Graduation & Thesis Committee

The CME program covers a wide variety of topics from CEG, TPM and Architecture, as it is a 3-faculty program. Based on your requirements you have the chance of approaching staff from all these three faculties. Contact your specialization coordinator for advice. Contact information for specialization coordinator is available on this webpage.

Try to compose your committee based on the fields of expertise that are required for your thesis. To get the best mix in your committee start early. Approach professors and scholars as early as possible as they can even help you shape your thesis. List to all the professors and their areas of interest can be found here.

Look into the ongoing research of PhD scholars as you might find similar to your interest. If so, get in contact with that scholar as teaming up eventually might be beneficial to both of you. Make sure though that you have at least 2 members on your committee with UTQ-certificates (BKO in Dutch).

If you are having any hard time within your committee which is actually out of your control, then you should contact the graduation coordinator of your specialization. In the worst case, you might need to make changes in your committee, but that is better than having misaligned committee members.

If your committee members provide you with different directions and you are getting confused on how to move forward, then schedule a combined meeting and try to arrive to a consensus. If you are not able to arrive to a full consensus, then you should check with either the chair or the first supervisor individually as they might help you convince the rest of the committee member(s).

This probably has to do with the heavily loaded schedule of the committee members. Ask your committee members at the very first meeting about the frequency of reminders and how much time they need to provide you with an answer or more detailed feedback on your work. For instance, some might be okay with a reminder after three days but others might prefer to get one only once a week.

Hi!I am from CME cohort 2020. I am doing my graduation project with a company in 2022.

What challenges did you face?
The major challenges I faced were:
(1) Identification of a proper research gap: It took time and effort, as I needed to go through lots of literature and talk to professionals before I could identify a gap and write my preliminary proposal. For me, it took 2 to 3 months part-time to find the gap and compile the preliminary proposal after I determined which area I wanted to work on.
(2) Forming the graduation committee: It was potentially a time-consuming process involving lots of uncertainties and waiting. When I began contacting people for the position of Graduation Chair, I had already found my main supervisor and had a preliminary proposal that my main supervisor found acceptable; still, I was rejected by, or received no response,  5 out of 7 full/associate/assistant professors who had some experience in either one of two specific fields that my topic fell into before I finally found my current Chair. I also know a friend who contacted 8 people before finding his committee. The rejections from the professors are mostly regarding the time they could allocate (“i.e. they are already supervising many students or cannot supervise a topic not closely related to my research interests”, “part-time working in TU Delft and thus no time”, or simply “no time”); there was no reply from 2 of them; 1 of them was leaving the University soon and remote supervision as Chair was not possible under the current policy.

What did you do about it?
Fortunately, at the end of my long journey of searching for a Chairperson, my main supervisor was aware of the situation and approached other professors for me, so I found a good committee eventually.

What advice will I give to the next students?
Regarding forming the committee: Looking back, one change I would make is the way I approached people: what I did was mostly contact people by email, which is less efficient than face-to-face communication, e.g. approach professors after their lectures, where one could better pitch the ideas. Another change for me could be the right time to find the Chair. I already had a rather detailed proposal when I approached the professors, and that may have reduced the flexibility of my project as well as the number of suitable candidates for committee members. An alternative is to approach and discuss potential thesis ideas with professors after you decide which area to work on, so that you may take the suggestions and expectations from your committee into account before you narrow it down to a very specific topic. Both approaches have their pros and cons thus it is up to you to decide. If you find one member on your committee, ask him/her if they have suitable candidates in mind. Let them know if you are hitting walls and ask for advice. Referral by professors, if they are willing to, would greatly increase the chance of a positive response.
General suggestions: Start early. It almost always takes longer than you expect even after you’ve multiplied your initial expectation by 1,5. Reserve buffer time for unexpected conditions like the vacation time of people involved in your thesis. Organize your support system, both physically and psychologically. It can be regular exercises in the gym or doing courses at X or talking to someone in your family/friends or professional counselors, etc. It will help with a balanced life and help you through your downs.