If you write your Bachelor's or Master's Thesis under the supervision of the Department MLS, there is a series of regulations and documents you need to make yourself familiar with.
Here you will find a full description of the University of Stuttgart's general Thesis Procedure, from proposal writing to thesis grading.
10 months prior to thesis submission
Please visit the page of the Department Machine Learning for Simulation Science to get familiar with its research scope. Contact the Researcher working on your research topic of interest directly and provide them with a short thesis description. They will reply to you and confirm whether they are available to be your Advisor.
10-7 months before thesis submission
Before making the registration of your thesis, you will have to write a thesis proposal (+ abstract). This will help you refine your research question, build the thesis structure, organize and schedule the tasks for your research work.
In this proposal, you should include:
- an introduction to your research topic,
- a description of the methodology you will use,
- a timeline and the activities you will conduct in this time frame,
- the references used to introduce your work.
This proposal must be approved before you move forward in the thesis procedure and it usually contains 5-8 pages, covering only the most important things. So keep in mind to avoid unnecessary information.
- Step 2.1: When sketching the proposal, ask your Advisor/Main Examiner for help. Get their feedback and work on improvements until you are all happy with it. Once you get the confirmation that your proposal is ready to be registered, create an Overleaf project for it. We recommend using the widely used Latex Template, as this will also be the template you will have to use for the Master thesis itself.
- Step 2.2: Submit the final version to your Main Examiner and wait for feedback. After your receive the approval, you can move on to Step 3.
Important: Only full Professors, assistant/junior Professors and habilitated staff members can be the Main Examiner.
If you are enrolled in a Master's program (M.Sc.) or an older Bachelor program (B.Sc., PO 2012), you will need a Second Examiner, who will support/revise your grade at the end. In the MLS Department, Prof. Dr. Steffen Staab is usually the Second Examiner. If you'd like to have someone else from the Uni Stuttgart as your Second Examiner, please state this clearly to the MLS Secretariat and invite this other person directly.
6 months before thesis submission
Scientific progress depends on open access to information and data. Without it, researchers would not be able to share knowledge broadly, to replicate findings from data, and to evolve scientific insight. For these reasons, we openly publish our papers and data online so that everyone can access them. We expect our students to proceed likewise with their theses; in return, we assure to advise and support them in the best possible way during their theses.
- Step 3.1: Read through the Wikipedia article about academic dishonesty and make sure you understand everything. If you have any questions, ask your Advisor.
- Step 3.2: Download and read the thesis contract and the license agreement. If you are not a German speaker, we recommend using the Deepl translator, so you can understand the document, fill it out and sign it. In case of any questions, ask your Advisor/Main Examiner. If you are enrolled in a German study program and write your thesis in English, download and sign the additional language agreement, saying that you will also submit a German abstract along with your thesis and English abstract.
- Step 3.3: Check your C@mpus account, go to "My Requests", download the registration form and sign it.
Hack: To avoid any format issues when submitting the above-mentioned documents for signature, please download them first and only then fill them in.
- Step 3.4: Send all the files (approved proposal, thesis contract, license agreement, additional language agreement, C@mpus registration form) to the Secretary of your Main Examiner to have them signed. Please also include a teaser of your work in your e-mail if you have agreed to the publication of your work on our website.
6 months before thesis submission
In this step, you must officially register your thesis at the Examination Office (Prüfungsamt).
Once you have the copy of the signed version of the registration form, send it via e-mail to the Examination Office. Your registration will be confirmed also via e-mail. After this happens, you have six months to submit your thesis. If the deadline is a public holiday or weekend, it will end on the subsequent working day.
6-0 months before the submission
Have regular meetings with your Advisor/Main Examiner so he/she can give you constant feedback on your work and progress.
Keep in mind the evaluation criteria, since your reviews will later apply for grading your thesis. We also recommend you to read Jennifer Widom’s tips on writing technical papers as well as the ACL PC chairs last-minute writing advice.
Very important:
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- Submission of a draft of your thesis: one month before your deadline expires, you need to submit a draft of your work to your Main Examiner with the current state of the thesis.
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- Presentation at the Department Colloquium: also one month before your deadline expires, you need to make a presentation of your thesis at the MLS Colloquium. To schedule your time slot in advance, please contact Mr. Andrei Manolache. This is the only presentation you will have to give in the whole Thesis Process at the MLS Department. The final Thesis does not have to be completely written, but you must present the final results, so that you can receive feeback and have time to work on final adjustments.
- Sick note: If you get sick and your doctor gives you a sick note, the Examination Committee (EC) must be aware of it. To do so, send them the original sick note via internal post, along with a copy of it via e-mail (with your Main Examiner's Secretary in cc). The extension of your deadline will be communicated to your Examiner(s) and the Secretary (+ Examination Office).
- Running out of time: If you run out of time and need an extension, inform your Advisor as soon as possible. Extensions can be given from one to three months before the deadline expires, and they require the signature of the Examiner. The form can be downloaded here.
Remember that students enrolled in an English study program only need to provide an English abstract, while students in German study programs must provide both German and English abstracts along with the final thesis.
Unless you applied for an extension, and it was granted, you must submit your thesis within 6 months after the registration at the Examination Office (step 4). Otherwise, it will count as failed. The faculty website describes the process in detail: Handing in the thesis (Faculty 5).
Your thesis must be submitted as a printed version (2 hard copies) and a digital copy (.pdf). The digital version will be published via OPUS if you have agreed to this in the beginning of the thesis registration process.
- Step 6.1 - Submission of the printed version
Title page of the Department: Please include this title page (pre-filled title page). Have in mind that this is the only template accepted. If you are developing your work with the support of a company, we ask for your understanding that logos cannot be inserted.
Signed Declaration: The submitted thesis (.pdf and hard copy) must include a signed declaration that verifies that you wrote the thesis on your own by only using the mentioned resources/literature (personal declaration).
Additional copies of title page: Please also hand in two additional copies of your title page separately, they will be stamped and signed. One is for you, one is to prove that you handed in within the deadline.
The formal requirements of the printed version are:
- Any kind of adhesive binding is allowed (spiral bounding is not allowed).
- The CS department covers must be included in your hard copies. Before printing, please provide them to the Kopierlädle so that they can add the CS department covers to the two versions of your thesis during binding.
- Transparent sheet on top: The CS front cover is directly put onto the title page, and there should a transparent sheet on top of everything. If the title can be read without opening, everything should be correct.
- The very last page is the CS department back cover, you can include a transparent sheet at the back of your thesis if it pleases you, but this is not necessary.
- Step 6.2 - Submission of the digital version
To submit your thesis online, write an e-mail to your Main and Second Examiners and Advisor (if you have one) and put the Secretary of the Department in cc. This e-mail must contain the full version of your work in PDF. This means: title page, English (and German) abstract, sources and signed declaration. Also attach to this e-mail the abstract(s) in txt.format. The secretary will confirm the digital submission.
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- 4,0-confirmation: If you need a 4,0-confirmation (= you have passed, but the final grade is not done yet), please add this information in the submission email. This will only be done in special cases (you need the confirmation for enrollment in a consecutive study programme or a job offer).
- Step 6.3 - OPUS: As soon as you have received the final grade, it is time to upload your thesis to the University’s publication server OPUS. This can only be done if you meet the general requirements and also if you have agreed to the license agreement. If you get stuck with this task, check the FAQ list by the University’s library.
Approx. 1 month after submission (at least two weeks should be in between)
Your Main and Second Examiners will evaluate your work following our sheet with evaluation criteria. Once the review is finalized and signed by the Examiner(s), your grade will be uploaded to C@mpus.
If you have agreed to it at the beginning of the thesis registration process, your Thesis will be uploaded to the MLS website in the section Student Theses.
Contact
Júlia Gravina
Secretary and Team Assistant - MLS