Procedure, form and evaluation

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Preliminary notes

We have noticed that certain points discussed during the initial conversations occasionally resulted in ambiguities. To address this, we would like to explicitly clarify the following:

• If you are interested in working with us, please reach out at your earliest convenience. Be aware that there is typically a minimum of one month between the initial idea and the start of your thesis.
• We are happy to provide feedback on your thesis; however, we require the final draft at least two weeks before the deadline. If this deadline is not met, we will be unable to offer feedback.
• If you have any questions related to your thesis during its creation, please provide the relevant material at least two days in advance. Without this, we will not be able to review it in time.
• Appointment requests for consultation hours and thesis discussions require at least two days’ notice. Requests made less than two days in advance cannot be accommodated.
• Please inform us as early as possible if you have a hard deadline for your thesis, such as the end of the semester. While a seamless transition to a Master’s program is possible, it must be planned in advance with us.

Procedure

If you wish to write a thesis with us at SecLab, you may choose from one of our topics or propose your own. If you don’t have a topic in mind, please take time to reflect on your specific interests and come prepared with some initial thesis ideas. Requests without a clear topic or ideas will be given lower priority.

• Before the thesis
  We highly recommend attending the Einführung ins wissenschaftliche Arbeiten course for the Bachelor thesis, and the Profikurs wissenschaftliches Arbeiten course for the Master thesis.

• First contact
  If you have a topic, please send us an email to schedule a preliminary discussion. You can contact either the supervisor, the seclab (seclab-fk07@hm.edu), or Prof. Dr.-Ing. Thomas Schreck (thomas.schreck@hm.edu).

  We encourage you to reach out as early as possible and provide a brief description of your planned topic, as well as your time frame. We will provide feedback on whether your project aligns with both our timeline and focus.

  If you plan to write your thesis with an external company, please note that we do not sign NDAs.

• Exposé and initial discussion
  Please write an exposé (3-4 pages) on your proposed topic using LaTeX, Pandoc, or Markdown (see section “Form” below). I will review your work during my office hours and provide feedback. The exposé should include the following:

  • Cover sheet
  • Motivation, Relevance
  • Related work (3-5 sources)
  • Problem and gaps in research
  • Research questions
  • Approach and methodology
  • Table of contents draft
  • Sources

• Registration
  You must register your thesis before beginning work on it. The registration must be completed no later than four weeks after the exposé is accepted. Please fill out the form and send it to your supervisor via email.If a second examiner is required, please choose one yourself. An informal confirmation will suffice.

• During the thesis
  If you have any questions during your work, feel free to contact your supervisor via email. We are happy to assist you during our office hours or at scheduled appointments.

• Interim presentation
  Approximately halfway through your working period, you will give an intermediate presentation to showcase the results achieved so far.

  An intermediate presentation is required for all Master’s theses. For Bachelor’s theses, the presentation is mandatory if the working period exceeds five months.

• Feedback
  If you send us a thesis draft at least two weeks before the submission deadline, we will provide feedback. We cannot guarantee feedback for drafts submitted later.

• Submission
  A printed version is no longer required! Send your thesis (as a PDF) to your supervisor via email by the submission deadline. Please ensure you follow the formal requirements set by the faculty.

• Final presentation
  The final presentation (Colloquium) will take place after the thesis submission. Please schedule the presentation with your supervisor. The presentation should last 20 minutes, followed by a question-and-answer session about the work.

Form

You should use LaTeX, Pandoc, or Markdown to create your thesis. However, if you are not familiar with these tools, we recommend using Microsoft Word. Additionally, we advise studying the topic of technical writing before starting your thesis. We recommend the book “Technisches Schreiben: (nicht nur) für Informatiker”.

We recommend our LaTeX template for the creation of your thesis.

Your Bachelor thesis should be between 40 and 60 pages, while a Master thesis should range from 50 to 80 pages.

You may write your thesis in either German or English. However, we generally prefer English if you are sufficiently proficient.

Evaluation

Your thesis will be evaluated as follows:

• Content (70%)
  • Knowledge
  • Assignment
  • Scientificness
  • Methodology
  • Autonomy
  • Related Work
  • Quality of the results
• Form (30%)
  • Language
  • Structure and Citations
  • Layout and Content