It's that time of the year...

Pyrrhus

Greetings PF!, As some of you may or may not know i am in the process of starting my thesis.

Here's some background about me:

I am a senior civil engineering major studying in the Dominican Republic. I'll have about a year or less to write the thesis, it could be longer, it depends on the depth of the project. Although the average of time seems to be about 8 months (simple topics, i guess).

I've little idea about what i want to research and work on. Currently, my main interests seems to be Reinforced Concrete (Mechanics and Design), and Pavement Design. Broad topics indeed, and i must choose something... Hehe hopefully inside them.

At the moment, i'm leaning for a "structural material" that is not as used as concrete or steel in my country. Mainly, it was the idea of one of my teachers. I'm still analyzing my approach for this. It might lead me on to something...

Discussion:

I am wondering, how was that you guys (People with Bacherlors, sorry for the rest ) came up with your thesis topic? did you guys know what you wanted to do? did a teacher come up with the idea?

Gokul43201

If you go to school at a place where the faculty are involved in research, you can typically choose a faculty advisor who will be glad to hand you work related to his/her current field of research. This was how it worked for me.

Pyrrhus

Hey Gokul, i followed your advice. I guess now i am not doing research on wood anymore, it's Hot Mix Asphalt. So far, it's working pretty good, i've just started the thesis, i believe in a couple of weeks, i will start doing the tests.

Cyrus

We dont do a thesis. Thats only for masters degree and Phd. Good luck!

Pyrrhus

Hey cyrus!, i guess we are old school down here, but what do you guys do? an internship at the end or something?

Cyrus

Nope. You take your classes and they boot you out. That is the first time I've ever heard of an undergrad having to do a thesis that is year long.

Gokul43201

When I was in college I did research on my undergrad thesis over about a year.

arunma

Where I did my undergrad, the senior thesis is completely optional, so I had the benefit of not having to put quite as much effort into it as a masters or PhD student would (though it was good practice for grad school, I suppose). Basically I just emailed a bunch of professors a few months before my senior thesis, asking if they had any research I could get involved in. One of them responded, and I spent the year working on mathematical modeling of electromagnetic waves. I probably only spent two or three weeks writing the actual paper; it was the coding that took me the whole of two semesters.

I also learned that I utterly detest theoretical physics. When I go to grad school, I've sworn not to do research that doesn't involve some sort of data-taking.

Cyrus

Was it manditory to do a thesis? Did you do undergrad here or in India? (for some reason I thought you came here for your Phd)