Bachelor@IAIK
Introduction to Scientific Working,
Bachelor Project, and Bachelor’s Thesis
We want to include you in our research activities. We designed our Bachelor@IAIK program to prepare and accompany you from start to end during an interesting research project. It consists of the 3 courses ISW, the optional Bachelor Project, and the Bachelor’s Thesis.
You can also take these courses independently, but we’d be happy to welcome you in our full 3-course Bachelor@IAIK program:
In Introduction to Scientific Working (see ISW), aka Verfassen wissenschaftlicher Arbeiten (VWA), we show you how to conduct and communicate scientific research, focusing on your writing and communication skills. You’ll work on a literature research topic that prepares you for your bachelor’s thesis, guided by your prospective supervisor. At the end, you give a short presentation and writeup of your topic.
In the optional Bachelor Project, you work on your individual practical project, which is closely connected with your bachelor’s thesis. At the end, you submit your project together with relevant documentation – this is often included in the bachelor’s thesis document.
In the Bachelor’s Thesis, you work on your individual scientific question. This includes literature research, practical project work, and writing. At the end, you submit your project and your written thesis, and give a presentation of your results.
Bachelor@IAIK Event
Every year, we present our new open bachelor’s thesis topics and award prizes to excellent students who contributed to scientific publications this past year. This event is also part of ISW. If you’re interested in joining us for your bachelor’s thesis in security, this is the best way to get an impression of our topics as well as how a bachelor’s thesis at IAIK works: You’ll hear about our research areas and current hot topics, our Bachelor@IAIK program where you can work on your thesis together with your fellow students in one of our offices if you like – we’re looking forward to seeing you here!
ISW has a fixed schedule and is only offered in winter term. You can register in TUGRAZonline for the group “Information Security (IAIK)” in early October (more administrative information on ISW at IAIK). You only need to choose IAIK as your preferred institute at this point, not a lecturer (this may be different for other institutes). To get an idea about our topics, check the list above; these usually build on one or more of IAIK’s bachelor courses, so we expect you’re enthusiastic about one of those courses. You will select a specific topic and supervisor in late October and complete ISW by January/February.
Bachelor’s Thesis and Bachelor Project can generally be started any time. If you do ISW with us, the easiest is to follow the Bachelor@IAIK schedule outlined below, but this is not strictly required. To start your thesis, you need to find a supervisor whose topics you find interesting and contact them directly. Email them and ask for a meeting to discuss potential topics (usually based on the above list or related topics). If you enjoyed a lecturer’s courses, but find no topics of them listed above, feel free to contact them (or other people in their research groups) and ask if they’re offering any unlisted topics – or maybe you have your own proposal for a topic.
After starting your thesis (and only then), it is useful to also register in TUGRAZonline: Choose the right course for your curriculum and register for the group corresponding to your supervisor’s team leader – if unsure, just ask. If there are any dummy dates in the course’s calendar (e.g., early morning at “Baustelle”), you can generally ignore those.
Bachelor@IAIK Timeline
We plan the following schedule (see ISW for specific dates in winter term):
Early October: Register for ISW in TUGRAZonline
Mid-October: “Bachelor@IAIK” event with infos, topics, and student awards, co-located with the first session of ISW (Introduction to Scientific Working)
Late October: Pick an ISW/bachelor topic together with an advisor. Of course, you can also pick a project together with your advisor later, without doing ISW.
In November, join the ISW Writing Lab to sharpen your scientific writing skills.
In December (if Corona permits), join the ISW Presentation Lab to get comfortable with presenting.
In January, submit and present your ISW deliverables.
Between November and February: If you want to, start your Bachelor Project to gain hands-on research experience working on real-world scientific questions together with us. It can be a great foundation for a Bachelor’s Thesis and go well hand-in-hand with ISW.
In February your research project should be fully defined when you start your Bachelor’s Thesis. The Bachelor’s Thesis consists of both: doing actual scientific research, but also presenting it in the form of a written thesis document, and a presentation of your work.
We offer 2 “intensive blocks” of work at IAIK in February and around Easter (if Corona permits). These blocks are put into time slots which do not interfere with the usual lecture times. These blocks have a duration of 9-10 work days.
June: Final presentation of your Bachelor’s Thesis (if you are ready to present – we also have individual presentation slots later throughout the year).
In our labs and also in the two working blocks we would like
to help you to research a topic,
to help you to structure your project,
to help you to become better in scientific writing,
to show you how we work and offer you to get to know us better,
to offer you to discuss your ideas with us,
to encourage you to master with us times which need tedious work,
to show you what it means to work in science and engineering,
We expect that your thesis is at least 2 x ECTS pages long (Introduction to Conclusion, excluding front matter, bibliography, etc.). Discuss with your supervisor what should be included. If your thesis document includes your previous work from ISW (e.g., in the background section) or your bachelor’s project, or if it includes many simple but large items (e.g., screenshots), the expected total length increases accordingly.
For example, theses of students who do ISW + Bachelor Project + Bachelor’s Thesis are typically 30+ pages.
For your presentations, you can use the official TU Graz presentation template for LaTeX or Powerpoint, or any other suitable style.
We expect that your thesis is at least 2 x ECTS pages long (Introduction to Conclusion, excluding front matter, bibliography, etc.). Discuss with your supervisor what should be included. If your thesis document includes your previous work from ISW (e.g., in the background section) or your bachelor’s project, or if it includes many simple but large items (e.g., screenshots), the expected total length increases accordingly.
For example, theses of students who do ISW + Bachelor Project + Bachelor’s Thesis are typically 30+ pages.
For your presentations, you can use the official TU Graz presentation template for LaTeX or Powerpoint, or any other suitable style.
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