Specific guidelines for DTAI thesis students
We are excited that you will be completing your master thesis within DTAI! We are looking forward to supporting and guiding your research. The goal of this document is to convey the expectations and necessary milestones in order to ensure a smooth process. These guidelines are in addition to the faculty (Faculty of Engineering Science, Faculty of Science) and departmental (CW, CS, MTI) guidelines.
New (10 March 2023): rules on the use of ChatGPT and similar tools when writing the thesis text. See the Thesis text additional advice page.
What is Expected of You
The thesis should be viewed as an independent research project that you drive and carry out. You need to take the initiative for completing the thesis.
- The Masters of Computer Science thesis is 24 ETCS points which means you are expected to devote between 600 and 720 hours on the thesis. The Masters of Toegepaste informatica thesis is 18 ECTS points so the student is expected to devote between 450 and 540 hours on the thesis. Spending the required time on the thesis does not guarantee passing: the work, text and defense must be of sufficient quality.
- It is your responsibility to know and adhere to all the regulations, guidelines, and requirements for completing the thesis given by the faculty and department.
- You are expected to complete all the required milestones that are specific to the DTAI group. These are listed in Section 3. Again, the initiative for achieving these milestones must come from you.
What the Students Can Expect from Us
You are supervised by a promotor (i.e., professor) and a daily supervisor (i.e., a PhD student or post doc). Their role is to provide support and guidance as you work. This is what you can and cannot expect.
- The daily supervisor will provide most feedback and advice. You should communicate frequently with your daily supervisor by arranging a schedule. Typically, an in person meeting would occur every two weeks.
- Your promotor will typically provide feedback after each presentation.
- Please feel free to ask questions or for advice between meetings. If you email a supervisor and do not receive a response after a week, it is possible that someone is ill, on holiday or simply missed the message. In this case, politely follow up. Of course, you should not expect responses during the weekends, outside of normal working hours, or holidays (e.g., over Christmas, during Easter).
- We will NOT do the research for you or write the thesis text for you. A thesis topic is an open problem and your (daily) advisor does not have a solution in mind upfront.
- For the June submission deadline, we will provide feedback on one chapter of the thesis text IF you provide the text at least 2 weeks before the submission deadline. For submitting in August, you must agree to a planning with your daily supervisor before the end of June in terms of when any reading will be done over the summer holidays.
Milestones and Planning
Successfully completing the thesis requires completing the following milestones. Upload the deliverable (e.g., presentation, poster) to the Toledo wiki immediately after you complete it.
M1: Thesis Kick off Presentation During the last week of September or first week of October it will be uploaded an introductory DTAI seminar describing what is expected of the thesis. (Announcement: The deadline for this activity is the 28/10)
M2: First Intermediate Presentation You will concretely define the research goal to be tackled in the thesis. Max: 10 minutes and 5 slides. Normally, this occurs by the end of October.
M3: Second Intermediate Presentation You will describe the context of the research problem, discuss initial results, and sketch your planning. 15 minute presentation. Normally, this occurs around the end of December. (December 18-22, 2023)
M4: Draft Introduction By the end of February, you should provide a draft of your introduction to your daily supervisor.
M5: Third Intermediate Presentation You will describe the context of the research problem, discusses initial results, and sketches the planning. 15 minute presentation. Normally, this occurs at the end of March. (March 25-29, 2024)
M6: Poster Event This is only for Masters of Computer Science students. You will prepare and present a poster about your research in the beginning of May. (Thursday, May 2, 2024)
M7: DTAI Seminars. Over the course of the academic year, you are expected to attend 8, including the introductory one mentioned in M1. For each seminar, the student will complete a feedback form.
M8: Finalize Submission Plan Ask your promotor for the green light to hand in your thesis at two weeks before the submission deadline.
M9: Submit Thesis Submit the thesis via the appropriate channels.
M10: Defend Thesis The academic secretary will schedule the defense time and location. This occurs at the end of June.
The default is to submit and defend in June. If you plan to deviate from this (and alternatively plan to defend in September), you must discuss this with your daily supervisor at least two weeks prior to the deadline. You must inform Lenny Verkoelen when you plan to submit the thesis. Refer to the faculty (Faculty of Engineering Science, Faculty of Science) and departmental (CW, CS, MTI) guidelines for the exact date of submission.
Presentation and Text: Structure
Presentations are only attended by you, your promotor, your daily supervisor, and (potentially) other DTAI researchers.
- First Intermediate Presentation:
- A 10 minute presentation (<= 5 slides)
- Present (i) the context, (ii) the motivation, (iii) a concrete, one slide problem statement, and (iv) a planning.
- Second and Third Presentation:
- A 15 minutes presentation + 10 minutes of questions.
- Present the (i) context, (ii) motivation, (iii) positioning of your work with respect to the relevant literature, (iv) insights backed by experimental results, (v) planning for the second semester, (iv) estimate of number of hours worked and expected grade.
- Thesis text: Additional DTAI Advice.
- Defence presentation: Additional DTAI Advice
A Thesis with an External Party
If your thesis is co-supervised by an external party (e.g., a company, another university, a research center), it is your responsibility to inform all people involved about presentations and milestones. You will probably need to sign a non-disclosure agreement to get access to data. It is your responsibility to handle the data and any other documentation in a secure manner. All presentations, posters and texts need to be approved by your promotor and external partner before submitting or presenting to other attendees than your promotor(s) and daily supervisor(s).
The DTAI-Leuven-professors,
Hendrik Blockeel, Jesse Davis, Marc Denecker, Luc De Raedt, Tias Guns, Gerda Janssens, Angelika Kimmig, Giuseppe Marra, Wannes Meert, Tom Schrijvers
For additional questions contact: irfan.mahmutogullari@kuleuven.be