This instructs you, the student, on how to write your thesis at the Chair of Transportation Systems Engineering and is structured as follows:

Introduction

Congratulations on conducting your Masters’ thesis at the Chair of Transportation Systems Engineering. We hope that you will enjoy it and learn throughout this process. This document will provide you with some basic concepts and ideas that might help you perform your thesis. Before we start, we note that in every single topic there is room for producing something innovative and new, which would help you advance your career. Also, you should understand that the goal of performing an M.Sc. thesis is not the same as all the courses that you already had, which is basically to learn. It is the one project that you are expected to contribute to the research community, something done primarily by making a research contribution that would be helpful for other researchers.

Towards this direction, you should first understand the types of contributions that exist. In general terms, there are three main categories of contribution in science (order is important):

  • Theoretical
    Starting from theoretical, this is the holy grail of contributions. It means that you come up with a theory to explain something. For example, the “utility maximization” concept used to describe choice is a theory.

  • Methodological
    The second type of contribution includes the development of a way (method) that would provide a solution to a problem. Methodological contributions are rather happily accepted by the scientific community as they can be used by other people to solve their problems.

  • Practical
    Finally, practical contributions (3rd type), are the application of something that someone else invented. It is essentially, the exploration of some methods or data and the practical implications they have in a different city, or test case. Although practical contributions seem to be the less important in comparison to the other to above, they allow for understanding of the actual implementation and the abilities of a method, which especially for a master thesis could be an excellent contribution.

The reason why it is important to understand what each contribution is and where your thesis falls is to help you understand what you want to do and what is expected from you.

Good Scientific Practice

As listed on TUM's Graduate School's information page, "compliance with the principles of good scientific practice is the foundation of scientific work." While the information on good scientific practice is worded for doctoral theses, it applies just the same for all types of scientific work. So please make sure you follow those guidelines at https://www.gs.tum.de/en/doctoral-candidates/good-scientific-practice/.

Thesis Framework

Starting a thesis with a topic, gives you a direction but at the same time it is supposed to give enough flexibility to allow you to come with up with an innovative solution to a problem; thus, allow you to make your contribution to your field. For you to work in an efficient way, you must plan ahead. This means, create a framework that would allow you to have a clear outline of what you think you want to do in your thesis and how you would achieve the objectives and goals set. An example of such a framework could be the default scientific structure:

  1. Introduction
  2. Literature review
  3. Methodology
  4. Results
  5. Discussion
  6. Conclusion

Note, the English title of the thesis should follow this guideline.

Further resources and guidance on the structure of a thesis can be found online at, for example, https://paperpile.com/g/thesis-structure/ or https://www.bgu.tum.de/msm/lehre/theses/structure/.

Additionally, refer to previous theses as inspirations and examples for structures and organisation of theses, for example, from TSE’s previous theses at https://www.bgu.tum.de/tse/lehre/abschlussarbeiten/.

Thesis Templates

For your thesis you must use the Chair’s thesis templates, either LaTeX or Microsoft Word/Libre Office Writer:

Note: For the latex users, please specify the main document as cover.tex for the cover template, and specify the main document as thesis.tex for the thesis template. For example, in Overleaf, you can find change it in the Menu of a project.

Timeline

After you have agreed on your topic with your supervisor, your supervisor registers your thesis officially, which gives you six months until submission. Within this time frame, the following meetings are required between your supervisor, yourself, and guests from the chair:

  • Kick-off
    Roughly one month into your thesis, you informally present the findings of your literature review (up to then) to your supervisor and outline your plan on how to tackle the research question (e.g. with what tools/methodology). You and your supervisor can decide whether others are invited to this meeting.

  • Mid-term
    After three months, you present your current state of work. By now, you should be well into applying your methodology, potentially providing first results. You and your supervisor can decide whether others are invited to this meeting.

  • Green-light
    One to two weeks before your final defence, towards the very end of your thesis, you present your complete work in a trial run for your actual defence. You and your supervisor can decide whether others are invited to this meeting.

  • Defence
    You present your work in a full 20-minute presentation format, followed by a question-and-answer session. Afterwards, you are being told the results and grade of your thesis. The defence is public and will be attended by TSE staff.

Deliverables

For completing your thesis, you must provide the following documents and files shortly after your thesis defence:

  1. Via e-mail, digitally submit the following files to your supervisor and Qinglong Lu (qinglong.lu@tum.de):
    1. Final thesis version as PDF
    2. Defence presentation as PDF
    3. Signed publication form as PDF (download thesis publication form or study project publication form)
    4. A drive link to all files related to your thesis, including data and codes
  2. In person or via post, physically submit the following to your supervisor or the TSE office:
    1. Two printed hard copies of your thesis
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