Please check our list of topics or propose one. Contact a potential advisor. You will then receive information on the upcoming admission process.

Completion of the HCI lecture is a mandatory prerequisite for applying to conduct a thesis at the HCC.

Only after a successful admission process, you will be invited to the research seminar and to the seminar's Whiteboard. 

Please note that writing a thesis at HCC requires regular participation in the HCC research seminar. In this seminar, you gain a better understanding of the research conducted within the group.

In the Whiteboard, we provide further information on the dates and details for preparing for the individual sessions and for planning your work.

After you and your advisor agree on the topic, you need to write a thesis proposal. The proposal is your personal project plan containing the research field, theoretical background, intended working program, and schedule. We provide detailed information for writing a thesis as well as an Overleaf template at: https://git.imp.fu-berlin.de/hcc-public/thesis-at-hcc

Please note: Using LaTeX (Overleaf template) is mandatory. If you don't have experience yet, please take this opportunity to learn it. Your supervisor will help you with any questions you have.

Typically, you need about three iterations (feedback loops) to define your thesis project. After the final meeting with your advisor, you are ready to start. Think about your second examiner (Zweitgutachter:in). Please talk to your advisor for support. 

Check the forms provided by the examination office. Please fill out the form electronically and send it to your advisor.

Please note: Although the registration form states "supervisor," the first examiner - Prof. Müller-Birn - always has to sign the document.

The submission deadline of the thesis can be found in Campus Management.

During the writing process, please organize meetings with the advisor on top of the research seminar. We recommend meeting at least every other week.

For submitting your thesis, you need to have two examiners. The first one is Prof. Müller-Birn, and the second examiner is another institute professor. You are free to choose, and you can ask your advisor for advice. Please send a request to the second examiner before submitting the thesis. Add your thesis proposal to this request. Thus, the examiner can make an informed decision. Do not forget to add all information (advisor, first and second examiner) to the title page of your thesis.

Submit the final version of your thesis to the examination office via e-mail. Please do not forget to link your git repository in the PDF so that all information (data, source code, text) is available for review. An electronic copy of your thesis will be sent to all examiners by the examination office.

After about two to four weeks, please contact your examiners again to organize the defense appointment. Please note that you must initialize this process. Please propose at least three dates to your examiners that fit your schedule.

When the date is agreed upon, please email the secretary about booking room 111.

About a week before your defense, send an invitation to the institute email lists (i-profs[at]inf.fu-berlin.de; i-wimis[at]inf.fu-berlin.de; i-studi[at]inf.fu-berlin.de). The email should contain the topic, the abstract, the reviewers, and where/when the defense takes place.

This step is the final step in a long process. Make sure everything goes smoothly and check all technical equipment (e.g., projector) before your presentation.

For a BSc thesis, the presentation should last 15 minutes (+15 minutes for questions) and for an MSc thesis, the presentation should last 25 minutes (+25 minutes for questions). 

Slides should accompany your defense. They should include the motivation/context, the problem addressed, the approach, the methods used, the main results and your insights. If you developed a prototype as part of your thesis, be sure to include a demo.

Be prepared to answer detailed questions by the examiners.

If you achieved at least a good grade (grade 2.0 and above) in your thesis, we recommend to publish your thesis in the institutional repository, Refubium, at the Freie Universität Berlin. We would then link to it from the HCC Research Group website. There is a step-by-step-guide for students on how to publish their thesis on Refubium (only in German).

You will need a recommendation for publication from your first and second examiners to be able to publish the thesis.