Final Thesis

Start early! It is recommended to search for possible topics at the beginning of your penultimate semester. This way, you still have time to take matching modules to acquire specialized knowledge you will need for the thesis. At the very latest, you should start looking for a topic at the end of your penultimate semester. The best preparation for the master’s thesis is to attend as many classes as possible in person from your first semester on and to participate actively in them.

The topic is usually to be issued by a fulltime university professor of the Faculty of Engineering whose lab/institute is participating in the lectures offered in the Medical Engineering program (master’s program: module groups M2, M3 or M5 of all specializations – the respective labs/chairs are listed in the module catalogs). If you want to do your master’s thesis with a FAU professor who has a technical background but does not meet these requirements, please consult with your study advisor. In special cases, it may be necessary to send the director of the study program, Prof. Tobias Reichenbach, a proposal of your desired thesis project (template here) and ask for his OK. The main criterion is always whether a technically qualified supervision is guaranteed in the respective scenario. The permission by the study program director has to be submitted to the examinations office together with the thesis registration form.

You can find a topic by searching the websites of the different labs (all of them have a “research” and/or “thesis” section) and contacting the responsible researchers. You can also consult the “job offer” section of this website, the facebook group “Medical Engineering Erlangen” or check the bulletin boards in the Faculty of Engineering. Moreover, if you are interested in non-advertised subjects, you can look into the reasearch topics of the scientific members of a lab (mostly PhD students) and do some reading on the subject (i.e. their publications). When you have identified a topic you would like to work on you can contact the responsible scientist directly and inquire if it is possible to work on a subject of their research field. In some cases,  they might even invite you have personal chat with them to discuss the projects they currently offer. Please note: Only FAU professors and junior professors can officially supervise your Master’s thesis. Companies cannot issue thesis topics (see below)!

• Always approach potential supervisors with a  friendly and collaborative attitude. As a student, you are not entitled to carry out your master’s thesis at a specific lab or with a specific professor, hence you cannot demand anybody’s supervision. Instead, you should show why you are a good master’s thesis candidate for a determined supervisor. If you approach potential supervisors with an impolite, demanding attitude or an unwillingness to work hard (e.g. “I only want to finish my studies, just give me any thesis topic so that I can be done.”) you must not be surprised if they turn you down.
• When doing your research for the thesis, you are expected to be proactive and to come up with your own ideas and solutions. Your supervisor will not tell you exactly what to do, but only point you in the right direction when you are stuck. When you have an interview with a supervisor, you should present yourself as a person who has their own ideas and a hands-on attitude.
• Instead of concentrating on which lab/professor you would like to work with due to their reputation (e.g. “I must work with Prof. X because they are a big name in their field!”) you should look at your Campo grade overview and determine which subjects you are actually good at. It is advisable to look for a thesis topic in the areas which you had good grades in, as this strategy is most likely to result in a successful thesis project for you. Please be aware that doing your thesis at a renowned lab won’t “fix” your degree for you or make you more employable after graduation, if you do not possess the required knowledge in the respective research area. It is better to focus on the subject areas you have the most solid knowledge in and to build on this knowledge with your master’s thesis project.
• The best way to establish contact with specific professors/labs is to attend their courses on-site and regularly (especially smaller ones, in which you can build a personal relationship with your lecturers, e.g. seminars, Research Lab projects or  less frequented “special interest” lectures). Be active in the course meetings, show that you are prepared, and ask questions. If you have found a course that sparks your interest and that you have attended regularly over the course of the semester, you can approach your professor after class and inquire about options for a master thesis.
• You can also approach potential supervisors (i.e. PhD students of your professor’s lab or the professors themselves) via email, but make sure to use your fau email address (to avoid sliding into people’s spam folders) and to keep your email short and concise (not more than 3 to 5 sentences). One of the expressions of respect our staff appreciates most is if you are respectful with their time. Emails that contain various paragraphs will not be read in most cases.
• Don’t send generic emails (NEVER chatGPT-generated emails) to a random series of supervisors. They will be ignored by the recipient, as they will realize that you didn’t put any effort into them. Address the recipient of your email with their name (instead of just writing “Hello”, “To whom it may concern” or “Dear Sir/Madam”, all of which are considered unpersonal and give off a careless, unengaged attitude). Use the ricipient’s correct academic title (don’t call somebody “Dr.” or “Professor” if they don’t actually hold that title). Make sure to look up which gender they are and address it correctly (few things are more off-putting than addressing a female reseacher with “Dear Sir”!). Spell their name correctly, too!
• Don’t send your email to various members of the same lab on the same day (the lab members talk to each other and they will realize that you don’t have deeper interest in their research topic when you contact their colleagues as well.)
• In your email, show in 3-5 sentences that you are familiar with the PhD’s research work (actually do some research on their work!) and that you are motivated to work on a topic from their research area. Be as specific as possible and avoid empty statements (e.g. “I have a passion for machine learning.” is not very convincing).
• Be polite, but don’t overdo it. In the German context, it is not necessary to express your admiration for a person or to flatter them in an explicit way. It might even be perceived as fake or manipulative and cause negative emotions. Example: Instead of writing “I admire your ground-breaking research in the field of x” it is better to keep it low-key and subject-related: “I have read your paper on “x” and found your approach for “y” very interesting”.
• Show that you have some experience with the subject in question (e.g. mention corresponding lectures or projects you have completed).
• Transmit through your communication style that you are reliable and well-organized. Start with a greeting, end with a thank you and sign the email with your complete name, the name of you study program and the semester you are in. Avoid spelling mistakes and proofread your email before you send it. Always keep in mind that your email should be easy and pleasant to read for the recipient.
• If you have a good grade average, it can help to submit a current Campo overview together with your email. If you cannot prove good grades, it is advisable to apply without a grade overview but to invest even more time and energy in writing an impeccable email and in showing your knowledge of the subject and your motivation.
• Inform yourself about the most important public/religious holidays in Germany and don’t send your email during those holidays. You should also consider that most staff members take a longer summer holiday and/or attend international conferences during the months of August/September.
• Don’t be discouraged if you have to send out a bunch of emails to members of different labs before you receive a (positive) reply. This is not a rejection of you as a person but rather due to the fact that our staff is very busy and receives hundreds of emails per day. If you are not successful with your emails, it is recommended to apply the personal approach (see bullet point 4).
• If you don’t know how to leave a good impression with a potential supervisor during an interview/personal interaction or you had such an interaction and were rejected afterwards, it can be very helpful to assess your own behavioral patterns: Did you approach the person like you would approach a university teacher in your home country? Do you even know which kind of behavior/communication style is considered adequate in this context in Germany? If your answer to the first question is “yes” and to the second “no”, it is very advisable to take one of the workshops in intercultural communication which are offered regularly (and for free!) by the Study Service Center of the Faculty of Engineering.

In principal, it is allowed to carry out a final thesis in cooperation with a company or external research institution, provided that an academic supervisor (=professor) from FAU who meets the above criteria agrees to supervise you beforehand. Important: Companies cannot issue you a thesis topic, as they are not academic institutions. Other universities cannot issue you a thesis topic because your are enrolled in our study program at FAU. Only a professor from FAU can issue you a thesis topic and grade your thesis. Do not sign any contracts with a company regarding a potential thesis if you do not have a supervisor at FAU!

Experience shows that almost all FAU professors will reject supervising thesis topics proposed by a company/foreign university they don’t know or haven’t had own projects with in the past. This is due to the fact that research topics proposed by companies or other universities oftentimes don’t meet academic standards and/or have little in common with the FAU lab’s research foci. Please keep in mind that the company’s interest is merely economic and that it doesn’t care about you receiving a good education or a good thesis grade! The latter might also apply to a university at which you are not enrolled.

Your best chance to pursue a thesis project in cooperation with an industrial partner or a foreign university is to inquire at an FAU lab involved in our Medical Engineering program which already maintains research cooperations with companies or universities abroad (more information can be found on the respective lab’s website). This way, you know that the person on the other side is trustworthy and that the joint supervision between them and the FAU professor will run smoothly.

The other way round, i.e. agreeing to a project with an external partner and then trying to find a supervising professor at FAU is hardly ever successful and therefore not recommended. In the rare case the FAU professor agrees, the above-mentioned regulations for the thesis also apply without exception. It is the student´s responsibility to coordinate and communicate the requirements between the issuing university teacher and the external partner.  For more information please consult the information sheet for issuance and procedure of “external” Bachelor’s and Master’s Theses and dissertations.

Not every topic must have a direct relation to Medical Engineering. You can also work on a more common engineering topic. However, at least one subsection (about one page) should describe how the topic could be applied in Medical Engineering. In any case, you need a medical supervisor (see below).

The thesis paper is supervised by the issuing FAU professor or one of his/her employees (usually PhD students).

In addition to this supervisor from the technical sciences/engineering, it is mandatory that you have a medical supervisor – this is also the case if your thesis topic is not directly related to the medical field (see above). The medical supervisor can be a staff member of the university hospital or a similar institution, i.e. member of a different clinic/radiology centre, or a licensed physician; in any case the supervisor must hold an academic title. The medical supervisor is not involved in grading your thesis. He/she should read through your thesis at least once to make sure that you are not using any medical terms or concepts incorrectly. Please discuss with your medical supervisor early on to which degree he/she wants to be involved in the process of your work – whether you should report on your thesis regularly or whether he/she will only read your final paper before you hand it in.

Many labs have already supervised numerous theses for Medical Engineering before you and therefore already have an established contact who usually takes care of the medical supervision. Therefore, please ask at your supervising lab first whether they can arrange the medical supervision for you. If this is not the case and you are working on a concrete medical-application-related topic, it is worthwhile to do some online research at the Faculty of Medicine and at the university hospital to find out to which physicians your topic could be of interest and to contact these persons. Please describe in your email what the medical support consists of (see tab above) and that it is not very time-consuming. A medical professional from your private environment (with a medical degree) can also provide supervision, since this person is not involved in the evaluation of your work, but should only support you with regard to the medical correctness of the contents of your work.

You can register your Master’s thesis as soon as you

• have completed the mandatory modules marked as such in your module catalog
• have completed at least 75 ECTS credits in your study program
• and have found a topic and supervisors.

You can register your thesis on any date that you agree on with your supervisor, it does not need to coincide with the beginning of the semester or the first day of the month etc.

You must register your thesis paper at the Examinations Office through your supervising lab using the German registration form for thesis papers (a non-official translation in English is available for your support but not intended for communication with FAU). You submit a copy of the German form at the Examinations Office and keep the original as it is needed for the final registration at the time of submission (see below).

Do not wait too long before you register your thesis! Many labs/supervisors will give you the opportunity to look into the thesis topic and do some preparatory reading before you officially register the thesis project. However, this preliminary period should not last longer than 1-2 months, after that you must register your thesis. If you fail to do so and work on an unregistered thesis for too long, you will get into serious trouble with our examinations office! The registration of the thesis is also a protection for you as a student, so that your supervisor does not make you work on more topics than necessary.

The time required to complete the final thesis is predetermined. For every ECTS credit, you are supposed to work for about 30 hours, i.e. for the 30 credits of the Master’s thesis module, 900 hours are assumed. For the master’s thesis, you will receive a period of six months for completion. This 6 month period starts on the day your thesis is officially registered. For example, if your thesis is registered on May 7, you have time until November 7. Public holidays and lecture-free periods such as the Christmas break are considered regular working time for the thesis and do not result in an extension of the six month period, meaning that you are expected to work on your thesis during those days as well and to organize your work schedule (access to labs and equipment) accordingly. An extension of the thesis period by maximum three months is possible in special cases if you can prove justified reasons to our examinations office.

Important: If you get ill during your thesis project, make sure to get a medical certificate. When you submit it to our Examinations Office the time for the thesis project will be on hold during that period.

• Final research papers in engineering range from concrete technical applications to more theoretical topics. In any case they should demonstrate that their author has the ability to work on a chosen task independently, scientifically and methodologically within a limited period of time.
• Establish a working plan.
  • First, make a detailed plan, in which you consider the opening hours of the workplaces you go to, as well as the availability of your supervisor. It is also important not to over-charge and set clear short-term deadlines.
  • Be aware of your time management: in order to control the time factor, it is essential to plan the thesis by formulating realistic goals. You should create a concrete plan which has to be discussed with the supervisor as well. It is certainly helpful to schedule certain time buffers and check from time to time if the schedule works for you. Disturbances and distractions should be avoided as well as unclear goals or overloading your schedule.
  • It may be helpful to consult with fellow students who are either working within a similar time frame or on a related topic. If you have the opportunity to get a physical workspace at the lab your are doing your thesis with, definitely use the chance to be present there and talk to other students.
  • Break your thesis into defined stages: collection of ideas, project phase, data analysis, writing and polishing.
  • According to experience, the greatest level of stress comes towards the end of your project. Plan as few other activities as possible around this time, so that you can meet your submission deadline.
• Collaboration with your thesis supervisor: Remember to work independently and taking into account the deadlines so that your supervisor can rely on you. Let your supervisor always know what the status of your work is. Let him/her know early on if you are struggling with a certain task. Although your supervisors cannot do the work for you they can help you with useful hints on how to solve your problem.
• Once you have chosen your topic, you can start to research the resource material to get an overview of the current status of your topic. You must consider which concrete questions you would like to answer in your thesis and which methods you will apply. Once you have those questions, the university library database or academic search engines are extremely helpful.
• Set a clear deadline in your working plan for completing your initial research.
• By using an electronic organization system (e.g. Citavi, the RRZE offers courses) for organizing your sources, you can gain the best overview of the material you have read. Please ask your supervisor which citation style you should use. In any case it is crucial that you stick to one citation system. It is important that your organize your sources (articles, quotes, etc.) as you go through the writing process.
• In order not feel overwhelmed by too many tasks, a good outline is crucial. Your outline should be clear, well-structured and comprehensible for the reader and supervisor. A good outline is an important foundation for good advising. On the basis of your outline, you can discuss your specific questions, the structure, and length of your thesis with your supervisor.
• Remember to always write down your acquired knowledge/results!
• Cite correctly.
  • One of the hardest tasks when writing your thesis is correct citation. You must indicate the source of every idea that is not your own and every fact on which you have based your argument.
  • A literal quote (direct quote) must be referenced.
  • Paraphrases (indirect quotes) also have to be referenced.
  • A list of all citations (direct and indirect quotation), tables and graphs must be included in the source of your bibliography.
  • Recommendation: Indicate all citations and enter their sources in your bibliography or reference list as you draft your thesis.
• Save your data when you stop writing at the end of day or when you finish a task. Always back up your data on various storage media!
• Always keep your initial questions in mind during the writing phase. It can easily happen that you get off the track.
• Format your thesis according to the requirements of your supervising lab. Many labs will provide you with a template, but in principle you can chose the format yourself, as long as it looks professional, is easy to read and you apply it consequently to your whole text.
• Allow sufficient time for proofreading. At best, look for someone (friends, family, fellow students, etc.) who is willing to take a close look at your work.
• Check that all references as well as the format and form of the work are correct. LaTeX is definitely more helpful than Word in this respect. Alternatively, you can also find courses offered by the RRZE for scientific work.
• Remember that your work must be submitted to your supervisor in time, in one hardcopy version and one digital version (PDF document) on a storage device.

If you use the work of others (text, images, code etc.) in your thesis without meticulously referencing the sources and citing correctly (see tips above) you are committing plagiarism, i.e. the worst kind of misbehavior that exists in the scientific community. You supervisors will use software tools to check your final thesis for plagiarism. If they find out that you have plagiarized your thesis counts as failed (grade 5,0). You will receive one last chance to write a new thesis (with a different topic) in the subsequent semester. If you are caught plagiarizing again, you have to leave the program without a degree.

Your thesis paper must contain this Declaration of Originality, which has to be signed by you. With this, you declare to comply with the rules of good academic practice explained under “Beware of plagiarism!”

The so-called “master’s seminar” that appears in your Campo account once you have registered your thesis is just another term for your thesis presentation. Many labs will ask their master’s thesis students to present their thesis results in the context of a research seminar or colloquium which takes place at their lab on a regular basis. Other supervisors/labs may follow other traditions and make an individual appointment with you for the thesis presentation.

You have to hand in the final written thesis at the supervising lab until the official deadline.  You must always submit your thesis in a printed version and as a PDF file on a storage device (e.g. USB stick). The thesis presentation and the grading can take place after the deadline. The presentation often takes place in a seminar/colloquium setting at your supervising lab. For students studying according to FPO 2019 or earlier, the presentation is ungraded, but many labs will give bonus points for a good presentations. For students studying according to FPO 2022 and onwards, both the thesis paper and the presentation have to be graded. After the presentation and the grading of the written thesis, one final grade will be communicated to the Examinations Office by your supervisor within four weeks, using the bottom section of the Registration form for thesis papers (see above).

Please clarify the duration and structure of your thesis presentation with your supervisor at your supervising lab/chair. For genereal tips on how to give a good scientific presentation, we highly recommend this video by Prof. Andreas Maier. Be prepared to answer questions about your thesis topic after your presentation, as this kind of discussion is also considered an integral part of an academic talk.