Final Theses
We welcome students who are interested in writing their Bachelor's or Master's thesis with us. We do not maintain a fixed list of available topics but instead aim to develop thesis projects individually together with students. To facilitate this process, we recommend thinking in advance about potential areas or research questions that interest you. Topics you encountered during your studies, internships, or part-time jobs can often serve as a strong foundation for an engaging and relevant thesis. Collaborations with companies are also possible in principle. Please note, however, that we can only supervise topics that align with the research interests of our group.
If you are interested, please contact the team member whose research focus best matches your interests.
Context
Theses typically begin with an introductory chapter followed by a literature review ("Related Work") that outlines the current state of research on the chosen topic. The thesis should present the theoretical background and describe how relevant information can be systematically gathered to address the research question. In many cases, a user study is recommended to support the practical work with a solid theoretical foundation. A Master's thesis generally involves a more in-depth exploration and concludes with a summary and outlook on potential future work.
Please note: A Bachelor's thesis must not consist solely of the written documentation of a practical implementation or developed product. The work must also include a scientific investigation, such as a literature review, theoretical framing, or empirical evaluation.
For more information, see the webpage of the faculty: https://cs.tu-dortmund.de/en/studium/weitere-lehrveranstaltungen/abschlussarbeiten/
Expected Workload
B.Sc. Computer Science: The bachelor's thesis is valued at 12 CP, for which students have four months to work on a defined technical-scientific problem. The Bachelor's program comprises a total of 5,400 student work hours, divided into 180 CP. Therefore, one CP corresponds to 30 student work hours. A 12 CP bachelor thesis thus corresponds to 360 student work hours over four months, or approximately 17.3 weeks. Therefore, the expected workload during the four-month thesis period is 360 hours / 17.3 weeks = 20.8 hours per week. Additionally, students complete a 3 CP bachelor seminar, in which they present and defend the results of their bachelor thesis.
M.Sc. Computer Science: The master's thesis is valued at 27 CP, for which students have six months to work on a defined technical-scientific problem. The Master's program comprises a total of 3,600 student work hours, divided into 120 CP. Therefore, one CP corresponds to 30 student work hours. A 27 CP master's thesis thus corresponds to 810 student work hours over six months, or approximately 26 weeks. Therefore, the expected workload during the six-month thesis period is 810 hours / 26 weeks = 31.2 hours per week. Additionally, students complete a 3 CP master's seminar, in which they present and discuss the results of their master's thesis.
For more information, see:
Archiving Theses
Bachelor and Master theses dissertations are encouraged to be archived on the institutional repository of the TU Dortmund University named Eldorado. The repository is operated jointly by the ITMC and TU Dortmund University Library. Those uploaded to Eldorado are indexed in Google Scholar and possibly other scholarly literature search engines. Please communicate with your thesis supervisor if you are interested and give consent to publishing your dissertation on Eldorado.
For more information, see the information on the University Library webpage here.