This page is meant to help and guide students in the process of finding a thesis project in software systems engineering. The idea is to give a number of advices and recommendations that students are invited to consider when starting the process of finding a thesis subject.
It is very important to start thinking about the thesis project a few months before the expected starting date (usually August and January). It is recommended to have a project plan ready (i.e., carefully prepared and agreed together with the supervisor(s)) before the starting date of the thesis project. A project plan should contain a detailed description of the project, including a weekly/monthly plan with goals, milestones, and expected outcomes. It is also a good idea to think about a possibly plan B in case something unexpectedly goes wrong during the thesis project.
Duration and Workload
The duration of a Master’s thesis (including holidays) depends on the earned credits: 30 ECTS = 5 months, 32,5 ECTS = 51⁄2 months, 35 ECTS = 6 months. As a general rule no parallel activities are conducted in this period. Nevertheless, the period may be extended with 3 weeks for every 5 additional ECTS credits from course activity. This should be included in the period defined by the starting date and end date in the project registration. The maximum is 15 ECTS credits besides the thesis. Similar rules apply for BSc theses.
How to Get Started
The first step is to read the rules of the specific education programme. For instance, if you are following the MSc in Computer Science and Engineering, here you find all the rules concerning the programme, including the thesis.
Finding a Supervisor
The second step is to find a supervisor for your thesis project. The main supervisor must be a member of the scientific staff, with a permanent position at DTU. If the supervisor is an assistant professor, an associate professor, senior researcher, or professor must be connected as co-supervisor.
Here is the list of potential supervisors from our section with some of their areas of interest (dig deeper into their pages to learn more):
- Alberto Lluch Lafuente: formal methods, model checking, security
- Alceste Scalas: programming languages, compilers, concurrent/distrubuted systems
- Andrea Burattin: process mining, business process management, data-driven systems
- Andrey Rivkin: business process management, formal methods, artificial intelligence
- Anne Haxhausen: formal methods, formal verification, railway systems
- Christoph Matheja: programming languages, program verification, model checking
- Christian Kalhauge: programming languages, program analysis, automated testing
- Ekkart Kindler: software development, software engineering, software modelling
- Hugo Andrés López: business process management, distributed systems, formal methods
- Hubert Baumeister: software development, agile programming, domain-specific languages
- Giovanni Meroni: businesss process management, information systems, IoT monitoring
- Sebastian Mödersheim: formal methods, logic, security & privacy
The thesis can be written in collaboration with multiple departments at DTU, another university or in collaboration with a company. The thesis can be prepared individually or in group of up to four students. However, students will be examined individually.
Case 1: you have a project idea that you would like to develop
Check the Research page of the section and/or the individual pages of the scientific staff of the section (see also the list above). The goal is to find one or more potential supervisors who work on the same or a similar research area. You can then contact the potential supervisor(s) by email. The email should contain:
- A short description of who you are and of your academic studies
- The list of courses you have attended with the related grades
- A 1-2 pages description of your idea (problem, why the problem is relevant, how you plan to solve the problem)
Case 2: you don’t have a project idea but you have a subject you like
Have a look at this list of proposals. Check the Research page of the section and/or the individual pages of the scientific staff of the section in order to find someone who work on that subject (see also the list above). You can then contact the potential supervisor(s) by email. The email should contain:
- A short description of who you are and of your academic studies
- The list of courses you have attended with the related grades
- A short description of the subject you like
- What kind of thesis project (theoretical, mostly practical, a combination) you would prefer to work on
Case 3: you have a project idea in collaboration with a company
Check the Research page of the section and/or the individual pages of the scientific staff of the section in order to find someone who does research or has expertise on to the subject of the project (see also the list above). You can then contact the potential supervisor(s) by email. The email should contain:
- A short description of who you are and of your academic studies
- The list of courses you have attended with the related grades
- A 1-2 pages description of the project idea, including the details of the company and the name of the supervisor(s) from the company
Please consider that a project in collaboration with a company might require more time to be defined and thus registered. That’s because an agreement has to be reached to meet both DTU’s and company’s expectations.
Case 4: you don’t have a project idea, nor a preferred subject
The advice is to contact the teacher of a course you found most exciting.
Project Registration
As soon as you have an agreement with a supervisor, your project has to be registered and approved by Head of Studies. Please keep in mind that the project must be approved before the starting date of the project and that it can take some time (days or even a couple of weeks) to get the project registered. Registration is done via your supervisor’s intranet and it includes information on the project (title, project description, your name and student number, amount of credits, start and end date, …).
You will receive an email receipt when the agreement has been approved and registered in the system. The project registration is binding and counts as an examination attempt from the registered start date.
Within the first month of the project period, an up-to-date project plan outlining the objective of the thesis must be prepared and submitted on DTU Inside.
Project Evaluation
You submit the report by the end date on DTU Inside. The report must be written in English and include an abstract. The oral defence must take place no later than 10 working days after the hand in and it usually consists of a 15-25 mins presentation of the thesis work (done by the student) followed by a question and answer session. The duration of the defence depends on the question and answer session, but it normally lasts no more than 1 hour.