Courses Looking for recommendations for topics for a master's thesis

[Juanda]

Hello

Next semester I'll start my master's thesis, and I'm looking for recommendations. For context, I'm a mechanical engineer, and my master's degree is in computational engineering and mathematics. I don't need the master's thesis to be revolutionary; I'm just a normal guy, but I'd rather work on something that I feel is interesting or useful in some way.

These are some potential topics I have considered so far:

• Optimization. I think optimization problems are always interesting. They often turn out to be hard as well, but it'd be fun. I'd need to find what problem I want to optimize.
• Large displacements. Most of the problems I have encountered assume small displacements, which allows some extremely useful simplifications that make the problems linear. Generalizing a solution of large displacement problems is something that many software programs already have integrated, but I don't know how that works. I have tried reading Timoshenko a few times, but it's too concise. Maybe the master's thesis is an opportunity to dig deeper into that.
• Robotics. I've been wanting to explore this area of engineering for a while. I think it'd be very useful for my professional prospects if I remain in the field. Maybe building something like an articulated arm or self-balancing robot would qualify for a good master's thesis. There is also plenty of documentation on that out there, which would be handy. I'm open to all kinds of robots you might think could be useful. I was also considering building a prototype of an active MGSE. There is a video of it somewhere, but I can't find it. Here you can see a passive one instead that doesn't track the movement of the solar array with active components. Building knowledge on a robot that I can later commercialize would be very nice.
• Out of the field. I'm not sure doing this master's was a good choice in the first place. Technical knowledge doesn't seem to be so appreciated these days. Maybe I should focus the master's thesis on something else that introduces me to a different field, like financing or who knows what else.

I'm open to any other recommendations you may have in mind.

Thanks for the guidance in advance.

 

[CrysPhys]

My advice is to develop a candidate list of thesis supervisors at your university (e.g., professors that you particularly liked or found inspirational) and ask them for their suggestions. They are best positioned to know what topics will satisfy the thesis requirements within the allotted time ... and what topics they are best qualified to guide you in.