Master's Thesis

On Thursday, I got another reply from HGFei to my “quality demand” mail. He told me that if I were interested to apply for the Initiativkolleg—a promoted doctoral program in association of NuHAG and DIANA—, one of the criteria I’d have to fulfill is to have the master thesis finished by January 2007. I replied that this still is my target date, but I don’t feel so sure about whether I’m qualified for pure mathematical research. He suggested to file the master thesis in May/June and asked me to pre-register as an applicant for the Initiativkolleg, as this doesn’t force me to anything, and all ways are kept open.

At the beginning of June, some colleagues of him will come to Vienna, and he will give some introductorial talks about the research at NuHAG, which I should listen to. As I’m on holiday until June 12th, I hope I won’t be missing much.

Some time ago, I have finished Werner’s Functional Analysis, according to schedule. I’ve gone through the whole book, but I’m still insecure with spectral theory and weak*-topologies. I thought about repeating some chapters, but I want to try a different approach, and as Conway’s Course in Functional Analysis is cited so often in the literature I currently read, I finally bought it. I’m still going through my notes of Prof. Cigler’s lecture. Additionally, I want to go through the “real part” of Rudin’s Real and Complex Analysis, accompanied by selected topics from my more general books about analysis and linear algebra.

I also finished Blatter’s Wavelet Primer as planned, but skipped the last chapter. So now the road is open for Feichtinger/Strohmer’s Gabor Analysis and Algorithms. I’m already progressing in Gröchenig’s Foundations (about 1/3) and Christensen’s Frames (about 1/4). My plan is to have those books (almost, modulo some skipped chapters) finished by the end of August. From September on, I only want to focus on additional literature like papers and specialized books, which my thesis will deal with. Among these are topics about Banach Gelfand triples and Wiener amalgam spaces.

I contacted HGFei again and made clear that my original aims have changed: I don’t just want to get my studies finished anymore, I want to deliver a qualitative work. After my studies, I want to work in the area of signal processing; my current job is just an existential assurance. I don’t just want to have an engineering-level approach to my master thesis, it would be a pity in my eyes. He answered that we should talk in July the latest about a long-term proceeding. He didn’t mention a possible topic, so I’ll proceed doing general reading on the subject.

I thought about Karin’s master thesis, which wasn’t of such high quality to HGFei as she had expected. She did her master exam and now simply has finished and doesn’t want to get into contact with the surroundings of the university again. I simply find that a pity. She works in insurance mathematics.