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This is a web feed, also known as an Atom feed. Subscribe by copying the URL from the address bar into your newsreader. Visit About Feeds to learn more and get started. It's free.Visit websiteRecent postsUpdated on $DATEdateAlceste ScalasAlceste ScalasAlceste's websiteZola2026-04-13T00:00:00+00:00https://people.compute.dtu.dk/alcsc/atom.xmlBSc and MSc Final Projects2026-04-13T00:00:00+00:002026-04-13T00:00:00+00:00Alceste Scalashttps://people.compute.dtu.dk/alcsc/teaching/projects/<p>Here is a mostly complete
<strong><a rel="external" href="https://findit.dtu.dk/en/catalog?dtu=student_theses&per_page=50&q=type%3Athesis+AND+supervisor%3A%22Scalas%2C+Alceste%22&sort=year&utf8=%E2%9C%93">list of final projects I have (co-)supervised at DTU</a></strong>.</p>
<p>Are you a student? Are you considering me as a possible supervisor for your MSc
or BSc final project? Here is how you can start and what you can expect.</p>
<h2 id="requesting-a-project-supervision">Requesting a Project Supervision</h2>
<p><strong>I receive many project supervision requests</strong>, and I am often unable to accept
all of them. If you follow these instructions, you will improve your chances.</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>Contact me as soon as possible – ideally, at least <strong>two months</strong> before
your project is expected to start.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>When you contact me, please <strong>include your exam transcript</strong>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>If you already have a project idea, please include a tentative
<strong>project description</strong> as outlined below.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<h2 id="project-description">Project Description</h2>
<p>Before your project starts, I will ask you to write a <strong>project description</strong> in
<em>plain text</em> (not PDF!) containing the following information:</p>
<ul>
<li>Project title (in English and Danish);</li>
<li>Expected project start date;</li>
<li>Number of
<a rel="external" href="https://education.ec.europa.eu/education-levels/higher-education/inclusive-and-connected-higher-education/european-credit-transfer-and-accumulation-system">ECTS</a>
(30, 32.5, or 35);</li>
<li>One paragraph providing some background about the project;</li>
<li>One paragraph describing what problem(s) or research question(s) the project
addresses, and what is its objective;</li>
<li>One paragraph outlining the intended approach.</li>
</ul>
<p>Moreover, <strong>if the project involves a supervisor from a company</strong> you’ll need
to specify:</p>
<ul>
<li>Name and email address of the company supervisor(s);</li>
<li>Whether you expect the final thesis to be kept confidential (e.g. because
it may reveal private data about the company producs or systems);</li>
<li>Whether the project supervision will be provided:
<ul>
<li><em>(A)</em> mainly by DTU, or</li>
<li><em>(B)</em> mainly by the company, or</li>
<li><em>(C)</em> by both DTU and the company in collaborative fashion.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>The information above is usually quite short (one A4 page or less) and I will
ask <em>you</em> to write it down to make sure we agree on the project objectives an
scope. After we reach an agreement on the project description, I’ll register it
on the DTU system and the project will officially start.</p>
<h2 id="during">During the Project</h2>
<p>We will schedule <strong>weekly supervision meetings</strong> (or bi-weekly meetings, if I am
not the primary project supervisor). For each meeting, you are expected to set a
<strong>meeting agenda</strong> that will usually consist of a status update and a list of
topics to discuss.</p>
<p>Within one month after the beginning of the project you will need to submit a
<strong>project plan</strong>:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>I typically expect a <strong>Gantt chart</strong> with one-week granularity and a
brief description of each task and milestone;</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>It is important to establish <strong>how you will evaluate the project results</strong> and
plan the project activities accordingly;</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>I recommend identifying a <strong>“minimum viable product” (MVP)</strong> for the project
and planning and prioritising the project activities to reach the MVP
milestone around 1/2 or 2/3 of the project time frame. After the MVP, the
project plan can continue with improvements and extensions; this will ensure
some flexibility in case of difficulties or delays.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>I recommend maintaining a <strong>working draft of your thesis</strong> during your project:
you can start early by outlining the section titles
(see <a href="https://people.compute.dtu.dk/alcsc/teaching/projects/#writing">“Writing Your Thesis”</a>) and add notes and update
the contents as your project progresses. The last weeks of the project can be
focused on thesis writing – and if your working draft is well-kept and
up-to-date, the writing will proceed more smoothly.</p>
<h2 id="writing">Writing Your Thesis</h2>
<p>I recommend the excellent
<strong><a rel="external" href="https://writing.chalmers.se/chalmers-writing-guide/">Chalmers Writing Guide</a></strong>.</p>
<p>Here is a <strong>typical thesis structure</strong>: it usually works well (especially for
projects involving software development) but it can be adapted as needed.</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p><strong>Introduction</strong> with some background information, the problem statement, and
an outline of the project objectives and achievements.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Background</strong>: information that the reader needs to know in order to
understand the rest of the thesis.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Design/method</strong>: how you designed your solution in order to meet the project
requirements and achieve the objectives. Here you can refine and prioritise
the project requirements and objectives; the
<a rel="external" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MoSCoW_method">MoSCoW method</a> can help.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Implementation</strong>: how you implemented your solution, based on the project
design/method.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Evaluation</strong>: how you assessed whether the project requirements were met and
the objectives achieved.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Related work</strong>: discuss the related literature and similar projects and
products; analyse similarities, differences, and limitations of your work.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Conclusion</strong>: summarise the results of the project. This section usually
includes discussion and reflection (e.g. on alternative approaches, or things
that in hindsight could have been done differently), and future work.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Optional <strong>appedices</strong> with technical content that may be too verbose to
present in the main text of your thesis (e.g., depending on the project: long
code listings, user survey questionnaires, detailed mathematical proofs…).</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="submitting-your-thesis">Submitting Your Thesis</h2>
<p>When you submit your thesis, please include:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>The <strong>main PDF file</strong> of your thesis;</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>If your project involves a software implementation, an archive containing the
<strong>project source code and build instructions</strong>. Please remember to
<strong>choose a license for your code</strong>:</p>
<ul>
<li>Here are some <a rel="external" href="https://choosealicense.com/">suggestions on open source licenses</a>
(I usually recommend the <a rel="external" href="https://choosealicense.com/licenses/mit/">MIT license</a>);</li>
<li>In any case, you own the copyright of the code you write, so the choice is
yours.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>A <strong>separate PDF file</strong> containing the
<a href="https://people.compute.dtu.dk/alcsc/teaching/projects/#during">plan submitted during the first month of the project</a>. If
necessary, you can include a discussion on whether the project plan was
followed, or whether there were significant divergences.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p><strong>NOTE:</strong> for projects that are co-supervised by a company, we may agree on
different arrangements (e.g., you may not need to submit the code).</p>
Two papers accepted at ECOOP'262026-04-10T00:00:00+00:002026-04-10T00:00:00+00:00Alceste Scalashttps://people.compute.dtu.dk/alcsc/news/20260410/The papers _'[Compositional Design, Implementation, and Verification of Swarms](https://2026.ecoop.org/details/ecoop-2026-technical-papers/23/Compositional-Design-Implementation-and-Verification-of-Swarms)'_ (with Florian Furbach, Lucas Clorius, Roland Kuhn, Hernan Melgratti, and Emilio Tuosto) and _'[NEST: Network Enforced Session Types](https://2026.ecoop.org/details/ecoop-2026-technical-papers/3/NEST-Network-Enforced-Session-Types)'_ (with Jens Kanstrup Larsen, Guy Amir, Jules Jacobs, Jana Wagemaker, and Nate Foster) have been accepted at [ECOOP 2026](https://2026.ecoop.org/).Congratulations Radek!2026-03-27T00:00:00+00:002026-03-27T00:00:00+00:00Alceste Scalashttps://people.compute.dtu.dk/alcsc/news/20260327/My PhD student [Radoslaw Jan Rowicki](https://dblp.org/pid/415/2762.html) has successfully defended his PhD thesis _'Distributed Deadlock Detection via Black-Box Monitoring.'_ The PhD assessment committee members were [Simon Thompson](https://www.kent.ac.uk/school-of-computing/people/3164/thompson-simon) (Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary, and University of Kent, UK), [Jesper Bengtson](https://dblp.org/pid/65/1245.html) (IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark), and [Christoph Matheja](https://cmath.eu/) (DTU). Congratulations Radek!Paper accepted at the Programming Journal and conference2026-01-29T00:00:00+00:002026-01-29T00:00:00+00:00Alceste Scalashttps://people.compute.dtu.dk/alcsc/news/20260129/The paper _'[JoinActors: A Modular Library for Actors with Join Patterns](https://doi.org/10.22152/programming-journal.org/2026/11/4)'_ and its [artifact](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18411860) have been accepted by the [Programming Journal](https://programming-journal.org/). This is joint work with Ayman Hussein, Philipp Haller, Ioannis Karras, Hernán Melgratti, and Emilio Tuosto. It will be presented at the [<Programming> 2026 conference](https://2026.programming-conference.org/).Congratulations Jens!2025-11-07T00:00:00+00:002025-11-07T00:00:00+00:00Alceste Scalashttps://people.compute.dtu.dk/alcsc/news/20251107/My PhD student [Jens Kanstrup Larsen](https://dblp.org/pid/356/3789.html) has successfully defended his PhD thesis _'Safe and Secure Software-Defined Networks in P4.'_ The PhD assessment committee members were [Peter Thiemann](http://www2.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/~thiemann/) (University of Freiburg, Germany), [Marco Peressotti](https://marcoperessotti.com/) (University of Southern Denmark), and [Sebastian Mödersheim](https://people.compute.dtu.dk/samo/) (DTU). Congratulations Jens!Paper accepted at ICTAC'252025-08-29T00:00:00+00:002025-08-29T00:00:00+00:00Alceste Scalashttps://people.compute.dtu.dk/alcsc/news/20250829/The paper _'[On Asynchronous Multiparty Session Types for Federated Learning](https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-11176-0_11)'_ has been accepted at [ICTAC 2025](https://ictac2025.digital-hub.sh/). This is joint work with Ivan Prokic, Simona Prokic, Silvia Ghilezan, and Nobuko Yoshida. An [extended version](https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2504.21108) is available on arXiv.Paper accepted at OOPSLA'252025-08-11T00:00:00+00:002025-08-11T00:00:00+00:00Alceste Scalashttps://people.compute.dtu.dk/alcsc/news/20250811/The paper _'[Correct Black-Box Monitors for Distributed Deadlock Detection: Formalisation and Implementation](https://doi.org/10.1145/3763069)'_ and its [artifact (DDMon)](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16909304) have been accepted at [OOPSLA 2025](https://2025.splashcon.org/track/OOPSLA). This is joint work with Radoslaw Jan Rowicki and Adrian Francalanza.