MSc Mathematics Dissertation: `Stochastic Differential Equations and

Applications',

In this thesis, the researcher considered the topic of Stochastic Differential Equations
with main aim the detailed presentation of various applications after a proper
bibliographic research.

The style and structure of this dissertation is not proper for a mathematical
topic, it is more suitable for a dissertation in areas like literature, history, or
social sciences. However, I admit that the student applied a certain effort, but
working independently. Moreover, the fact that she had to reassess many
modules multiple times, restricted a lot the time devoted to the preparation of
the Master Thesis.

Chapter 1 is the introduction, and it is well written. Various applications of

SDEs are briefly presented, while few mathematical problems involved are
described in more details.

Chapter 2 contains a so-called literature review with an introduction therein, and again an
introduction in SDEs, mathematical finance, Stratonovich integrals, Itô integration and a
section on stock price modelling. Even if the topics analysed at this chapter are relevant to the
aims of the Thesis, the structure is loose (or strange-for example a summary section exists)
and very many grammatical and mostly syntactic errors appear in such a degree that
frequently the reader can not follow the argumentation, this being the case for all the
following Chapters also.

Chapter 3 deals with ‘Research Philosophy’, ‘Research design’, ‘Research Approach’ and
‘Data Collection’, ‘Sampling’; all these sections are out of the scope of the
dissertation’s targets and more applicable to non-mathematical areas.
Moreover, it seems that they are developed in a style fitting to many other
topics, even if some few information on SDEs and their applications is
provided. Chapter 4 presents data and tables of answers and analysis of
results. I am surprised that such a Chapter appears in this Thesis, it is
completely irrelevant and the origin of the data collected is unclear. The
conclusions final Chapter, has again style and structure out of the scopes of
the Thesis, while some algorithms presented are not at all explained.

Remark 1: To get 70+, the thesis must contain some original component (not truly
original work that would be classified as research) obtained by the student which
should be 5-10% of the whole thesis. If the dissertation is mainly a survey, then it
should not be given a mark 70+

Remark 2: The dissertation pass mark is 40%.

Remark 3: Some questions that the examiners will be asking are:

• Does the introduction say clearly what the dissertation is about?
• How well have you explained the area of work and summarised the
relevant literature?
• Does the dissertation show evidence of learning beyond the
material of the taught courses and options?
• If the dissertation is mainly a survey, is it complete and up to date,
and have you shown clearly, by summarising and comparing the literature
in your own words, that you have mastered the subject?
• If the dissertation involves numerical work, is it described clearly
enough for someone else to reproduce the calculations, if required, and
do the conclusions demonstrate that you understand what has been done?
• Does the dissertation have a logical structure?
• Are books and journal articles adequately referenced ? Note that a
complete bibliography is important for a good dissertation and should not
be ignored
• Where the results of numerical and other work are being discussed
is this just a statement of what the results are or does the text contain real
interpretation of the results. For example, does the text explain why the
results are as they are?