Part of earning a postgraduate degree is developing the ability to identify a research topic and then getting it approved by your faculty. You should not be asking people on this site to do this for you, nor should they help you.

xnuke
"Live and act within the limit of your knowledge and keep expanding it to the limit of your life." Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged.
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And where is your graduate advisor in all of this? You should be working closely with them to figure out what the next several years of your life are going to look like...

Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

Just as with any other thesis I would focus on a problem you have encountered in the professional world, develop your hypothesis, and set about proving your solution. Some schools will allow hobby or curiosity research papers to be substituted for a legitimate thesis, but those never look good when discussed in interviews.

One topic that always leads to lively debate is "Better, Faster, Cheaper".
The first response from Engineers is "Pick 2", where management thinks you can have all 3.

Think the OP is just asking for suggestions, should be helped.

Something linked to Covid maybe?

Something like

"Integration of lessons learned into the aircraft production management system in response to black swans (pandemics).
The case of a small aircraft sub-supplier company Novelia."

This is outside my area of expertise, so I do not have a clue what that is! it can be complete BS :)

If you plan an escape, you must succeed as if you fail, you will be punished for trying. Never say or write down your plan. Heart is the only place where secrecy is granted.

How about taking an aircraft designed in the 1960s with certain pre disposed constraints such as lack of ground clearance, trying to fit new larger more fuel efficient engines and all the while maintaining that it is in fact the same aircraft as before, but now new and improved. No need for any additional training. Oh and by the way the only way we manged to do this was to hide inside the control system a little helping hand that unfortunately decided to work when it wasn't supposed to and killed everyone on board. TWICE.

I think there is plenty there to get stuck into - it looks to me like it blends engineering with business strategy, innovation management, business models, or supply chain management? - or a thesis on why the airplane should never have been designed that way or allowed to leave the ground. IMHO.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

Quote (rotw)

Think the OP is just asking for suggestions, should be helped.

I understood what the OP asked, and I disagree with you. I'm a former college professor; please reread my post and that of MacGyverS2000 above - I agree with that post too. Part of becoming a researcher is the ability to identify research-worthy projects.

Graduate students have plenty of resources; they do not need to be asking for help here. Those that can't figure out a research topic need mentoring from their faculty on how to determine one (here's some ideas for the OP as to how to go about it), e.g., building on faculty research, tackling an unsolved problem you encountered while working in industry, getting really familiar with the current research in the leading journals in your field, looking for value-added research based on "future work" discussions in the papers of others, researching recent patents in your field, interacting with people at academic or trade conferences, in professional societies, or at companies to find out problems they have, etc.

Asking a generic question in a shotgunning fashion on a website like the OP did is unlikely to lead to an appropriate research topic. If the OP had said that they were looking at a specific problem and wondering if it was appropriate, I would have been inclined to let the question stand without my earlier response.

Those that still can't figure out a topic after being mentored do not belong in graduate school.

xnuke
"Live and act within the limit of your knowledge and keep expanding it to the limit of your life." Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged.
Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

Whoa, tough, but fair, grader

TTFN (ta ta for now)
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TBH when I read the OP my first thought was the joke about the manager in the balloon and the engineer.

Cheers

Greg Locock


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So in the past 3 years the OP has logged in an average of about once every 2 months. I would not expect a response, he is probably just reading email responses from us and moving on.

Quote (xnuke)

e.g., building on faculty research, tackling an unsolved problem you encountered while working in industry, getting really familiar with the current research in the leading journals in your field, looking for value-added research based on "future work" discussions in the papers of others, researching recent patents in your field, interacting with people at academic or trade conferences, in professional societies, or at companies to find out problems they have, etc.

I think you just provided valuable suggestions to the OP...

Quote (xnuke)

interacting with people at academic or trade conferences

ok to add "and forums"?

If you plan an escape, you must succeed as if you fail, you will be punished for trying. Never say or write down your plan. Heart is the only place where secrecy is granted.

Quote:

Those that can't figure out a research topic need mentoring from their faculty on how to determine one (here's some ideas for the OP as to how to go about it),

Of the ideas mentioned, the only one I'd rate as giving a halfway decent chance at resulting in a semi-original thesis is basing it off of a problem encountered working in industry. The rest rely heavily on academia which suffers the classic severe disconnect from industry. If the OP was one of my former students then I'd recommend they solicit ideas from anybody/everybody in industry, including forums like this one. JMO but one's thesis/capstone/etc is important as it shows what the individual is truly capable of. Hopefully the OP develops a good one and leverages it toward future professional success.

makes sense CWB1

I worked for a big corporation in the past, I remember once that I downloaded by accident some folders that belonged to R&D department. The folders contained research topics intended for master or doctorate thesis. I viewed the folder content briefly..before I delete it. I noticed subjects were assigned to well known university labs specialized (and authorities) in the field. Each subject was associated with a short description of the topic of research, timeline and allocated budget. So university (post graduate) students constituted 'man power' for very specific applied research topics and form a part of a bigger development agenda set by the corporation. That is why, IMO, the OP should get in touch with people from the industry in order to avoid being trapped in a subject that would be disconnected from real socioeconomic and market considerations, indeed it is a classical problem.

If you plan an escape, you must succeed as if you fail, you will be punished for trying. Never say or write down your plan. Heart is the only place where secrecy is granted.

Quote (CWB1)

Of the ideas mentioned, the only one I'd rate as giving a halfway decent chance at resulting in a semi-original thesis is basing it off of a problem encountered working in industry. The rest rely heavily on academia which suffers the classic severe disconnect from industry.

The only problem with ignoring the others I mentioned is the "classic severe disconnect" you mentioned - it works in both directions. I've encountered problems in industry that academics have already solved or made tremendous progress toward solving, but because people in industry seldom keep up with what the academics are doing, they know nothing about it.

Besides, the OP's graduate program is in engineering management. Many engineers would say that management at their firm is disconnected from the real world as much as academia. How disconnected must academic research in engineering management be?

Quote (rotw)

That is why, IMO, the OP should get in touch with people from the industry in order to avoid being trapped in a subject that would be disconnected from real socioeconomic and market considerations, indeed it is a classical problem.

Research for research's sake is still valid and can have value. We don't often know if it will have direct applications immediately. It may have a direct application later, or indirect application at any point in time. Even research results that don't support a hypothesis such that there can be no implementation have value. Remember, a primary purpose of research in graduate school is so the student learns how to do research. Unless it's funded by somebody expecting results they can use, does it really matter if it has application? Personally, I always wanted my research to be relevant and have application in a timely fashion, so I only took on applied research problems, but others didn't necessarily care about such things. They would often tackle a question that they found interesting - like Dr. Richard Feynman and the dynamics of the wobbling plate, which led to his Nobel prize in physics: Link

Great conversation from all posters so far. I appreciate the contributions to this discussion.

xnuke
"Live and act within the limit of your knowledge and keep expanding it to the limit of your life." Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged.
Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

Quote (xnuke)

Research for research's sake is still valid and can have value. We don't often know if it will have direct applications immediately. It may have a direct application later, or indirect application at any point in time. Even research results that don't support a hypothesis such that there can be no implementation have value. Remember, a primary purpose of research in graduate school is so the student learns how to do research. Unless it's funded by somebody expecting results they can use, does it really matter if it has application? Personally, I always wanted my research to be relevant and have application in a timely fashion, so I only took on applied research problems, but others didn't necessarily care about such things. They would often tackle a question that they found interesting - like Dr. Richard Feynman and the dynamics of the wobbling plate, which led to his Nobel prize in physics: Link

The considerations I have put forward were not intended do deny a place to fundamental research which I think has crucial role also in the terms you described. Definitely.
However and more generally speaking (that is just my view) I would expect some kind of breakdown with applied research being the most focused on so the benefits can be immediate for the society/economy.

It looks to me that the disciplines or fields of application recalled by OP are more geared toward applied research than fundamental one. Thus the advice.

If you plan an escape, you must succeed as if you fail, you will be punished for trying. Never say or write down your plan. Heart is the only place where secrecy is granted.

Ah, it has been moved here. I was wondering where the thread has been moved.

By the way, sorry for the off topic, can someone let me know how one can delete his account from eng-tips? or point me to a link? thank you very much!

If you plan an escape, you must succeed as if you fail, you will be punished for trying. Never say or write down your plan. Heart is the only place where secrecy is granted.

Quote:

can someone let me know how one can delete his account from eng-tips? or point me to a link?

Not sure if you are referring to the OP or yourself; either way you can RF to communicate with the site management

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg
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Student forum QC expert system v0.1 alpha

Recommendation - Attempt to answer


Debug 38967505

Cheers

Greg Locock


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