Machine Learning Master Thesis Proposals Suitable for Market?

Question

I have started to a MS program in Computer Engineering. This is my first year and it is a 2 year program. I want to do a master thesis about Machine Learning (I have a artificial intelligence and genetic algorithms background from my MS but I can work on different topics within Machine Learning).

Where can I find proposals from companies to work with them? Are there lists of such proposals available somewhere? Will working through a MS with them actually increase the chance they consider me for a job after then end of the program?

Answer 1

From my experience, there do exist occasional Masters and PhD projects which are funded through industry grants; I personally interviewed for (but did not accept) a postdoctoral position based in a hospital funded by a medical device company. However, the position was not advertised as such, and the medical device company did not list this grant publicly. I suspect that any other similar positions (i.e., funded by industry) would not include this information in the advertisements.

I would suggest that you try a different tack. A number of companies will sponsor and pay for a masters degree once you've been working with them long enough. You may want to try talking to people in industry and finding whether you can take a job and then work towards your degree at a later point in time.

Answer 2

Where can I find proposals from companies to work with them? Are there lists of such proposals available somewhere?

I am not aware of any such, but around me, several mid- and large-scale projects are done in a very close cooperation with industrial companies, also on machine learning. Even I am employed as a post-doc on such a project, from a large part financed by a company who is also the supposed user of the results. At least in the western EU, this is a frequent model in computer science and related technical disciplines.

One way, or another, to complete a master thesis you will need a supervisor from your university. In the case there are industrial cooperation projects in the area of your interest at your university, you should speak to the local project consortium member, basically one of the professors, or senior researchers at the relevant department. To find out whether such projects do exist at your university is again something to speak about with your local professors/faculty/research staff. After all, at least in places I am familiar with, working out a master topic without a tight connection to a project/theme at the department of your university is not the way to go, most probably even almost impossible. After all, you need a supervisor and the person needs to have an interest in the work. But of course, maybe in other parts of the world than I am active, things tick differently...