We support Bachelor's and Master's theses as well as research practicals and internships in the field of practical informatics. We provide a non-exhaustive list of topics via Open Theses, but we are also open to your own ideas.
Prof. Kunkel leads the HPS research group as well as the AG-Computing of the GWDG. Together these two groups cover a wide range of research topics centered around High-Performance Computing. These topics, therefore, either focus on improving existing (HPC) systems or exploring application areas, such as AI.
When looking to apply for a thesis, please read over the rest of the website and have a look at the Open Theses topics. If you are unsure, consider performing some initial research into topics of interest to get an idea of what could be done. Afterward, write an email, describing what topics and research interests you as well as what skills you bring to hps-theses@uni-goettingen.de.
We will then contact you for an initial online meeting to discuss your topic, scope, timeline and possible supervisors. Once you have a topic, we will guide you through the process of registering your thesis or research practical.
For Bachelor students: You are expected to join the Bachelorabschlussmodul (BAM), which includes a Scientific Writing Seminar and our Oberseminar, OSHPS. To pass you need to regularly attend sessions for both seminars, give an ungraded presentation in OSHPS once and submit your thesis on time.
For Master students: You are expected to join our Oberseminar, OSHPS. To pass you need to regularly attend sessions for OSHPS, give an ungraded presentation in OSHPS once and submit your thesis on time.
The minimum duration is 15 weeks in total for
For a total of 15C.
The scientific writing seminar is offered once per semester, and it is recommended to start participating as early as possible, potentially in parallel with other courses. The Bachelor's Thesis may be written in parallel to the Scientific Writing Seminar or afterward. The Oberseminar should be visited in parallel to writing the thesis. Working on your thesis is considered a full time job.
Of the 12 weeks writing time, it is recommended to reserve 5 to 6 weeks for writing. Plan enough time for receiving and implementing feedback.
Students learn:
Participation requirements:
See the latest instance of BAM under Teaching for more details.
Students are expected to present intermediate results (usually close to the end of their thesis). The presentation is ungraded and is expected to start a discussion with the participants on the work itself.
Participation requirements:
See the latest instance of OSHPS under Teaching for more details.
A master's thesis has a duration of 6 month and awards 30C. Working on your thesis is a full-time job.
As noted above, you are expected to additional join the Oberseminar, OSHPS while working on your thesis.
Of the 6 month thesis duration, 2.5 month should be reserved for writing. Plan enough time for receiving and implementing feedback.
See below expectations for a student working on a thesis.
| Aspect | Guideline |
|---|---|
| Topic | Must be within a computer science specialization and approved by the supervisor. The topic should be original, scientifically relevant, and research-oriented. |
| Length Bachelor's Thesis | Typically 50–60 pages (excluding title page, abstract, references, and appendices). The focus should be on quality and scientific rigor rather than page count. |
| Length Master's Thesis | Typically 70-100 pages (excluding title page, abstract, references, and appendices). The focus should be on quality and scientific rigor rather than page count. |
| Language | German or English. The selected language must be used consistently throughout the thesis. |
| Structure | The thesis should follow a standard scientific structure consisting of: Title Page, Abstract, Table of Contents, Introduction, Related Work / Literature Review, Research Question and Objectives, Methodology, Implementation / Experiments, Results, Discussion, Conclusion and Future Work, References, and Appendices (if applicable). |
| Citations | A consistent citation style (e.g., IEEE, APA, ACM, Chicago) must be used throughout the thesis. In LaTeX, alphabetic-verb is preferred, e.g., [KUN2026] All sources, figures, datasets, and external material must be properly referenced. |
| Originality | The thesis must represent the student's own independent work. Plagiarism, fabrication, falsification of results, or any form of academic misconduct is strictly prohibited and may lead to failure of the thesis. |
| Supervision | Students are expected to maintain regular contact with their supervisor. Situative meetings and feedback can be requested by the student any time. Additionally, the thesis should be given for feedback to the supervisor. |
| Submission | The final thesis must be submitted via FlexNow according to the procedures and deadlines specified by the Examination Office and the Institute of Computer Science. Submission includes a PDF version that is PDF/A compliant. Submission is possible until midnight of the final day. |
| Format | The thesis must be submitted as a PDF document. Recommended formatting: 12 pt font size, page numbering, clearly structured headings, and margins of approximately 2.5 cm. Recommend to use our thesis Templates. |
| Source Code & Data | If applicable, source code, datasets, experiment configurations, or other supplementary materials should be published, if permitted, or at least submitted to support reproducibility of the results. This includes sufficient documentation of experimental code for another researcher to reproduce the results. |
| Scientific Practice | Students must follow the principles of Good Scientific Practice, including transparency, reproducibility, proper documentation, and ethical handling of data and research results. |
| Administrative Requirements | Students must follow the official registration and submission procedures of the University of Göttingen and consult the official forms page: https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/626775.html |
| AI | Students are permitted to use AI while working on their theisis but must report on their usage via a transparency report as given in the template and ensure the scientific integrity of their work. |
A supervisor, typically a PhD student, is assigned as the thesis advisor. The student is expected to maintain regular contact with their supervisor, typically via weekly meetings. The supervisor is responsible for:
When requesting feedback from their supervisor, a student should consider that their supervisor also has many other tasks. A request for feedback should therefore be formulated as precise as possible. For example, instead of requesting general feedback for the current thesis draft, a student might ask for feedback on the structure of on figures or only on the introduction.
In addition to the supervisor there are additional roles in the context of a student's thesis:
The Bachelor’s thesis is typically supervised by a faculty member or authorized researcher.
Supervision usually includes:
Students are expected to work independently while maintaining regular communication with the supervisor.
A thesis typically follows a structure as denoted in the table below. For further examples of completed theses see Theses and https://data.goettingen-research-online.de/dataverse/gwdg-final-theses.
| Section | Description |
|---|---|
| Abstract (150–300 words) | Overview of the research area, introduction to problem, common approaches, own approach, note at results. |
| Introduction | Motivation: Overview of the research area, introduction to problem, common approaches, own approach, note at results. Goals: Research question and expected products. Contributions: Contributions to the scientific community, e.g., overview of literature, implementation of X, assessment of Y. Outline: Overview of remaining sections of the work. |
| Background | Explanation of basics, concepts and technologies required to understand the rest of the work. |
| Related Work | Overview and critical discussion of existing research relevant to the topic. |
| Methodology | Establishing the research questions (RQs), method to answer the RQs and what kind of data is required, how that data will be collected, e.g., via an experiment, describing the subject of study including own design (if applicable),analysis methods (qualitative, quantitative, or mixed). |
| Results / Evaluation | Visual presentation of experimental result data, descriptive inference, e.g., observations made on the data, abductive inference, e.g., providing most likely explanations for observations while considering issues during experiments, analogical inference, e.g., consider how well the results can be generalized, answering the RQs |
| Discussion | Implications of the results, comparison with existing literature, limitations, and major issues (if any). |
| Conclusion | Summary of the work, key contributions, limitations, and recommendations for future research. |
| References / Bibliography | Complete list of cited sources using a consistent citation style. |
| Appendix A | Additional materials, e.g., large code snippets, experiment data, additional graphs. |
| Appendix B | Transparency Report: Tools and Third-Party Contributions, list what software was used, how AI was used, non-trivial contributions from others. |
It is highly recommended to employ the provided LaTeX Templates.
When assessing a thesis the following criteria are considered:
These points further break down into:
| Module Code | B.Inf.1190 |
| English Title | Bachelor's Thesis |
| Credits | 15 CP |
| Thesis Credits | 12 CP |
| Seminar Credits | 3 CP (Scientific Writing + Oberseminar) |
| Duration | 1 Semester |
| Thesis Duration | 15 Weeks |
| Recommended Semester | 6th Semester |
| Teaching Language | German or English |
| Module Coordinator | Prof. Dr. Julian Kunkel |
| Frequency | Every Semester |
| Repeatability | Twice |
| Contact Hours | 42 Hours |
| Independent Study | 408 Hours |
| Total Workload | 450 Hours |
After successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
30C: No Relevant Module in Module catalogue
Same as BSc Applied Computer Science.
| Module Code | B.Inf.2001 |
| English Title | Bachelor's Thesis |
| Credits | 15 CP |
| Contact Hours | 4 SWS (56 hours attendance time) from Scientific Writing (2 SWS) + Advanced Research Seminar (2 SWS) |
| Independent Study | 394 hours |
| Total Workload | 450 hours |
| Duration | 1 Semester |
| Recommended Semester | 6th Semester |
| Typical Thesis Duration | One semester (15 weeks recommended) |
| Teaching Language | German or English |
| Module Coordinator | Prof. Dr. Fabian Sinz |
| Frequency | Every Semester |
| Maximum Number of Students | 50 |
| Repeatability | Once |
| Admission Requirements | According to §10 (1) PStO |
| Recommended Prior Knowledge | None |
Upon successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
| Module Code | M.Inf.2901 |
| English Title | Master's Thesis |
| Credits | 30 CP |
| Contact Hours | 4.5 WLH (63 hours) |
| Independent Study | 837 hours |
| Total Workload | 900 hours |
| Duration | 1 Semester |
| Recommended Semester | 4th Semester |
| Teaching Language | English |
| Module Coordinator | Prof. Dr. Alexander Ecker |
| Frequency | Every Semester |
| Repeatability | Once |
| Admission Requirements | According to §12 (1) PStO |
| Recommended Prior Knowledge | None |
After successful completion of the module, students will be able to: