5.1 Preparation

Choose a field of study and topic

Make up your mind and choose a field and a few topics of your liking. What do you want to do and why? What gets you excited and motivated during the next months? Is it a 'one-off' or do you want to be busy with it after graduation? Focus on (potential) problems and be specific. The risk of rejection increases substantially if you contact a potential commissioner or (potential) TU Delft supervisor saying: I like to something with data or build a model or carry out a policy analysis, without a clue about the topic. Research always starts with a practical or theoretical problem, not with selecting a tool and then looking for potential problems.

Find matching commissioners and supervisors

Let's start with the two basic options:

a. Start by cont(r)acting an external commissioner

You can start with finding and contracting a commissioner and a topic yourself. If you are successful, then you can contact two TU Delft lecturers who are able, willing and have time to supervise you.

b. Start by contacting a TIL lecturer

Check who is teaching in your area of choice. What do you remember from lectures? Is there an interesting study in the TU Delft (student) repository? Then contact the supervisor of that project. Alternatively, a lecturer may be advertising a project (Brightspace, department/section notice board, personal webpage) of your liking. The project can be purely academic or have an external commissioner.
Sometimes a lecturer refers you to a commissioner she or he recently spoke with, but had no student available or lacked the time to go after it. Follow that lead and see whether the project/idea suits you.
If the lecturer has no project, but you still want her or him as weekly supervisor (or chair), then you have to go out and explore option a. Then find the second supervisor as described in a. or ask the lecturer for references.

In practice, the search and match process might be a parallel process; a mix of a. and b.

Lack of specialised supervisors
Not all fields are covered by our lecturers. This means that you can get a NO if you search for supervision.
Some specialized lecturerers are in very high demand. You could then opt for a strategy where you have two less specialised TU Delft supervisors and every now and then contact the 'deep content' expert to discuss advanced technical questions.

The requirements for a TIL Graduation Committee can be found in the thesis manual.

Special cases

a. Foreign students

The Dutch language may be a barrier to find a commissioner. Local governments usually communicate in Dutch, also for legal reasons. In many Dutch companies you should be fluent in Dutch. If you also have a limited contact network, then go after an internal TU Delft project.

b. Annotation students

Example, your project is about railways and accepted for the Rail Annotation. Then you can have a professor from the Railway Engineering department (not part of TIL, but working at CEG) and one supervisor from T&P, T&L or MME.

c. Thesis project abroad

A graduation project may be even more interesting if carried out in a foreign (or if you are a foreign student: familiar) country.
It is much more challenging and complicated than a project in the Netherlands.
Supervision will rely on remote communication, which is less effective and technically sometimes (technically) challenging. You may experience a language/cultural barrier, physical and mental health problems and even political risks. These may deter you from achieving optimal results. 

A good preparation is key to make such an adventure a success. You have to arrange all practicalities; visa, accommodation, registration, vaccinations, a work permit, a permit for the project you are going to carry out, communication with TU Delft, and a place to work and probably local supervision (foreign company or university). This takes a lot of time before and during your stay. If you want to do a graduation project abroad, you must know exactly what you want and you must be very self-sufficient. You must also start very early, in some cases a year in advance.

The Studying Abroad page is a good reference if you are thinking (dreaming) about such a project. For content-related questions, you may contact the MSc TIL Programme Coordinator. He can be asked by the International Student Office to approve your plans before you go. Acceptance depends on many factors; quality of your proposal, feasibility/planning, our experience with the foreign supervising organisation, etc.
Inform all other relevant staff (International Student Office, secretary of your professors) timely and regularly about your plans, activities and whereabouts. You are the link between these staff members. Do not assume any active/direct communication between them unless you initiated this.

d. Changing country of stay during project

It can happen that foreign students, for personal reasons, decide to go back to their country of origin and continue their thesis project from abroad. This is allowed. Of course you have to inform your graduation committee and arrange the remaining meetings online. Communication from a distance is less effective than local or in person communication. Commissioners and other experts may be (even) less responsive to questions than you were used to. You need special permission from the Board of Examiners to have an online final defense meeting.