PhD Thesis Proposal

PhD thesis proposal represents a basic control mechanism verifying whether the student will be able to successfully continue working on and finish the dissertation topic.
In particular, the student must demonstrate in-depth knowledge of his research area in the proposal, and present a detailed plan of her/his research work from which it will be possible to assess feasibility and sufficient scope and quality of expected outcomes for the preparation of the dissertation. The thesis proposal may also include original published results of the student, but that is not mandatory.

• Students are requested to enroll the mandatory DTEDI course one semester before they intend to submit the thesis proposal.
  It is highly recommended by the Doctoral Board to enroll this course no later than for the 4th semester of study.
  - enroll DTEDI course for Autumn semester/September -- submission of the thesis proposal at the end of Autumn semester/mid of January -- defence of the thesis proposal and taking the State Doctoral Exam at the end of Spring semester/June)
  - enroll DTEDI course for Spring semester/February -- submission of the thesis proposal at the end of Spring semester/first week in September -- defence of the thesis proposal and taking the State Doctoral Exam at the end of Autumn semester/January)

• The thesis proposal for the doctoral state examination is submitted by the student in writing in advance. It consists of a detailed overview of student’s research area and the proposed research plan. The thesis proposal may also contain original results already obtained by the student, but that is not mandatory. The proposal is then reviewed by independent experts, and the task of the review process and the subsequent defense is to determine whether the research plan is realizable (i.e., the student is capable of carrying out this research) and whether the expected outcomes would bring a sufficient original material for the defense of a future doctoral dissertation.

• Thesis proposals are requested to be submitted to the Office for Doctoral and International Studies in two bound copies. Thesis proposals can be written in Czech or English.

• Students are also requested to submit to nazarej@fi.muni.cz an abstract (1/2 - 1 page) in an electronic form, the purpose of which is to describe the intent of the thesis (i.e. the description of the problem and expected results).

• Thesis proposals should comprise 15 - 40 pages and should follow the recommended structure given below.

• With their signatures supervisors confirm their approval of the content of the thesis proposals.

• A Thesis proposal is necessary to hand over together with the application for the Doctoral state exam according to the Academic calendar.

• A Thesis proposal defence is a part of the Doctoral State Exam. Students are expected to start with a 12-minute introduction of the intent of their thesis and continue with a defence speech towards the external examiners' reports. A discussion, then two topics (areas) exam and a secret voting by the Thesis Defence and State Examination Committee follow.

Recommended Structure of a Thesis Proposal:

Masaryk University

Faculty of Informatics

Title

Author

PhD Thesis Proposal

Supervisor:

Brno, date:

Supervisor's Signature:

Introduction

Area of your interest, motivation, summary of chapters, 2-3 pages.

State of the Art

Overview of related scientific work, summary of classical and up-to-date results and their comparison, intent of the thesis, 8-12 pages.

Research Aims of the Thesis

Aims and methodology of the thesis ("what, why, how"), expected results, achieved results, schedule of planned steps, at least 2 pages.

External examiner assesses if the thesis topic is dissertable and the schedule is realistic.

Achieved Results

Obligatory for RNDr theses, 3-5 pages.

Author's Publications

For publications with more co-authors describe your part briefly (1-2 sentences) and give your overall contribution (in per cent).

Bibliography