General Introduction
Here you can find information on Thesis research and the possible topics from the "Food Quality and Design" group. Most of our topics are within projects of staff members and PhD students of our group.
Characteristics of thesis research
The primary objective of a thesis research is to learn how to do research. The student will experience how to systematically handle a food science problem (dependent on the topic), how to select the appropriate methods to do so, how to recognize and formulate sub-problems, how to obtain enough confidence in the results, how to prevent to waste time on less important issues, and finally how to translate results and conclusion into a clear and concise report and a presentation. Of secondary importance is to obtain useful results. Giving the time constraints usually thesis research does not yield enough information and evidence that would justify a scientific publication of the results.
Students shouldn't have too high expectations of the outcome of their thesis research. The obtained results are sometimes not as expected. Good and reliable research is difficult and requires perseverance of the student. The initial information gathering and writing of the work plan of the thesis research are important elements in the start-up of the project and require substantial time. The value of the obtained results is also a matter of coincidence, supervisors can make too optimistic judgments on the chance of success. Since the research topics will explore new areas of science this success rate is not known before.
The thesis research includes a written report, containing a literature review of the topic. The work is concluded by a final colloquium. The attendance at the colloquia of other thesis students in the group is obligatory.
During the time that is spend on the thesis research it is expected that the student will spend his/her time at the group, as if he/she would be an employee of the group. The student will give two presentations: one at the start of the research and one at the end. The start presentation is meant to present the plans of the research and the final one to present the results. These presentations are scheduled on Tuesday afternoon. The objective of these presentation is to guide the research by means of presenting and discussing the results, failures and further plans. Another important objective of this presentation is to train and improve ones ability to give a presentation. It is obligatory to attend these presentation for all students at our group, to be informed about the research of others and their approaches and to critically evaluate those.
Prerequisites
Registration for a thesis research
The application for the thesis topic needs to go through the thesis platform. Guidelines and instructions about this will be sent by the study advisors. Once the thesis topic has been allocated to the students, they will be contacted by their supervisor.
Planning
The available time of the thesis research (16-36 ECTS) includes the initial information gathering, literature review, experimental work and reporting and presenting. The amount of time is 'netto'; it is allowed to do other things in between your research (other courses, colloquia, exams, holiday, etc.) but this will result in spending more time to finish the thesis. Make sure to finish all requirements for the thesis work (colloquium and reporting) before you start another research or internship.
Thesis contract
The student, supervisor and examiner will arrange some of the mentioned aspects of the thesis research in a thesis contract. The original version of the contract will be handed over at the start of the work by the secretary.