Starting a thesis
The first step to your thesis is finding a topic and an advisor. You can have a look on our website for open thesis topics. Alternative you can contact the people from our staff directly and ask them for open topics. If they are interested they will meet with you to discuss the details of the topic.
External theses
If you are looking for a supervisor for an external thesis please take the following points into account:
- The definition of a thesis topic is within the responsibilities of public administration of the state of Bavaria. This means, that a thesis topic can only be provided by an employee (Prof. or PD) of TUM (or another Bavarian university).
- Writing a thesis is an educational activity. As such it is cannot be the result of employed work at a company. The intellectual property of a thesis always belongs to the student writing it, though he/she might sell it afterwards.
- We do not supervise external theses that require your advisor and/or supervision to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).
- Theses at I6 are not allowed to contain a non-disclosure clause ("Sperrvermerk").
For more information, please read the official Handout on Theses and Dissertations.
Once you found an advisor and a topic you need to register it at TUM. The procedure depends on the subject of your studies:
- In informatics you need to register your thesis at the Informatics Infopoint as documented in the TUM informatics website. Deadline for the final submission is the 15th of each month, or the first working day after the 15th if it falls on a weekend or public holiday.
- In Robotics, Cognition and Intelligence (RCI) the procedure is similar, but you need to submit your documents directly to Dr. Alexander Lenz. Make sure to check out the RCI Master Thesis page.
- For other subjects, please check your individual requirements.
The registration form might differ by your subject. In Informatics and RCI you need to prepare a form, containing:
- Your personnel data
- The thesis topic in German and English
- The name of your supervisor (Themensteller/in) - this has to be a Professor
- One or more advisor(s) (Betreuer/in(nen)) - e.g. the Ph.D. student you are working with
- The signatures of yourself and your supervisor.
When starting a thesis you should also create an expose (3-4 pages) summarizing the topic and your work-plan.
Registration Forms
| Field of Study | Degree | Registration Form |
|---|---|---|
| Informatics | B.Sc. | Download |
| Automotive Software Engineering | M.Sc. | Download |
| Informatics | ||
| Information Systems | ||
| Robotics, Cognition, Intelligence | M.Sc. | Download |
Submitting your thesis
When writing your thesis please use the TUM I6 Latex template. It should be in line with the IN TUM thesis guidelines (last checked: 08/02/2020). However, please always reassure that this is still the case. In other subjects, please make sure that the format meets your individual requirements. When handing it in, please include an additional copy for your advisor. Moreover make sure your that thesis fulfills the following requirements:
Citations
We recommend that you use alphadin citation style when working with bibtex, or alpha when using biblatex/biber. Your bibliography should look like this:
- [BM92] Besl, P. J. and McKay, N. D. “Method for registration of 3-D shapes”. In: Sensor fusion IV: control paradigms and data structures. Vol. 1611. International Society for Optics and Photonics. 1992, pp. 586–606.
[CM92] Chen, Y. and Medioni, G. “Object modelling by registration of multiple range images”. In: Image and vision computing 10.3 (1992), pp. 145–155.
When quoting an author word-by-word please include a page number in the reference.
Figures
Please use vector graphics when including figures or diagrams in your thesis. If you create them with PGF/TIKZ or Inkscape it also possible to add texts directly from Latex to ensure a consistent typesetting. There is an unwritten rule, saying figures not referenced in your text are unnecessary.
When citing a figure include the reference in the figure's label (including the page number).
Math notation
When using formulas or pseudocode use the following notation style:
| Type | Example | Code1 | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| General items | |||
| Scalars | a | a | lower case, italic |
| Functions | \textrm{sin}(x) | \textrm{sin}(x) | regular text |
| Units | 42\,\textrm{Hz} | 42\,\textrm{Hz} | half-space between number and unit; unit in regular text |
| Angles | \alpha | \alpha | Greek letters |
| Absolute value | \mid a \mid | \mid a \mid | |
| Modulo | \textrm{mod} | \textrm{mod} | |
| Vectors and matrices | |||
| Vectors | \boldsymbol{v} | \boldsymbol{v} | lower case, italic, bold |
| Matrices | \boldsymbol{M} | \boldsymbol{M} | upper case, italic, bold |
| Variable indices | \boldsymbol{x}_i | \boldsymbol{x}_i | |
| Static indices | \boldsymbol{x}_\textrm{min} | \boldsymbol{x}_\textrm{min} | |
| Unit vectors | \textbf{e}_x | \textbf{e}_x | |
| Identity matrices | \textbf{Id}_n | \textbf{Id}_n | |
| Transpose | \boldsymbol{x}^\textrm{T} | \boldsymbol{x}^\textrm{T} | T in superscript and regular font |
| Vector product (cross product) | \times | \times | |
| Dot product | \cdot | \cdot | |
| Sets and sequences | |||
| Sets | A = \{ 1, 2, 3 \} | A = \{ 1, 2, 3 \} | upper case, italic |
| Sequence | \mathcal{A} = \langle 1,2,3 \rangle | \mathcal{A} = \langle 1,2,3 \rangle | |
| Set without | A \backslash \{ element \} | A \backslash \{ element \} | |
| Unification | A \cup \{ element \} | A \cup \{ element \} | |
Always use single letters for variable names.
1 to be used in math mode
Length
There are no fixed page limits or requirements for bachelor's or master's theses. However, as a reference point you, most bachelor's have around 40 to 60 pages and while master's thesis usually reach 60 to 80 pages (including abstract, table-of-contents, lists of figures, lists of tables and bibliography). If your thesis is going to be longer than 100 pages, your advisor and/or supervisor will most likely not read all of it. Detailed information can be found in your module handbook (see campus.tum.de).
CD / DVD
A CD/DVD is not required for the official copy you submit to the faculty or your program coordinator. If in doubt check your program's website!
For your advisor's/ supervisor's copy of your thesis please add a CD or DVD on the last inner page of your thesis including:
- A digital copy of your thesis (including its Latex sources)
- The code you programmed
- The dataset(s) you used for your evaluation results
As a rule of thumb, the disk should include everything required to reproduce your results.
Colloquium Presentation
While working on your thesis you are requested to attend the monthly I6 Defense Day. You should give two presentations by yourself:
- Initial topic presentation: This talk usually takes place in the first two months of your thesis. The idea is to shortly introduce yourself to the other members of the lab(s) and present your topic as well as the approach you plan to implement. It enables you to get additional feedback during an early stage, when you still have the possibility to adjust the direction of your work.
- Thesis defense: At the end of your thesis you have to present the results of your research to the group. This talk is compulsive and is part of your grade.
Both talks should be held in English. A Latex presentation template is available in the TUMlatex repository. If you are preparing a talk, please ask your advisor to add you to the speakers list for the next meeting (page only visible to I6 employees). You will have a fixed timeslot according to the following table:
| Type | Time of Presentation | Time for questions & answers |
|---|---|---|
| Initial topic presentation | 5 min | 5 min |
| BA thesis | 15 min | 5 min |
| Guided Research | 10 min | 5 min |
| Interdisciplinary Project | 15 min | 5 min |
| MA thesis | 20 min | 5 min |
Please rehearse your talk before to get a feeling for the time you need. Form experience, planning with one minute per slide is usually a good baseline.