Aalto University IDBM Master’s Thesis Guide for ENG Students: 30 ECTS and School of Engineering Process

Aalto University’s Master’s Programme in International Design Business Management (IDBM) has students in all six Aalto schools. Everyone shares the IDBM major, but Aalto explicitly states that thesis process and graduation vary by home school. This guide is therefore only for IDBM students whose home school is the School of Engineering (ENG).

The current 2026–2028 IDBM structure gives the Master’s thesis 30 ECTS. For ENG students, Aalto’s public page defines the thesis as a 30-credit entity that also includes the maturity test and thesis presentation. It describes the thesis as applied research on a topic related to the student’s advanced studies, with the key goal of solving a field-relevant problem using existing scientific knowledge and responsible conduct of research.

There is one important information boundary. The detailed School of Engineering thesis workflow is in the authenticated ENG Master’s Thesis Guide in MyCourses, which requires Aalto login. This guide does not reconstruct hidden forms, rubrics, model schedules or internal steps. Instead, it gives a detailed public-source workflow and tells you exactly where the live ENG workspace becomes the operational authority.

Where the thesis fits in IDBM ENG

IDBM is a 120 ECTS master’s programme. The thesis is 30 ECTS, but the programme is unusual because the same IDBM major sits inside several different degree fields and schools. Your thesis route is therefore controlled by your home school, not only by the programme name.

For ENG students, that means three practical rules from the start:

• use the School of Engineering thesis process;
• use MyStudies for the formal thesis record and approvals;
• use the IDBM Programme Committee timetable for final IDBM thesis approval.

Do not borrow ARTS, BIZ, CHEM, ELEC or SCI thesis mechanics simply because those pages are public. Aalto’s current IDBM guidance is explicit that school processes differ.

Before thesis-topic approval and again before graduation, ENG students should make sure their Sisu study plan is current and approved. If the study plan uses Free edit mode, the relevant selections need approval there as well. This is not clerical housekeeping: the study plan is part of the formal degree and graduation architecture.

What the 30 ECTS thesis actually includes

Aalto describes the IDBM ENG Master’s thesis as a 30-credit entity. The public School of Engineering/IDBM ENG thesis page states that the entity also includes:

• the Master’s thesis itself;
• a maturity test;
• a presentation of the thesis.

This is an important boundary. The current public curriculum does not state a separate additional thesis-seminar ECTS value. The presentation requirement therefore should not be converted into an invented extra credit component.

Aalto describes the thesis as applied research. Its central goal is to solve a problem relevant to the student’s field of study using existing scientific knowledge and the principles of responsible conduct of research.

That makes the thesis more than a professional design task or technical report. Even when the work is completed for a company, the student needs a clear research or development problem, a defensible method, evidence, analysis and conclusions that meet academic expectations.

Choosing an IDBM ENG thesis topic

The topic must relate to the student’s advanced studies and be agreed with a supervisor who has appropriate expertise. At ENG, current public curriculum material states that programme professors may offer topics connected with their research and students may also propose their own suitable topics.

For an IDBM student, a strong topic can sit at the intersection of engineering and IDBM themes such as product development, systems, innovation, design collaboration, sustainability, operations, technology strategy or organisational change. The interdisciplinary setting does not remove the engineering academic requirement. The final work still needs a researchable problem, a defensible evidence base, a justified method and conclusions grounded in existing scientific knowledge.

A useful topic-development sequence is:

1. identify the technical or engineering domain in which the thesis belongs;
2. define the practical problem or decision context;
3. identify what is not yet known or what must be tested, analysed or designed;
4. turn that gap into a researchable question;
5. confirm that the evidence and method are feasible within the thesis project;
6. ask the proposed supervisor whether the scope is academically suitable for ENG and IDBM.

Do not start from a company task description and assume it is already a thesis question. A professional deliverable can become a thesis only when its academic problem, method, evidence and analysis are explicit.

Supervisor and advisor eligibility

The current 2026–2028 curriculum publishes unusually useful eligibility information.

At the School of Engineering, the Master’s thesis supervisor may be a:

• Professor of any rank;
• Adjunct Professor;
• Professor of Practice;
• Senior University Lecturer;
• Principal University Lecturer.

The thesis advisor must hold at least a Master’s degree.

The supervisor is not simply a person who proofreads the final document. Topic fit, academic scope and the relationship between the thesis and the student’s advanced studies should be agreed with the supervisor early.

An advisor may bring detailed technical, industrial or project-specific expertise. When the thesis is written for an external organisation, the practical advisor may be particularly important, but the academic thesis still remains governed by Aalto’s degree requirements.

Company and external IDBM ENG theses

IDBM commonly connects technology, design and business, so company-sponsored or externally connected topics can be a natural fit. The public thesis still has to satisfy Aalto’s academic requirements.

Before accepting an external topic, clarify with the supervisor and external partner:

• whether the topic is academically suitable for a 30 ECTS ENG thesis;
• what data, designs, code, models or documents can appear in the public thesis;
• who provides day-to-day technical guidance;
• which outputs belong to the academic thesis and which remain internal company work;
• whether intellectual-property, publication or data-protection constraints affect the research design;
• whether the planned evidence is sufficient to support analysis and conclusions.

Aalto’s public-document rule is important here. A thesis submitted for evaluation may not contain confidential information. Commercially sensitive material must remain outside the evaluated thesis. Choosing not to give immediate online full-text publication consent does not turn the thesis into a confidential document.

Plan that boundary at the start. It is much easier to design a public research question and evidence strategy early than to discover near submission that crucial sections cannot legally or contractually be published.

MyStudies thesis management

Aalto moved Master’s thesis management to MyStudies. Current University guidance says that when starting a Master’s thesis, students enter basic thesis information in MyStudies and apply for supervisor approval there.

The thesis record includes core information such as the topic, supervisor and advisor or advisors. Under the technology-school process, which includes the School of Engineering, the supervisor approves the topic and advisors rather than the degree programme committee approving those starting details.

The final thesis is also submitted through the thesis-management workflow for evaluation, approval and archiving.

Students should therefore treat MyStudies as part of the formal thesis process rather than only as a final upload location. The safest sequence is to confirm the current ENG instructions, agree the topic and supervision, create the thesis record, complete any required approvals and then maintain the process according to the current MyCourses/MyStudies guidance.

Formal start: Sisu and MyStudies controls

The current ENG page tells students to keep the Sisu study plan approved at least when applying for thesis-topic approval and when applying for graduation. In parallel, MyStudies is the formal thesis-management system.

Before final thesis submission, the following must be approved in MyStudies:

• the thesis supervisor;
• the advisor or advisors, where applicable;
• the thesis topic.

Under the current technology-school MyStudies model, the student creates the thesis record and applies for supervisor approval, while the supervisor handles topic/advisor approval. The final thesis is later submitted in the same thesis-management environment for evaluation, approval and archiving.

Treat these starting approvals as real project milestones. Do not wait until the final week to discover that the thesis record or supervision details are incomplete.

Turnitin and the final-file boundary

Aalto’s current final-submission architecture automatically creates a Turnitin similarity report from the final thesis. The final submission also creates an AI report visible to the supervisor. These tools are part of the evaluation workflow, not substitutes for academic judgment.

Before final submission, use the available draft-checking process and supervisor feedback to correct citation, quotation, paraphrasing and source-use problems. A similarity percentage is not itself a plagiarism decision, and an AI-detection score is not itself proof of misconduct. The academic issue is whether the work, sources and authorship comply with Aalto’s rules.

The final submitted thesis should be treated as genuinely final rather than as a replaceable draft.

PDF/A and the official archived thesis

The final thesis submitted for grading must be an archival PDF/A file. Aalto checks PDF/A compliance during submission, and the file must be below 100 MB.

Do not leave conversion until the deadline day. Validate the file early, especially if the thesis contains complex figures, unusual fonts, embedded objects or content generated from specialised engineering software. The uploaded PDF/A becomes the official thesis used for evaluation and archiving.

The login-only ENG Thesis Guide boundary

Aalto’s public IDBM ENG thesis page explicitly directs students to the ENG Master’s Thesis Guide in MyCourses, which requires an Aalto login.

That boundary is important for reliable planning. Public sources confirm the 30 ECTS scope, applied-research purpose, presentation, maturity test, supervisor/advisor eligibility, MyStudies framework and published deadlines. They do not publicly expose every internal ENG form, model schedule, evaluation detail, formatting requirement or administrative step.

For that reason, this guide deliberately does not invent:

• an ENG-wide page count or word count;
• a universal chapter template;
• one mandatory citation style;
• a fixed number of supervisor meetings;
• a CHEM-style 800-hour or five-month workload rule;
• a hidden ENG grading rubric;
• a separate thesis-seminar ECTS value.

Students should use the live ENG MyCourses workspace and supervisor guidance for any requirement that is not stated in the public programme pages.

Planning the research problem

Aalto’s public definition of the IDBM ENG thesis gives a useful standard: the thesis should solve a field-relevant problem based on existing scientific knowledge.

A good starting question is therefore not merely “What do I want to build, calculate or test?” but “What problem am I trying to understand or solve, and what evidence would justify the answer?”

For IDBM ENG, the problem may involve a technical system, product-development decision, engineering process, innovation challenge, design-engineering interface, sustainability problem or another field-relevant issue. What matters is that the question is narrow enough to investigate and that the chosen evidence can support a defensible answer.

The thesis does not need the same method in every field. What matters is alignment among the problem, literature, method, evidence, analysis and conclusions.

Literature and responsible research

Because Aalto defines the thesis as applied research based on existing scientific knowledge, the literature review should do more than collect background facts. It should establish what is already known, identify the relevant theories or technical standards, show where uncertainty or a practical problem remains, and justify the chosen method.

Students should distinguish among peer-reviewed research, technical standards, official guidance, manufacturer information, project records and other evidence. The weight given to each source depends on the research question.

Responsible conduct of research also affects data handling, citation, authorship, use of confidential material, reproducibility and reporting of limitations. Where a project is connected to a company, these issues should be agreed early rather than left until final submission.

Thesis presentation and maturity test

The 30 ECTS thesis entity includes a presentation and a maturity test.

The public IDBM ENG page does not publish one universal presentation format, length or date for all students. Detailed ENG instructions are in the MyCourses workspace. Students should therefore confirm the current presentation process through ENG and their supervisor.

The same principle applies to the maturity test. The requirement exists, but the public IDBM ENG page does not provide enough information to manufacture one universal programme-specific format in this guide.

There is, however, one current University-wide AI rule that is clear: Aalto prohibits AI in maturity exams. Students should therefore treat the maturity-test component as AI-prohibited and follow the live ENG instructions for its exact completion method.

AI use in the rest of the thesis

Aalto’s current AI guidance allows AI to support learning unless a teacher or assessment specifically restricts it. Students remain responsible for the content they submit, and AI-generated text should not simply be presented as the student’s own unmodified work.

For thesis work, that means AI use should never replace engineering judgment, source verification, calculations, data analysis or responsibility for conclusions. If AI is used for brainstorming, language support, code assistance or organisation, students should follow current Aalto and supervisor guidance and disclose use where required.

The maturity-test boundary remains stricter: AI is prohibited there.

Current IDBM thesis-approval deadlines

For IDBM students who started in 2018 or later, the final thesis evaluation and approval are handled in the IDBM Programme Committee. The ENG page directs IDBM students to the IDBM Applications timetable.

As verified on 30 August 2026, the remaining 2026 thesis-approval dates are:

The IDBM timetable also marks 31 August 2026 and 26 October 2026 as graduation-only dates. They are not thesis-approval dates. If you plan to graduate on a graduation-only date, the thesis and maturity requirement must already have been approved and registered.

The School of Engineering page adds a practical warning for the 31 December deadline: contact the supervisor well before the Christmas holiday period.

At verification, Aalto had not yet published a complete 2027 IDBM Programme Committee thesis-approval calendar. ENG programme pages may show generic School-level committee dates, but those should not be substituted for the controlling IDBM Programme Committee schedule. Recheck the live IDBM Applications page before fixing a final submission date.

Graduation connection

Graduation is requested through Sisu, using the student’s study plan. The plan must be current and approved, and the student must be enrolled as attending under the current ENG rules.

Aalto allows the thesis-approval application in MyStudies and the graduation application in Sisu to be submitted at the same time when the other degree requirements are in the correct state. This does not remove the distinction between a thesis-approval deadline and a graduation-only date.

If you are aiming at a graduation-only date, confirm that the thesis and maturity requirement have already been approved and registered. Do not assume that submitting a thesis on a graduation-only date will trigger a committee meeting.

A practical planning sequence

Early preparation

Complete enough of the common and advanced studies to understand where your thesis belongs. Identify the civil-engineering area you want to work in and start monitoring research-group or company opportunities well before the second-year spring.

Topic exploration

Discuss possible topics with an eligible supervisor. If the project comes from a company, assess academic suitability before treating the employer’s task description as the thesis question.

Formal start

Confirm the topic, supervisor and advisor arrangement. Follow the current ENG MyCourses guidance and create the thesis record in MyStudies. Complete the required starting approvals before relying on a project schedule.

Research design

Turn the broad technical or management problem into a researchable question. Define the literature base, evidence, method, analysis plan and realistic scope. Agree any company-data or confidentiality constraints before collecting material.

Execution and writing

Conduct the experimental, theoretical, computational, design, materials or management work appropriate to the problem. Write progressively rather than leaving the entire thesis until the technical work is complete. Keep the literature, method, results and conclusions aligned.

Final stage

Use the current ENG workspace for the exact presentation, maturity-test, evaluation and submission instructions. Complete the presentation and maturity requirement in the required order. Follow MyStudies for final thesis submission, evaluation, approval and archiving.

Final checklist

Before final submission, confirm that:

• the thesis topic is related to your advanced studies;
• the supervisor is eligible under School of Engineering rules;
• any advisor holds at least a Master’s degree;
• the MyStudies thesis record and required approvals are complete;
• the project is academically framed as applied research, not only a professional deliverable;
• the method fits the research problem;
• literature and evidence are used responsibly;
• company or external-party constraints have been resolved without weakening academic integrity;
• the required thesis presentation has been completed according to current ENG guidance;
• the maturity test has been completed without prohibited AI use;
• the current IDBM Programme Committee deadline has been rechecked on the live Aalto page;
• the final thesis is valid PDF/A below 100 MB;
• Turnitin/citation issues have been reviewed before final submission;
• confidential material is outside the evaluated public thesis;
• any formatting, evaluation or submission detail not public on aalto.fi has been confirmed in the ENG MyCourses thesis guide.

Final planning principle

IDBM ENG at Aalto provides a clear public framework but intentionally keeps some detailed School of Engineering procedures inside the authenticated ENG workspace. The secure public facts are sufficient to plan the project at a high level: 30 ECTS, advanced-studies topic, eligible ENG supervisor, advisor with at least a Master’s degree, applied-research purpose, presentation, maturity test, Sisu/MyStudies controls, PDF/A/public-thesis rules and current IDBM Programme Committee deadlines.

The safest approach is to use those public rules as the foundation and the live ENG MyCourses guide as the operational authority. Do not borrow workload figures, seminar credits, page counts or submission rules from another Aalto school simply because those rules are easier to find online.