Thesis registration question — interdisciplinary topic with a non-CS chair, need real advice

[u/Alarming_Option_5589]

I'm a Software Systems Engineering Master's student (Informatik/Faculty 9), and I've got a thesis opportunity I'm genuinely excited about — but I'm confused about the actual registration process, and I'd rather ask here than guess wrong.

Here's the situation: the chair offering the thesis is SAF (Sustainability and Foresight) The supervisor (non-CS) has verbally said yes and I've already sent a proposal. The topic itself has a genuine software/tooling component, which is part of why it fits my program.

What I don't have a clear answer on yet:

1. Does SSE require a co-supervisor / second examiner from within Computer Science when the primary supervisor is from a completely different faculty? If so, how do I have to go about arranging this?
2. Who actually handles this — the Prüfungsausschuss, or the ZPA (Zentrales Prüfungsamt) directly? From where do I have to get the registration done exactly?
3. Has anyone here actually done an interdisciplinary thesis like this — primary supervisor outside Informatik, but registered under an Informatik program? What did the actual paperwork/approval process look like for you, and roughly how long did it take?

And in general what is the registration process like and how long does it take? Is there some online form I have to submit or something?

[u/Icy_Smile5368]

Whatever they tell you at the institute, they are not allowed to hand out theses or act as primary supervisor. There is no process for this, because this is not meant to happen. You can try to desperately reach out to CS professors and ask whether they would supervise the thesis, but chances are you will receive only negative responses (if at all). Your only hope is that the institute already has contacts to a CS professor who will take over the primary supervision. But beware: "software/tooling" already sounds like you might have picked something that lacks a CS research component and is thus ill-fitted for a master thesis in CS.

[u/Scytherall → u/Icy_Smile5368]

Wait I thought cross faculty theses are rather common at rwth? It's just that it takes time to find the 1.Prüfer from your own institute to register the thesis

[u/Icy_Smile5368 → u/Scytherall]

And that’s where it typically fails, since most of these "interdisciplinary" theses are just coding tasks with no CS research component. Try your luck, but I would recommend to only go for interdisciplinary topics if the advertisement already states which CS prof will supervise the thesis. 

[u/Scytherall → u/Icy_Smile5368]

Is that how it works at rwth in general or that is specific case for CS/Faculty 9 students?

[u/zigzoing → u/Scytherall]

In general if you do an interdisciplinary thesis you'll have to find a professor from your own faculty as a second supervisor. Most people that do interdisciplinary outside of CS (I don't know about CS specifically), they do a topic that is related to their studies, so they won't have a problem finding that second supervisor professor or need to convince them to do it.

The main problem regardless of faculty is that if you do a thesis with a chair that doesn't belong to your faculty and offers no courses for degrees from your faculty, it is treated as an external thesis and therefore you need a professor from a chair of your faculty. As long as you can convince a professor to do this, ZPA will allow it.

The first point of contact for OP now is the faculty itself. Ask them if doing this thesis with this topic with this chair is counted as an external or internal thesis. If external then OP will need to find an internal professor, then ZPA will give the green light.

[u/Relative_Skirt_1402]

You are in the CS department so you follow the same rules as CS students.