Bachelor thesis

Strengthening skills

Students that execute a bachelor thesis at the Operations Research and Logistics (ORL) group have the chance to further develop their knowledge and skills within a theme of their interest that is studied in our group. At ORL, is possible to execute a project in which you apply and improve your quantitative research skills (e.g. by building an optimization model or simulation model), or qualitative skills (e.g. by conducting a case study, survey, or literature review). Based on the size of your thesis (e.g. 12 ECTS or 24 ECTS), we together decide about a project with best fit.

Are you interested in exploring a bachelor thesis with ORL, or are you triggered after following (one of) our courses? Do not hesitate to send an e-mail to our thesis coordinator Harmke (education.orl@wur.nl) and fill out this intake form. You will be invited to visit one of our plenary intake meetings (which are organized organized bi-weekly).

Personal development

Personal development of our ORL students is leading. Together with the thesis coordinator, you determine the type of thesis that you will conduct. On completion of your bachelor thesis, you will have the skills to:

  • Set goals within a limited timeframe
  • Argue why a particular method is used for a specific problem
  • Apply different techniques that help build your skills set and solve problems
  • Present findings in a coherent and attractive way

Thesis themes

Designing and managing circular food and biobased supply chains

Typical areas we work on are optimizing the supply chain for new food processing opportunities, by-product valorization and optimization, supply chain design for circular business models, forecasting waste flows

Managing disruptions in food and biobased supply chains

Relevant domains here are resilient food supply chain design, planning approaches for supply chain flexibility, supply chain resilience assessment

Dietary optimization and sustainable supply chain design

Here you can think of optimization of diet compositions, effect of protein transition on supply chain design, the tradeoff between dietary choices and sustainable supply chain desig

Not-for-profit supply chain design

Possibilities include food bank network design, donation forecasting, food collection management, food bank menu planning

Supply chain planning to minimize waste

Here some areas are perishable inventory management, cold-chain optimization

Omnichannel retail

For this category you can think of studies related to consumer preferences in relation to supply chain design, demand and stock allocation strategies

Topics

Students can explore our availabe thesis topics in ORL Thesis Brightspace. Find us via the discover tab, and enroll yourself. We also allow students to write their own topic proposal. Please contact education.orl@wur.nl to discuss your ideas, or meet our coordinator in the walk-in hours.

For further information on the bachelor thesis, please check our prerequisites, procedures and examples on the right.

FAQ

Can I write a bachelor thesis with a company?

It is possible to write a thesis with a company, as long as the thesis puts central a research question that is relevant and generic. In such theses, students may e.g. rely on data of the company or treat companies as specific cases in a more general academic problem.

What do I need to know about the bachelor thesis?

The BSC Thesis Course Guide of your personal bachelor program sets our all important aspects of the thesis trajectory, e.g. the assessment criteria.

What is the best way to come to a specific thesis topic?

Key in selecting a topic is the decision on the methodology that you would like to apply in your thesis. In turn, the methods that you are able to perform decide the types of problems that you are able to address. Further, we advise to start looking for research topics on time. On our website, our Publications, Projects and Examples of Bachelor theses may inspire you. Please visit our bi-weekly colloquia and explore the research of other students.

Furthermore, on our ORL Thesis Brightspace, we display our own suggestions for research ('available thesis topics'). The ORL Thesis Brightspace page is a self-enrolment page. You can find us via the discover tab.

How will my thesis be assessed?

The thesis is assessed according to the BSc thesis assessment form of your own study program.