The Soft Nanoscience program of the UGA Graduate School implements a formation through research along the whole master schooling. It is preferred, but not compulsory, that students pursue a research project in the same team during the 2 years of the master, so as to get the opportunity of completing a significant research experience.

See below the conditions and organization of the 2-year research project.

Submitting a 2-year master research project

Upload the template here, and return the proposal to the program coordinator. Your offer will be posted on the page "Graduate School Soft Nano internship".

Student Selection

Candidates to the thematic program apply to a M1 program listed above. They are first screened and interviewed by the program and the master’s coordinators to assert their academic level and ability to conduct a research project in parallel to a study program.

For the school year starting in September 2021, the program does not organize a recruitment forum to put research teams and candidate students in contact. Students who can potentially be admitted, are directed toward the list of internship offers. They return their wishes and interests to the program coordinator, and we put them in contact with you. You have then to set up your own interview and recruitment procedure  ; we will provide you the CV of the applicant.

It is your acceptance of the student as intern which decides his/her final admission to the program.

Schedule of the internship

In M1 the internship is performed in parallel to the courses from September to April 1st, and at full time after the Spring vacations (April 25th, 2022).
During the courses period, the time devoted to the research activity is 1 day +1/2 per week, and represents 6 credits per semester. The actual days are not fixed ahead and depend on the time-table to be finalized in September, with significant possible adaptation (students will have more free time than 1 day 1/2 in their schedule). A more concentrated research period for an equivalent global time prevails if the student follows the M1 Applied Mechanics.
The full-time period starting after the Spring vacations is also credited 6 ECTS, so that the student has in total 18 credits of academic courses less than in the standard curriculum, and has a significant time to devote to his/her research.

In M2, the student can continue his/her internship if both parties agree (see below). The M2 internship is a full-time research starting from the beginning of February, a defense takes place at the end of June for preparing the student to the concourse of Doctoral Schools.  In addition, the student keeps contact with his/her project during the 1st semester, devoting to this activity half a day per week, up to the Winter break.  

Internship Agreement - Convention de Stage

As required by law, the student’s presence in the laboratories must be covered by an internship agreement (convention de stage).
An internship agreement can cover only one school-year, and it is limited by law to 6 months-equivalent-full time. There is no legal commitment over the two years of the master (see "Interrupting the internship after the M1").
The first-year internship agreement should be established and signed at the latest for the 1st of October, if not the student quits the thematic program and joins the standard program.
It is usual to make an amendment to the agreement at the end of the 1st semester,  to precise the actual days of presence of the student in the laboratory during the 2nd semester (January to April), when the course schedule of the student is known.

Gratification

The Graduate School UGA has decided to cover (pay) the internship gratification of international students laureates of a Graduate School scholarship, for a maximum of 4 months in the 1st year (M1) and for 6 months in the 2nd year (M2). For the other students, there is no Graduate School funding for gratification.

If you need the internship bonus to be paid by the Graduate School to actually take a student as intern, we will refer to you only students who are laureate of a Graduate School scholarship.

The amount of the bonus can be calculated using the official simulator of internship gratification. It depends on the actual time of presence of the student in the lab.

During the 1st semester of the M1, the bibliography study that the student needs to prepare for his/her evaluation can eventually be performed outside of the lab, so that the actual presence covered by the convention de stage can be one day a week.

Evaluation

The research project of the student is evaluated :
a) In January of the M1 (Research Methodology, 6 credits), through a written report in the form of a Research Proposal of about 15 pages and a defense. The student is expected to situate his/her subject in a state-of-the-art at a level master (requiring a short bibliography synthesis), to formulate his/her objective, to describe the specific method/approach to be developed, to identify the main steps for implementing his/her research (formations to follow, techniques to acquire, preliminary and intermediate goals, etc.), to present the first steps and an expected schedule of realization.

b) At the end of June of the M1 (12 credits), through the presentation of a report synthetizing the advancement of the research project, and of a poster to be submitted to the ESONN school.

c) In January of the M2 (equivalent 3 credits) by the presentation of the poster at the ESONN school (August) and its discussion with the ESONN jury, and by your own evaluation on his presence/activity in the lab during the 1st semester

d) At the end of June of the M2 (30 credits) through a Master Thesis of about 60 pages and a defense.

We will ask in particular to teams and advisors  who receive an intern financially covered by the Graduate School UGA, to participate in the jury and the evaluation of the whole class.

Interrupting the internship after the M1

At the end of the 1st year both the host team or the student can decide not to continue the internship in the 2nd year.
If the internship is not continued in the 2nd year, the student has to find a usual M2 internship.