Aalto University Health Technology Engineering Master’s Thesis Guide, 2026–2028

Aalto University’s Master’s Programme in Health Technology Engineering (HTE) is a 120 ECTS Master of Science (Technology) programme organised by the School of Electrical Engineering. The current programme has two majors: Health Instrumentation and Wearables and Health Robotics and Signal Processing.

The two majors lead into quite different technical thesis topics, but the current 2026–2028 curriculum gives them the same thesis architecture. Each major is 65 ECTS, the Master’s thesis is 30 ECTS, and elective studies are 25 ECTS. Both majors also include the separate 2 ECTS ELEC-E0210 Master's Thesis Process course. The maturity test is ELEC.matr, 0 ECTS.

This guide therefore applies to both HTE majors. It uses current official Aalto material verified on 29 August 2026 and keeps programme-specific health-technology context separate from other ELEC programmes.

The current degree structure

The 120 ECTS degree consists of:

• 65 ECTS major studies;
• 30 ECTS Master’s thesis, ELEC.thes;
• 25 ECTS elective studies;
• 0 ECTS maturity test, ELEC.matr.

The separate ELEC-E0210 Master's Thesis Process, 2 ECTS, appears in both current HTE majors. It is not part of the 30 thesis credits. It belongs to the major studies and supports thesis initiation and research planning.

That distinction matters when you build your study plan. Do not treat the degree as a 32 ECTS thesis. The thesis remains 30 ECTS, while ELEC-E0210 is a separate 2 ECTS course.

What kind of thesis is expected?

Aalto describes the Master’s thesis as an individual research project related to the student’s advanced studies and documented as a written report. It must use existing scientific knowledge and follow scientific research practices, good engineering and scientific practice, ethical principles and responsible research conduct.

Within HTE, that can lead to many kinds of projects. Health Instrumentation and Wearables may involve sensors, embedded systems, biosensing, measurement electronics, wearable devices or reliability. Health Robotics and Signal Processing may involve biomedical signals, machine learning, estimation, control, robotics, human-machine interfaces or computational modelling.

The programme also builds competence in health-device regulation, biomechanics, clinical needs, ethics and health data. Those themes may shape a thesis when relevant, but Aalto does not prescribe one universal health-technology thesis method. A hardware-development project, signal-processing study, machine-learning thesis, validation study or modelling project can require very different evidence and methods.

Six months and approximately 810 hours

The current HTE thesis page gives a clear workload model:

• target duration: six months full-time;
• average workload: approximately 810 hours for the 30 ECTS thesis.

A different schedule can be agreed with the supervisor for justified reasons. The current instructions also state that exceeding the target duration, or another duration agreed with the supervisor, may affect thesis grading.

The relevant start date is the actual project start agreed between student and supervisor. It is not simply the later date on which topic and supervision are formally approved in MyStudies.

This makes early scope control important. If a health-device prototype, data collection process, algorithm-development task or experimental setup is expanding beyond the original plan, discuss scope and timing with the supervisor while changes are still manageable.

When should you do the thesis?

Aalto’s two-year model places the thesis mainly in the spring semester of the second study year, but the programme explicitly says that this is not a restriction. You can work on another schedule if that is more appropriate for the project and your study plan.

The model timeline encourages planning well before the writing period. Topic searching may take months, particularly where the thesis depends on:

• a company thesis position;
• a research-group project;
• access to health or sensor data;
• laboratory equipment;
• human-machine or device testing;
• a hardware prototype;
• specialised simulation or signal-processing tools;
• regulatory or data-handling constraints.

The best time to identify those dependencies is before Month 1 of the formal six-month project.

Before starting

The current ELEC instructions require that, before beginning the Master’s thesis, you have at least:

• completed your Bachelor’s degree; and
• received approval for your study plan in Sisu.

The programme also encourages students to create a preliminary thesis plan in MyStudies before the final topic is known.

The preliminary record can include your degree programme, a provisional topic and language, supervisor or advisor details if known, planned start and end dates, and information about whether the project may be done for a company, university or another commissioner.

Keep this record updated as the plan becomes concrete.

Finding a topic

Students are mainly responsible for finding a thesis topic. Current HTE/ELEC instructions identify several routes:

• companies and public-sector organisations;
• Aalto research groups;
• topics discussed directly with professors;
• independently agreed topics of comparable Master’s-thesis scope;
• thesis projects abroad.

For HTE, useful topic environments may include medical-device development, wearable systems, biosensing, biomedical signal analysis, robotics, machine learning, rehabilitation technology, health monitoring, computational modelling or research at the interface of electrical engineering and healthcare.

If you are ready to begin but cannot secure a suitable topic through normal channels, the School of Electrical Engineering states that it is obliged to arrange an independent Master’s thesis topic.

Supervisor and advisor rules

The current HTE thesis page states that the thesis supervisor must be one of the following:

• an Aalto University professor;
• an Aalto University university lecturer; or
• an Aalto staff or senior scientist, where the staff/senior scientist works in ELEC.

The supervisor is responsible for the scientific validity and format of the thesis and the work as a whole.

You must also have one or two advisors. An advisor must have at least a Master’s degree. In company or research-project theses, the advisor is often the person providing day-to-day technical guidance.

The supervisor can also act as an advisor.

A supervisor or topic may come from another Aalto school when appropriate, provided the topic remains connected to your advanced studies and the current ELEC approval rules are satisfied.

Company, external and international theses

HTE is well suited to industry and research collaboration. A thesis can be completed for a company, research institute, public-sector organisation or another university, including abroad.

An external setting does not reduce the academic requirements. You still need an Aalto supervisor, a defensible research problem and the same core approval and final-submission process.

Health technology may also involve sensitive information. Separate the public academic thesis from confidential company or project materials from the beginning. Aalto states that an approved Master’s thesis is a public document and cannot contain confidential sections. Only material included in the public final thesis is evaluated, and the document must remain a coherent whole without concealed parts.

If your project involves personal data, health data, unpublished technical information or commercially sensitive material, agree data handling and publication boundaries early with the supervisor and relevant project personnel. Do not assume that confidential content can simply be hidden at the final submission stage.

Formal topic and supervision approval in MyStudies

Once you have agreed on the topic and supervision, apply in MyStudies for approval of:

• the thesis topic;
• the supervisor;
• the advisor or advisors.

The current programme instructions say applications are processed continuously rather than through fixed topic-approval dates. Processing can take up to one month.

Topic, supervisor and advisor approval must be complete before the final thesis is submitted for evaluation. Aalto therefore recommends submitting the approval application at least one month before your intended final thesis submission.

Your final thesis title can evolve during the project, but it should remain within the field of the approved topic.

Initial meeting and ELEC-E0210

At the beginning of the thesis, the student and supervisor, and where relevant the advisor or advisors, should hold an initial Master’s thesis meeting.

Use this meeting to agree on:

• the research problem and boundaries;
• the six-month target;
• supervision and feedback arrangements;
• expected data, experiments, simulations, software or hardware work;
• ethics, privacy and confidentiality issues where applicable;
• major milestones;
• the seminar presentation;
• the intended final submission deadline.

Both current HTE majors include ELEC-E0210 Master's Thesis Process, 2 ECTS. The course helps students get started and includes research-plan preparation. Register through Sisu and follow the current MyCourses course instructions once your thesis topic and supervision are sufficiently established.

The research plan

Students taking ELEC-E0210 should follow the live course requirements. The public HTE thesis page also gives a useful fallback research-plan model for students not attending the course.

That model is 2–3 pages and includes:

1. the research problem and research questions;
2. the state of the art;
3. methodology;
4. milestones and a preliminary monthly schedule;
5. a preliminary reference list.

For HTE, the research plan should also expose practical dependencies early. For example, if your study requires access to a particular device, dataset, laboratory, patient-independent test environment, clinical collaborator or company prototype, the project schedule should reflect that dependency rather than assuming uninterrupted access.

Choosing methods without inventing a programme-wide rule

The current HTE curriculum covers diverse engineering methods. It does not make one method compulsory for every thesis.

A Health Instrumentation and Wearables thesis may use circuit design, sensor calibration, embedded implementation, measurement protocols or hardware validation. A Health Robotics and Signal Processing thesis may use signal processing, machine learning, control, estimation, simulation or robotic experiments.

A strong method is one that answers the research question and can be justified scientifically. The thesis should explain:

• why the selected data, measurements, models or experiments are suitable;
• what assumptions and limitations apply;
• how performance or validity is assessed;
• how conclusions follow from the evidence.

Do not add a clinical trial, machine-learning model, statistical test or hardware prototype merely because the programme is called Health Technology Engineering. The research question controls the method.

Writing and thesis templates

Aalto provides Master’s thesis templates in LaTeX and Microsoft Word. The current ELEC thesis page recommends the LaTeX template while also supporting Word.

There is no current programme-wide HTE rule giving one universal thesis word count, page count, citation style or chapter sequence for both majors. That is reasonable because the written structure needed for a wearable-device thesis can differ substantially from a biomedical signal-processing or robotics thesis.

Use the thesis template, disciplinary conventions and supervisor guidance to determine the appropriate structure and level of technical detail.

Turnitin and final-draft control

Turnitin is integrated into the current thesis process. Aalto recommends using it on drafts so similarity, citation and paraphrasing issues can be corrected before final submission.

Before final submission, obtain and review a Turnitin similarity report for the thesis and abstract.

When the final thesis is submitted through MyStudies, the system automatically creates:

• a similarity report visible to the student and supervisor; and
• an AI report visible to the supervisor.

The final submission is effectively locked after the submission deadline. You cannot treat it as a draft that can be casually replaced later.

AI use

Current HTE thesis instructions emphasise original scientific sources, student responsibility and transparency. If AI has been used in research or writing, disclose it according to current Aalto instructions and make sure the supervisor knows how it was used.

Aalto’s current university-wide AI guidance allows AI to support learning unless restricted, but students remain responsible for submitted work. Unmodified AI-generated text cannot simply be presented as the student’s own work.

There is a stricter boundary for the maturity assessment: Aalto prohibits AI in maturity exams.

For health-technology projects, also be cautious about data security. Do not enter confidential health data, personal information, unpublished research data or company material into an AI service that is not authorised for that information.

Public thesis and confidentiality

Once approved, the Master’s thesis is a public document. It cannot have confidential sections.

This matters especially for health technology, where a project can involve commercial device development, sensitive datasets or collaboration with healthcare organisations. Plan the public thesis from the start so that the research question, method, evidence and conclusions remain academically coherent without relying on hidden sections.

The presence of confidential background material does not create a general exemption from the public-thesis rule.

Compulsory seminar presentation

A seminar presentation on the thesis topic is a compulsory part of the HTE/ELEC thesis process.

Agree its timing and arrangements with your thesis supervisor. When applying for final thesis approval in MyStudies, you must state whether the presentation has already taken place or provide the planned date.

The presentation must be completed no later than the relevant deadline for thesis submission and graduation application. The supervisor records completion in MyStudies during the thesis evaluation process.

The public HTE page does not impose one universal presentation length or slide count, so follow the supervisor’s current arrangements rather than borrowing another programme’s presentation format.

Maturity essay

The current HTE thesis page states that the thesis abstract serves as the maturity essay. If the abstract is prepared according to the Master’s thesis template instructions, a separate maturity essay does not need to be arranged with the supervisor.

The maturity test is registered as ELEC.matr, 0 ECTS.

Because the abstract serves as the maturity assessment, complete that component under Aalto’s current rule that AI is prohibited in maturity examinations.

Evaluation and final submission

The Master’s thesis is evaluated by the Degree Programme Committee using the School of Electrical Engineering common Master’s thesis evaluation guideline.

Before final submission, topic, supervisor and advisor(s) must already be approved in MyStudies.

Current final-submission requirements include:

• convert the thesis to PDF/A;
• keep the file below 100 MB;
• complete the required thesis information in MyStudies;
• upload the final PDF/A;
• accept the Turnitin conditions.

After the final version is submitted:

• Turnitin reports are generated;
• the supervisor writes an evaluation statement and grade proposal;
• the Degree Programme Committee makes the thesis evaluation decision;
• Aalto archives the submitted final thesis as the official copy.

The evaluation decision can be appealed under the university process.

Current 2027 thesis-evaluation deadlines

The current HTE thesis page publishes the following thesis-application deadlines and committee meetings for 2027:

Always recheck the live HTE thesis page before committing to a final submission date. Operational dates can change.

Graduation connection

Graduation is requested through Sisu. Your personal study plan must be valid and approved, and you must be enrolled as attending to submit the graduation request and graduate.

When all other required degree studies are completed and registered, Aalto allows the Master’s thesis and maturity requirement to be submitted for evaluation at the same time as the graduation request.

The HTE graduation page also warns students to check that the thesis code corresponds to the supervisor’s school or department. ELEC.thes is the common code for ELEC supervisors, but a different code may be needed when the supervisor belongs to another school or department. If unclear, confirm with the supervisor or ELEC study services.

A practical six-month HTE workflow

Before Month 1

• confirm your current 2026–2028 study plan;
• identify likely thesis topic areas;
• add or update the preliminary MyStudies thesis record;
• contact potential supervisors;
• investigate company/research-group opportunities;
• identify data, laboratory, hardware, software, privacy or regulatory constraints.

Month 1

• agree on the topic and supervision;
• hold the initial thesis meeting;
• register for ELEC-E0210;
• prepare the research plan;
• apply for topic/supervisor/advisor approval in MyStudies;
• fix a realistic six-month milestone plan.

Months 2–4

• carry out the main research, design, experiment, modelling, signal processing or implementation work;
• write continuously rather than postponing the thesis text;
• keep assumptions and data-handling decisions documented;
• use advisor and supervisor feedback;
• revise scope when evidence or time requires it.

Month 5

• consolidate results;
• complete interpretation and conclusions;
• review limitations and validity;
• run Turnitin on the thesis and abstract;
• begin final supervisor review.

Month 6

• complete corrections;
• give the compulsory seminar presentation;
• prepare the maturity abstract independently under the AI prohibition;
• convert the thesis to PDF/A below 100 MB;
• confirm that MyStudies approvals are complete;
• submit the final thesis before the intended committee deadline;
• submit the Sisu graduation request when appropriate.

Final checklist

Before submitting an HTE Master’s thesis, confirm that:

• you are using the current 2026–2028 programme structure;
• the thesis is 30 ECTS ELEC.thes and is separate from 2 ECTS ELEC-E0210;
• your Bachelor’s degree and approved Sisu study plan prerequisites are satisfied;
• topic, supervisor and advisor(s) are formally approved in MyStudies;
• the project scope fits the agreed six-month / approximately 810-hour target;
• the method is justified by the research question rather than assumed from the programme name;
• confidential material is kept out of the public final thesis;
• Turnitin has been reviewed before final submission;
• AI use follows current disclosure, integrity and privacy rules;
• the maturity abstract is completed without AI;
• the compulsory seminar presentation is complete by the required deadline;
• the final thesis is PDF/A, below 100 MB and genuinely final;
• you are using a current thesis-evaluation deadline;
• your Sisu plan and attendance status support graduation.

Official-source boundary

This guide is based only on current official Aalto University material verified on 29 August 2026. Before making a final thesis or graduation decision, recheck the live HTE curriculum, thesis and graduation pages, the current ELEC-E0210 MyCourses instructions, MyStudies, Sisu and Aalto’s current AI guidance.