Writing a thesis in the Theory of Machine Learning Group

If you are interested to write a Bachelor or Master thesis in our group, then please do the following:

• Before writing a thesis with me, you should have attended some relevant classes, typically in the field of machine learning. On the Bachelor level, this might be the Introduction to ML, on the master level the Statsticial Machine Learning.
• Check out the options for a topic (see below), to get an idea of whether there is anything that is interesting for you. Once you did this, your first step is then to send an email to Ulrike von Luxburg with your relevant background information:
  • Your name
  • What did you study so far (if applicable), and what do you study currently (Studiengang, bachelor or master), which semester
  • Which relevant courses you took so far in the field of machine learning: which course, when, who was the lecturer, which grade?
  • All your transcripts of records (of your current degree and of all prior degrees / subjects that you have studied)
  • Time line: when would you like to start
• To get a first idea about the topic:
  • The default case is to work on one of our suggested topics. Of course we would give you more details once we meet.
  • If you have an idea for an alternative topic yourself, we can talk about it. In this case, I request that you write an outline of about three pages about your topic: what is the question you want to solve, why is it interesting, what are the methods you would like to try, what literature do you know, etc. We then meet to discuss your proposal, and only after this meeting I am going to decide whether I am going to supervise this topic or not.
  • I typically do not supervise an external thesis in some industry company. Often, industry projects do not have enough scientific content to serve as a thesis, and I have too little control about what is going on. Note also that our research focus is on theory, not on applications.