Gaining a degree

Gaining a degree is hard work and an overwhelming task at the beginning. The following information should help you to get a successful graduation of your study.

General advice

  • Show your ability to work independently and scientifically.
  • Don't be scared to ask. Make appointments with your advisor and/or assessor if necessary.
  • Negative findings are not bad while giving reasons.
  • Give reasons for everything and compare different solutions.
  • Make notes and summaries for papers/books which your read.

Course of action

  1. Find a topic which you really like to work on.
  2. Get to know your topic and all related work.
  3. Define your research question. Which problem do you like to solve?
  4. Define your challenges and requirements. (Needed to evaluate your solutions)
  5. Create a project plan with milestones.
  6. Think about different solutions for your problem.
  7. Evaluate your solutions.
  8. Implement your solution as part of your Master/Bachelor Project.
  9. Write a short (10-20 pages) project report.
  10. Present your project to the working group. (15-30 minutes)
  11. Evaluate and analyse your solution. Compare it to existing or similar solutions.
  12. Remove implementation details from your project report and add the evaluation of your solution. Extend your report if necessary. This will be your Bachelor/Master Thesis. Consider the Writing a thesis guide.
  13. Discuss your draft with your advisor.
  14. Submit your thesis and make an appointment for your colloquium. Announce the date to the working group.
  15. Create a 30 min presentation considering our Holding a presentation guide.
  16. Make an appointment for a trial session and invite the working group.
  17. Final colloquium and party ;-).

Grading

  • Which contributions are made?
  • Which contributions are missing? What should have logically been part of the thesis but wasn't?
  • Did the student find new concepts?
  • Which concepts were missing? What should obviously have been done but wasn't?
  • How good is the implementation?
  • What can you learn from the work?
  • What conclusions or recommendations can be gained from the work?
  • How is the paper/thesis structured? Is it readable?
  • Is the motivation/problem clear?
  • Are the important points clearly visible and easily understandable?
  • Is there a common thread running through the entire project/report/paper?
  • Is the student able to work independently and scientifically?