Help! Simple thesis topic suggestions

[micz21]

I need help deciding on what topic to research or what thesis or projects to modify. Need low cost, efficient and evenbetter an environmental friendly type of thesis topics. Any good suggestions would help a lot. thanks!

[adam1213]

Welcome to the forum.

Can you please describe the requirements for the project a bit more along with providing some information about yourself. e.g. is it a final year electrical engineering thesis project? what areas are you interested in?

[Bored@Work]

If you studied all those years you should have acquired the skills to find a thesis project on your own. If not you probably wasted your time and money during all those years.

[c4757p]

You might have better luck posting about your own ideas and discussing which of them is suitable, rather than just asking for any ideas anybody might have. What are you interested in?

[dfmischler]

I was going to suggest that you try building a fusion reactor that produced more power than it took to run it, but then I noticed that you said it had to be simple and cheap.  But you would be rich if you could keep the patent rights and might even win a Nobel prize.

[free_electron]

write a theseis on one sheet of paper explaining that this is mucb more environmentally friendly than a thick thesis. you can provide some numbers. for example : a single sheet thesis is 500% more efficient than a 500 page. or 300% more efficient than a 300 page. as the number of pages shrinks the relative efficiency is even higher ! a single sheet thesis is still 100% more efficient than a dual page thesis.

and then you can elaborate a bit on spent ink per character. 
use small words and print at 25% intensity setting...

there you go. guaranteed to get you an A+

[smashedProton]

write a theseis on one sheet of paper explaining that this is mucb more environmentally friendly than a thick thesis. you can provide some numbers. for example : a single sheet thesis is 500% more efficient than a 500 page. or 300% more efficient than a 300 page. as the number of pages shrinks the relative efficiency is even higher ! a single sheet thesis is still 100% more efficient than a dual page thesis.

and then you can elaborate a bit on spent ink per character. 
use small words and print at 25% intensity setting...

there you go. guaranteed to get you an A+

False, a one page thesis is 500% more efficient than a 5 page thesis.  It would be 50,000% more efficient than a 500 page thesis.  Haha I had to correct you.  It would be a shame for this guy to fail 

[free_electron]

@smashedproton : damn it ! That correction would have been his contribution to the thesis , hence fulfilling the criteria of advancing the field ! now he can't even do that anymore.

Oh well... guess i'll go and accept the doctorate in his name from this "School of Applied crapology" in the field of 'implied uselessness'. i'll ceremoniously accept it while farting in the general direction of the rect(um)orate there and set it on fire.

[Clear as mud]

I'll help you, because I was in the same situation when I was in grad school.  Too many interests, not enough passion about any one particular thing to know what I wanted to do.  I finally got my Master's degree with a non-thesis option, which I feel was not as interesting for me as it could have been, and not leading to very much respect by my advisor and other professors.

You say low cost, efficient, environmentally friendly?  Here are a few things you can look into, see if something catches your interest.  Choose one.

• Solar Power - which is better, AC coupled or DC?  Or is it better to not convert to AC at all, use the DC directly on site?
• How about LED streetlights that automatically set up a mesh network with each other, sense traffic below, communicate and decide whether to be on or off depending on the presence/anticipated presence/absence of traffic?
• Printed circuit board manufacture - can the copper be reclaimed and reused after etching?
• HomePlug Green PHY - use it to develop an energy-monitoring and/or control application.
• Build a streetlight that operates directly from 7,200 to 14,400 VAC, without adversely affecting reliability of the power distribution system or safety of crews, thus saving energy by eliminating transformer losses.
• Is it possible to build distribution transformers with some voltage regulation built in, without increasing the cost too much?  If so, it could help with deployment of distributed generation.
• Home-scale flywheel energy storage systems.  Build underground to reduce chance of injury if it flies apart.
  
• Further R&D on larger energy storage systems, redox batteries and such - this also would help with deployment of alternative energy.

[free_electron]

The pcb manufacturing thesis is gonna be a short one .. Along the lines of my single page proposal.

They have been reclaiming the coppper for years. Its a fairly easy process too.

[smashedProton]

Yeah, you learn that in the first week of chemistry 101.  Just add sodium carbonate and filter. Heat to release the co2.  Then reduce to get the last oxygen out.

[smashedProton]

May I add another idea.  You could create a small scale model for a more ideal grid.  Complete with energy storage and all.

[Clear as mud]

Doh, I should have done some research on that one.  I thought they probably reclaimed the copper, but my girlfriend recently told me they don't.  Maybe she means most manufacturers usually don't, or maybe she was just wrong.

[SeanB]

At the current copper price only the home etching market does not reclaim copper.

My father years ago needed some brass plugs in thousand lots on a mine, and did a costing as to what it would cost him to use the in house lathes, operators and tooling to do so, then went and asked a few for quotes to see if his calculations were correct ( easy way to check the math and assumptions you make). The one he accepted came in at the cost of the material to make it from the brass bar, nothing else. He called on them and asked how they arrived at this price, as it was exactly the same as his calculation for raw material. They replied that they would pay for the tooling, labour and make a profit from the scrap turned off the plug, as the scrap was about half the mass of the part initially. This local company got the contract right away.