An overview of the announced topics of Bachelor's and Master's theses is published in the Masaryk University Information System (IS MU). You can also apply for a topic here, but in any case it is necessary to contact the thesis supervisor at the same time and agree with him/her on the exact assignment and procedure of the thesis. You can also propose your own topic (see tab 1 Choice of assignment and types of theses).

The topic of the thesis should have a general relationship to the programme you are studying. If you are interested in a topic that is significantly distant from your programme, consult with the programme supervisor.

Students on associate programmes may write their thesis in both their major and minor programmes. The conditions for selecting the topic, writing and defending the thesis follow the rules applicable to the main curriculum.

Therefore, students in the associate programs who are under the FI may work on a topic that falls under the content of the other faculty of study. The thesis should still have at least a partly informatics content relevant to the programme studied. Students may enroll in an analogous course from the other faculty in lieu of the SBAPR/SDIPR course and follow the guidelines of the relevant faculty for content and editing requirements. However, all deadlines and formal steps of submission of the thesis as per the FI guidelines must be followed.

Students from other faculties who are minoring in FI (typically IVVMIN Computer Science in Education or INFMIN Computer Science) will enroll in the SBAPR/SDIPR course at FI and follow FI guidelines in writing the thesis. Approval of the official thesis assignment is the responsibility of the major program advisor in their home faculty, and they must likewise follow the formal guidelines and deadlines of their home faculty.

When you take the BP (DP), you are enrolling in the SBAPR (SDIPR) course; this course may be taken repeatedly. You must earn a total of 10 (20) credits for the BP (DP); when you enroll, you choose the number of credits with which you wish to take the course in a given semester. You can thus spread your work on a topic over several semesters or concentrate it in one semester. It is strongly recommended that the thesis be spread over at least two semesters.

Credit for this course is awarded by the thesis advisor. It should be a general rule that the amount of work done corresponds to the proportion of credits taken. Consult with the specific supervisor for the exact conditions for awarding credit. Credit for this course must be given before the deadline for submission of the final thesis (see the final studies timetable, separately for Bachelor's and Master's studies).

You are required to enroll in the SOBHA course in the semester in which you wish to defend your thesis. This course is worth 0 credits and enrollment in it is considered registration for the defense. At the latest in this semester, you must already be registered for the BP/DP topic in the topic package in the IS MU (Topic Schedule application). Check that the title and text of the official assignment for the thesis are correct. If there is a discrepancy, contact your thesis supervisor and ask them to edit the text.

The official assignment is an important document, according to which the thesis is subsequently evaluated by the committee during the defence. By the deadline set by the timetable for a particular semester (see the study department website) , the official assignment must be confirmed in the IS by you, your thesis supervisor and the study programme supervisor. After that, it cannot be changed. The thesis supervisor is responsible for the assignment and its meaningfulness. Assignments are checked by programme supervisors, who have the right to reject inappropriate assignments. You can, of course, play an active role in shaping the official assignment (and are expected to do so for DPs), but your responsibility is primarily to fulfil the official assignment.

The title of the thesis in the IS MU must be the same as the title given on the official assignment and must be in the language in which the thesis will be written. The text of the assignment can be in Czech, Slovak or English. It is recommended to write the assignment in English. The thesis can be written in Czech, Slovak or English. Regardless of the language used, quality language editing is expected. The defence is conducted in the same language in which the thesis is written. A thesis written in English may also be defended in Czech or Slovak.

Full credit must be awarded for SBAPR/SDIPR courses before the thesis can be submitted (i.e. you must have a total of 10 credits for SBAPR and 20 credits for SDIPR). You submit only an electronic version of the thesis to the IS MU Archive, the thesis does not have to be printed. Not only the text but also all appendices, which typically include the practical part of the thesis, are submitted electronically. The archive must be sufficiently completed before the thesis is accepted by the study department. During the submission of the thesis, you confirm in IS the Declaration of the author of the school work and the Declaration of authorship. The submitted version of the thesis cannot be changed. It must be defended in its submitted form at the final examination.

The electronic version of the thesis and the appendices are publicly available immediately after submission. The author of the thesis can choose a license for his/her thesis and for the software created, which specifies the possibilities of using the thesis and the software; advice on the choice of licenses is given on the FI website. In general, we recommend more liberal licenses such as BSD or Apache.

Final theses are by law public. If the thesis or part of it cannot be made public immediately (e.g. due to patent filing), the law allows the thesis to be hidden for a maximum of 3 years. At the Faculty of Computer Science, it is not uncommon for theses to be solved in cooperation with commercial companies that have problems with the publication of some parts of the thesis. Potential conflicts should be addressed during the selection of the topic and well discussed during the development of the thesis assignment (see Tab 1 Selecting the assignment).

The title page should contain the following information: Masaryk University, Faculty of Informatics, Diploma / Bachelor's thesis, title from the thesis assignment (not mandatory), student's name and surname, year of submission. The above information is appropriately placed on the title page.

You will confirm this declaration in the IS MU when you submit your thesis. Therefore, read the statement carefully and make sure that you have actually followed it in the preparation of the thesis. Plagiarism is a major offence which is not only a reason for failing to defend the thesis (failing the assessment) but also for possible disciplinary action. Any text taken verbatim must be presented in such a way that it is clear from the context that it is taken verbatim (e.g. by putting the text in quotation marks) and must be immediately followed by a citation to the source. You must also cite the sources of paraphrased or translated texts, as well as properly referencing the sources of any images, tables, datasets or libraries that you use in your work that were created by someone else. Don't take this lightly and find out what you can do to avoid plagiarism.

On this sheet, or on another sheet, you can optionally include a thank you note to those who have given you professional help in preparing your thesis.

AI tools change very rapidly, so this document does not list them. Reasons for using tools may also increase, typically they are: proofreading text, editing style, abstract generation, generating chapter and section headings, faster code generation, literature search.

A statement about the use of AI tools should be placed on the same page as the authorship statement.

The abstract takes up no more than one page, followed by a comma-separated list of keywords (usually 5 to 10). A keyword is also a concept expressed in several words (collocation). Keywords are meant to describe the issue addressed in the paper and not a list of technologies used.

A table of contents that summarises the titles of the chapters of the thesis.

The first chapter of the thesis is an introduction used to place the issue under discussion in a broader context. The introductory chapter must clearly state the objectives of the thesis and may also provide a brief description of the content of each chapter to indicate the structure of the thesis. This is followed by an analysis of the problem and a description of the solution. The final chapter contains an evaluation of the results achieved, with particular emphasis on the own contribution and evaluation from a broader perspective of the problem addressed. Possible directions for further research or development should also be mentioned in the conclusion.

Consistent referencing of sources is an important element of a professional text. One of the aims of the thesis is precisely to train in working with the literature and therefore this aspect is also emphasized in the evaluation of the thesis. It is absolutely crucial to cite the adopted parts of the text and figures (see the drop-down box regarding the Authorship Statement on this tab). In addition, it may be appropriate to cite, for example: original sources of the terms used, similar systems, sources of the claims or data used, literature providing a deeper analysis of the terms, methodologies or algorithms mentioned in the thesis (see also the overview of the types of thesis on tab 1 Assignment selection and types of thesis). Pay attention to the selection of appropriate sources (specifically, it is not appropriate if a large part or even all of the sources are websites or Wikipedia articles), see the section on References and Citations on Tab 3 Writing Tips. Each item in the list of references used must be referenced in the text.

Include in appendices those parts of the thesis that are not essential to the main idea of the thesis, e.g. a manual for using the system developed, fragments of source text, detailed diagrams and detailed descriptions of the parts of the project addressed.

An important part of the thesis are the appendices representing the implementation part of the thesis. These appendices should be all materials created as part of the solution of the thesis, which should be suitably arranged and sufficiently commented (they are part of the evaluation). The appendices must be stored in the Archive in the IS MU. The list of appendices and a brief descriptive comment, usually given in the text part of the appendix, must be included in the thesis.

An optional part of the thesis containing an alphabetical list of terms, which is mainly relevant for master theses.

Usually the defence is in the same language as the thesis, but this is not a strict rule. It is also possible to defend a thesis written in English in Czech or Slovak. If you think in English and speak Czech or Slovak, it will be harder to express your ideas. And you'll probably get some English words in every sentence, which won't give you the best impression.

The thesis is reviewed by the supervisor and one opponent. You have the right to read the opinions of the thesis supervisor and the thesis opponent at least 5 working days before the defence. Please note that for the implementation thesis you may be asked to demonstrate the functionality of your application (see Article 11, paragraph 3 of the Dean's Directive No. 04/2025).

The thesis consultant, if any, may write a statement, but this is not considered a separate and independent opinion and is only included as an appendix to the supervisor's opinion.

At the time of the defense, you are expected to have a presentation prepared in PDF format with embedded fonts, or in PPS or PPSX formats. Prepared templates for PowerPoint or for LaTeX may be used. Presentations are collected in advance and copied to a computer prepared in the classroom where the defense takes place. Prior to the defense, you will receive explicit information via email from the Office of Student Affairs on how to proceed.

The use of your own laptop (e.g. to demonstrate a program you have developed) is possible but not recommended and is at your own risk (the time spent solving technical problems comes at the expense of your presentation time). Consult with your thesis advisor or the chair of the committee about the use of your own laptop.

In addition to the slides, you may wish to prepare outline paper or cards to move around in your hand. These aids will allow you to better orient yourself and control your time during the presentation. However, don't overdo it with the number of them so you don't get lost in them during the presentation. Also keep in mind that notes on paper are OK, but a mobile phone or tablet is not.

Overall, there is 15 minutes to defend the BP and 30 minutes to defend the DP. You will have 8 minutes for the opening presentation in the BP defence and 15 minutes in the DP defence. The remainder of the time is devoted to familiarizing the committee with the supervisor's and opponent's reviews, your responses to comments made in the reviews, and your responses to comments and questions from committee members (and other guests, if applicable).

There is a lot of general advice on preparing presentations in books and on the internet, so we will only mention the most important ones specifically for defenses (and typical mistakes). The aim of the defence is not to present the topic and results of your thesis in detail to the audience (i.e. the committee) (this is usually not even possible within the time limit), but above all to "sell your thesis", i.e. to convince the committee that you have fulfilled what is expected of a thesis. In the case of team projects (e.g. in a lab), clearly define what you did and what someone else did.

The introduction should take no more than a minute; do not waste time on general chit-chat. Focus on what problem you have solved (and why it is a problem at all), what you have done, and how your work has benefited (who will use your results), or where you have been able to publish your results. Your presentation should make it clear how challenging the problem was to solve.

The committee members are not necessarily experts in the specific area of your work, but they do have a general overview of computer science. Consider carefully which aspects of the topic are generally known (do not discuss these) and which are specific and important to your topic (introduce these). Introduce abbreviations that are not widely known or avoid them altogether.

Save text on slides, follow the 6x6 rule (max 6 bullets, max 6 words each). Above all, you want the committee members to listen to your presentation and not be distracted by reading your slides. The content of the slides is meant to complement your presentation, so use mainly pictures, graphs and tables. Present the text only in a bullet-point format, with important information in bold. Cite all figures, tables, graphs, etc. properly.

Speak loudly and clearly during the presentation. Use your voice intonation and pause during the presentation. Also, be aware of filler words. Try to maintain eye contact with committee members, but do not be self-conscious about them not looking at you. They probably have your paper open on their laptop and are flipping through it. If you stutter or make a mistake, don't let it throw you off and try to move on. Getting too nervous will only lead to more mistakes.

A common mistake is poor timing - you end up running out of time halfway through so it looks like you don't have much to say, or conversely you run out of time halfway through the presentation and don't get to the most important part (i.e. what you were doing). Be sure to rehearse the defense a few times, preferably in front of an audience of at least one and timed. You can record your presentation at this point so you can evaluate the distribution of time, use of parasitic words, or language transitions between slides.

The committee is not privy to the testimonials on your paper in advance, these will be heard after your presentation. Therefore, do not put the responses to the comments in the main presentation, only present them after the testimonials have been read. Prepare slides with answers to questions for your presentation, and for your final slide. Ideally, always put a question and answer (or supporting evidence for the answer you give verbally) on one slide.

We highly recommend going to see someone else's defense so you know what you're getting into. Instead of attending during the week when you are prosecuting yourself and thus have other concerns, it is more relaxed to go a semester or more in advance. The state final exam is public, with the exception of the committee members' deliberations on the final grade, during which you simply leave the room temporarily. The presence of a few "spectators" is not unusual at FI.