For Many Engineering Seniors, Break Is Crunch Time for Theses

While seniors in many departments have turned in their theses in the past week, students pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in the Engineering Sciences are still hard at work on their hands-on, project-based theses, which are not due until the week after spring break.

With oral presentations scheduled for March 26 and 27 and written reports due on April 2, the upcoming week-long holiday will be crunch time for seniors to finish their projects.

Ansel B. Duff '15, a mechanical engineering concentrator, works on a go kart powered by compressed air for his senior thesis project at a workshop at MIT. By Courtesy of Ansel B. Duff

For the over 40 seniors enrolled in the Engineering Sciences senior thesis class, ES100hf: Engineering Design Projects, a thesis means spending hours literally getting their hands dirty in labs and workshops designing, building, and testing physical products to solve real-world problems.

According to Woodward Yang, one of the instructors of ES100hf, some concentrators found themselves unprepared for the level of commitment required by the project.

He said around five to 10 percent of the class dropped their projects and switched to the Bachelor of Arts degree, which does not require a thesis.

“It’s one thing to be able to do a problem set; this is not like that. Some of them realize that it takes a huge amount of discipline…. You’ve got to pace yourself,” he said.

Since the hands-on nature of the projects makes it difficult to work when seniors are off campus, many will spend their spring break here working on their theses.

Johnathan M. Budd ’15, who is building a vehicle that tracks objects underwater, said he will spend four days working on his project over the holiday.

“It’s nice to have time to work on it, but it is really sad that everyone else is already done and enjoying their senior spring and you still have to spend a lot of time working on your thesis,” he said.

Even though the looming deadlines make it difficult to relax over the holiday, students say the extra time is necessary.

“Obviously there is an element of jealousy, but really I need the time,” said Robert A. Flitsch ’15, who is building a mobile 3D printing robot that uses water to print ice.

Ansel B. Duff ’15 said he will not be spending much time working on his project during the break because he will be off-campus. However, he said he is not representative of the rest of the engineering class.

“A lot of people will be here on campus working quite diligently over the break,” said Duff, who built a go-kart powered by compressed air.

Tyler R. Kugler ’15 said he will not work on his thesis at all over the next week. He plans to finish things up after break during the last four days before the deadline.

He added, however, that he has spent all his free time this semester on his project. “I think it’s the case for a lot of engineering students as it gets down to the wire,” he said.

According to Kugler, the biggest challenge for seniors is striking a balance between enjoying the last year of college and pacing their thesis work.

“There’s never a great time for your thesis to be due,” he said.

—Staff writer Zara Zhang can be reached at zara.zhang@thecrimson.com.