformity, you must use them to bind your thesis. Their rates are very reasonable for B&W. For colour, I recommend you print your own colour pages and insert them manually yourself. The printery costs are as follows (all ex GST, so add 10% to the total):
- $0.09 per single sided B&W page
- $0.14 per double sided B&W page
- $2.00 per colour page ($4.00 for double sided colour)
- $6.00 for cover, binding and printing on spine.
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 printery for more detail.
POD costs are similar, but a bit cheaper for some items, in particular colour. POD is located in the UQ Bookshop in Staff House Road.
The printery is located beside the IMB building in Services Road.
Deliver your thesis PDF to the printery preferably on a CD. The printery now has EFTPOS facilities and payment can be made directly at the printery either at drop off or on collection. The student should then deliver a copy back to the School office.
At this time, burn and hand-in a supporting CD-Rom which contains all the files related to your thesis. Please 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 rather all the files than a tidy selection that is missing the one they need. Burn a second CD for yourself to keep. You may need the information in the future.