Thank you for your interest in doing your bachelor thesis, master thesis, master project or independent studies project with us. On this page we’re collecting a few hints and requirements for finding topics and for being successful.

Topics:

• On Teaching we provide a list of projects/theses topics we’re currently interested in. If you want to do one of these, you can apply directly for it (see below).
• We also highly encourage you to come up with your own idea that lies within our own research (see publications and research projects). Often times, these projects can be more fun to you since they’re tailored to your interests and experience. You can also get some inspiration on previous theses/projects. The idea does not yet have to be perfect, but you should already have an idea about the problem, potential ways to solve them and compare it to existing related work. We’ll then help you refine the idea until you and we are happy with it :).

Apply for a project/thesis:

Since we’re currently receiving more requests for doing theses/projects with us than we can handle, we need to pick students/projects that are a good fit, depending on availabilities, topic match, and our assessment of potential success of the project/thesis.

To that purpose, we ask you to send an email to the person who would supervise your thesis with a short motivation letter and your CV. It doesn’t have to be extensive, but demonstrate how and why you are a good fit for the particular project/thesis, your own expectations and availabilities (full-time/part-time work on project, hours per week), and how/what you are planning to contribute to the project/thesis.

In addition, please describe the courses/projects/theses that you’ve already taken with us.

In case you already have a concrete or early idea for your own thesis/project, please send them too, and we’ll be able to help you refine.

Expectations:

• Self-driven and independent work on the project/thesis. You are the project “lead/owner”, it’s your duty to make it successful. We are here to provide ideas and feedback, help you with the scientific aspects, and in case you have questions or need other help.
• Before the start of a thesis/project, you will be asked to write a proposal. It describes the motivation of the work to be performed, a comparison to existing approaches from the literature, a description of the high-level ideas for how you are planning to tackle the gap, a list/table of nice-to-have and must-have deliverables and a schedule. After you initiate contact, we’ll provide you with example proposals and help you with the write-up.
• We will also usually encourage some form of evaluation of the approach, for example through a pilot study or through an empirical analysis. The scope can vary depending on the project/thesis and can be discussed on a case-by-case basis.
• The project report/thesis will be written in Latex, using our HASEL template for theses and reports.
• During the project, there will be bi-weekly meetings with the HASEL group.
• After handing in your report/thesis, we might ask you to do a quick presentation to the research group to give you the opportunity to present your work to an audience. This also depends on the project/thesis, but is mandatory for master theses.

We’re looking forward to hearing from and working with you!

Guidance Documents:

To help students with getting started, better understanding our expectations and writing good theses/projects report, we provide comprehensive guides:

• Writing Theses and Project Reports
• Performing the Literature Review
• Performing a Qualitative/Thematic Analysis