Project Requirements
This page is dedicated to listing the particular project requirements for our MSc students.
ALL PROJECTS MUST BE SUBMITTED IN ENGLISH.
MSc Information Studies: Data Science track and Information Systems track
MSc Software Engineering
MSc Computational Science
MSc Logic
Each program has very unique project requirements, ranging from duration to research fields.
MSc Information Studies
Data Science Track and Information Systems Track
When creating your project proposals, please ensure that they adhere to the MSc Information Studies thesis requirements below.
The MSc Information Studies has two tracks, namely Data Science (DS) and Information Systems (IS). Both investigate the use of particular technology with respect to the origination, collection, classification, analysis, sensemaking, manipulation, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information.
In this context, students in the DS track focus on data, related structures and their algorithmic processing, for the generation of information, and the maintenance of data and information, mainly using machine learning approaches.
Students in the IS track focus on cognitive and social implications for the structures within and the use of information systems. Here the relation between data, information and knowledge is investigated on a systems level, including the design of datasets, interaction environments and underlying system architectures.
MSc Software Engineering
When creating your project proposals, please ensure that they adhere to the MSc Software Engineering thesis requirements below.
We work a lot of time on co-designing the research proposals. We do not expect companies to be able to formulate scientific research questions, but we always find very interesting scientific research problems that could be solved by our students and the solutions validated in the context of these companies. So, for SE, the companies are lab-like environments where our students conduct real-life experiments. This is extremely valuable and makes our program attractive and high standard. This means however a lot of work in the weeks after the Thesis Fair when the thesis coordinator sits down with students and helps them identify the research gap in these industry projects.
Of course, this is mostly not the case with projects proposed by our former students that are now working in various companies. They already know what we look for in a project and how to formulate scientific research questions.
MSc Computational Science
When creating your project proposals, please ensure that they adhere to the MSc Computational Science thesis requirements below.
The thesis aims to enable the student to develop more in-depth knowledge, understanding, capabilities, and attitudes in the study programme. A Master of Computational Science thesis should emphasize the scientific and modelling (computational ) aspects of the specific system under investigation. The thesis’s overall goal is to display the knowledge and capability required for independent work as a computational scientist.
Computational models are intended to implement causal processes in a single mechanism, which sets them apart from traditional data analysis techniques (such as machine learning) which are applied directly to available data. Without incorporating the same causal mechanisms either explicitly or implicitly (on which research indeed is taking place), in general, data analysis should be restricted to make inferences or predictions ‘within the data (e.g., clustering, regression, interpolation) or perhaps ‘near extrapolation’ (hypothetical scenarios which are still close to that of the data). The outcome of ‘far extrapolation’, however, requires incorporating the relevant causal processes (since their validity extends beyond any data set), which is by definition the goal of computational modelling.
This distinction can also be seen by comparing the ‘inductive capability’ of the learning algorithms (from past data, one can identify patterns) with the deductive capability of computational (mechanistic) models.
MSc Logic
When creating your project proposals, please ensure that they adhere to the MSc Logic thesis requirements below.
The thesis is a report on a substantial piece of scientific work, usually including a significant amount of original research that clearly demonstrates the student’s capacity to independently conduct research in an interdisciplinary environment.