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--- blog:thesis [2025/10/01 15:43] – simon
+++ blog:thesis [2026/09/04 11:34] (current) – simon
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 ===How to find a thesis topic/supervising Professor===
 There is no central announcement of thesis topics available. Thesis topics are announced by the institues on their web pages and/or their bulletin boards. You will have to look for a suitable topic and in case you have a preferred institute you may contact the Professor and/or the Ph. D. student being responsible for the respective lecture(s) to ask for a thesis topic.
+The natural contact to ask for a thesis topic is an institute where you got a good or better very good mark in the repsective exam. Here you can easily prove your interest in the topic.
 ===Registration===
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 ==Prerequisites==
 Prior to Mastre thesis registration you will need to provide evidence of 82 CP.
+In exceptional cases an "Early start" of the Master thesis can be permitted by the Examination Board upon student application using the multipurpose form for applications to the Board. Please note that in any case all fundamental subjects (first semester according to standard study plan) must be passed before Master thesis registration.
@@ Line 22: / Line 24: @@
   - get a supervising Prof. of our [[https://www.muw.rwth-aachen.de/cms/~mye/materialwissenschaft-und-werkstofftechni/lidx/1/|Department]],
   - carry out your thesis,
-  - submit the thesis,
+  - submit the thesis to all supervisors,
-  - give a presentation to your supervisor,
+  - give a presentation to your supervisors,
   - have the supervisor download the Mini thesis form from the [[https://www.muw.rwth-aachen.de/cms/materialwissenschaft-und-werkstofftechni/Studium/Studierende/~fsco/Downloads/lidx/1/|department´s webpage]], have it signed by yourself and the supervisor,have your supervisor send the completed registartion form to ZPA to get your credits.
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 ===Supervisors (First/Second,Internal/External)===
-Any supervisor must be listed at RWTH administration (ZHV) as examiner.
+==General aspects: Listed examiners==
-All Profs. are examiners by definition.
+A Master thesis at RWTH needs two supervisors, a mini thesis only needs one.
-Professors may have PostDocs of their institutes be appointed as second examiners.
+Any supervisor must be listed at RWTH administration office (ZHV) as examiner. All Professors of RWTH are by definition examiners as well as all Jülich Professors with affiliation to RWTH (which is the case for most of them, but not all!).
-Formally, the directly supervising person (mostly Ph. D. students) is of no relevance.
+You may check if a Jülich Professor is affiliated with RWTH by typing **the last name(!)** in [[https://rwthcontacts.rwth-aachen.de/persons|RWTH contacts]]. If you find the person there it has an affiliation with RWTH.
+Any person not being a Professor, e. g. PostDocs, group leaders etc., generally are not listed as examiners with the exception that Professors may appoint PostDocs as Second examiners with limited rights: They may only act as examiners with an appropriate regular examiner (Prof.) going in for the lead.
-Profs. outside the department can also be first supervisors. In this case the second supervisor should be a regular Prof. of the department, he will be in charge of all formal issues with regard to ZPA.
+==Special case: External Master thesis==
+Other than for the students in the German master courses who are only allowed to do external theses if there is a proven cooperation with the external institute/company students of MatEng have much broader options for external theses.
+In turn, in order to ensure that the 30 CP assigned to the thesis are equivalent to a regular internal thesis the examination board is stricter about internal supervision. The internal supervisor is responsible for maintaining this equivalence.
+By definition all regular Profs. of our department AND all Professors involved in teaching in Materials Engineering (International profile), e. g. being located in Jülich, are examiners.
+Any Professors outside our department are generally external supervisors. There are rare exceptions of Professors with affiliation to two faculties, in this case sentence 1 of this paragraph is valid. You may check which Professors are affiliated with our department of the department´s webpage.
+The mark is given by both, the internal supervisor and the on-site supervisor.
+Formally, the directly supervising person (mostly Ph. D. students) is of no relevance.
 **Please note:** There is no rule against one Professor being the supervisor of mini thesis AND Master thesis. However, it is not intended that you do all theses works at the same institute/on the same topic. This will narrow down your academic profile which may be helpful if you want to pursue a career in this specific field but may impede job offers from other related fields.
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 ===Presentations===
 Presentations need to be given in front of the supervising Professor(s). This may be done in person or via video meetings. In case of an external thesis both professors need to be present. Duration of the presentation is 20-45 minutes plus approx. 15 minutes of discussion, depending also on the supervisor´s regulations.
+The presentation may be carried ou e. g. in a group meeting as long as the supervisors are present in person or by video.
 Please negotiate the appointment for the presentation well ahead with your supervisor.
 The presentation date needs to be within the first six weeks after submission. This is for the students´ protection and can be modified if both, the student and the Prof. agrees.
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   * in industry.
 In case of a student mini thesis no theses in industry are permitted. Student min theses at any institute of RWTH are possible.
-A Master thesis can also be done in industry. In any case this requires at firt (prior to starting the thesis) an application to the examnination board asking for a permission to do the thesis externally, signed by the student AND the supervisor.
+A Master thesis can also be done in industry. In any case this requires **at first (prior to starting the thesis)** an application to the examnination board asking for a permission to do the thesis externally. This is to be submitted via paperless.
+Thesis supervision is an issue with external theses, see above.
+==Important notice:==
+__The department needs to offer thesis topics to students of MatEng per definition. Hence, students have the right to get "a topic" but not necessarily the topic you want.
+There is no right for a student to get an external thesis, nor can any Professor be urged to supervise an external thesis.
+Thus, there is no such thing like "I secured a Master thesis at company XY" since this will only be possible if you secure Professors willing to supervise it.__
-In any case  an internal supervisor (Prof. of our department) is required that takes the responsibility to make sure that the external thesis is equivalent to a regular internal one.
-The supervisor acts like a regular internal supervisor and registers the thesis with ZPA using the form from the department´s webpage.
-The mark is given by both, the internal supervisor and the on-site supervisor.
 A student looking for an internal supervisor for an external thesis should look for a Prof. with an expertise in the field of the intended thesis. In case of doubt please check with the closest Prof. first. In case this Prof. feels unable to supervise the thesis he/she will be able to redirect you to a colleague.