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Master Thesis at ÚFAL

This is not a comprehensive tutorial; however, it should help you if you are doing a master thesis in computational linguistics at Matfyz. Especially foreign students are sometimes unaware of some details that their Czech schoolmates may already know. This help focuses on LCT students who typically have just one academic year to write their thesis.

Selection of topic and official assignment

LCT students typically select the topic at the beginning of their second year, i.e. during October. At the same time they must find their supervisor (typically among ÚFAL professors, researchers and Ph.D. students, although the supervisor may in theory come from other departments of Charles University). Those doing their second year at another university still must find a co-supervisor at ÚFAL. They will also have to come in person and defend the thesis at Charles University, regardless what other procedures are required at their second university. Along the same lines, students doing their second year at Charles University should check with their first-year university and/or with the program coordinators (drs. Lopatková and Kuboň) what additional steps might be required by the other university and whether they need a co-supervisor there.

The student and his supervisor put together the title of the thesis and the description of the work (abstract): this will constitute the official assignment. It should be broad enough to allow deviations once the student gets their first results and realizes that the originally anticipated course of experiments is not the best one to follow. Later changes of title and topic are in theory possible but it is an administrative hassle that is better to avoid.

The supervisor puts the assignment into SIS (the information system) and also prints one hardcopy, signs it and gives it to Ms. Brdičková, the ÚFAL secretary. This must be done before the deadline announced for each academic year (typically first half of November – look for “harmonogram” at http://www.mff.cuni.cz/studium/). The student office will later send back the hardcopy stamped and signed by the vicedean. Ms. Brdičková will keep it until the end of the academic year. The student will then have to pick it up and include it in one of the printed copies of the thesis (mandatory part, this copy goes to the faculty library).

When the student plans their classes for the academic year (and has them registered at the student office, in SIS and in their index book), they should also register for the three pseudo-courses reflecting their work on the thesis: NSZZ023 Diplomová práce I, NSZZ024 Diplomová práce II and NSZZ025 Diplomová práce III. At the end of the summer semester they will (hopefully) get the credits (in SIS and in the index book) from their supervisor. This is not directly connected with the fact that the thesis will be (can be) defended. The credits just reflect the fact that the student has invested significant time and effort into doing the work and preparing the thesis. The supervisor will not be able to award the credits if SIS does not know that the student wants them, i.e. if the student has not registered for these pseudo-courses! While the registration can be completed just before the submission of the thesis, it may complicate the situation because the assistance of the student office is needed, the staff may be out of office (vacation time!), you may be traveling from the other end of Europe, trying to find all the people and get all the signatures within one afternoon etc.


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