Thesis Format

This year the senior theses will be submitted in pdf format and eventually placed in the online CIS electronic thesis archive. Every organization has a required format for a thesis, and CIS is no different. In general, we will use the style accepted by IS&T which is the American Institute of Physics (AIP) style. Details of this format can be found in the AIP Style Manual. There is some flexibility in our format, but please ask before deviating from the format in this manual.

The specific requirements for the Senior Thesis in CIS are as follows.

  1. The thesis must have a white background, black text, 8.5" x 11" portriate format, 1" page borders, and be single spaced. (Your advisor may want double spaced on a draft for comments.)

  2. Figures and Tables should be embedded in the text.

  3. All figures must be numbered consecutively and have a text caption below the image.

  4. Tables must have a Table number and a title at the top. Tables must be numbered consecutively as they appear in the text.

  5. The thesis must have: a title page, a copyright form, an abstract page, a table of contents, a body, and references pages. The thesis may have: an acknowledgements page, a table of figures page, a table of tables page, a table of symbols and abbreviations page, and appendices. The body of the thesis may have sections titled: introduction, background, theory, experimental methods, results, discussion, conclusions. Please see the example file for more specific information.

  6. There is no limit on the length of a thesis. There is however, a minimum which is dependent on the project.

  7. The final posted thesis must be in PDF format.
Submission Procedure

    Please follow the following 12 steps.
    1. Provide your advisor with a proposed table of contents (TOC).
    2. Iterate on TOC based on advisor’s feedback.
    3. Start writing sections of your thesis.
    4. Provide your advisor with drafts of the various sections.
    5. Iterate on the contents of these sections.
    6. During the iterations, start paying attention to the required thesis format.
    7. Once your advisor is ready to sign off on your thesis have him or her send me an e-mail.
    8. Provide me with an electronic pdf copy of your thesis.
    9. Once I receive your advisor’s e-mail, I will confirm the format.
    10. Make any format changes I recommend.
    11. Place the final pdf copy on your web page and provide me with a final electronic copy.
    12. You are finished!

    The key to finishing on time is allotting enough time for each of the above steps. I will not accept the excuse that my advisor was unable to read my thesis before the deadline. You have worked with your advisor for over twenty weeks, you should know their turnaround time on requests by now. If your advisor is slow, give material to your advisor earlier.