OT: Dissertations

[de_duck]

This is half a curisoity and half a plea for help :). Im in my final year of school at the moment and one of the courses im doing is Advanced Higher Modern Studies (adv highers are like A-levels but often slightly higher level, essentially 1st year uni level). Part of my course involves me choosing and writing a dissertation related to any part of the course, the course looks at the United Kingdom and the United States in a lot of aspects.

So basically my question is what did you lot do for your dissertation or does anyone have any good suggestions?

[Nor]

I did my disseration on design and build construction :)

[Hamster]

Did mine on Oliver Stones "Natural Born Killers", the depiction of violence in the media and how it's frequently used as a handy scapegoat, that sorta thing.

[Norfolk'n'Clue]

I did mine on Computer Enhanced Image Recognition. Not helpful, I assume. :)

[Beef~]

Currently doing my dissertation of the Feasibility Study of a Circulating Water Channel. The fun never stops with engineers :)

[burundi]

Something you know about would be a good start.

Computer gaming and it's effect on free time - A look at changing leisure trends from the 50's to present day and the differences between how the UK & US teenagers spend/have spent their free time over that period.

[Bugstomper]

BEng was: Major and Minor Hysterisis loops

MSc was: Design and construction of a system to acquire biometric data from a piezoelectric array

Phd is: Optimisation of the d33 coefficient in PZT thick-film devices


all three of them are boring as fuck :D and were extremely painful to write (still doing the 3rd).. for the love of god do something interesting.

perhaps an essay on the integration of immigrants into the cultures of the US and UK and how it's different. Eg, the UK tends to absorb any newcomers and take part of their culture and mix it with ours, ie curry being so popular etc.. whereas in the US people are expected to become the stereotype american and pledge allegiance and loyalty to the already existing way of life. Does this explain why america seems to have much more racial trouble than here, or is theirs on the surface and ours is buried under a false mask of multi-culturalism ?

[Beef~]

We're doing some stuff on PZTs in non-destructive evaluation testing. Useful little crystal :)

[Sparky]

Yuck. Curry. But then I don't like pizza or burgers either so perhaps I'm just a picky bastard :o)

P.S. OT Thread -> OT Reply :o)

Ok - a lil' relevance... MEng - Traitor Tracing Systems

[MALLET]

I think u should do a desertion instead of a dissertation :E

[Hotel2Tango]

I did mine on: "Investigating the expression and purification of GST-IsaB fusion proteins in Escherichia coli."

BSc Biochem btw.

[MALLET]

why do u need to do these things and what purpose are they used for??

[Norfolk'n'Clue]

DO you have to do some sort of comparison? Or could you write about one in particular?

Either way, if you get to choose, make sure its of something you like reading about...

What about the affect of fast food, and how the industry is effecting the environment/culture in the respective countries?

Or how about the respective 'black' economies? (the drugs trade, the underworld economy etc)

Those are things I quite like reading about. Doesn't have to be interesting to someone else, just you. Mainly so its easier to write/spend time on :)

[Orange]

N'n'C's right, pick something you're interested in.

What kind of issues do you normally read in the papers, or what catches your eye on TV?

[Sonic Samurai]

I'm big on government and politics, especially wartime stuff, so if given the choice i'd write about that. my dissi is four years away atm (part time uni).

Nor, what degree did you sit?

[Nor]

Quantity Surveying. Ended up working as a QS/project manager for about 5 years before I saw the light and became a professional games player ;)

[Sonic Samurai]

small world! i'm studying town and country planning. we do an interprofessional module every year (i'm in first year of a 4.5yr course) with Quantity Surveyors, Building Surveyors, Architects, Property Management types ...

work is paying for it; kinda feels odd going back to school at 26.

[de_duck]

Norfolk, Im extremely attracted to your idea of the effect of fast food so I think I may have a word with my teacher and see what he thinks. I suspect however it will be turned down on the basis that its too far away from the area of study. Im essentially doing a politics course but in a limited form, i.e. looking at the systems, representation, foreign policy etc.

Ive been leaning towards something to do with either the medias perception of government (seemingly getting worse) or the attitude of young people to voting. On the basis that a lot of my friends are unstereotypically very politically aware and a few are policitally active (most took part in the stop the war protests, several protested against the nuclear submarines a few years back and one is a member of the socalist party and has presented a few speeches).

[Lungboy]

My dissertation was The Photogeological Mapping of Europa, and basically consisted of analysing sat maps of Europas surface, and trying to work out what internal processes caused it to look the way it does

[de_duck]

My dissertation was The Photogeological Mapping of Europa, and basically consisted of analysing sat maps of Europas surface, and trying to work out what internal processes caused it to look the way it does

That sounds like a question I do in geography but on a hundred times the scale, was it intersting?

[Paranoid]

]small world! i'm studying town and country planning. we do an interprofessional module every year (i'm in first year of a 4.5yr course) with Quantity Surveyors, Building Surveyors, Architects, Property Management types ...

work is paying for it; kinda feels odd going back to school at 26.

:lol: It is a small world m8!

I also did town and country planning and i did my disertation on "Best Value and Its Implementation by Local Authority Councils". I did it a while back when best valve had just been dreamed up by Labour.

Very Boring as there wasnt much literature on the subject apart from government leaflets etc etc. I was the first at uni to do best valve so i didnt have any other students old dissertations to rip off!

:D

[Lungboy]

No, it was mindnumbingly dull.

[Sonic Samurai]

]small world! i'm studying town and country planning. we do an interprofessional module every year (i'm in first year of a 4.5yr course) with Quantity Surveyors, Building Surveyors, Architects, Property Management types ...

work is paying for it; kinda feels odd going back to school at 26.

:lol: It is a small world m8!

I also did town and country planning and i did my disertation on "Best Value and Its Implementation by Local Authority Councils". I did it a while back when best valve had just been dreamed up by Labour.

Very Boring as there wasnt much literature on the subject apart from government leaflets etc etc. I was the first at uni to do best valve so i didnt have any other students old dissertations to rip off!

:D

unlucky :/

i work in a regional government policy branch, that deals with propriety, DC practice, recreation, leisure, tourism ... and best value :D