General Thesis Outline

What is the problem?

Exactly what are we trying to solve?

Why is it significant?

What are 2-3 compelling examples of the problem and its solution?

How will we measure success?

Prior work

What have others done

To attack the problem

To attack similar problems

To create a foundation technology

Why do these other approaches not solve the problem

Overall Approach

What is the general outline of your solution approach

Key Challenges

What are the things that must be done to solve the problem

Examples of how they relate to the problem

A Chapter for each key challenge

What was the challenge & how does it relate to the problem

How did you solve the challenge

Algorithms

Architecture etc.

Examples

Evaluation of success

Evaluation

How did your solution fare relative to your evaluation

Summary

What was the problem

Briefly how did you solve the problem

What remains to be done