Project Proposals

Artificial Intelligence Project Proposal


Requirement

To be allowed to start with Phase-1 of the thesis project, you must:

  1. have passed all mandatory courses (general and per track);
  2. have obtained ____; If you do not meet all these requirements, then you can only start with the final project after approval by the AI Master programme leader.

Finding a topic and a thesis supervisor

Start thinking about a topic at least two and a half months before the intended starting date. For inspiration, check the list of AI papers on scholar.google.com. Common ways to find a thesis topic are:

  • Ask a lecturer of a course that you found interesting. If this results in a topic, then the lecturer will usually be your thesis supervisor.
  • (If you found a topic yourself:) approach a lecturer who you think might be suitable as a supervisor.

If in doubt, consult the track coordinator of your track. If you want to do an external project:

  • Find an external project on your own.

In both cases, if the external organization selects you, then find an internal supervisor (an AI lecturer) before starting with the project. In all cases, the internal supervisor must approve the project before you can start. (If all else fails:) consult the student advisor of your track.

Registration

You are required to apply for approval of your research project by submitting a request to projects@cailab.civika.com Important: in order to apply completely and correctly, you must have discussed the project setup with your intended project supervisor beforehand! We advise you to study the request form previous to discussing it with your supervisor, or fill it out together, to make sure you obtain all of the information required.

External projects

The Civika AI Lab encourages researchers to work with external partners in government, NGOs, and the private sector. Your advisor in your own university must approve the arrangements. If an external party hosts you as a student, you also need to provide a Work Place Agreement (can be found here). The project's topic should lie within the domain of at least one of the three tracks within the AI Master Programme. We encourage you to choose a topic that fits your supervisor’s interests and ongoing work closely.

Phase-1 (14 EC)

The phase comprises 10-11 weeks of full-time work and is intended for you to do a preliminary study (usually in the form of literature study), and to propose and plan your research. Importantly, this phase will give a go/no-go decision towards Phase-2. You are expected to deliver a research proposal consisting of the following:

  • A literature study section, summarizing works that are relevant to your research.
  • Well formulated research question(s).
  • A plan for the second part of the thesis.

Additionally, depending on the nature of the project, your supervisor may require you to perform some initial research work in Phase-1, either in order to provide a convincing argument towards the prospect and feasibility of your Phase-2, or for efficiency to already do some work of Phase-2, e.g. developing an initial theory or building a first prototype of an algorithm. If such work is required, make an agreement with your supervisor on the scope of this work.

At the end of Phase-1 the supervisor(s) will make a go/no-go decision. This decision, in terms of pass or not pass, will be entered in Osiris. Phase-1 assessment criteria:

  • Scientific quality. This concerns the quality of the literature study, the relevance and impact of the research questions, the merit of proposed research method.
  • Writing skills. This concerns the quality of your writing, use of English, textual structure, and coherence/consistency of your text.
  • Planning. This concerns the clarity and feasibility of the proposed planning.
  • The quality of additional work, if such is required.