Current Thesis Topics

Bachelor Thesis Topics

Next Kickoff

April 2025

General Hints

Study carefully the guidelines summarized on www.wu.ac.at/en/staff/information-for-teachers/courses-exams-and-theses/theses/guidelines-on-bachelors-theses

(see also: https://www.wu.ac.at/orgstudies/teaching/theses/).

Furthermore, we expect that you to:

• Proactively manage the research and writing process and

• Provide your supervisor meeting minutes after consultations via email on the same day.

Formatting

The same formatting rules apply for the thesis, which are also used for the research seminar of the SBWL Knowledge Management and Data Science:

• The thesis has to be written using the following Latex template: ThesisTemplateDPKM.zip.

• A bachelor thesis has a page limit of 40 pages text (not including cover, table of content, references, appendices).

• Please add the declaration of authorship to your thesis. You can find the Bachelor Thesis Cover (and further forms) here: Bachelors Thesis Guide

• Please also add a list of aids used

Prerequisites

We expect bachelor thesis candidates to have the necessary prior subject knowledge taught in the SBWLs Knowledge Management or Data Science, i.e., to be a graduate or advanced SBWL student. All candidates are expected to be familiar with the general rules of writing a scientific paper and with the contents of the SBWL Research Seminar. These rules are, for instance, presented in the lecture "Grundlagen wissenschaftlichen Arbeitens" and further summarized in the following reading:

• Jan Recker: Scientific Research in Information Systems: A Beginner’s Guide. Springer, Heidelberg, Germany (2012). www.springer.com/business+%26+management/business+information+systems/book/978-3-642-30047-9#

• Peter Sanders, Dorothea Wagner: Algorithm Engineering. it - Information Technology 53(6): 263-265 (2011). i11www.iti.uni-karlsruhe.de/_media/members/dorothea_wagner/itit.2011.9072.pdf

• Ken Peffers, Tuure Tuunanen, Marcus A. Rothenberger, Samir Chatterjee: A Design Science Research Methodology for Information Systems Research. J. of Management Information Systems 24(3): 45-77 (2008). http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.535.7773&rep=rep1&type=pdf

• Barbara Kitchenham, Rialette Pretorius, David Budgen, Pearl Brereton, Mark Turner, Mahmood Niazi, Stephen G. Linkman: Systematic literature reviews in software engineering - A tertiary study. Information & Software Technology 52(8): 792-805 (2010). www.cin.ufpe.br/~in1037/leitura/Kitchenham%202010%20-%20tertiary%20study.pdf

• Lagendijk, Ad. Survival Guide for Scientists: Writing, Presentation, Email. Amsterdam University Press, 2008.

• Adam LeBrocq: Journal of the Association for Information Systems Style Guide. https://aisel.aisnet.org/cais/cais_style_guide.pdf

In agreement with the supervisor an individual list of expected readings should be studied by the student in preparation of the actual work on the thesis.

Grading

The grading of the thesis takes various criteria into account, relating both to the thesis as a product and the process of establishing its content. These include, but are not limited to:

• Correctness of spelling and grammar

• Aesthetic appeal of document and figures

• Compliance with formal rules

• Appropriateness of thesis structure

• Coverage of relevant literature

• Appropriateness of research question and method

• Diligence of own research work

• Significance of research results

• Punctuality of work progress

• Proactiveness of handling research progress

Beyond these, the following grading rules apply: https://www.wu.ac.at/studierende/mein-studium/bachelor/wirtschafts-und-sozialwissenschaften/bachelorarbeit/

In addition, the transparency and documentation standards (WU Policy “Lists of Aids Used”) need to be followed: www.wu.ac.at/en/students/my-program/bachelors-student-guide/bachelors-student-guide-german-taught-programs/courses-and-exams/list-of-aids-used

Steps of Writing a Bachelor Thesis

Overview- please scroll down for details

Details on steps:

Step 1)

It is possible that students propose topics themselves before the deadline. Such proposals should be made before the deadline for topic announcements and  can be accepted if

• a clear research question can be formulated for the topic and it is feasible to apply a suitable research method.

• the student shall

  • name potential supervisors in the institute as well as

  • provide a justification in terms of either completed courses from one of our institute's specialisations or concrete research projects at the institute that the proposed topic relates to (i.e., we strongly recommend to align such proposals with the proposed supervisor upfront in order to be accepted).

The student is notified of acceptance or rejection.

Step 2)

If you are interested in writing a thesis with us, you need to express your interest by sending a letter of application to sekretariat@dpkm.wu.ac.at. The application letter consists of 3 parts:

1. the letter of motivation, consisting of the topic you are interested in plus a paragraph explaining what potentially qualifies you for this topic. Note that it is allowed to express interest for more than one topic (as a list in order of prefernce), in such cases a separate motivation paragraph for each topic needs to be provided.

2. CV

3. recent Sammelzeugnis

 

Please send all 3 parts as a single PDF file with the following file name „<family-name>_<student-ID>_<topic-no first priority>_<topic-no second priority>_<topic-no third priority>.PDF“ (e.g.: "mustermensch_h12345678_5_4_3_2") to the E-mail adress mentioned above.

Step 3)

At the kickoff, students who submitted expressions of interest will be assigned to topics based on both their interest and their prior knowledge in relevant areas. The final decision is with the prospective supervisor.

Note: If you cannot attend the kickoff for good reasons (e.g. exam, sickness), please let us know upfront, otherwise your application cannot be considered, plus in case of several interesting candidates fo the same topic, priority for assignments will be given to the students present at the kickoff.

Step 4)

The research proposal is a 10 page document formatted according to thesis template which includes the following parts:

1)      Working title,

2)      Motivation of research problem and research question,

3)      Summary of background literature and state of the art solutions,

4)      Proposed research method,

5)      Outline of thesis,

6)      Preliminary literature list,

7)      Work plan including milestones.

Students have to pass the research proposal evaluation in order to be further supervised.

Step 5)

If the evaluation of the research proposal is positive, the student is invited for consultations. The student will receive feedback on the background section and research question, on the work progress and further expectations, and on the definition of further objectives. Further intermediate meetings with the supervisor may be agreed upon in these consultations, depending on the milestones and work plan.

Step 6)

Student sends email update on work progress

Step 7)

Student sends email update on work progress

Step 8)

If required by the supervisor, the student prepares a presentation of 20 minutes and agrees with the supervisor on an appointment where the thesis is presented and discussed. The student will receive final feedback.

Step 9)

The student submits the thesis:

a) via Plagiarism Check on the Learn@WU system

b) via mail to the supervisor in a single zip file, including the LaTeX sources files.

c) if programme code was developed during the thesis, make it available as well along with a small README file explaining how to run the code as well as system requirements.

Step 10)

The supervisor will usually grade the thesis within two weeks time and enter the grade in the LPIS system.

Note that students who have successfully completed Step 4) are allowed to complete/submit any of the following steps before the deadline (upon individual agreement with the supervisor); however, if the deadlines after Step 4) are missed, we reserve the right to re-assign the topic to another student.

Honors

Each semester, we will announce a best bachelor and best master thesis award. We will nominate this thesis for the TALENTA award candidates of our department.

For general information on Digital Economy master`s thesis, please refer to the program's webpage: https://www.wu.ac.at/en/programs/masters-programs/digital-economy/structure-content/mastersthesis/

if there are differences to this page, the information on the page of DigEcon-Master applies.

Current Thesis Topics

Master Thesis Topics
 

General Hints

Study carefully the guidelines summarized on https://www.wu.ac.at/orgstudies/teaching/theses/ . Furthermore, we expect that you to:

• Proactively manage the research and writing process and

• Provide your supervisor meeting minutes after consultations via email on the same day.

Formatting

• The thesis has to be written using the following Latex template: ThesisTemplateDPKM.zip

• A master thesis has a page limit of 80 pages text (not including cover, table of content, references, appendices).

• Please add the following declaration of authorship to your thesis: Deckblatt Masterarbeit

Prerequisites

In agreement with the supervisor an individual list of expected readings should be studied by the student in preparation of the actual work on the thesis.

Grading

The grading of the thesis takes various criteria into account, relating both to the thesis as a product and the process of establishing its content. These include, but are not limited to:

• Correctness of spelling and grammar

• Aesthetic appeal of document and figures

• Compliance with formal rules

• Appropriateness of thesis structure

• Coverage of relevant literature

• Appropriateness of research question and method

• Diligence of own research work

• Significance of research results

• Punctuality of work progress

• Proactiveness of handling research progress

Beyond these, the following rules apply: https://www.wu.ac.at/en/students/my-program/masters-student-guide/masters-thesis/

Steps of Writing a Master Thesis

Overview- please scroll down for details

Details on steps:

Step 1)

It is possible that students propose topics themselves before the deadline. Such proposals should be made before the deadline for topic announcements and  can be accepted if

• a clear research question can be formulated for the topic and it is feasible to apply a suitable research method.

• the student shall

  • name potential supervisors in the institute as well as

  • provide a justification in terms of either completed courses from one of our institute's specialisations or concrete research projects at the institute that the proposed topic relates to (i.e., we strongly recommend to align such proposals with the proposed supervisor upfront in order to be accepted).

The student is notified of acceptance or rejection.

Step 2)

Master thesis info session: General Q&A on the process, time to chat with supervisors.

Step 3)

The research proposal is a 10 page document formatted according to thesis template which includes the following parts:

1)      Working title,

2)      Motivation of research problem and research question,

3)      Summary of background literature and state of the art solutions,

4)      Proposed research method,

5)      Outline of thesis,

6)      Preliminary literature list,

7)      Work plan including milestones.

Students have to pass the research proposal evaluation in order to be further supervised.

Step 4)

If the evaluation of the research proposal is positive, the student is invited for consultations. The student will receive feedback on the background section and research question, on the work progress and further expectations, and on the definition of further objectives. Further intermediate meetings with the supervisor may be agreed upon in these consultations, depending on the milestones and work plan.

Step 5)

Student sends email update on work progress.

Step 6)

The student prepares a presentation of 20 minutes and agrees with the supervisor on an appointment where the presentation is shown and discussed. The student will receive final feedback.

Step 7)

The student submits the thesis:

a) via Plagiarism Check on the Learn@WU system

b) via mail to the supervisor in a single zip file, including the LaTeX sources files.

c) if programme code was developed during the thesis, make it available as well along with a small README file explaining how to run the code as well as system requirements.

Step 8)

The supervisor will usually grade the thesis within two weeks time and enter the grade in the LPIS system.

Note that students who have successfully completed Step 3) are allowed to complete/submit any of the following steps before the deadline (upon individual agreement with the supervisor); however, if the deadlines after Step 3) are missed, we reserve the right to re-assign the topic to another student.

Honors

Each semester, we will nominate an outstanding master thesis for the TALENTA award.

Supervised by Axel Polleres
Supervised by Marta Sabou