You must participate in 2 MSc thesis seminars (SS+WS). In both, you have to report on progress with respect to your thesis, and practice presentation skills. Typically, the presentations in the first seminar are an introduction to your topic and your research problem, related work discussion, outlook of your solution. The presentations of the second seminar are on details of your approach towards a solution (technical details) and (if already possible) an evaluation of your method. If possible, you conclude with pros & cons and future work.

Grading (per seminar): (talks (50%) + reports (50%)) - absence penalty. The thesis is graded separately.

• Master's Thesis Seminar (364.061)
• Master's Thesis Seminar WS (364.063)
• Master's Thesis Seminar SS (364.062)

You need to do only 1 MSc / BSc thesis seminar. That means that everything explained for MSc CS students (see above) should be covered in the presentations of this single seminar (depending on the progress you made at the time you give your presentations).

Grading: for MSc: (talk (50%) + report (50%)) - absence penalty (thesis is graded separately), for BSc: (talk (25%) - absence penalty) + thesis=report (75%)

• Bachelor’s Thesis Seminar in AI (364.060)
• Master's Thesis Seminar (364.061)
• Master's Thesis Seminar WS (364.063)
• Master's Thesis Seminar SS (364.062)

Ideally, you present on the topic that later becomes your thesis topic. You can see this seminar as a pre-study, where you can explore the fundamentals necessary for your topic from a theoretical perspective. Students with such a topic (becoming a thesis topic later) should present these fundamentals (besides a short introduction to the topic itself). We call this form of seminar thesis track. In case you don't have a topic yet that later could become your thesis, you can alternatively select a paper from a scientific conference or journal (see below). We call this form of seminar paper track. In your seminar presentations, you need to summarize this paper (including the related work discussed in the paper) in your own words.

Grading: (talk (50%) + report (50%)) - absence penalty.

• Seminar in AI (364.050, 364.051, 364.054)
• Seminar in Pervasive Computing (364.053)

All students must give talk(s) and write a report per seminar. For BSc AI students: the full paper format (10 pages) report is your thesis. For all other students: your report is in short paper format (2 pages). For MSc thesis students: your seminar report(s) is not your thesis, as your thesis will be separately graded. Discuss the format and outline with your supervisor. Your seminar report(s) can be reused in your thesis. Discuss any deviations with your supervisor.

Practical work: The practical work goes (in all cases) in parallel to the seminars. Ideally, the topics are identical.   

The perfect flow: (AI/CS) seminar + practical work +  MSc thesis seminar(s) all on the same topic gives you the best chance to dive deep and to deliver a good thesis (which sometimes leads to good scientific publications).