master thesis google zurich

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Dept. of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering

Projects and master's thesis.

Master's students are required to complete one (2018 regulations) or two (2008 regulations) semester projects and one Master's thesis. The projects and the thesis are supervised by a professor of the Department (including adjunct professors ) or by a Download professor associated (PDF, 97 KB) vertical_align_bottom with the Department. Most projects are carried out under the guidance of, and in close contact with, a PhD student of the supervising professor. If two semester projects are carried out, to broaden your horizon, they should be carried out with two different professors.

Semester projects

A semester project should take about half of a student‘s time during one semester, i.e., about 300 to 400 hours has a duration of 14 weeks . It is possible to do a semester project in 7 weeks full-time outside a semester, but it is not recommended. The project includes an oral presentation and a written report, and it is graded. Before starting, the project must be registered in mystudies ("Projects/papers/theses").

Students from outside ETH are advised to pick and to start a semester project right at the beginning of their first semester at ETH and to take these projects seriously.

Master's thesis

The Master's degree programme concludes with a Master's thesis that lasts six months. The project includes an oral presentation and a written report (the Master's thesis), and it is graded. Before starting the project, the Master's thesis must be registered in mystudies ("Projects/papers/theses"). You will be admitted to the Master's thesis only if both semester projects (2008 regulations) are or one semester project (2018 regulations) is successfully completed.

Once the Master's thesis is successfully finished and all credits are obtained, students may request their diploma .

Information: Publication of Master Thesis in the Research Collection

Students have the possibility of publishing their master theses in the Research Collection . To publish master theses in the Research Collection, a letter of recommendation from the respective supervisor is needed. You can find further information on the webpage .

Semester project, Bachelor's and Master's theses offers at D-ITET:

If projects are taken, sometimes related projects may be available. Often, labs are willing to customize a project to match the students' interests. Many labs welcome students' own ideas for projects.

Below an overview of labs offering semester project and Master's thesis by specialisation:

• chevron_right Communication Technology Laboratory
• chevron_right Signal and Information Processing Laboratory
• chevron_right Chair for Mathematical Information Science
• chevron_right Computer Engineering and Networks Laboratory
• chevron_right Computer Vision Laboratory
• chevron_right Chair for Computer Science
• chevron_right Computer Security Group
• chevron_right Computer Architecture (SAFARI Research Group)
• chevron_right Institute for Electronics
• chevron_right Institute of Electromagnetic Fields
• chevron_right Integrated Systems Laboratory
• chevron_right Millimetre-wave Electronics Laboratory
• external page call_made Laboratory for Thin Films and Photovoltaics at EMPA
• chevron_right Photonics Laboratory

Booklet Download Semester/Master's theses "Energy and Power Electronics" (PDF, 78.2 MB) vertical_align_bottom

• chevron_right Advanced Power Semiconductor Laboratory
• chevron_right Laboratory for High-power Electronics Systems
• chevron_right Power Electronic Systems Laboratory
• chevron_right High Voltage Laboratory
• chevron_right Power Systems Laboratory
• external page call_made Institute of Neuroinformatics
• chevron_right Institute for Biomedical Engineering

For further ITET projects see external page SiROP website call_made .

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Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics

Quicklinks und sprachwechsel, main navigation, bachelor's/master's theses.

Part of a Bachelor's or Master's program involves writing a thesis that treats a subject in the student's degree program in a scholarly manner.

Table of contents

Completion time and scope, general procedure, selection of topic and supervisor – business and economics, selection of topic and supervisor – quantitative finance, selection of topic and supervisor – informatics, olat process: registration, collection of project definition, and submission of thesis, alternative process: registration, collection of project definition and submission of thesis.

Registration for graduation

Note on publication

The information below applies to all theses.

*Plan the completion of your degree in advance, taking into consideration the published deadlines.

Registration deadlines

There are different procedures for the thesis process, from the issuance of the binding project definition to the timely and formally correct submission. The exact procedure is determined by the supervisor. 

For students of Informatics , the information and documents can be found on the website of the Department of Informatics.

Fact sheet for Bachelor's theses in Informatics   Fact sheet for Master's theses in Informatics

For students of Business and Economics as well as of the Joint Degree Master Program in Quantitative Finance of UZH and ETH, the two possible procedures for the process from registration to submission are presented below.

Business and Economics students may write their thesis with a professor of their choice from the Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics at UZH. The individual departments can provide additional assistance when it comes to selecting a topic.

Information from the Department of Finance   Topics suggested by the Departments of Economics and Business Administration (German only (PDF, 271 KB)

Students of the joint degree Master's program in Quantitative Finance at UZH and ETH may write their thesis with a professor of their choice from the Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics at UZH or the Department of Mathematics at ETH.

Information on the Quantitative Finance program

Informatics students must write their thesis with a professor from their program of study.

List and information for Bachelor's theses in Informatics   List and information for Master's theses in Informatics

After you have found a supervisor the further steps will be done via OLAT. You will receive an e-mail from your supervisor stating that you have been accepted into an OLAT course and that you can start with your thesis. As soon as you have selected the link in the e-mail and have thus joined the course, you will have one day (24 hours) to select your thesis topic.

With your selection, your personal workflow in OLAT will start in which the binding deadline will be recorded and which will always be visible for you. You will also receive an e-mail with the binding deadline. Please note that the deadline has to be met.

The following instructions describe the process and the further steps you have to take now.

Instructions OLAT (PDF, 960 KB)

You must submit your final thesis digitally in OLAT no later than the binding deadline (accessible in your personal workflow in OLAT or in the assignment email at the beginning of the workflow). Theses submitted late are considered to have been failed. Please be aware that the deadline is defined to the minute precisely and this has to be adhered to

Business and Economics or Quantitative Finance students can request their project definition by e-mail to [email protected] . They will also receive their topic and the exact deadline by e-mail. The submission will also be done by e-mail.

Fact sheet for theses using analogue procedure in Business and Economics and in Quantitative Finance (PDF, 126 KB)

The following documents must be attached to the e-mail:

• Proof of matriculation (e.g., student ID card)
• Students in a Bachelor's program: Proof that the assessment level has been passed (transcript of records, module booking printout or online summary of credits on a smartphone, tablet, or laptop)
• Students in a Master's program: Proof of admission to the Master's program for students who have not obtained a Bachelor's degree from the Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics at the University of Zurich (letter of admission incl. any appendix to the letter of admission).
• The completed registration form.

Form for Business and Economics (PDF, 545 KB)   Form for Quantitative Finance (PDF, 545 KB)

The thesis must be submitted by e-mail  no later than the agreed submission deadline (until 23:59) to [email protected]

The thesis may not be placed in the Dean's Office mailbox.

Theses submitted late are considered to have been failed.

In order to register for graduation certain deadlines apply. Please consider the information on the degree conferral dates:

Degree conferral dates

The actual registration for graduation takes place in the app "Study progress & graduation". Please not the procedure on the following website:

Publication by UZH As a researcher at the University of Zurich, you are required by the UZH Open Science Policy to publish a complete version of your current publications on the ZORA repository, if the legal situation allows it. Further information on publishing on the UZH ZORA repository can be found here .

Publication by external parties After completing their final theses, students repeatedly receive requests from (mainly) German publishers for a publication. Such requests should be treated with caution. Clarify any publication with your supervisor in advance. The supervisor can impose conditions for a publication. Ultimately, however, it is your decision whether you want to publish with a publisher. You should be aware that this is not to be equated with a publication in a scientific journal. Further information on the various publication channels can be found here .

Weiterführende Informationen

Contact Dean's Office

For the submission of documents and for questions of all kinds: E-Mail

Telephone hours for inquiries about the studies (except for questions regarding Master's admission and credit transfer ): +41 44 634 21 24 Mornings: Mon, Thu, Fri 9:30-11:30am Midday: Tue, 10:30am-12:30pm Evenings: Wed, 17:00-18:00pm

Opening hours Dean's Office desk (KOL-G-207): Tuesdays, 14.00-16.00pm

Study Coordination Informatics

Office BIN 2.B.11 Binzmühlestrasse 14 8050 Zurich Office hours

Contacts (sorted alphabetically by students' surnames)

A to J: Bea Girardet, Dekanat E-Mail  

K to O: Donata Mikosch, Dekanat E-Mail  

P to S: Richard Müller-Winter, Dekanat E-Mail  

T to Z: Susanne Erber, Dekanat E-Mail

Information Search in the Central Library

The central library regularly offers courses and workshops on researching academic literature:

• Research workshops (German only)
• Individual research support

If suspicion of plagiarism arises, supervisors will apply PlagScan-in-a-BOX to the thesis to verify if plagiarism is present.

Master's theses that are to be published on ZORA are always checked by means of software beforehand.

• Fact sheet on plagiarism (PDF, 109 KB)
• Scan Software «Turnitin Similarities»
• UZH website

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Department of Management, Technology, and Economics

Master's thesis.

In the fourth semester students write a Master's thesis which is supervised by the tutor and covers a theme derived from the six skill areas.

The Master's thesis can be completed at ETH Zurich, in cooperation with an organization, or with the tutor's support in cooperation with faculty of another university. It is written on a full-time basis and lasts six months.

Excellent Master's theses might be especially recognized at the graduation ceremony. Find out more here

• You must have passed your Bachelor’s degree.
• You must have successfully completed the D-MTEC internship.
• You must have passed the academic writing course.
• The student shall choose an appropriate topic in collaboration with the tutor.
• The tutor defines the tasks which have to be addressed and the evaluation criteria.
• You can find topics on the web pages of the respective chairs or contact them directly. The corresponding links are listed in the Download D-MTEC Chair Guide (PDF, 5.1 MB) vertical_align_bottom .
• A list of former Master's thesis topics is published in the protected page intranet lock
• The Master’s thesis is supervised by a tutor (D-MTEC professor). In accordance with the tutor the student can be advised by a mentor (research assistant of the tutor) during the Master's thesis writing process.
• The  Master's thesis can be written abroad with the support of a research partner of the tutor. The grading is always provided by the D-MTEC tutor.
• The Academic Writing Course (363-1063-00) is compulsory for students who entered in spring semester 2015 onwards.
• The Download D-MTEC Chair Guide (PDF, 5.1 MB) vertical_align_bottom outlines the opportunities and prerequisites for writing a Master’s thesis at each of the MTEC chairs.  
• Students should take elective and supplementary courses in the research area of the chair at which they would like to write their Master's thesis (see Download Regulations Art. 23: (PDF, 264 KB) vertical_align_bottom Individual specialisation programme, tutor system).
• Please register via myStudies for your Master's thesis.
• Please state the title of the Master's thesis, the starting and submission date, and upload a task description.
• The Master's thesis is written on a full-time basis and lasts six months.
• The tutor defines the starting date and the submission deadline, which are shown in myStudies
• The signed Download Declaration of Originality (PDF, 183 KB) vertical_align_bottom is a component of the Master's thesis.
• The submission form (bounded, PDF-file, etc.) is carried out in agreement with the tutor.

The Director of Studies may on request approve an extension if cogent reasons are given.

The Master's thesis can be published in the Research Collection if the supervisor supports their publication. Further information can be found here

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Department of Materials

Master thesis.

The Master’s thesis concludes the Master’s degree programme. It constitutes a six-month, full-time project aimed at advancing the skills and capabilities of students to work independently and creatively toward the solution of a research problem.

Students are asked to register on myStudies for the Master's thesis and submit the  Download registration form (PDF, 868 KB) vertical_align_bottom  to the D-MATL Study Administration before starting to work on the thesis.

The Master's thesis generally takes place during the entire 4th semester of the Master’s degree programme and is conducted under the supervision of a D-MATL research group or an associated professor . During those six months the students are supported by doctoral students and other researchers of the respective research group. In specific cases it is possible to do the Master's thesis in another department of ETH or at another university.

The Master's thesis is concluded with a report and oral presentation that are graded by the supervisor. Please submit a copy of the report as a PDF to the D-MATL study administration.

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Department of Business Administration Strategic Management and Business Policy

Quicklinks und sprachwechsel, main navigation, bachelor's and master's thesis.

We handle the registration and submission of final theses via OLAT. Information is available under the following website:

  https://www.oec.uzh.ch/de/studies/theses.html

Writing a thesis at the Faculty of Business, Economics, and Informatics

In general, the regulations of the Faculty of Business, Economics, and Informatics ( Program regulations ) apply. The Faculty describes the overall process for writing Bachelor's and Master's theses ( Fact sheet ). Keep in mind to plan the completion of your degree by taking the published degree deadlines into consideration.

Specific requirements for the preparation of theses at the Chair of Strategic Management and Business Policy are explained below.

Writing a thesis at the Chair of Strategic Management and Business Policy

To apply for writing a thesis at the Chair, students have to go through the following three steps: 

1. Verify the minimal requirements (see below «1. Eligibility»)

2. Fill out the Application Form, which consists of three parts (see below «2. Application Form»): 

• Part I: Personal information
• Part II: Motivation statement (max. 200 words)
• Part III: Research proposal («Disposition»)

3. Send the filled Application Form together with the current Summary of Credits, which can be downloaded  here , per E-Mail to  us  (see below «3. Sending the application»). 

For an overview of the full procedure for completing a Bachelor's or Master's at the Chair, also read the  Procedure for writing a thesis (in German) (XLSX, 13 KB) .

1. Eligibility

Before preparing the application for writing a thesis at our Chair, students should verify that the following minimal requirements are met:

- Bachelor's thesis: successful completion of at least two Bachelor level courses, either a lecture or a seminar offered by the Chair.

- Master's thesis: successful completion of at least one Master level course, either a lecture or a seminar offered by the Chair, or of a Bachelor's thesis at the Chair.

2. Application Form

Students who are interested in writing a thesis at the Chair must first draft a Research Proposal («Disposition»), which is the most important part of the Application Form. The students should define the topic of interest, develop a research question, form the hypotheses, and plan the practical execution of the thesis (methodology, data collection, plan, etc.). It is fundamental that the proposed topic matches one of our fields of research: Strategic Management, Business Policy, Sports Economics, Betting Markets, Decision-making under risk, or Corporate Governance. For an overview of the publications of Prof. Dr. Egon Franck, see this  Publications list . Upon approval, students can also write a thesis in collaboration with a company (e.g., if they are doing an internship).

Part III of the Application Form contains useful practical advices on how to write the Research Proposal. Students should write their Research Proposal directly in the Application Form. Please keep the format.

3. Sending the application

When all documents are ready, please send the Application Form together with the current Summary of Credits to  [email protected] .

We are looking forward to hearing from you!

Further information

Guideline with the formal requirements

For the formal preparation of Bachelor's or Master's theses, the following Chair's guidelines apply (in German): Procedure for writing a thesis (DOCX, 51 KB) . The number of text pages is approx. 40 for a Bachelor's thesis and approx. 60 for Master's thesis.

The following theses ( WebPass-Login  - in German) can be used as a reference regarding formatting, citing, writing a bibliography, etc.

Books from the Chair's library are also available for students upon request. Please, find a list here (PDF, 77 KB)  and write an E-Mail to the  Secretary to check their availability.

To use correct scientific citations is key to avoid plagiarism. Read  What is plagiarism?  and the Fact sheet on plagiarism (PDF, 111 KB) . To help the students writing a thesis with us, we have prepared this Citation Guideline (PDF, 283 KB)  (in German).

A thesis in 40 steps

Writing a thesis is a complex work that requires multiple steps, from drafting a title to proof-reading the thesis: Writing a thesis in 40 steps (PNG, 528 KB) (note that not all the steps apply for a Bachelor's or Master's thesis).

Weiterführende Informationen

Contact person.

E-Mail:  Norina Furrer

Plattenstrasse 14, 8050 Zurich Phone + 41 44 634 29 27 Fax + 41 44 634 43 48

• Program regulations
• Fact sheet for theses
• Topics for theses suggested by the Department of Business Administration
• Degree deadlines
• Petition for postponing deadline

Downloads (in German)

• Overall procedure (XLSX, 13 KB)
• Registration form (DOCX, 89 KB)
• Formal guidelines for writing a thesis (DOCX, 51 KB)

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Department of Computational Linguistics

Quicklinks und sprachwechsel, main navigation, master's thesis, process and organisation.

You can find all current information about the completion of your Master's degree program and a Master's thesis in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences here . For the process of the booking of the Master's thesis, please have a look here .

Formal requirements

The Master's thesis is an independently written body of work. Group work is not allowed. Students have two semesters (incl. time for the evaluation) to work on their thesis, which is assessed and worth 30 ECTS credits. Before booking the module, the topic and the date of submission must be agreed upon with the supervisor of the thesis.

The legal framework for the writing of a Master's thesis is set out in the General Regulations for the Study of Bachelor and Master Degree Programs at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of the University of Zurich of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of t he University of Zurich, to be found on this site (in German): https://www.phil.uzh.ch/de/studium/dokumente/rechtsgrundlagen.html

Please note the information and deadlines of the Faculty.

Topic and aim

The topic of the Master's thesis must be agreed upon and approved by a representative of the department (a professor) of Computational Linguistics. The agreed and approved topic will be recorded on the topic sheet (see below). The representative of the department can delegate this task to a member of middle management.

Open topics for theses can be found here .

In the Master's thesis, the students should prove that he/she can process a scientifically relevant question from the field of computational linguistics or language technology in a methodically clean way and present it adequately. The state of the art is to be reprocessed in relation to the chosen question, i.e. no new scientific knowledge is required (but this is not prohibited). The formal rules of the discipline (e.g. regarding references) must be taken into account.

Supervision

As a rule, an employee of the department (post-doc, research associate, professor) supervises the work. However, there is no entitlement to supervision. Supervisors have to have at least a doctoral degree. For the evaluation of the Master's thesis, the supervisor will prepare an expert opinion (§32 of the study regulations).

Scope and design

The Master's thesis should not exceed 80 pages, (approx. 240, 000 characters, excluding appendices and bibliography). Extensive data, which is only suitable for further processing by machine (program code, corpora, etc.) should also be in extracts or in the appendix. 

A proof copy of the thesis must be submitted directly to the supervisor, who will determine the outer form.

• two files 'abstract_de' and 'abstract_en' with a German and an English summary of the work (approx. 100 words each, file format: ASCII or HTML);
• a file with the complete master's thesis 'masterarbeit.pdf' including all attachments in PDF format.

The following conditions must be met:

• Font types other than the freely available Type-1 fonts (Helvetica, Times New Roman, etc.) must be included in the PDF document. This must be specified as an option when converting to PDF format.
• The sheet size must not exceed 210 x 297mm (DIN A4).
• Graphics in the text are to be scaled to a reasonable resolution. 300 dpi is enough for graphics.
• The file with the full contents of the work must not be read-only.
• Program code, corpora and other data, which are suitable for further processing by machine, should be included in their complete form. These should be presented in ASCII, not in PDF format, and should be in separate files, which are to be named in a self-explanatorily manner. Information required to process the data on the computer must be explicit in order to allow for efficient testing.

Here is a LaTeX template for a Bachelor's thesis, which can be adapted for a Master's thesis:

https://gitlab.uzh.ch/latex-templates/ba-thesis-cl

Topic sheet

Once the topic of the master's thesis is approved by a representative of the department, he/she establishes an official topic sheet (PDF, 145 KB) for the particular thesis (with title and task description). This topic sheet is signed by the student and the representative in order to ensure:

1.     On the one hand, the topic is reserved for you, and

2.     On the other hand, you agree to write the work within the prescribed period.

Copyright and rights of use

Under current law, the copyright for the Master's thesis lies with the student. However, the student must grant the University of Zurich, represented by the Department of Computational Linguistics, a free, non-permanent, non-exclusive right to use the master's thesis (especially for publication on the Web) as well as all products (especially software) created during the work. A declaration must be signed by the student at the beginning of the thesis. In exceptional cases, this rule may not apply if mutually agreed upon.

Basic rules of academic honesty

The easy availability of texts in digital form has created the impression in the general public (and thus also among students) that everything that is published is somehow in the "public domain" and can therefore be freely inserted into one's own work. This impression is false. Formulations, trains of thought and other intellectual achievements taken over from others must be meticulously and precisely referenced - everything else is plagiarism. This is especially relevant for assessments such as seminar papers, programming projects, term papers, bachelor's and master's theses. Due to the increasing spread of plagiarism, the university has significantly tightened the sanctions that can be imposed on plagiarising students.

Please have a look at these leaflets about plagiarism:

Official information sheet for the University of Zurich (PDF, 167 KB)  (in German)

Information sheet for the Department of Computational Linguistics (PDF, 83 KB)  (in German)

Guidelines on the Use of Text Generation Models for Seminar Papers and Theses

Weiterführende Informationen

Student Consultation

For questions that are not answered in the guidelines and study regulations , read the FAQ first. Please also consult the site Student Services of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

If a question remains unanswered, please contact the Student Advisor for Computational Linguistics .

International students

Information for International students: International Scholars Center

For detailed information on what you need to take into account upon relocating to Switzerland, please refer to  Before and After Arrival .

Download guidelines and other important documents here .

CL Mailing List

Information (important announcements, excursions, courses, vacancies for tutors, job offers) is distributed to our students via our mailing list .  

We collect web-based demos of different applications. Try out what language technology systems can do!

CL@UZH Instagram

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Department of Earth Sciences

Master's thesis in earth sciences.

The Master's programme in Earth Sciences is concluded with the Master's thesis. The subject of the thesis is in the major study area and represents either an applied or fundamental research project.

In most cases, the project will be integrated into one of the research groups at the Department of Earth Sciences. Students may contact the lecturers directly for a project or choose from the list of Master's thesis projects at the department .

If geological mapping or sampling are required, early planning of the project is essential to provide flexibility in scheduling time in the field.

Guidelines Master's thesis in Earth Sciences

Before starting the Master's thesis, students must:

• Have obtained their Bachelor's degree .
• Have fulfilled all additional requirements (if any).
• Have successful completed the MSc Project Proposal (651-4060-00).

The project is supervised by:

• Main supervisor (mandatory)
• Additional supervisor (optional)
• Examiner (if necessary )

Supervisors are involved in the Master's thesis. If the supervisor(s) belong to the same group an examiner belonging to another research group is necessary . The examiner will evaluate but not necessarily supervise the thesis. At least one supervisor or examiner must be a professor/PD of the Department of Earth Sciences, the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science or one of the department's authorised senior researchers . Exceptions must be approved by the Director of Studies.

Registration for “651-4062-00 Master’s Thesis”  in myStudies   "projects/papers/theses"

• Students starting their Master’s thesis between August and January register for Autumn Semester. Students starting between February and July register for Spring Semester.
• Please do not register twice if the start and the end of the Master’s thesis are not in the same semester, but choose the option “leave of absence” (Urlaubsemester) on myStudies for the subsequent semester.
• myStudies calculates the individual deadline automatically a t the time of registration  (plus six months).

The students present their Master’s thesis in a group seminar. At least one member of the supervising committee must be present. The time of the presentation can be selected individually in consultation with the supervisors/examiner.

The presentation counts towards the final grade.

Besides the individual deadline  (calculated automatically at the time of registration) there is an annual deadline  for each cohort, which is defined each year by the department depending on the date of the graduation ceremony.

Individual deadline

The individual deadline is calculated automatically in myStudies based on the start date (plus six months) of the Master's Thesis. This deadline is binding and the student must submit the Master's thesis no later than this date (by midnight). Students whose individual deadline is set before the annual deadline will be officially invited to the graduation ceremony.

Annual deadline

The annual deadline  or cohort deadline depends on the date of the graduation ceremony and is defined each year by the department. Only students whose individual deadline is set before the annual deadline will officially be invited to the graduation ceremony.

• Submission of Master's thesis: 26 August 2024
• Grading in eDoz: 13 September 2024
• Request for diploma: 16 September 2024
• Submission of Master's thesis The student hands in the Master’s thesis (physical copy or PDF) to the main supervisor (incl. the Download signed declaration of originality (PDF, 183 KB) vertical_align_bottom ) no later than midnight of the individual deadline. The main supervisor confirms the submission in eDoz.
• Grading in eDoz The main supervisor enters the final grade in eDoz based on the protected page Master’s Thesis - Assessment and Grading Form lock . A missed deadline results in a fail.
• Request for diploma The student must submit the request for diploma (Diplomantrag). He/she can only do so after the grade for his/her Master’s thesis is validated (verfügt) by the study administration.

If the Master's thesis is handed in after the annual deadline, the grades cannot be validated in time for the graduation ceremony. Thus the students will only be invited the following year.

The grades from all supervisors and examiner have equal weight for the final mark.

The main supervisor calculates the final grade ( protected page see assessment and grading form lock ) and enters the final grade in eDoz no later than four weeks after submission of the Master's thesis. A shorter submission of the grade applies to theses submitted by the annual deadline (see annual deadlines above) .

An excellent Master’s thesis (grade 6.0) can be suggested for the Silver Medal of ETH Zurich . The main supervisor must state reasons for the outstanding and excellent thesis by submitting a report.

The department encourages the publication of excellent Master's theses in the ETH Research Collection . Publcation of the Master's theses requires a letter of recommendation from the respective supervisor and a declaration of consent f rom the student.

The graduation ceremony takes place in late autumn (end of November). Only students who submit their work before the annual deadline are officially invited to the graduation ceremony.

Please contact the D-ERDW study administration in case of questions.

• Location location_on NO D 55
• Phone phone +41 44 632 64 83

Dep. Erdwissenschaften Sonneggstrasse 5 8092 Zürich Switzerland

Master in Space Systems

The Specialised Master in Space Systems starts in Autumn Semester 2024 and information about the Master's thesis in Space Systems is currently being prepared.

Master in Atmospheric and Climate Science

For information about the Master's thesis in Atmospheric and Climate Science visit the Institute of Atmospheric and Climate Science website.

Master in Applied Geophysics

For information about the Master's thesis in Applied Geophysics visit the external page Joint Master Programme page on the IDEA League website call_made .

Study grants

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Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science

Master's thesis.

The Master's thesis will typically cover the last term of the programme. One of the main learning goals is to advance your ability to work autonomously, conceptually and scientifically within a current research project.

Topics for Master's thesis can be found on the web pages of the different research groups at IAC and on the web page of the protected page MSc-Seminar lock :

• Group of Prof. Manuela Brunner
• Group of Prof. Daniela Domeisen
• Group of Prof. Robert Jnglin Wills
• Group of Prof. Reto Knutti
• Group of Prof. Ulrike Lohmann
• Group of Prof. Thomas Peter
• Group of Prof. Sebastian Schemm
• Group of Prof. Sonia I. Seneviratne
• Group of Prof. Heini Wernli

It is also worthwhile getting in touch with the lecturers. Often, the most exciting and suitable subjects develop from a conversation.

Step-by-step guidance

There are subtle differences in the procedure between D-ERDW and D-USYS summarized in the following:

Master's thesis subjects will be presented in the first seminar of the spring semester and for the rest of the year they are published here and on the website of the research groups. You can certainly look at other institutions such as Meteoswiss, WSL and Agroscope.

The Master's thesis must be supervised by a professor of the Department, including honorary professors, associated professors and senior lecturers, or by someone on the Department's list of approved supervisors which can be found in moodle.

The Master's thesis has to be carried out under the supervision of

- a professor of D-ERDW or of IAC or

- a professor in the master programme's module courses or

- a senior scientist from the list of approved supervisors of D-ERDW or D-USYS associated with the IAC

D-ERDW & D-USYS

You have to register through mystudies for the thesis, indicating your main supervisor. 

If the starting date of the work is between July and January, the enrolment should be for the autumn semester; if it is between February and June it should be for the spring semester. If the period the work spans two semesters, the enrolment should be made for the first semester only, and the option 'leave of absence' (Urlaubssemester) should be chosen for the second semester.

If the workplace is at IAC, please fill out the Personalblatt together with your supervisor and send it back to Peter Isler. If you need a Linux account or additional storage please contact the system administrators.

The student hands in the Master’s thesis (physical copy or PDF) to the main supervisor (incl. the signed " Download Declaration of Originality (PDF, 183 KB) vertical_align_bottom ") no later than midnight of the individual deadline. The main supervisor confirms the submission in eDoz. More information can be found here . Furthermore you have to upload your thesis to the IAC thesis archive .  

The Master's thesis is assessed by the main supervisor and at least one additional supervisor/advisor, using the official evaluation form ( Download downloadable here (PDF, 239 KB) vertical_align_bottom ).

The Master's thesis is assessed by the main supervisor and at least one additional supervisor/advisor using the official evaluation form ( Download downloadable here (PDF, 116 KB) vertical_align_bottom ). 

Please check your department's website for updated information on the submission deadlines for the current years diploma ceremony.

ETH offers travel allowances for individual journeys which are closely associated with a course of study program. Find out more on the  Student portal of ETH.

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Department of Informatics Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Group

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This page lists several ideas for Bachelor's and Master's theses. Most of the thesis proposals are based on recent research, exploring branches that most researchers overlook. Some Bachelor's theses proposals can be extended to Master's theses. While each page lists requirements, these are not strict requirements at the beginning of the thesis, but rather skills to acquire during the thesis. For more details, send me an email.  Prof. Dr. Manuel Günther

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• Open Theses
• Active Theses
• Past Theses

Topics for new Theses

Students are most welcome to develop their own topics, and we are happy to supervise them as long as the topic is anywhere close to our fields of expertise -- otherwise we are not able to provide fruitful input. General topics of interest to the AIML group include (but are not limited to):

• Face Recognition: the identification of a person based on an image or a video of their face
• Facial Attribut Classification: the classification of attributes (gender, hair color, face shape, ...) from facial images
• Open-Set Classification: teaching classifiers to discern objects of classes of no interest
• Adversarial Samples: generating small modifications of correctly classified samples that change the output of classifiers, or preventing these kinds of attacks
• Explainable AI: which parts of the inputs are of great importance to the decision of deep learning systems
• Traditional Features: How to make use of Gabor wavelets or other traditional image processing techniques in deep networks
• Medical Image Processing: Applying of the above methods to medical images; I only host topics provided by other insitutitions (ETH, USZ, Balgrist, Idiap, ...)

Topics that we generally do not supervise are in the area of Natural Language Processing, Social Media, Robotics or Reinforcement Learning since we have other experts on these topics ( Prof. Dr. Martin Volk , Prof. Dr. Anikó Hannák , Prof. Dr. Davide Scaramuzza , Prof. Dr. Giorgia Ramponi ) in our department . If you have a topic in mind and believe that we would be a good supervisor for, please send me an email.  Prof. Dr. Manuel Günther

Requirements and Submissions

It is a requirement to use LaTeX for writing the final thesis document. Students should use the AIML Thesis Template (ZIP, 314 KB) .

Generally, all theses need to be defended, including Master theses (mandatory by the Department rules ) and Bachelor theses. Usually, the defense will be scheduled about 3-5 weeks after the submission of the thesis. Deviating from the recommendations, the time for a Master thesis' defense presentation is 30 minutes followed by 15 minutes of questions, while a Bachelor thesis' defense should take 20-30 minutes of presentation and 10-15 minutes of questions.

Additionally, the source code for the thesis needs to be submitted, approximately at the time of the defense. The source code is typically written in Python and use the PyTorch library. It should be self-contained and make use only of public libraries and data (if possible). Source code needs to be documented. This allows fellow students to make use of previously implemented code.

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English Department

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Some information is available on the website of the Faculty of Arts . Below, you find the most important guidelines for Master Theses at the English Department. However, we strongly encourage you to read the Faculty guidelines as well.

Template Cover Master Thesis (English) (DOCX, 56 KB)

You may also wish to consult the section on extending deadlines (only possible in cases of force majeure) .

Whom Can You Choose as Your Supervisor?

• The Master Thesis is usually supervised by a professor .
• Other members of staff holding a PhD degree are also allowed to supervise Master Theses. Note, however, that they are not obliged to do so.
• To find out what types of topics individual instructors may be interested in supervising , you can consult their homepages. You can find links to all instructors' homepages on the UZH English Department's Staff List .

When to Contact Potential Supervisors?

Make sure to contact a potential supervisor prior to booking the Master Thesis online - ideally at the end of the preceding semester, but no later than:

• August 5 if wishing to book the two-semester module in the fall semester;
• January 5 if wishing to book the two-semester module in the spring semester.

When and How Do I Book the Master Thesis?

• The Master Thesis must be booked online , during the module booking period .

By When Do I Need to Submit?

• December 1 (for the fall semester);
• June 1 (for the spring semester).

Template Cover Master Thesis (German) (DOCX, 56 KB)

• Note that your supervisor may ask you to submit the Master Thesis earlier than this (e.g. mid-November for the fall semester).

How Long Should the Master Thesis Be?

Usually, the Master Thesis is between c. 20,000 and 30,000 words (not counting the bibliography). Note, however, that supervisors may accept theses that are shorter or longer. In other words, if in doubt, discuss the question of length with your supervisor.

Please also consult the following documents:

• Linguistics: Manual for Writers of Papers in English Linguistics
• Literature: Literature Guide

How Much Supervision? And What If I Don't Hear Back?

You are expected to conduct most of your research for the Master Thesis independently. However, supervisors will of course be happy to provide a certain level of guidance.

• At the start of the supervision process, you should discuss the mode of supervision with your supervisor (e.g. Will there be regular meetings? How often are you allowed/supposed to contact your supervisor?)
• Should you encounter any major problems, then please make sure to get in touch with your supervisor as early as possible!

Usually, supervisors at the UZH English Department will try to respond to your queries within 48 hours (working days, i.e. not counting weekends).

Should you not not hear back from your supervisor within three to four working days, then please send them a short reminder.

If you still do not hear back from your supervisor after your second message (within three to four working days), you should contact the advisor of studies at [email protected] .

Organizing the Master Thesis: Two Examples

The Master Thesis is, usually, a two-semester module. Accordingly, the following examples cover the two most common cases.

• ideally contact your supervisor at the end of the fall semester in the previous year, but no later than January 5, to find out whether they are willing to supervise your topic;
• book the Master Thesis during the module booking period of the spring semester (end of January/early February);
• submit the Master Thesis no later than on December 1 (or earlier, if your supervisor has given you an earlier submission date).
• ideally contact your supervisor at the end of the spring semester in the previous year, but no later than August 5, to find out whether they are willing to supervise your topic;
• book the Master Thesis during the module booking period of the fall semester (end of August/early September);
• submit the Master Thesis no later than on June 1 (or earlier, if your supervisor has given you an earlier submission date).

If you would like to submit your Master Thesis at the end of the first semester, then the corresponding deadlines would apply (i.e. June 1 for the spring and December 1 for the fall semester).

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Master's thesis.

The Master's thesis takes place in the final semester of the programme. It is a demonstration of the students’ ability to work independently, and in a structured and scientific manner.

Students are only permitted to commence the Master’s thesis if they have

• successfully completed their Bachelor's degree programme,
• have met all the requirements for admission to the Master's degree programme and
• have gained at least 90 credits in the Master's degree programme, including the required credits for compulsory courses and for interdisciplinary project work.

The Master's thesis is supervised by a professor.  Students discuss the topic on their own initiative with the supervisor. Enrolment via myStudies must be completed before starting work . Further information can be found on the Download information sheet (PDF, 157 KB) vertical_align_bottom .

The start and submission dates are published at dates and events .

20 credits are awarded for a successful Master's thesis.

Lists of topics of the RE&IS professorships:

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Neuroscience Center Zurich

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Students can choose where to conduct their Master's Thesis Research among the  participating PI labs of the program.

The MSc thesis involves independent research carried out in one of the PI laboratory associated with the IDB program. 

Students are required to work full time on their thesis, but have the freedom to pre-negotiate with their thesis supervisor to attend other curricular activities to facilitate timely completion of the MSc degree requirements. Thesis duration total work time must sum up to 6 months full time (including the write up).

As soon as a supervisor for the thesis has been identified and the starting / ending dates have been decided, students are requested to fill out the thesis registration form (provided by the IDB Scientific Coordinator)  and have it signed by their thesis supervisor / host lab PI and their mentor (who may be a different person than the host lab PI). The completed and signed thesis registration form must be sent to the IDB Scientific Coordinator prior to the start of the thesis. The thesis starting date cannot precede the date on which the form is signed.

The MSc thesis is graded by the thesis supervisor / host lab PI and the assigned mentor. The final approved thesis report must be sent as a PDF version at least 2 weeks before the exam to the examiners and the IDB Scientific Coordinator. The MSc thesis must be dated and signed by both the student and thesis supervisor / host lab PI. 

MSc Examination

The master's examination is an oral examination.

The MSc final thesis must be approved and sent to the examiners and the IDB Scientific Coordinator before the oral examination can take place. Supervisor / host lab PI need to check that all data are original and that no plagiarism has occurred.

The duration of the oral exam is half an hour. During 10 minutes the student presents a concise summary of his/her thesis work to the supervisor / host lab PI and the assigned mentor. The oral exam usually takes place 2 weeks after thesis submission and is a closed exam. A time slot for the exam must be scheduled directly with the examiners .

Make sure to book a room for your exam.

The oral exam and thesis are graded together by the supervisor / host lab PI and the assigned mentor.