Aalto University Advanced Energy Solutions School of Engineering Master’s Thesis Guide: ENG Majors, 30 ECTS and 2027 Transition

This guide covers the School of Engineering (ENG) majors inside Aalto University’s Master’s Programme in Advanced Energy Solutions. Under the current 2026–2028 curriculum, that shared administrative route includes Energy in Buildings and Built Environment (ENG3068), Energy Conversion Processes (ENG3069), which is renamed Energy Conversion and Computational Engineering from 1 August 2027, and the new Energy Production, Economics and Sustainability (ENG3075) effective 1 August 2027.

All use a 30 ECTS School of Engineering thesis process. The default thesis code depends on the major/supervisor department: CE.thes is used for the current Energy in Buildings and Built Environment route, while EME.thes is used for the ENG3069 and ENG3075 routes. The maturity requirement is ENG.matr, 0 ECTS. The programme’s cross-school footnote can move the thesis code to CHEM.thes or ELEC.thes when the supervising professor belongs to those schools.

The common ENG planning baseline is approximately six months full-time / about 800 hours. The written thesis is individual, the process uses a supervisor and one or two advisors, topic/supervision information and final submission run through MyStudies, a research proposal controls scope, the finished thesis must be presented, the abstract serves as the maturity essay, the final file is PDF/A, grading is 0–5 and the Degree Programme Committee gives formal approval.

Advanced Energy Solutions adds its own presentation option: with supervisor agreement, the finished thesis may be presented as a 10–15 minute public video using approximately 8–12 slides.

The current Advanced Energy Solutions ENG major and thesis codes

The ENG administration covers multiple Advanced Energy Solutions majors under one School of Engineering thesis process:

• Energy in Buildings and Built Environment - ENG3068: default thesis code CE.thes, 30 ECTS;
• Energy Conversion Processes - ENG3069: default thesis code EME.thes, 30 ECTS; the major name changes to Energy Conversion and Computational Engineering on 1 August 2027;
• Energy Production, Economics and Sustainability - ENG3075: a new major effective 1 August 2027, default thesis code EME.thes, 30 ECTS.

All use ENG.matr, 0 ECTS, for the maturity requirement in the current curriculum.

The thesis-code footnote follows the supervising professor’s school. A CHEM supervisor can mean CHEM.thes; an ELEC supervisor can mean ELEC.thes; within ENG the applicable department determines CE.thes or EME.thes. This is a coding/approval detail, not a reason to create separate ENG thesis procedures for each major.

Students affected by the 2027 major-name/new-major transition should make sure the selected major and thesis code in Sisu/MyStudies match their actual curriculum and supervisor.

Start topic planning before the second-year spring

Aalto recommends the spring term of the second year for the thesis. At the same time, the curriculum and recommended timetable encourage students to start topic planning earlier.

This is sensible for Advanced Energy Solutions ENG because many projects depend on evidence that cannot be arranged instantly. Experimental rigs, building-monitoring campaigns or operational datasets may require advance access. Simulation projects may depend on validated boundary conditions or calibration data. Company energy-system data may require access agreements. Techno-economic or stakeholder studies may require carefully defined datasets, interviews or policy evidence.

There are two normal routes into a topic. Programme professors may offer topics linked to current research, and students may also propose their own topic to a potential supervisor. In either case, the topic should be connected to the programme’s advanced studies and fit the expertise of the intended supervisor.

Before formalising a topic, test four things:

1. Researchability: can the practical energy-engineering problem be turned into a clear academic question?
2. Evidence: are the required measurements, datasets, samples, documents or participants realistically available?
3. Method fit: can the proposed method actually answer the question?
4. Scope: can the work be completed at a 30 ECTS scale within the agreed schedule?

Early narrowing is often more valuable than making a broad topic sound ambitious.

The ENG majors share one thesis administration

The subject matter differs considerably across the ENG majors, but current public sources support one School of Engineering thesis process.

An Energy in Buildings and Built Environment thesis might study building energy performance, HVAC systems, indoor environments, district energy, demand flexibility or building-stock transition. An Energy Conversion and Computational Engineering thesis may focus on thermofluids, conversion systems, numerical modelling, optimisation or computational engineering. Energy Production, Economics and Sustainability adds a stronger energy-production, system-economics and sustainability orientation from August 2027.

Those differences shape the research question, data and methods. They do not create separate rules for MyStudies, individual authorship, research proposal, presentation, maturity abstract, PDF/A or Degree Programme Committee approval.

Choose the supervisor and advisor structure correctly

Under current School of Engineering policy, thesis supervision can be provided by professors and certain other authorised academic staff, including adjunct professors, professors of practice, senior university lecturers and principal university lecturers.

The thesis may have one or two advisors. An advisor must hold at least a master’s degree. The advisor may be an Aalto researcher, doctoral researcher, university teacher, company specialist, consultant, energy-company specialist, engineering consultant or another person with relevant expertise.

The roles are different. The supervisor carries the university’s academic responsibility for the thesis and must ensure that the work meets School of Engineering expectations. An advisor may provide more frequent technical, empirical, organisational or domain-specific guidance.

For a thesis connected to an external organisation, a practical arrangement is often an authorised Aalto supervisor plus an external advisor who knows the data, system or project context. External involvement does not replace the academic supervisor.

The written thesis must be individual

School of Engineering policy states that master’s theses cannot be written as pair or group written theses. The assessed written thesis is individual work.

This does not prevent students from working in the same research group, using related datasets or contributing to a broader laboratory, energy-system, building-performance or company project. It means each student needs an independently defensible research problem, contribution, analysis and written report.

In Advanced Energy Solutions ENG this boundary is especially relevant in team-based research environments. Two students may work around the same energy system or conversion or building-energy process, but each thesis must make clear what that student investigated, which evidence was analysed, which conclusions are justified, and how the work remains independently assessable.

Formalise the topic and supervision in MyStudies

The formal School of Engineering thesis process uses MyStudies. Before completing the topic step, the student should already have agreed the topic with the intended supervisor and advisor or advisors.

The MyStudies thesis record contains the core thesis information, including topic, supervisor, advisor arrangements and thesis language. The record then connects to later submission, evaluation and archiving.

The ENG guideline also expects the student’s degree structure and study plan to be in order at the thesis stage. Advanced Energy Solutions ENG is designed so that major studies are largely completed during the first year, and this is one reason the second-year thesis can be approached with the necessary subject knowledge.

Do not leave formal topic and supervision details until the final month. An accurate MyStudies record is part of the thesis process, not merely an upload box at the end.

Build the research proposal before full execution

The School of Engineering thesis workflow includes a research proposal. This is where a broad interest becomes a manageable research project.

The proposal should define, as relevant:

• the background and theoretical or technical framework;
• the research problem and research questions;
• the main objective and possible intermediate objectives;
• the evidence or empirical material;
• the research or design methods;
• the timetable; and
• important practical constraints, including budget where relevant.

For Advanced Energy Solutions ENG, feasibility questions can be concrete. If measurements are essential, when and where can they be collected? If an energy-conversion experiment is planned, what rig, sensors and operating conditions are needed? If the thesis uses company or building data, who controls access and in what format? If a model is used, what calibration and validation evidence is available? If interviews or market/policy evidence are planned, what sampling and documentation rules apply?

A strong proposal makes these dependencies visible before the project becomes difficult to change.

Treat six months and about 800 hours as a scope constraint

The School of Engineering treats a 30 ECTS thesis as approximately six months of full-time study. Its thesis guidance also uses roughly 800 hours as the overall workload planning baseline.

These numbers are not a stopwatch. They are a scope-control tool. A thesis should be demanding enough to demonstrate master’s-level competence without becoming an open-ended research programme.

For Advanced Energy Solutions ENG, scope creep can happen in several ways: collecting too many operating variables, expanding a model across too many systems, trying to test too many conversion/building scenarios, adding too many market or stakeholder dimensions, or turning one research question into a consultancy project with many deliverables.

The student, supervisor and advisor should agree a realistic schedule and adjust the research design if access or data problems appear. ENG evaluation guidance also allows schedule performance to be considered in assessment, while delays outside the student’s control are treated as extenuating circumstances.

The practical lesson is to define a credible stopping point before the project starts.

Match the method to the energy-engineering question

Advanced Energy Solutions does not prescribe one universal ENG thesis method. Method choice follows the research problem and the major context.

A buildings thesis may use monitored building data, simulation, energy-system optimisation, indoor-environment measurements or lifecycle analysis. An energy-conversion thesis may use experiments, numerical modelling, computational fluid dynamics, system simulation or optimisation. Energy-production/economics/sustainability work may combine technical modelling with market, policy, lifecycle or techno-economic evidence.

The controlling principle is alignment: the evidence must be suitable for the question, the method must generate results capable of answering it, and conclusions must stay within the limitations of the data/model/experiment. A complex model is not automatically a stronger thesis if a simpler design answers the question more credibly.

Company and commissioned energy theses remain academic and public

Advanced Energy Solutions has strong links to industry, consulting, utilities, energy companies and research organisations. A commissioned thesis can therefore be a natural route into a relevant engineering problem.

An external partner may provide data, software, equipment, sites, technical systems or practical constraints. The thesis still remains an Aalto academic work and must satisfy School of Engineering evaluation criteria.

The evaluated master’s thesis is also a public document. Confidential partner information, personal data, security-sensitive system details or trade secrets cannot simply be placed into the evaluated thesis and hidden by agreement. Set the confidentiality boundary before data collection and keep confidential deliverables separate from the assessed public thesis.

Use literature, Turnitin and AI responsibly

A Advanced Energy Solutions ENG thesis should be built on relevant scientific and professional literature. Depending on the topic, this may include peer-reviewed energy and engineering research, engineering standards, modelling literature, technical reports, policy documents or other defensible sources.

Turnitin can support source-use and originality checking. A similarity percentage is not itself a plagiarism verdict. Correct quotations, references and common technical language can contribute to similarity, so the report must be interpreted in context.

The student remains responsible for citation, paraphrasing, data integrity, calculations, model choices and final accuracy.

AI use must follow current Aalto and thesis-specific rules. Do not place confidential research data, personal information or restricted project material into unapproved public AI services. Most importantly, language models are not permitted in the maturity test under current Aalto guidance.

Complete the Advanced Energy Solutions presentation before approval

The finished thesis must be presented before the approval application. Advanced Energy Solutions publishes a specific option that applies across its ENG majors.

With supervisor agreement, the presentation may be a public video of approximately 10–15 minutes using roughly 8–12 PowerPoint slides. The video should identify Aalto University, the thesis and supervisor/advisor(s); the student must be the speaker and be visible for at least part of the recording. Send the link to the supervisor by the application deadline and keep the video public until thesis approval.

A live presentation or equivalent event can be used instead. Follow the current supervisor/research-group arrangement and do not import a presentation duration from another School of Engineering programme.

The abstract serves as the maturity essay

At the School of Engineering, the thesis abstract serves as the maturity essay. The supervisor checks whether the abstract demonstrates knowledge of the thesis topic and field.

Depending on the student’s earlier education and whether Finnish or Swedish proficiency has already been demonstrated, a language check may also be required. The ENG guideline advises reserving roughly 14 days for a required Language Centre check.

The maturity essay is assessed separately on a pass/fail basis. Because the thesis abstract is the assessed maturity component, the current Aalto restriction on language-model use applies directly to that component.

Students should therefore finalise the abstract as an academic requirement, not treat it as an afterthought generated at submission time.

Submit the final thesis through MyStudies as PDF/A

The final School of Engineering thesis is submitted electronically through MyStudies. The current ENG guideline requires the examined thesis file to be PDF/A.

Before final submission, the thesis should already be in its examined form. Topic and supervision should be approved, the presentation should be complete, the maturity abstract should be ready, and the supervisor should have had enough time to review the manuscript.

Approved theses are transferred to Aaltodoc for archiving. Full-text online publication consent is separate from the legal and academic status of the approved thesis as a public document.

Validate the PDF/A file before the deadline rather than discovering format problems during the final upload.

Understand how the thesis is graded

School of Engineering master’s theses use the 0–5 scale:

• 0 = fail;
• 1 = passable;
• 2 = satisfactory;
• 3 = good;
• 4 = very good; and
• 5 = excellent.

The supervisor submits a written evaluation statement and proposed grade. The Degree Programme Committee makes the formal approval and grading decision.

Evaluation is broader than whether the technical result appears useful. Current ENG criteria consider the research problem, scope and goals, command of relevant theory and sources, appropriateness of methods and empirical material, analysis and conclusions, structure and presentation, and the student’s independent project performance.

For proposed grades 1, 5 or fail, the ENG guideline requires an additional independent academic consultation or second-examiner step. A thesis submitted for evaluation is normally expected to be evaluated within four weeks.

Allow time for supervisor review before the administrative deadline

The final deadline should not be the date on which the supervisor first sees a complete manuscript.

Work backwards from the intended evaluation deadline and reserve time for:

1. a complete manuscript;
2. supervisor and advisor feedback;
3. corrections;
4. presentation of the finished thesis;
5. maturity-abstract completion and any language check;
6. PDF/A validation; and
7. the MyStudies evaluation application.

Experimental and field-based Advanced Energy Solutions ENG projects need an extra buffer because the analysis stage may expose missing measurements, failed experiments or model problems. The earlier the student and supervisor identify these issues, the easier it is to protect the submission plan.

Current Advanced Energy Solutions ENG thesis-approval boundary

As verified on 30 August 2026, the current public ENG Advanced Energy Solutions graduation pages still provide thesis-relevant committee timing through the remaining 2026 cycle:

• 28 September 2026 → Degree Programme Committee 19 October;
• 23 November 2026 → 14 December; and
• 31 December 2026 → January 2027.

The live ENG route pages do not yet publish a complete route-specific 2027 Degree Programme Committee thesis-approval calendar. This guide therefore does not copy the CHEM or ELEC 2027 committee dates and label them as ENG dates.

Students planning a 2027 approval should recheck the relevant Advanced Energy Solutions ENG graduation page and the authenticated School of Engineering thesis guidance before fixing the submission date.

A practical Advanced Energy Solutions ENG thesis workflow

A defensible sequence is:

1. Review the HOPS and first-year progress. Make sure the major foundation is strong enough for the intended topic.
2. Explore the Advanced Energy Solutions ENG study paths and research groups. Use them to identify a problem area, not to invent separate thesis rules.
3. Start topic discussions early. Consider Aalto research topics and external energy-sector projects before second-year spring.
4. Agree an eligible supervisor and advisor structure. Clarify who has academic responsibility and who provides day-to-day expertise.
5. Formalise topic and supervision in MyStudies. Keep the thesis record accurate.
6. Prepare the research proposal. Lock the question, evidence, method, scope and schedule.
7. Execute a six-month-scale project. Protect the 30 ECTS boundary and document material changes.
8. Use supervision actively. Raise data, laboratory, modelling or access problems early.
9. Deliver a complete manuscript with review time left. Do not wait for the administrative deadline.
10. Complete the finished-thesis presentation. Use the current Advanced Energy Solutions ENG/ENG arrangement agreed with the supervisor.
11. Finalise the maturity abstract. Respect language requirements and the language-model prohibition.
12. Validate PDF/A and submit through MyStudies. Recheck the live deadline.
13. Allow for Degree Programme Committee approval. Submission and formal approval are separate stages.
14. Request graduation in Sisu when degree requirements are ready. Keep the study plan approved and attendance status valid.

Final checklist

Before final submission, confirm that:

• your thesis is the current 30 ECTS School of Engineering thesis using the code that matches your major/supervisor (CE.thes, EME.thes, or the applicable cross-school code);
• ENG.matr is the separate 0 ECTS maturity requirement;
• you have not added an invented Advanced Energy Solutions ENG thesis-seminar credit value;
• the written thesis is individual;
• the supervisor is eligible under current ENG rules;
• any advisor has at least a master’s degree;
• topic and supervision information are approved in MyStudies;
• the research proposal defines a feasible question, evidence base, method and schedule;
• the project remains realistic around the six-month / ~800-hour ENG baseline;
• the chosen method fits the actual energy-engineering question;
• confidential partner or personal information is outside the evaluated public thesis where required;
• citations, Turnitin and academic-integrity issues have been resolved;
• the finished-thesis presentation is complete;
• the abstract satisfies the maturity requirement and no prohibited language-model assistance was used;
• the final examined file is valid PDF/A;
• the current Advanced Energy Solutions ENG thesis/graduation deadline has been rechecked; and
• no presentation rule or 2027 deadline has been imported from another programme.

The most reliable planning principle is simple: treat Advanced Energy Solutions as a broad research context inside one common School of Engineering thesis process. The thesis question may involve building energy, energy conversion, computational engineering, energy production, economics or sustainability, but successful completion still depends on a researchable problem, feasible evidence, an agreed schedule, active supervision and disciplined completion of the ENG approval steps.