Note from 2023: the text below is partly outdated. On Ugla, SENS has pretty good info on the timelines and the webforms to be filled out, i.e. ignore the timelines and webforms mentioned below.

The official regulations are in articles 7. and 8. of Regulation no. 994-2017 / Reglur um meistaranám við Verkfræði- og náttúruvísindasvið Háskóla Íslands, nr. 994/2017 (and article 69, items 9-15 of Regulation for the University of Iceland no. 569-2009 / Reglur fyrir Háskóla Íslands Nr. 569/2009. The text below should be in accordance -- if not, it needs to be updated... In charge of MSc. theses at VoN student service is Donna, reachable via the HÍ email user alias sensgraduate.

If you want to graduate, take care that latest in parallel to your Master's project, you finish all your coursework, e.g. Software Engineering students have three mandatory HBV courses. If you are a student coming from non-Computer Science/non-Software Engineering Bachelor, you typically have to take extra courses as part of there admission to the Master's program!

A Master's thesis needs:

• A supervisor (i. leiðbeinandi): Supervises the student during the whole thesis project.
• An M.Sc. committee (i. meistaraprófsnefnd) consisting of the supervisor and at least one other person who needs to have an MSc. degree -- typically another university teacher -- (unofficially called "secondary supervisor" (i. meðleiðbeinandi)): Often just gets into the game once the student is almost finished (internally, 10% of the overall supervision efforts assumed, but may be up to 25% and 50%), i.e. has a more or less final draft of the thesis available. Gives comments to improve your draft. So this person should be somewhat familiar with the topic.
• An external thesis examiner (i. prófdómari): If possible, should be from outside HÍ (in the old days, that person was from the faculty and thus often the old English term "faculty representative" is used. Use in your English thesis the official translation External examiner). That person needs a final draft (release candidate status) before the defense, but must not otherwise be involved in the supervision.

Two web forms needs to be filled out latest 1 week before the defense by the supervisor to book a defense: one for advertising the defense, one for appointing the external examiner (the web forms can be reached via VoN intranet page in UGLA).
There, all the information that are needed (name, title, abstract (for writing an abstract, see also item 4 from Kent Beck), day, supervisors, a photo of the student that will be used for advertising -- but more recently, it seems that the photo is anyway not used, etc.) have to be provided.

To make it for the next graduation ceremony (i. brautskráning) which is in February and June each year (there is till some deadline in October, but no ceremony), there is a deadline (latest 3 weeks before the graduation ceremony for which obviously all the grades need to be handed in). A few days before that deadline, there is typically an event called meistaradagurinn where the idea is that all the students of the faculty defend their thesis. Someone organises this and needs to be contacted to participate. But of course, it is also possible to defend a thesis on another day than on meistaradagurinn.

The schedule of the defense is as follows (meistaradagurinn: typically 45 minutes for talk and discussion, but there is 60 minutes time between defenses to allow time for setting up the presentation):

• A few introducing words by the supervisor (including an explanation of the procedure).
• 20-30 minutes presentation of the thesis by the student. No need to be nervous: you know best about your topic and thesis (also, your supervisor would not allow you to defend if you would likely fail)! Learn the introducing words (to get your presentation started fluently) and the concluding words (to avoid an abrupt termination of your talk) by heart.
• Max. 15 minutes questions from the audience (Note: in practise, 5 minutes for the audience and 10 minutes for internal discussion is best)
• The audience leaves the room, only the student and the three teachers remain. Now some more private discussion (what was good/bad) and further questions are possible.
• Finally, the student leaves the room and the teachers discuss the grade (e.g. using a grading scheme) for the thesis and after this, the student is called in again and is told the grade.

Note that the grade is filled into some form that needs to be signed by those involved in grading when using the above web form, this gets prepared by the administration based on the above web form (typically, a PDF of the form is sent to the main supervisor via e-mail by Sigríður Sif Magnúsdóttir a few days before the defense).

Based on the comments that are given during defense, some minor changes to thesis might be required.
Students need to submit an electronic copy of their thesis latest three weeks before (so that you can send the confirmation of submitting before the deadline) the next graduation ceremony (i. brautskráning) to skemman.is (printed version not required anymore, nor is an ISBN number required: remove that line if it is part of your thesis template). Student should also simultaneously need to fill out an declaration of access. The declaration of access template is accessible in English and Icelandic. For commercial settings, access to the thesis can be closed (but not for longer than 4 years); if the thesis is closed, please send the final PDF as well to your supervisors, because they can otherwise neither access it.

If the thesis is accepted, the student will receive an e-mail confirming this. The student must send the confirmation from skemman to sensgraduate at hi.is or to Sigríður Sif Magnúsdóttir by email (before the deadline where all grades for brautskráning need to be available). There is also an UGLA page on brautskráning that hopefully is still available when you read this...

To allow the supervisors to read and comment on the thesis, a first draft needs to be finished in time:

• First draft for the supervisor: latest 1 month before the defense. Preferably, use an agile approach of delivering early drafts as soon as a new chapter is finished. (Do not start with the Introduction -- that is often the last chapter written.)
• Release candidate draft for the co-supervisor and "prófdómari" latest 1 week before the defense, better much earlier. This deadline applies also for filling out the above mentioned web form.
• Poster needs to be printed latest 1 day before defense on Meistaradagurinn (e.g., Háskólaprent does this within 15-30 minutes).

If you finish your thesis in August/September/October you may not need to pay tuition fees for the new academic year.

There is an UGLA page with the various deadlines of the graduation process.

Templates for thesis, presentation, and poster

Note: Since 10/2021, HÍ has a new corporate identity that is covered here:

• A MS Word template, but I really recommend using the LaTeX templates for writing the thesis. As "Advisors", list first your supervisor and in the next line the secondary/co-supervisors. Note that while the template may contain an ISBN number, you have to remove that line as nowadays, everything is electronic only. Have a look at some older MSc. theses to get an idea of the typical contents.
• For the defense, a PPT slide template is available on the HÍ corporate design web page -> Hönnunarstaðall (at top right corner) -> Rafrænar einingar ->PowerPoint (and then the download is at the bottom). If you want to rather use LateX for your presentation, Katrín Halldórsdóttir created a LaTeX Beamer template that however is using the old 2010 corporate design (the tex file is GPL, however the logos are property of the University). Any volunteers to update it to the new design?
• Furthermore, a poster is displayed on Meistaradagurinn (if defense is on a different day, you are still supposed to prepare a poster to be displayed later on Meistaradagurinn). You find templates with the new 2021 look on the HÍ corporate design web page -> Hönnunarstaðall (at top right corner) -> Prentmiðlar -> Veggspjöld (and then the download is at the bottom). However, that template contained in the ppt download is not very helpful -- you rather would need the provided Adobe InDesign template. As most will not have a license for Adobe InDesign, I provide here a PPT template that has been converted from the Adobe InDesign template. Note that you need to download all fonts of the the Google fonttype family "Jost" and install them (if you have it not installed, PowerPoint will use another font, but the printshop that probably has the Jost font and then, the layout does not match anymore).
  I suggest to use a smaller fontsize than in the template: compare with the fontsize used in the PPT template using the old look (but note that the old template uses A0 page size, while the new one uses A4 pages size -- which will then be scaled up when printed in, e.g., A0. Hence, display both side by side for comparison.)
  You should also refer to that old template to get an idea of the typical contents, such as adding the names of the supervisors, etc. As a backup, I provide here a copy of that old template.
  Háskolaprent can print the poster (typically in A0 size).

Note that our School of Engineering and Natural Sciences offers a Course on thesis skills such as writing (and you even get ECTS credit points for it). In addition, you will find on the web other general information on thesis writing.

When running CORBA remote objects in a NAT environment (assuming Internet protocols are used), the IIOP IOR remote object references that will be created (and registered at some nameservice) will contain the private IP address (to convince yourself: dump the IOR as string and paste that string in http://www2.parc.com/istl/projects/ILU/parseIOR/). As a result, when a client outside the NAT environment looks up the IOR, it will get one containing the private IP and access to the remote object does of course not work. For the Oracle OpenJDK CORBA implementation, the following command line parameter needs to be provided to both the ORB and the JVM running at the remote object side:
-ORBServerHost PublicIPofServer

Concerning the ports:
By default, the Oracle OpenJDK is using TCP port 1049 for the activation service. You can change this port via the ORB command line parameter -port.

The port used for the CORBA Naming Service (which is automatically provided by the OpenJDK Java ORB) depends on whether orbd is started as root or as an ordinary user: when started as root, TCP port 900 is used, otherwise TCP port 1049 (because ports lower than 1024 can only be created by root). Unfortunately, TCP port 1049 is also used by the activation service as described above. Hence, a port collision (=exceptions) will occur (what a stupid design)!
In this case, let the ORB start the Naming Service e.g. on TCP port 1050:
orbd -ORBInitialPort 1050

When changing the Naming Service port from the default 900, client and server JVMs that use that Naming Service also need to know about the changed Naming Service port number: Start the JVMs with additional parameter:
java -ORBInitialPort 1050

When running client and server on different hosts, take care that they use the same Naming Service. Assuming that the Naming Service running on the server's host is used: the server will anyway use this local Naming Service, but the client needs to know the hostname of the server's Naming Service: start the client JVM with additional parameter:
java -ORBInitialHost nameserverhost

Note that in addition to these standard services (Activation and Naming), CORBA uses by default dynamically assigned TCP ports (=expect difficulties with firewalls) for all further objects such as your own remote objects that are contained in the IORs. However, you can enforce a port to be used by a servant created within a JVM using the additional parameter:
java -ORBServerPort port

Sometimes, students that are not registered for a course (but have an UGLA account), need access to course material in UGLA. This can be achieved as follows:

1. Operations -> Users and groups
2. New group
3. Give the new group some name, e.g. External access. Confirm. (UGLA allows to select registered students to be added here, but leave the group empty!)
4. On the group overview page click on the newly created group.
5. Add user
6. In the SSI/kennitala field: either enter kennitala or the person's full HÍ email address. Save.
7. All operations -> Change group permission. Change permissions accordingly. NOTE: giving permissions for a folder does not recursively apply to the file contained in the folder -- you need to change each and every individual file as well!
8. Using the URL that you get from "Front Page" link (or simply via the link provided in the course catalogue), the persons should be able to access the folder.

Alternatively, in the Files and Folder area, you can for individual files and folders change the access permissions using the Edit/pen symbol -> Access Permissions

If you have a person without UGLA account, the only possibility is to make the whole course page world-wide visible:

1. All Operations -> Change front page title -> At Access to the Teaching Web, select Open for everybody (no authentication)

This and other things (e.g. electronic homework submissing incl. student view of this) is also explained (in Icelandic) at Kennslumiðstöð.

See text on English page.The department of Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science, seeks applicants to fill a Ph.D. student position in Computer Science. The project is a part of a larger, Nordic research project called “eScience tools for investigating Climate Change in Northern High Latitudes” (eSTICC) funded by NordForsk – an organisation under the Nordic Council of Ministers that provides funding for Nordic research cooperation.

The goal of the overall research project is a more accurate description of the high-latitude feedback processes in the climate system by improving the eScience tools of the climate research community. The Ph.D. student will develop from a Computer Science perspective scientific workflow schemes and tools to integrate the different data and software that are used by the climate researchers. The idea is to exploit existing workflow solutions, for example from the Grid computing or Multiphysics community, and customise them to enable interoperability of the used climate research eScience tools.

The eSTICC project runs from 2014 to 2018 and the Ph.D. student is funded for 3 years and 7 months. The project will be foundation for the Ph.D. thesis and Helmut Neukirchen and Ebba Þóra Hvannberg, professors in Computer Science at the University of Iceland will supervise. The Ph.D. student will work closely with the other project partners in Northern Europe and visit them.

Applicants should have an MSc degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computational Engineering or a closely related field. Knowledge or interest in high-performance computing or eScience is an advantage. Applicants need to be able to work independently and be active in shaping the project as it progresses in co-operation with the supervisors and the international research team. Good communication skills, an ability to work in a team and willingness to travel are required. The selected candidate will need to send a formal application for a Ph.D. studentship at the University of Iceland in due time.

The application shall include a description of the applicant's interests in the project and how they can specifically, contribute to the project. The application should be no longer than three pages. The following shall be appended with the application: i) Curriculum Vitae, ii) degree certificates, iii) a copy of Master dissertation or another extensive research essay, iv) names of two referees and their contact addresses.

Applications should be sent to: starfsumsoknir@hi.is marked HI1409135. Applications that are not sent electronically should be sent in duplicate to Human Resource Division, University of Iceland, Main Building, Sæmundargötu 2, 101 Reykjavík. All applications will be answered and applicants will be informed about the appointment when a decision has been made.

Further Information about the eSTICC project can be found on the project's webpage http://esticc.nilu.no. For further information, please contact either Dr. Helmut Neukirchen (helmut@hi.is) or Dr. Ebba Þóra Hvannberg (ebba@hi.is).

Appointments to the University of Iceland do take into account the Equal Rights Project of the University of Iceland.

Salary is determined by the doctoral scholarship according with the wage contract by the minister of finance and appropriate trade union.

About 990 students study Computer Science or Engineering at the Faculty of Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Computer Science. From these, more than 90 are graduate students, both Master's and Ph.D. students. Academic staff at the faculty is about 25. About 450 students are studying Computer Science and the number of academic Computer Science staff is 10. More information can be found on the website of the University of Iceland http://english.hi.is/.

Around 300 highly qualified employees at the School of Engineering and Natural Sciences conduct cutting-edge research and teach in programs that offer diverse and ambitious courses in the field of Engineering and Natural Sciences. The work environment is international and the ratio of international students and employees is constantly increasing.

The School’s research institutes are highly sought after affiliates by international universities and serve a significant role in the scientific community. These are: The Engineering Research Institute, The Institute of Life and Environmental Sciences and The Institute for Sustainability Studies. The Science Institute which divides into The Institute of Physical Sciences and The Institute of Earth Sciences.

The University of Iceland is the largest teaching, research, and science institute in Iceland. The University provides a wide range of education in various fields of studies and services institutions, private businesses and the government. According to Times Higher Education the University of Iceland is among the top 300 universities in the world.

As I will be in 50% parental leave, I will teach in spring 2014 only Operating Systems. Software Quality Management which is typically taught every second spring is therefore moved to autum 2014. In addition, the plan is to teach Software Maintenance as usual in autumn 2014. Distributed Systems which was cancelled due to my research semester in autumn 2013 will not be taught in 2014, but most likely again in autumn 2015.

I will take a research semester in the autumn semester 2013. As a result, the course TÖL102F Distributed Systems will not take place in autumn 2013 as scheduled, but is rather cancelled/postponed.
After the research semester in the autumn semester 2013, I intend to take a 50% parental leave in the spring semester 2014.
During these times, you may not find me in my office, but I will be reachable via e-mail.

While it is nothing new to have a PhD thesis in Computer Science defended (the first PhD thesis has been defended in our Computer Science programme some years ago), the first PhD thesis has just been defended our Software Engineering programme at the University of Iceland: User-Driven Development for Bespoke Software. Congratulations!

Trivia: one challenge for the administration was to find a Latin term for "Software Engineering" that was needed for the PhD certificate that contains a Latin description of the scientific field of the PhD.

Update from August 2012: Now it is definitive: HBV201F Software Testing is moved from Spring 2013 to Fall 2012 (and therefore called HBV103F). After that it is intended to teach it again every second spring, i.e. next time would be Spring 2015. (Spring 2014 is scheduled for Software Quality Management.)

The planning for my teaching in the academic year 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 is as follows:

Fall 2012

HBV101F Software Maintenance

The course will consist of two parts: The first part is classical lecture-driven to provide some foundations of Software Maintenance. In the second part, we will have a maintenance project where we will do some maintenance of an existing software project: this is mainly homework, but we will have weekly meetings to do some status reporting.

HBV201F Software Testing

(Update: will be taught in Fall 2012!)

Lecture with weekly homework, one of the assignments needs to be presented in front of class.
Will be based on the ISTQB Certified Tester foundation level syllabus. It is the intention to offer an ISTQB Certified Tester exam so that participants can acquire a certification.

Spring 2013

TÖL401G Operating Systems

Lecture with weekly homework that needs to be handed in.

Fall 2013

I will take a research sabbatical, therefor I will not teach at all. Typically, I would teach Distributed Systems in that semester.

Spring 2014

I will be in 50% parential leave in Spring 2014. From the two courses Software Quality Management and Operating Systems that are scheduled to be taught then, I will teach only one (most likely Software Quality Management) and the other (most likely Operating Systems) will be taught by someone else.

Note that courses (non-obligatory only, of course) may get cancelled if not enough participants register in advance: @MSc students take care to register for a course as soon as possible via UGLA!

Please note that the course TÖL102F Dreifð kerfi/Distributed Systems is taught in autumn 2011. (By mistake, the kennsluskrá/course catalog listed it initially as not being taught -- this was incorrect and has been corrected now!) You are still able to register for this course. More details about this course can be found in the according course web page in kennsluskrá/course catalog.