Bachelor-Thesis

CS Bachelor Project and Thesis

Teaching

About

Timeline

Activity Deadline
Project topic/supervisor selection (campus track) 2020-09-18 (Friday)
Project topic/supervisor selection (world track) 2021-02-08 (Monday)
Project and thesis kickoff meeting 2021-02-08 (Monday)
Presentations 2021-05-10 (Monday)
Presentations 2021-05-11 (Tuesday)
Bachelor thesis submission 2021-05-17 (Monday)

We expect that our students take the initiative and drive the process. How self-organized students work is part of the assessment. In terms of effort, please note that 1 CP equals ~25 hours.

Student Project and Thesis Topics (2020/2021)

Teaching

Below is a collection of ideas for student projects. Some are half-backed, some are not even written down. If you are interested in systems-oriented computer science and computer security, talk to me in person. In general I expect that students have a solid understanding of operating systems and computer networks and that they are able to handle programming tasks well.

Trusted Execution Environments

Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) such as ARM's Trustzone or Intel's Enclave are secure areas inside a main processor. The idea is that data and applications contained in TEEs is protected with respect to confidentiality and integrity. Systems execute a trusted operating system inside the TEE and they may load trusted applications into the TEE. The goal of this project is investigate the state of the art in TEEs and their open source software systems and to prototype novel trusted applications that may help to secure networked embedded devices.

This work requires strong interest in working with low-level C code in embedded systems. It also requires a certain portion of creativity and the willingness to work with fast developing new technology.

CS Bachelor Project and Thesis

Teaching

About

Timeline

Activity Deadline
Project topic/supervisor selection (campus track) 2019-09-20 (Friday)
Project topic/supervisor selection (world track) 2020-02-03 (Monday)
Project and thesis kickoff meeting 2020-02-10 (Monday)
Presentations 2020-05-11 (Monday)
Presentations 2020-05-12 (Tuesday)
Bachelor thesis submission 2020-05-15 (Friday)

We expect that our students take the initiative and drive the process. How self-organized students work is part of the assessment. In terms of effort, please note that 1 CP equals ~25 hours.

Student Project and Thesis Topics (2019/2020)

Teaching

Below is a collection of ideas for student projects. Some are half-backed, some are not even written down. If you are interested in systems-oriented computer science and computer security, talk to me in person. In general I expect that students have a solid understanding of operating systems and computer networks and that they are able to handle programming tasks well.

Trusted Execution Environments

Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) such as ARM's Trustzone or Intel's Enclave are secure areas inside a main processor. The idea is that data and applications contained in TEEs is protected with respect to confidentiality and integrity. Systems execute a trusted operating system inside the TEE and they may load trusted applications into the TEE. The goal of this project is investigate the state of the art in TEEs and their open source software systems and to prototype novel trusted applications that may help to secure networked embedded devices.

This work requires strong interest in working with low-level C code in embedded systems. It also requires a certain portion of creativity and the willingness to work with fast developing new technology.

CS Bachelor Project and Thesis

Teaching

About

Timeline

Activity Deadline
Project topic/supervisor selection (campus track) 2018-09-21 (Friday)
Project topic/supervisor selection (world track) 2019-02-04 (Monday)
Presentations 2019-05-13 (Monday)
Presentations 2019-05-14 (Tuesday)
Bachelor thesis submission 2019-05-17 (Friday)

Materials

Doing research in computer science usually starts with a lot of reading and learning. In order to do research that is significant, it is crucial to pick a tractable topic and it is essential to understand the state of the art as well as any algorithms and tools that are relevant. While the details differ depending on the area of computer science, reading about the state of the art is essential for all of them. To find relevant literature, it is good to be aware of systems such as:

The project phase is essentially a way into your specific bachelor thesis topic. During the project phase, you should pick up and deepen the necessary knowledge, you should develop a good understanding of the state of the art, and you should get familiar with any programs or tools or datasets that are essential for carrying out a little research project during the bachelor thesis course.

LaTeX is widely used as the typesetting system for research papers in computer science. Hence, we expect that project and thesis reports are written in LaTeX. Below are some LaTeX templates that you are expected to use for typesetting the project report and later the thesis. Please do not change or improve the format, it is usually far better to spend your brain cycles on the content instead of the format (and we really appreciate a common format).

Student Project and Thesis Topics (2018/2019)

Teaching

Below is a collection of ideas for student projects. Some are half-backed, some are not even written down. If you are interested in systems-oriented computer science, talk to me in person. In general I expect that students have a solid understanding of operating systems and computer networks and that they are able to handle programming tasks well.

Soundification of Status Information

This is a topic for someone interested in computer generated sounds. I am interested in algorithms that convert status information obtained by monitoring systems (say a monitor of computer network) into audible sounds that (i) are not intrusive but (ii) can signal significant changes in the conditions. There is work in this space. Some people recently wrote special programming languages that allow to describe sound generations as programs.

This topic is somewhat experimental and producing a 'good' or even just a 'reasonable' solution will be difficult since most naive approaches tend to be annoying soon. This is a topic for students with a strong interested in music, sound generation, etc.

Computer Science Guided Research (2016)

Teaching

Guided Research Timeline

Introduction 2015-09-14 (Monday)
Topic selection 2015-10-01 (Thursday)
Proposal submission 2015-12-04 (Friday)
(Proposal submission 1) 2016-03-06 (Sunday)
Thesis submission 2016-05-08 (Sunday)
Presentations 2016-05-13 (Friday)

Guided Research Proposal

The preparation of the Guided Research Proposal is the first half of your thesis work. Don't underestimate it! Without a successful preparation phase, by experience, thesis finalization will be less thorough and, hence, less successful. For example, large parts of the Guided Research Proposal will go into the main thesis, related work being a good example.

The preparation phase includes, among others (and obviously somewhat also depending on the particular topic): familiarization with the topic; elaborating background through literature work; related work, and core concepts of the thesis.

Hence, the proposal needs to contain at least these elements (again, to be confirmed with your supervisor): motivation; research issues; relevance of this work ("how will the world be better once your results are available?"); related work, explained and put in relation with your work; a clear description of the second phase's outcome; a discussion about limits and further work (issues spotted, but not addressed in the framework of this thesis); a realistic time plan for the second phase.

Students must select the guided research topic and the supervisor beginning of October (see the timeline above). The choosen topic and supervisor must be communicated by email to Jürgen Schönwälder <j.schoenwaelder@jacobs-university.de>.

Students must submit the guided research proposal at a deadline when classes end (see timeline above). Late submissions of the research proposal or late selection of the topic will be penalized by a grade reduction of 10 percentage points per day late.

Computer Science Guided Research (2017)

Teaching

Guided Research Timeline

Introduction 2016-09-05 (Monday)
Topic selection 2016-10-01 (Saturday)
Proposal submission 2016-12-07 (Wednesday)
(Proposal submission 1) 2017-03-10 (Friday)
Thesis submission 2017-05-12 (Friday)
Presentations 2017-05-15 (Monday)
Presentations 2017-05-16 (Tuesday)

Guided Research Materials

Below are some LaTeX templates that you are expected to use for typesetting the proposal and later the thesis. Please do not change or improve the format, it is usually far better to spend your brain cycles on the content instead of the format (and we really appreciate a common format).

CS Bachelor Project and Thesis

Teaching

About

Timeline

Activity Deadline
Introduction 2017-09-11 (Monday)
Project topic/supervisor selection (campus track) 2017-09-18 (Monday)
Project topic/supervisor selection (world track) 2018-02-02 (Friday)
Presentations 2018-05-14 (Monday)
Presentations 2018-05-15 (Tuesday)
Bachelor thesis submission 2018-05-16 (Wednesday)

Materials

Doing research in computer science usually starts with a lot of reading and learning. In order to do research that is significant, it is crucial to pick a tractable topic and it is essential to understand the state of the art as well as any algorithms and tools that are relevant. While the details differ depending on the area of computer science, reading about the state of the art is essential for all of them. To find relevant literature, it is good to be aware of systems such as:

  • IEEE Xplore (digital library provided by the IEEE)
  • ACM Digital Library (digital library provided by the ACM)
  • Scopus (commercial research publication indexing system)
  • dblp (open computer science publication indexing system)

The project phase is essentially a way into your specific bachelor thesis topic. During the project phase, you should pick up and deepen the necessary knowledge, you should develop a good understanding of the state of the art, and you should get familiar with any programs or tools or datasets that are essential for carrying out a little research project during the bachelor thesis course.

LaTeX is widely used as the typesetting system for research papers in computer science. Hence, we expect that project and thesis reports are written in LaTeX. Below are some LaTeX templates that you are expected to use for typesetting the project report and later the thesis. Please do not change or improve the format, it is usually far better to spend your brain cycles on the content instead of the format (and we really appreciate a common format).

Computer Science Guided Research (2015)

Teaching

Guided Research Timeline

Introduction 2014-09-08 (Monday)
Topic selection 2014-10-01 (Wednesday)
Proposal submission 2014-12-05 (Friday)
(Proposal submission 1) 2015-03-08 (Sunday)
Thesis submission 2015-05-10 (Sunday)
Presentations 2015-05-13 (Wednesday)
Presentations 2015-05-15 (Friday)

Guided Research Proposal

The preparation of the Guided Research Proposal is the first half of your thesis work. Don't underestimate it! Without a successful preparation phase, by experience, thesis finalization will be less thorough and, hence, less successful. For example, large parts of the Guided Research Proposal will go into the main thesis, related work being a good example.

The preparation phase includes, among others (and obviously somewhat also depending on the particular topic): familiarization with the topic; elaborating background through literature work; related work, and core concepts of the thesis.

Hence, the proposal needs to contain at least these elements (again, to be confirmed with your supervisor): motivation; research issues; relevance of this work ("how will the world be better once your results are available?"); related work, explained and put in relation with your work; a clear description of the second phase's outcome; a discussion about limits and further work (issues spotted, but not addressed in the framework of this thesis); a realistic time plan for the second phase.

Students must select the guided research topic and the supervisor beginning of October (see the timeline above). The choosen topic and supervisor must be communicated by email to Jürgen Schönwälder <j.schoenwaelder@jacobs-university.de>.

Students must submit the guided research proposal at a deadline when classes end (see timeline above). Late submissions of the research proposal or late selection of the topic will be penalized by a grade reduction of 10 percentage points per day late.