Thesis Masters in electrical engineering

[ramya_maha]

Hi,

I am really very worried about doing a masters thesis in Electrical Engineering. I have never done research in that detail before except for my fourth year project. I am very confused as to what to do as I have some topics in mind in which I would like to do research on but not sure how to start off with. How do you find out that the websites that you are researching are actually valid sites? Would the university let us know about that or are we supposed to figure out those by ourselves? Also I read through some of the threads where it says that we need to come up with our own topics for researching. Is it true that some professors would give the students a topic to perform research on? I am interested in the Network and Communication field of Electrical Engineering. Is there any sets of websites that have topics that one can do research on? I am thinking of topics in Wireless Communications. If someone could help me out it would be of great help. Thanks a lot.

 

[majid hussain]

Ramya hmm. ...you are on the right path. Is your intension is to grab a nobel prize??

 

[Choppy]

It sounds like you're a little confused as to the nature of graduate level research.

It's not a report on something that someone else has done. A thesis is a report on work that you've done.

You begin with a literature review in your field of interest. This is not just going to "websites." Rather, it means that you read through the relevant peer-reviewed journals to the field. A mentor or supervisor can (and should)guide you as to which journals you should be reading and what the most relevant papers are. But that's only the beginning.

Once you understand what's happening in the field, you embark on your own research project. Professors generally like to see new students come up with their own ideas, but projects are limited by constraints such as available resources and time and the supervisor's field of expertise. In practice you have a spectrum of "indepencence" where some MSc students are essentially told what to where other MSc students propose their own ideas (and then are told what to do).

The majority of a thesis-based MSc is spend working on the project itself. The thesis then, is the final write-up of the work.

 

[ramya_maha]

Thanks a lot Mr. Choppy. It was a lot of help. I also wanted to know that if suppose anyone were to fail the Masters thesis, would they have to option of switching to MEng to get their degree done with or do they have to keep trying with the thesis to get the MSc degree? Or do they have to withdraw from the program? Thanks for all the help.

 

[Choppy]

The decision what program you're in is fixed at the beginning. If your thesis defence fails as an EE thesis, your committee won't bump it over to another department.

At a thesis defence (in Canada anyway) the committee has several options. Rarely will the candidate fail outright, although this can happen. More often, if there is remedial work to be done the committee will recommend the student re-sit the exam in another X months, and ideally define specific deficiencies that need to be addressed. Usually though, your supervisor should act as a kind of gate-keeper and make sure that y the time the defence is scheduled, you're in a position to pass.

 

[ramya_maha]

Thanks. Also if I were to start in the Winter Semester then would I be considered for the thesis program that year? Or would I have to wait for the next Fall semester to start with we get to make appointments with a thesis advisor and start thesis?