Formulating dissertation titles for Engineering Management study

To start with, the basic format for a generic dissertation title is as follows

 

• A (#1) study on (#2) for (#3) based on (#4): a (#5) [optional] or
• Development of a (#2) for (#3) based on (#4)

 

#1: indicate nature of the research or nature of research objective: e.g. an evaluative study, or Development of a.. (indicate the objective being to construct or create something)

 

#2: the object of investigation: e.g. thermal comfort or a quality assurance system, etc. It could be an equipment, a process, a policy or something more subjective, e.g. user satisfaction.

 

#3: for a client system, e.g. a company, a business sector, etc.

 

#4: a specific methodology or theorectical framework; at least based on a specific research method, e.g. survey interview

 

#5: additional information on #1: e.g. a case study [This part is optional]

 

To formulate a dissertation title, thus, you do need to have some ideas about research objectives, research methods and relevant literatures. You also need to consider 3 factors:

 

a. Whether you are interested in the topic
b. Whether you have already got some relevant articles and research materials or that you are confident that you will be able to obtain the written resources
c. Whether the dissertation project has high practical and academic values

 

In one class exercise, I have asked students to make use of my evaluation form (Ho, 2011) to quickly draft a dissertation proposal title and quickly figure out its objectives and research methods. When using the evaluation form in this case, you should write down a few remarks to provide more specific information about your proposal idea.