Research Internship

A Research Internship is a civil engineering research or design project conducted in a professional environment. The aim of a research internship is twofold. On the one hand, it is about formulating and conducting a research or design project directly related to some topical quest, raised by either an external party (such as private company, (non-)governmental body, scientific institute, pressure group, either in the Netherlands or abroad) or an internal party (research or advisory projects of any kind, for instance related to externally funded projects, private-public co-operation and so on). This basically means that the topic of a research internship must be of evident societal, entrepreneurial or scientific relevance and that it needs to be conducted in the professional environment that raised the quest.

On the other hand, the professional environment in which the concerned project is conducted in, must be reflected on. This means that students conducting a research internship are required to evaluate the influence they experience from their working environment on their performance and deliverable. This has a broad notion. From an organisational perspective, this comprises at least supervision, guidance, availability of relevant information, technical and administrative facilities. Besides, the student is required to reflect on her/his role in and contribution to the organisation where the research internship is conducted, as well as her/his personal development.

It is important to note that conditions may apply, for instance regarding confidentiality, intellectual property and so on. It is the responsibility of the student to ensure that such conditions are agreed upon by all parties involved prior to the start of the project and in compliance with TU regulations (see TER).

Formative assessment:

Feedback is given by the university supervisor (1) on the faculty internship agreement before the start of the internship, (2) at least once during the project, either in a progress meeting or based on a progress report and (3) on the draft final report. Feedback is given also by the involved representative of the institution where the internship is conducted (the company supervisor).

Summative assessment:

1. Engineering skills (25%)

• Application of theory, motivation of methods/techniques

• Experimental work, programming, calculations

• Ambition level, amount of work

• Usability of results for company

2. Academic approach (25%)

• Formulation of a goal and approach

• Argumentation

• Extension of knowledge and/or methods

• Achievement of the goal, reflection, judgement

3. Reflection component (20%)

• Reflection on personal objectives and future career

• Indication personal strengths, weaknesses and future personal development

• Reflection on the performance of the company

• Reflection on ethical and societal aspects of main project

4. Reporting (15%)

• Structure and consistency

• Language proficiency, style

• Use of literature, scources

• Lay-out, use of figures, tables, equations, etc.

5. Behavioural competences en skills (15%)

• Initiative, own contribution

• Responsibility

• Communicative skills

• Independency

For each of the above five criteria, a partial grade is set by the university supervisor (70%) and the company supervisor (30%). The final grade is the weighted average of the five partial grades. To pass, the rounded final grade must be at least 6.0 and all grades for the main five assessment categories are at least 5,0.See Assessment. In the case of a substantial difference (more than 1 point on a 10 point scale), the responsible instructor is consulted. Finally, it is the responsible lecturer who determines the grade. He can overrule the assessment of the supervisors if there are good reasons.

For more information on grading, see article 14 in the Rules and Guidelines (RGBE):

https://www.tudelft.nl/en/student/ceg-student-portal/education/education-information/educational-rules-and-regulations

Permitted Materials during Exam

N/A