Thesis Projects
We are continuous looking for students interested in doing a thesis project in the PADS group. We are eager to supervise both Bachelor and Master Thesis projects. However, given the many requests, we need to be selective and align such projects to our expertise and research goals. Therefore, we require people to have a data-science mindset and an interest in processes and dynamic behavior. Most of the thesis projects are in the field of process mining. Therefore, we require potential students to show that they have an understanding of the existing field. Having process mining knowledge, e.g., obtained in the Business Process Intelligence (BPI) course at RWTH running in the second semester (SS) or the Coursera MOOC on Process Mining, is desirable. This makes it easier to discuss possible thesis projects in areas such as process discovery, conformance checking, performance analysis, predictive process analytics, automated process improvement, responsible process mining, etc. If you can still elect your courses, we also recommend the master courses Introduction to Data Science (WS) and Advanced Process Mining (SS). Also, check out the Seminars and practical assignments running every semester.
Thesis
If you are interested, please look through the list of available theses on the website. If you have a good resume, good grades, and special expertise and experience in the above-mentioned area but were unable to find a suitable thesis online, please fill out the thesis inquiry form and send it to Mahsa Pourbafrani thesis@pads.rwth-aachen.de along with a brief motivation, your CV, and grades. She is in charge of the thesis applications for the PADS group. She will ask further questions to determine whether we can provide you with a thesis that meets your requirements and expertise.
External Thesis Projects
We do NOT supervise external thesis projects unless there is an existing collaboration (e.g., with Celonis) and the topic is related to what we do (e.g., process mining). We welcome bright students who want to specialize in the topics we cover (selected topics on the interface between data science and process science, in particular, process mining). However, we only host students who know about these topics and have shown commitment to dive deeper. Moreover, we only supervise students in our expertise area, that are working on assignments that are carefully defined by us (or in a collaborative effort). Students deserve good supervision. Note that this is also the general policy of the Computer Science department. Therefore, do not be misled by groups outside of Computer Science offering such thesis projects.
HiWi Positions
Note that the chair also has many possibilities for HiWi jobs related to process mining (either within Fraunhofer FIT or RWTH). However, this is also reserved for excellent students that have acquired a background in process mining and that want to continue a career in process mining (in industry or academia). We discourage people to apply for HiWi jobs without being able to show relevant experience. HiWi opportunities typically follow (or run in parallel) with a thesis project or excellent performance in one of our courses.