Writing a thesis in our group
Are you a student at the University of Bayreuth and are interest in software engineering in general or in software analytics in particular? Then please reach out to us to discuss potential thesis topics! However, before you do, please carefully read the information on this page.
Prerequisites
We can only supervise a limited number of thesis projects in parallel. Please reach out to Prof. Dr. Sebastian Baltes to ask whether one of the group members currently has the capacity to accept a new thesis project. Students who write their thesis in our group should bring outstanding skills in one or more of the following areas:
- modern software engineering
- quantitative data analysis
- qualitative data analysis
- machine learning
- natural language processing
- information visualization
Having passed our lectures, seminars, or practical courses with a good grade is of course considered an asset. While there is no formal requirement to do your seminar or practical course in our group before starting your thesis project, doing so allows you to start developing your thesis proposal earlier.
Topics
Our thesis topics are usually related to our current research. When writing your thesis in our group, you as a student will independently conduct research. However, we will advise and guide you in this endeavour. A thesis project in our group usually involves writing code, and we will support you with that as well. Depending on the outcome of your research, there might even be the chance to publish and present your work at an international conference. We provide a list of potential thesis topics here (contact Prof. Dr. Sebastian Baltes to get the password), but you can always suggest your own topics as well. All topics should, however, be aligned with the research areas we cover.
Thesis Proposal
Together with an advisor from our group, you will develop a thesis proposal. The advisor, who is typically a doctoral or postdoctoral researcher in the group, will support you in drafting the proposal and will also advice you throughout your thesis project. Drafting your thesis proposal is the first step of your thesis project. A thesis proposal is usually not longer than four pages. Your thesis proposal serves as a blueprint for your thesis project and will also considerably help you writing your thesis later on. We provide a thesis repo that we will fork for you when you start working on your thesis proposal. It contains a template with all sections that are required for a thesis proposal to be submitted.
Thesis Project
Once a first draft of your thesis proposal is aligned with your supervisor, you can register your thesis and start tackling your research question(s) by collecting data, implementing a tool, setting up an experiment, or whatever is outlined in your thesis proposal. While you work on the project, we usually schedule meetings every second week in which you report on your progress and ask questions for which you need clarification to move forward.
Final Remarks
This page is based on Andreas Zeller’s guidelines.