Questions and Answers (Theses)

Usage of terms must (not), should (not), and may according to RFC 2119. See also the general Q&A and the Q&A on lectures, labs, and seminars.

Can students propose their own thesis topic?

Students may suggest a topic, but this does not entitle them to it. According to § 17(4) of the examination regulations (bachelor’s, master’s), the supervisor sets the topic in consultation with the student.

Students can carry out a self-proposed thesis project independently or in cooperation with a company or external organization. They are responsible for developing the topic and must prepare a thesis proposal using the template described in the thesis guidelines. We can provide feedback on self-proposed topics, but we cannot provide the same level of support during topic development as for topics suggested by our group. The proposal must clearly highlight the software engineering problem to be addressed and embed both the problem and the derived research questions in related software engineering papers.

How long should the final thesis be?

A rough guideline is around 40 to 60 pages for a bachelor’s thesis and 60 to 80 pages for a master’s thesis. These numbers depend on factors such as font size (typically 11pt or 12pt) and other aspects such as spacing and layout. However, students must discuss the specific requirements for their thesis with their supervisor, preferably based on a first draft of the thesis structure.

How long does the thesis defense/presentation last?

For a bachelor’s thesis colloquium, we allocate 45 minutes. The time is split between a talk summarizing the thesis project (up to 30 minutes) and questions (up to 15 minutes). For a master’s thesis colloquium, we allocate 60 minutes. The time is split between a talk summarizing the thesis project (up to 40 minutes) and questions (up to 20 minutes).

Does the defense/presentation have to cover the whole thesis?

The short answer is: no. It is important to provide a high-level overview of the thesis project and then dive into selected aspects. The main target audience for the presentation is the second examiner, as they usually did not participate in the regular meetings over the course of the project. Sometimes, we ask students to address certain questions that might have come up while reviewing the thesis.

Should the thesis and presentation be structured chronologically?

We recommend structuring the thesis and the presentation in an outcome-oriented way, anchoring the story around the final outcome and results. The storyline does not need to follow a chronological order.

How many references should the thesis have?

This really depends on the specific topic. As a rule of thumb, a bachelor’s thesis should reference around 15 to 20 academic articles, a master’s thesis around 20 to 30 academic articles. This does not include references to gray literature, websites, documentation, etc. Most articles should be briefly summarized or mentioned in the related work section, but some might only be needed to support statements in the introduction or discussion sections.

Do I use “I” or “we” to present my results?

Using “I” emphasizes the student’s personal contributions and can be used in combination with “we” to distinguish these contributions from, e.g., outcomes of the supervision meetings. In computer science, however, the “scientific we,” which includes author(s) and reader(s), is more commonly used. Avoid passive voice (“We conducted the experiment…” instead of “The experiment was conducted…”).

How should students prepare for supervision meetings?

Students should prepare their update for each regular meeting with our executive summary template. It covers the context and problem of the current task, the progress since the last meeting, and the decisions that students need from their supervisor. They may also prepare the executive summary as one to three slides.

What do students confirm in the Declaration of Originality?

Our thesis template contains a Declaration of Originality (“Eigenständigkeitserklärung”) in German that students are asked to sign. In short, they confirm that:

they have not previously submitted the thesis for assessment elsewhere
they followed good scientific practice
they wrote the thesis independently and used only the sources and aids that they state
they fully understand its content and can defend it on their own
they take full responsibility for its scientific quality and content, its method, how it was created, and the cited literature
they marked all content that they took from sources or generated with AI support
they used only the AI tools listed in the declaration, and their examiner permitted their use
they used these AI tools only as aids, critically reviewed the generated content, and their own cognitive and creative influence predominates

Students also agree that the university can compare the electronic version with their supplementary material and check it for plagiarism, inconsistencies, errors, and hallucinated information, including with AI tools and plagiarism software. In the declaration, students must list each AI tool that they used and its purpose.