Procedure for Master projects

We offer Master projects in several different areas and also on concrete topics. We then tailor the Master project assignments for each individual student, with that student’s skills in mind. To create an individual assignment, you have to find and commit to a supervisor who helps you in this process. In particular external assignments must be discussed and defined together with the supervisor to ensure that the defined assignment fits the student, the company, and the study program.

We help you finding and assignment and a supervisor by the following steps (explained in detail below)

• Steps 1 and 2: You identify a short-list of possible topics and supervisors.
• Step 3: You enter your interests (and some other information about yourself) in an online form. We will match you to a possible supervisor who can supervise your topic/your interests.
• Step 4: You then define and run your graduation project together with your supervisor.

The topics you select or identify (even the ones we list) are general problem descriptions. Later (in step 5), you will develop and define the concrete graduation project assignment together with your supervisor also taking your personal interests and background into account. There are 4 ways to find a topic.

1. Check out the research graduation projects offered by the PA group.
   • What do these projects offer? We offer you projects to develop cutting edge event data analytics techniques that are about 5 years ahead of the industrial state of the art. We ensure practical relevance through a large collection of challenging data sets and through our own year-long experience and exchange with industry. Along the way you pick up valuable analytics and problem solving skills that are highly sought after – both in industry as well as in research. At the same time, we offer a supporting work environment and time to develop your own ideas. The projects are typically evaluated around the technical quality of the results by themselves and in comparison to the state of the art (next to scientific reasoning).
   • Such a project fits you if you like to explore and develop new ideas, techniques, and technology. If you have questions about any specific project, please reach out to the contact person listed.
2. Check out the graduation projects we offer in collaboration with a company or an external organization.
   • What do these projects offer? We are listing projects with industrial partners and external organizations that are closely related to our own expertise and the research developments within process mining and event data analytics. The challenges posed by the external partners are motivated by problems of their customers or users. Solving them requires you both to interact with stakeholders in the organization (users, analysis, customers) and to deal with real-life data (may involve data collection, cleaning, transformation). You will be supervised by an external supervisor who advises you on the problem and solution from the domain perspective, and from a university supervisor who advises you on the research method and on which techniques to use or develop. Your task is to integrate both perspectives. The projects are typically evaluated around both the technical quality of the results and their ability to solve stakeholder problems (next to scientific reasoning).
   • Such a project fits you if you like to include the stakeholder context in finding, developing, and evaluating your solution. If you have questions about any specific project, please reach out to the contact person listed.
3. You have an interest in a graduation project offered by a company or organization not listed.
   • You may propose your own external graduation project. However, in contrast to projects we list, you usually first have to establish a mutual understanding between company, supervisor and you to define a project that has enough scientific depth, falls within the expertise of one of our supervisors, is feasible in scope and ambition, and is guaranteed to have data available at the start of the project. Reaching this mutual understanding may take up to 2 months.
   • For this reason we only consider external projects proposed to us until the start of Q2. Please include a description of the project in the form/the documents you submit to us.
4. You have an interest in a particular topic around event data analysis not listed above.
   • You may propose your own research graduation project. This will most likely take the form of a research graduation project that does not involve an external partner. Please include/submit a description of the project idea so we can see whether we have the expertise to supervise the project and whether it is feasible to do the project (has not been done already and can build on existing prior research).

• Each project we list also mentions a contact person who would be your supervisor. Include them in your list of possible supervisors.
• For your own proposal, look up the staff page of the PA group. Any Assistant-Professor (UD), Associate-Professor (UHD), or Full Professor can supervise your graduation project.
• Look up the profile of the supervisor (what do they research, what graduation projects did they supervise) to understand the interests and “style” of the supervisor.

To make sure we have a complete picture of your interests and background, we ask you to

1. Fill in this online form about your background and interests. As we often have several students being interested in the same topic, we advise to identify more than one topic you find interesting. Make a ranked shortlist as this will help us in matching you to a project and supervisor.
2. Send an email with (1) your name and student ID, (2) your CV and (3) your transcript of grades to Mrs. Ine van de Moosdijk. In your CV specifically list for us your experience in projects, programming languages, libraries, tools, and software relevant to the project/your interests.

We try to match all submissions we receive to a supervisor on a weekly basis. If we found a match, the supervisor will contact you to discuss and develop the project further. If we cannot match your interests to one of our supervisors, we will also let you know. We try to respond to you within 2 weeks.

Once you are in contact with a supervisor, we assume that you are committed to your project and your supervisor. Together with the supervisor, you will go through the following steps that are also detailed in the graduation checklist.

1. Agree with your supervisor on the study program (are there any courses you should still take to prepare for the project?) and submit your study program.
2. Agree with your supervisor (and the external partner) on the concrete project and write a graduation plan that also takes your interests and background into account. In particular if an external partner is involved, your task is to develop and define the project together with your supervisor. Once agreed on by you and your supervisor, you submit the graduation plan and await approval by the exam committee. Make sure to complete both steps well in advance before the start of the graduation project.
3. Plan the different steps and deadlines during the project together with your supervisor. A graduation project is intended to take 6 months.
4. Your project will be assessed by 3 assessors. Discuss with your supervisor at the start of the project who your assessors could be. The supervisor has to fill in the assessment committee form no later than 4 weeks before your defense. Be aware of the other administrative steps in the graduation process (register for the exam committee meeting, handing in the final version of your thesis, etc.) laid out in the graduation checklist

Ready? Let us know what you are interested in.