Final papers
Topics at the Chair Industrial Management
The topics for theses arise mainly from current research and practical projects of the chair. Therefore, they mostly deal with complex planning problems from production or logistics. In addition, exciting optimization tasks often arise in other areas, such as railroad operations, timetabling, hospital operations or forest management. Mostly, modern methods of operations research and business analytics are applied in final theses, so that also more methodically oriented topics are assigned. In principle, it is possible to submit your own topic for a thesis (e.g. in cooperation with a company). In this case, however, it must be ensured that the topic is suitable for a thesis in terms of content and fits the orientation of the professorship.
A (non-exhaustive) list of current open topics or subject areas can be found here.
Admission requirements
In order to write your final paper with the Chair of Industrial Management all formal requirements must be met according to the valid examination regulation. Furthermore, it is neccessary that the student already finished a seminar paper at the Chair (Aktuelle Forschungsfragen, Advanced Approaches, or IM Challenge) and attended successfully the specialization „Operations and Logistics Management“ respectively intends to do so. As final papers are basically written with the document preparation system LaTeX knowledge it is crucial to have knowledge in this area as it is provided within the seminar "Instruments and Applications in Industrial Management" respectively the Bachelor seminar (new Bachelor study regulations). Moreover, especially candidates with programming skills are invited to apply for a final paper due to the quantitative orientation of the subject.
You can apply for your desired topic by sending the completed application form together with your overview of all grades from HISQIS (PDF-file) to . Within 14 days we will get back to you, whether you can write your thesis with the Chair. You will get a concrete topic to work on only in a meeting with your supervisor!
Currently available topics for your thesis can be found here.
To get an overview of completed Bachelor theses click here.
In order to write a Master or Diploma thesis it is mandatory to attend the preliminary research design. It consists of an exposé (15 pages plus coarse arrangement and literature) as well as a presentation of 30 minutes. The motivation and the essential objectives of the thesis are presented in the first-mentioned. Furthermore, the proposed approach and the necessary methods are to be demonstrated, whereby a coarse arrangement should be derived out of it. The exposé should be delivered one month after starting the research design. Subsequently, you can start working on the Master/ Diploma thesis. The second part of the research design takes place about half of the editing time by presenting the results to date. Therefore, the current editing status has to be submitted to the supervisor one week before the presentation.
As the research design covers the same topic as the Master/ Diploma thesis, the application addresses both the research design and the final thesis. Please submit the completed application form together with your overview of all grades from HISQIS (PDF-file) to . Within 14 days we will get back to you.
Please note: If you wish to complete your diploma under the old study regulations before the mandatory transition in the 2026/27 winter semester, please apply by April 2026 at the latest. In this case, the research design should start by May 2026.
Currently available topics for your thesis can be found here.
To get an overview of ongoing and completed Master/ Diploma theses click here.
Writing scientific papers with LaTeX
The chair provides a LaTeX template via ShareLaTeX as well as a guide for writing scientific papers. Important hints for a thesis are summarized briefly on a handout . Additionally, there is a powerpoint template for presentations.
Note on the LaTeX template: The template is provided by the Share-LaTeX service of the ZIH . You have two options for using the template. Either you create a copy of the template in your own Share-LaTeX directory or you download the ZIP archive. Both options are available at the link above under "Menu" (upper left corner).
A detailed introduction to working with LaTeX is given in the course Instrumente und Anwendungen des Industriellen Managements.