AI Thesis Fair – Thursday, 6 October 2022

Only MSc AI students in Year 2+ from UvA may participate in the AI Thesis Fair. Participating students must vote for projects, if you do not vote for projects you will not be allowed to attend.

Thesis Fair – Thursday – 3 November 2022

Only UvA students starting their thesis in 2022/2023 in the following programs may participate in the general Thesis Fair:

MSc Computational Science (Year 2+)

MSc Information Studies (Data Science and Information Systems tracks)

MSc Software Engineering 

MSc Logic

Students must vote for projects, if you do not vote for projects you will not be allowed to attend . Voting and more information will be presented at the Information Sessions on 4 October 2022. 

NO you cannot attend both Fairs as projects presented at each Fair are specific for your MSc program. Additionally external organisations will be looking for students from the programs described by the event.

In case we need to cancel an event due to government regulations pertaining to COVID-19 there will not be an online event nor meetings facilitated by us. Instead you will be able to access the organisations who you voted for on our platform – including their contact information, projects, and websites. They will, in turn, be able to access your contact information.

You will then be able to organise meetings and interviews with the organisations directly. We will no longer be involved at this point.

You will be able to find offered projects from both internal research groups and external organisations on the DataNose Project Marketplace https://datanose.nl/#marketplace. Once you are on the Marketplace, please filter for your program. 

For any questions regarding the Thesis Fairs please send an email to thesisfair-IvI(at)uva.nl.

You will need to contact your Thesis Coordinator. Each program has a specific page or location (website or Canvas) where the thesis information can be found. 

For MSc AI you can visit the AI Thesis student website first. If you cannot find your answers there, then contact  mscAIthesis-GSI(at)uva.nl.

For MSc IS you can visit the IS Thesis student website. 

The Thesis Coordinators for the rest of the programs can answer your questions:

MSc Software Engineering: Martin Bor

MSc Computational Science: Debraj Roy

MSc Logic: Maria Aloni

Here are the main differences between an internal and external project:

Internal:

-Internal projects are from our own researchers in our Research Groups. Introduction videos for our AI Research Groups (AI Thesis Fair) and the ILLC have been created and can be found on this page. Videos for our other Research Groups (Thesis Fair) will be created and posted online as we get closer to the event. We will also have the videos presented in various online lectures and sent in the email invitations.

-To view only internal UvA projects on the Project Marketplace, you can either sort alphabetically and find all projects from organisations that start with “University of Amsterdam” followed by the Research Group’s name (i.e. University of Amsterdam: ILPS). Or you can filter (on the top left) by Organisation Name and type in “University of Amsterdam”, click “Apply Filter”, and all internal projects will be listed without any external projects visible. 

-You will work directly towards contributing towards ongoing research within the university.

-This is not an internship experience, more academic and less industry applicable.

-It is a very good idea to take an internal project if you are interested in going for a PhD, as you will most likely be working closely with researchers, postdocs and PhDs.

-No stipends.

-Level of knowledge of the supervisors will be more in depth and these are research projects that the researchers are dedicated their lives to (it is their own research).

External:

-These are more of an internship/experience style project.

-You have to deliver a thesis but will also have to navigate the professional world (work environment, colleagues, office life, etc.).

-You will have industry networking opportunities and hands on professional experience.

-There is a potential monthly stipend (this depends upon the organisation and is not guaranteed).

-You will not only be working on your thesis but doing work for the external organisation.

Here you can view the AI Thesis Fair Information Session from 9 September, 2022. 

The Thesis Fair Information Sessions will be held in person on 4 October 2022. See the top of this page for specifics. 

In order to participate in the Fair you must vote for 5 – 8 organisations on DataNose. You vote on individual multiple projects and then the organisation appears on your voting ranked list, this means that you must vote for many projects from 5 – 8 different organisations. This ensures you have at least 5 – 8 organisations that you rank.

The projects are available on DataNose and you vote for the projects you are interested in. A schedule will be generated for you based upon your ranked top 8 organisations. Please note that there is a chance you will not be able to meet with some of your top organisations if they are overly popular. You will also be likely scheduled to meet with organisations you initially did not vote for. Go into each speeddate with an open mind, many successful and interesting projects have come out of such speeddates.

Once voting closes it is no longer possible to register more votes. 

NO you cannot attend if you did not vote. You need to RSVP for Fair and vote for projects. Please see the deadlines above at the top of this page.

The speeddating sessions are your opportunity to meet with the organisations that you voted for in a one-on-one setting. There are 5 speeddates, each round is 15 minutes long. You will have 5 minutes between your sessions.

To prepare for the speeddating sessions you should:

-Check each organisation’s website

-Google the interviewers (if names are provided) and view their LinkedIn profile

-Prepare specific as well as open questions:

-About the projects

-About the company

-About the work environment

Please have your CV complete and sent to the Thesis Fair team a week before the event itself. We will send reminders once voting ends.

In order to prepare for your speeddates we recommend that you that you do the following:

-Treat each speeddate like a job interview and be prepared to discuss the projects and research areas

-Wear professional clothes and have a clean/tidy appearance. Even though it is an online event we strongly recommend that your whole outfit is professional, you never know if you will need to stand up or not. 

-Prepare questions and do your research for each organisation you meet with – know what the organisation does and their mission

-Maintain eye contact if possible

-Be confident but not cocky, listen to their questions and be sure to answer them

-Be respectful

-Tell them which program you are in and how long your thesis is, they will need to know how long they will host you. This is not applicable for our MSc AI students as all attending organisations will know these details. 

Remember: Even if you do not do a project with an organisation, there is a chance you will meet or work with some of these people in the future. Do not burn any bridges!

Here is what you should do during the speeddating sessions:

-Introduce yourself and state when you would begin and for how long

-Refer to the representative by name

-Take notes and create questions referring to what the representative has said

-Ask your prepared questions and ask open questions

-Check that your ideas and assumptions of the organisation are correct

-Check that your ideas and interpretations of the project(s) are correct

-Agree upon further contact and method of contact

Basic information 

-Clear photo of your face (this helps the representatives to remember you from your meeting)

-First and surname

-LinkedIn

-Github

-Website

-Email

-Mobile number

-Address

Program name and how long your thesis is:

8 months, November 2022 – June 2023

6 months, January 2023 – June 2023

3 months, April 2023 – June 2023

Include the following descriptions:

Profile: Describe your skills, expertise and ambition in 2-3 sentences each

Education: Which schools you have attended

Work experience: Short sentences with job description and competencies

Chosen set of courses and research areas of interest

Internships and volunteering

YES! You will also be likely scheduled to meet with organisations you initially did not vote for. Go into each speeddate with an open mind, many successful and interesting projects have come out of such speeddates. You have to attend every meeting on your schedule.

It is also disrespectful and unprofessional to not show up, keep in mind that you may come across that organisation and those professionals in your career. It is best to maintain positive experiences and not burn any bridges.

The only exception is if you have moral or ethical issues with the organisation, please see the next question for more information.

We recommend that you go unless you have strong ethical and/or moral issues with that particular organisation. If that is the case, you are not obligated to attend but please notify us of this as soon as you receive your schedule.

After the Thesis Fair, we would recommend that you follow up by:

-Do you have enough information? If not, then do some research.

-Email or call the companies of your preference. Use the agreed upon contact method.

-Make an appointment to meet at their office so you can visit the organisation and see the workspace, experience the atmosphere and meet the employees. If this is not possible due to COVID-19, then arrange a video appointment with the organisation.

If you cannot attend the Fair you can still view all projects on the Thesis Marketplace on DataNose. If you find a project you are interested in, then contact the organisation’s contact person on the project page directly. Their name is a clickable email link.

If you have already voted and you know you cannot attend the Fair please contact us immediately at  thesisfair-IvI(at)uva.nl. If you are ill or cannot attend last minute due to other circumstances, please contact us immediately. 

This will enable us to find different students to fill the timeslot or, if it is last minute, inform the organisation of your absence. 

NO, as stated above it is not possible to attend the Thesis Fair without voting. You need to RSVP for Fair and vote for projects.

You can try to find a company sponsor yourself or you can get in touch with the AI Startup Lab at ACE, which provides a platform for students who want to apply their ideas beyond research (and if your idea does not involve AI, they can point you to the relevant people at ACE). The Lab’s corporate partners sponsor developments of a proof-of-concept (PoC) and provide real-life experience by supporting students along the way.

You can find out more information about ACE and the AI Startup Lab under our Partnerships page.