Fakultät für Informatik
Doctoral Training

Doctoral Training

The Doctoral Training combines different measures and procedures for scientific training. The objective hereby is to finish the PhD program within a time interval of normally 3 years. This time interval is divided in three phases and an International Research Period:

Starting Phase

After inclusion to the Research-Doctorate Program, the "Starting Phase" begins, which can be seen as the first step  - the first year - of the life of a PhD student. This phase consists of two parts:

  • The first 100 days and
  • The creating of the PhD Roadmap.

The first 100 days
The PhD students of the Research-Doctorate Program are prepared for the first 100 days by the Doctoral Information and their supervisors. This preparations consists of:

  • General information about proper scientific behavior
  • Getting to know the network, i.e the other PhD students of the Research-Doctorate Program
  • Understanding of the PhD regulations
  • Reading basic literature about graduating
  • Learning basic scientific tools for everyday use in Computer Science
  • Learning different ways of publishing and identifying possibilities where to publish, i.e. Conferences and Journals
  • First approaches and concepts for the "PhD Roadmap"

 

The Creation of the PhD Roadmap
The "PhD Roadmap" describes the plans for the further PhD progress on 5-10 pages including a literature research. The following topics are covered:

  • Initial situation of your selected topic
  • Important problems and challenges of your topic 
  • Definition of your scientific goals
  • State-of-the-art knowledge and current research by others (identifying three well established conferences in the area of your selected topic)
  • Methods for processing the research problems of your topic

The PhD Roadmap can be written in English or German. After the first 100 days, each PhD student has to present his PhD Roadmap to his supervisor and report on their progress.

The further progress after the first 100 days is coined by working on an implementation of the Roadmap. The objective is to focus on publishing first results during the Starting Phase. For this, PhD students work closely together with their supervisors and and participate the Writing Support Groups of the Research-Doctorate Program. The goals are publications at Doctoral Consortiums and workshops that are thematically closely connected. This allows making first contacts with the knowledge community. 

At the end of the Starting Phase, each PhD student writes a short formless report -- the Progress Report -- on the archievements and publications which were made. This report is single paged and has to be sent to the Steering Committee.

After receiving the Progress Report, the Steering Committee will invite the PhD candidate to give a talk about his research topic. This talk will be held at the Research Doctorate Conference of the Research-Doctorate Program or the Computer Science Colloquium and shall meet the regular conventions of a scientific presentation on an internationally renowned event. 

The Steering Committee then decides whether the candidate will be admitted for the second phase of the Research-Doctorate Program. If a candidate is declined, he can be invited again after 2 months, however, there is no claim for a second talk. The decision of the committee about the second phase is final.

Research Phase

After admittance to the second phase of the Research-Doctorate Program, the "Research Phase", i.e. the 2. and 3. year of the study, PhD students continue working and refining their Roadmap.

At the same time, students attend courses to deepen their research knowledge and scientific skills in a disciplinary and interdisciplinary way.

The PhD students attend at least 3 courses during the Research Phase, of which each course has an amount of 12 hours and refer to the following thematic fields:

  • Scientific writing,
  • Presentation and rhetorical skills,
  • Conflict management,
  • Communication,
  • Project management,
  • Personality development,
  • Time management, 
  • Methodical competence in teaching,
  • Research promotion.

Courses can be chosen from the agenda of the Research Academy or the International DAAD Academy. Additional course lists will be mentioned by the Doctoral Information System and different courses than the listed ones can be regarded upon consultation.

Research knowledge is imparted in Subject Related Courses. These include lectures or separately offered events of the Research-Doctorate Program that are advertised on the Doctoral Information System. The lectures and events are organized by the Faculty of Computer Science. In total, PhD students have to take at least 15 ECTS in the research phase. The amount can be reduced by special achievements in science, such as the publication of research papers that go beyond the required level, or involvement in successful submission of applications. The reduction may be requested at the end of each semester informally to the Steering Committee.

During the Research Phase, PhD students participate regularly at a Writing Support Group. The objective is to write about research results in close coordination with the supervisor and document and discuss the progress of the work to improve the overall quality.

PhD students give at least one talk on a Research Doctorate Conference of the Faculty of Computer Science and present the current state of their projects. In exceptional cases, this presentation can also be held at the Computer Science Colloquium.

At the end of each semester, each student writes a Progress Report with up to 2 pages and sends it to the Steering Committee. These Progress Reports are evaluated together with the supervisor during the 3. year. If the evaluation is successful, the committee of the Research-Doctorate Program can admit the student to the final thesis stage, or otherwise inform the student about deficits, which have to be treated first.

International Research Period

The International Research Period covers the start-up phase, the research intensification phase and the dissertation phase. Here, the aim is to build an international network with the research community and the intensification of scientific exchange to focus in the international context.

As part of the International Research Promotion Period, PhD students commit to publish at least three research papers at workshops, conferences or journals (written in English).

Furthermore, they undertake the program "Six Weeks Abroad" . To this end, they have to do research for at least 6 weeks during the International Research Period and provide references of international reference quality. The possible benefits of international research reference include:

  • Visit and cooperation with a research partner: University, research institute or partners in a research project by invitation 
  • Be visited by an international scholar and cooperation in a project 
  • Attending conferences and workshops abroad and presenting your work

The services may be counted cumulatively, it counts the time spent with research reference. The following two examples illustrate a successful International Research Period:

  1. Three-week stay at a partner university; three visits including lecturing at one-week scientific conferences
  2. Six visits including lecturing at one-week scientific conferences 

Activities and associated times that should be assigned to the program Six Weeks Abroad, must be listed in the Progress Report.

The Elaboration Phase 

After the successful evaluation of the Research Phase, the dissertation phase begins. In this phase, the candidates keep close contact with their supervisor for questions about writing the dissertation, so that early feedback and consideration of specific requirements can be taken into account as soon as possible. All other steps relating to the preparation of the dissertation and the doctoral procedure are regulated by the applicable Rules of Procedures.