Thesis and dissertation subjects are decided by students and their directors through consultation by taking the student interests and the director research areas into account. Also, research plans are reviewed to ensure that research content and plans are properly established and to facilitate research activities of the degree candidates.
Coursework seminar for research activities
The Department of Mathematical Sciences operates colloquia in spring and fall semesters each year to help graduate students learn about recent trends in research in an efficient manner and conduct ongoing research more effectively. Domestically and internationally renowned experts are selected and invited to the colloquia.
Students in the master program are required to complete a minimum of one credit hour of colloquium (one credit/semester) offered by the department. Doctoral students are required to complete a minimum of two credit hours of colloquium (one credit/semester) offered by the department.
Thesis and dissertation guidance through research projects of laboratories and industries
If subjects of theses and dissertations are related to research projects of laboratories and industries conducted by their directors, degree candidates can participate in such projects and perform research, and thereby gain experience of joint research with researchers at laboratories and in industries, and learn about recent trends in research.
Thesis and dissertation guidance through attendance at symposia home and abroad
Directors actively encourage students in both master and doctoral programs to participate in domestic and international symposia to publish their papers, and cover such expenses to help graduate and doctoral students to learn about recent trends in research at home and abroad and strengthen exchange with other researchers.
Directors'guidance
Under the guidance of directors, latest research trends and research progress are reviewed at prescheduled seminars once or twice a week.
Guidance on theses and dissertations are given through seminars along with one-on-one interviews between directors and students. Directors instruct students to study their research subjects thoroughly and comprehensively, while encouraging them to be creative so that they can achieve new research outcomes.
For efficient guidance, the number of students per director and the size of labs are adjusted appropriately to ensure that effective result outcomes are achieved through more in-depth guidance.
Directors should learn about experts of each research field at home and abroad, and actively invite them to lab-sized seminars. In addition, directors should make sure to help students achieve international research outcomes through continued research exchange with the experts.
Evaluation of theses and dissertations
Organization of thesis and dissertation committees.
Based on the following criteria, the president organizes evaluation committees responsible for evaluating master theses and doctoral dissertations on the president behalf.
The evaluation committee for graduate and professional master degree theses consists of three full-time faculty members at KAIST appointed by the president. However, one outside expert of a given field can additionally join the committee when such an addition is deemed necessary by the president.
The evaluation committee for doctoral dissertations comprises five full-time faculty members at KAIST who are appointed by the president and who are closely related to the material covered by the submitted dissertation. However, two outside experts of a given field can additionally join the committee when such an addition is deemed necessary by the president. Currently, the Department of Mathematical Sciences appoints one outside expert to the committee to ensure fairness of evaluation.
Role and details of dissertation committee
KAIST performs a dissertation defense only when the dissertation in question has already been approved for publication in a renowned academic journal overseas. However, if necessary, even at the stage when the dissertation has only been submitted to a renowned journal overseas, it can still be defended with the dissertation director approval.
The dissertation committee evaluates the dissertation proposal submitted (this applies to doctoral candidates only), and dissertation defense as well as oral examination on the dissertation itself and the area of specialization without delay, and reports the outcomes to the president .
The president appoints the dissertation director as the chairman of the dissertation committee who will supervise the process of defense. In terms of defense, the chairman has the same authority as other committee members. Committee members can request the candidate to submit articles and translations of articles quoted, models, samples, and other references when deemed necessary for the defense.
Thesis evaluation and dissertation defense focus on the content of the thesis and dissertation submitted, and the result will be pass or fail.
The general examination consists of two parts: one part for oral examination on the thesis or dissertation submitted and the other for oral examination on the area of specialization. However, for the master degree program and professional masters degree program, under the school regulations, oral examination on theses can be omitted while oral examination on area of specialization can be conducted as needed by each department.
Oral examination of a thesis or a dissertation is conducted on the content of the article submitted and can be performed in conjunction with thesis examination or dissertation defense, and the result will be pass or fail.
Oral examination on the area of specialization is conducted for each area of specialization to evaluate comprehensive research capabilities of a student who has completed specialization areas in each course, and can be performed in conjunction with a thesis examination or dissertation defense, and the result will be pass or fail.
The dissertation defense is open to the public. However, if the dissertation director requests a private defense due to an industrial property rights application, the defense may not be open to the public. For an open defense, the degree candidate, the title of the dissertation, and the scheduled date and location of the defense must be announced seven days prior to the scheduled defense date.
Decision of degree award and submittal of thesis and dissertation
The decision to award a degree is first deliberated by the academic-research deliberation committee based on the set degree awarding criteria and then made by the president.
A thesis or a dissertation is submitted to the dean of academic affairs through the department head after being approved by the director. Master theses and professional master theses must be submitted by the end of May or November, while doctoral dissertations must be submitted by the end of April or October.
When a thesis or dissertation submitted is considered insufficient by the thesis evaluation committee or the dissertation committee, and thus fails, the degree candidate may augment the content and resubmit it.
Employment records and plans for support
Employment goals
