Theses
If you are looking for a Bachelor’s or Master’s thesis, ask our staff for a topic or write an e-mail to Prof. Stamminger or Prof. Günther. Depending on your topic, some previous knowledge from our lectures might be expected. In general, it is recommended to have attended the Computer Graphics lecture.
To receive e-mails for upcoming seminar dates as well as the Zoom passwords, please contact Markus Leuschner.
Bachelor’s Thesis
The time frame for a Bachelor’s thesis is 5 months. During this time Bachelor’s students have to attend our exam seminar at least 10 times. In this seminar we encourage students to exchange views about their theses by having each Bachelor’s student present their work once about half way through their thesis (interim presentation). An additional final presentation takes place after having handed in the thesis.
Master’s Thesis
The time frame for a Master’s thesis is 6 months. During this time Master’s students have to attend our exam seminar at least 10 times. In this seminar we encourage students to exchange views about their theses by having each Master’s student present their work once after a short familiarization period with the topic (debut presentation) and once about half way through their thesis (interim presentation). An additional final presentation takes place after having handed in the thesis.
Presentations
A template can be downloaded in the Downloads section on this page. The presentation should consist mostly of visual content (e.g. images, videos) and less of text.
- Debut Presentation (only Master’s students)
The presentation should take 10-15 minutes and give a short glimpse into the thesis’ topic. Ideally, a few ideas are presented on how to tackle the problem. - Interim Presentation
The presentation should take 15-20 minutes and present intermediate results to the thesis. The feedback of the audience at the end is crucial to becoming aware of mistakes in one’s solution strategy or to providing helpful new ideas. - Final Presentation
The presentation should take about 20 minutes and is scheduled after the written thesis was handed in. The student presents the crucial steps in their thesis and explains some interesting problems in detail.
Structure
- No Outline
Short presentations like these do not require an outline. - Motivation
The presentation should start with a thorough motivation of the thesis’ problem. The more time and effort is put into explaining the problem the better the audience will later understand the solution. - Main Part
The main part shows how the problem was approached and which steps towards a solution were taken. - Results (usually only in the final presentation)
The results slides are the ones most anticipated by the audience. It it recommended to show and discuss multiple results and also ‘bad results’ demonstrating the limitations of the solution strategy. - (No) Summary
A summary is often not necessary as the entire presentation takes no more than 20 minutes. It should only be included if the solution to the thesis’ problem consists of particularly many small steps and a summary would help keeping the big picture in mind.
Target Audience
The presentation should be targeted to an audience of computer scientists with a basic understanding of computer graphics.
Citations
If someone else’s content is used, it has to be cited (see the citation guidelines below). In order to not stand out too much on the slides, it is recommended to put these into a slide’s footer.
Writing the Thesis
We recommend students scheduling one month for writing a Bachelor’s thesis and 1.5 months for a Master’s thesis. A template can be downloaded in the Downloads section on this page. The thesis can be written in german or english. With the exception of the summary section, the thesis is written in present tense.
Structure
The thesis should roughly follow this structure:
- Abstract/Abstrakt
A brief and concise summary of the thesis containing the problem statement and how it was solved in about five sentences. After having read the abstract, a reader must know what the thesis is about. - Introduction/Einleitung
- Motivation/Motivation
The thesis’ problem is introduced in such a way (if possible by using concrete examples) that the reader acknowledges the need for a solution on this matter. After having read the motivation, the reader should be intrigued by the problem and curious about the solution presented in the thesis. - Related Work/Verwandte Arbeiten
A collection of prior work by researchers that tackled similar problems or even the same problem. This section integrates the thesis into the research field. Each reference should include a brief statement from the student answering one or more of these questions:- How is this other work fundamental to the thesis?
- Which aspect of the problem remains unsolved by the other work? How does this thesis contribute to solving the even bigger problem?
- Why can the solution of this other work not be applied to the thesis’ problem? What modifications are required to apply the solution?
- How is this other work a core element in the thesis?
- Motivation/Motivation
- Main Part
A thorough description of how the problem stated in the introduction is solved within this thesis. In contrast to the abstract and introduction, the problem is explained in detail and from a technical point of view. Depending on the solution strategy, this section usually takes one to three chapters. The main part describes how each arising problem is tackled while solving the main problem. This can even include a description of failed attempts to solve the problem if that helps deepening the understanding of the problem.
The main part should also state (usually at the beginning) the starting conditions of the thesis: What is the physical setup (camera, projector etc.)? What framework is the thesis based on? - Results/Ergebnisse
While intermediate results are already shown in the main part, this separate chapter highlights the final results of the solution to the main problem (ideally with many images). The results are discussed regarding the quality of the solution and performance-wise if appropriate. It is important to also include the limitations of the solution and to describe the failure cases of the method. Demonstrating the weaknesses of one’s solution strategy is proof of thorough and honest research work. - Conclusion/Schluss
- Summary/Zusammenfassung
A summary, written in past tense, that summarizes to the reader which steps were necessary to solve the thesis’s problem. After having read the summary, the reader should have a high-level view of the problem, how to solve it and what results to expect. - Future Work/Ausblick
While the previous work section focusses on work prior to this thesis, the future work section integrates the thesis into future research. It proposes connecting links to other open topics in the field, states remaining unsolved problems to the topic or how the thesis could be extended given more time.
- Summary/Zusammenfassung
Target Reader
A Bachelor’s thesis should be written in a way that any computer scientist without too much expertise in computer graphics can understand it. Knowledge about very basic concepts (e.g. vertices, pixels) can be taken for granted.
For a Master’s thesis, a reader with moderate knowledge of the computer graphics realm can be expected.
Citations
Citations are required if someone else’s content (e.g. text or figures) is integrated into the thesis either verbatim or (more common) in spirit. The reference to another work (number in square brackets, automatically generated by BibTeX) is usually placed after either the authors’ names, the other work’s title or the end of the sentence.
Examples:
- Smith et al. describe the relevance of tiny glowing squares and discuss various other geometry forms and their effect on the human eye [12].
- Based on the predication of Smith that “pixels are overrated” [13], we ask the question what model will follow them.
For figures the reference is included in the caption text. If the original image was modified, a short statement about the changes has to be included.
Figures
Figures are usually centered in between paragraphs and not embedded into continuous text. Multiple figures, that logically belong together, can be placed next to each other horizontally or vertically. Terminology-wise one figure then consists of multiple subfigures.
Every figure has to be referenced from the written text! For example:
- Figure 4.2 depicts various kinds of rays.
- As demonstrated in Figure 4.3, rendering a glass of water is not a trivial problem.
Further, each figure requires a caption that briefly describes to the reader what the image visualizes.
Scientific Language
Sentences should be short such that even difficult passages are easy to read. They can be written either in a passive voice or the author refers to themself as “we”.
Examples:
- Therefore the Gauss kernel is applied only to the high-resolution image.
- We smooth the point cloud by first computing the mean variation of distances between neighbouring points.
Filler words and speculation are to be avoided. Moreover, main verbs should be preferred to auxiliary verbs. Hanging references like “this” or “that” without a noun can make reading difficult.
Examples:
- One reason could be the light shining from above. (Speculation)
Better: One reason is the light shining from above. - Then we can apply the kernel if the quality does not suffice. (Auxiliary Verb)
Better: Then we apply the kernel if the quality does not suffice. - In our setup we use ten projectors. (Auxiliary Verb, not clear what ‘use’ means in this context)
Better: In our setup we attach ten projectors to wall holders such that they project directly onto the statue. - This improves the quality of the image. (Hanging Reference)
Better: This filtering process improves the quality of the image.
Page Limit
There is no page limit for a Bachelor’s or Master’s thesis. The length of the thesis should be determined by how long it takes to explain everything sufficiently.