Master thesis defence: T minus 14,5 hours

"BvdV - The Dutch Engineer" (dutchengineer) 09/12/2018 at 13:31 • Filed to: None

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I’m defending my master thesis tomorrow, and I’m getting more and more nervous by the minute...

I mean I know I can’t change anything anymore, but it just feels like every possible mistake that I might have made is haunting me. To make things worse, both of my supervisors have fallen ill, which means that I will have a committee that consists of ‘strangers’ (opposed to 2 supervisors and 2 ‘strangers’ as it was supposed to be), not the most optimal thing. Luckily my supervisors are going to submit their opinions on my work on paper, so they will still have input, but it just feels weird not having them there. They know what I’ve been doing, and could help me along if I get stuck, which won’t be the case now...

I’m sure it’ll all be fine, I just needed to vent this. Have this Alpine A220 I saw at Le Mans Classic for your time:

For Sweden > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 09/12/2018 at 13:35

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Find comfort in the fact your professors want you gone, and not passing your thesis means you won’t leave.

lone_liberal > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 09/12/2018 at 13:37

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I’ll let Academic Coach Taylor handle this:

Future next gen S2000 owner > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 09/12/2018 at 13:39

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Good luck! When the missus defended hers the other person attacked her and not her work. She passed.

ttyymmnn > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 09/12/2018 at 13:42

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farscythe - makin da cawfee! > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 09/12/2018 at 13:43

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ive always found lots of small machine gun turrets and landmines make for a solid defense

just keep your thesis behind those and you’ll do grand :)

good luck

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > For Sweden 09/12/2018 at 13:45

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That’s an interesting way to look at it! I like it!

. . > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 09/12/2018 at 13:45

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Good luck!

I’m defending mine on the 24th and I’m absolutely dreading it.

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > farscythe - makin da cawfee! 09/12/2018 at 13:46

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I’m sure setting up an actual defence line would suprise them, lol.

Thanks!

DipodomysDeserti > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 09/12/2018 at 13:46

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Good luck! What’s your dissertation on and what degree will you have once you’re finished?

I just applied to graduate school this week for an MA in environment and resource management with a focus on water management.

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > Future next gen S2000 owner 09/12/2018 at 13:47

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Thanks!

When the only thing to attack was herself, it means she probably did some very solid work, nice!

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > ttyymmnn 09/12/2018 at 13:47

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Thanks!

TheRealBicycleBuck > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 09/12/2018 at 13:48

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They wouldn’t let you defend if they didn’t think you were prepared. It would be embarrassing to them if you did fail.

Chill out and let the knowledge flow....

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > DipodomysDeserti 09/12/2018 at 13:51

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Thanks! The topic is control for state- of- charge balancing of a battery pack. If all goes well I’ll be a MSc. in Automotive Technology after tomorrow.

That sounds interesting! Water management is a very interesting field (although I might think that just because I’m Dutch :p )

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > . . 09/12/2018 at 13:52

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Thanks! Good luck to you too, I’m sure you’ll do great!

Michael > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 09/12/2018 at 13:53

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The best defense is a good offense.

Not sure how this applies to education.   but GATA

Cash Rewards > TheRealBicycleBuck 09/12/2018 at 13:53

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Thats only true if your advisor is worth a damn. True for bachelor's and master's,. It as much for PhD for me

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > TheRealBicycleBuck 09/12/2018 at 13:55

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You’re probably right, but that message is hard to get into my perfectionist mind, haha

Yeah, I’m just going to try to relax now, and hope that I’ll tell everything correctly tomorrow

ttyymmnn > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 09/12/2018 at 13:57

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You’re welcome. Based on your screen name, I’m guessing this is some sort of degree in engineering. I defended my doctoral dissertation back in 1999, but that was in music, and it didn’t require any original scholarship or experimental research. I had given my finished document to my committee a month before the defense, and had already made most of the changes they wanted by then. The only thing to look out for is college professors who are trying to impress each other by asking obscure questions. I don’t know why so many academics are so insecure. 

DipodomysDeserti > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 09/12/2018 at 13:57

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Awesome! I taught physics for a few years and electrostatics was one of my favorite subjects to teach. Ended up building a capacitor based charging system for my motorcycle based on the stuff I learned from teaching the course.

The Dutch are some of the best water managers around. I was born and raised in the Sonoran Desert, so my interest in water management is based on its scarcity rather than its abundance.

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > ttyymmnn 09/12/2018 at 14:04

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It’s a MSc degree in Automotive Technology, so you’re guess is definitely correct. :)

Sadly we do not receive feedback from the committee before the defense (I think they only do that for doctoral degrees here), though I did get lots of feedback from my supervisors, so the content should be on par with what they want to see.

I’ve heard that my committee members aren’t too bad, they will likely ask some more difficult /fundamental questions, but only because they are interested in the reasoning, or see a parallel to their research.

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > DipodomysDeserti 09/12/2018 at 14:06

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That’s awesome!

I honestly think that managing based on scarcity might be even more interesting, as it needs a lot more thinking ahead. Very cool that you are going to focus on managing water in places like the one you grew up in!

dogisbadob > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 09/12/2018 at 15:17

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good luck

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > dogisbadob 09/12/2018 at 15:27

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Thanks!

Klaus Schmoll > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 09/12/2018 at 16:28

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For sweden has a point there. They let you progress up until this point, so now they want you to finish and graduate. Failing you now would just mess up their statistics, which in the end will make them look bad.

It’s the same at my school/every school/university . We like to weed out early. Once they’ve made it into 10th grade, they’ve almost automatically passed.

Every educational facility has to face reviews, gets rated and compared to others... etc. The school board/department of education/whoever pays their bills and salaries will have some awkward questions if too many students fail, and might look into cutting losses/changing headmasters/management etc..

They have invested significant amounts of time and money into you, if you fail now, they look bad.

As long as you don’t show up dead drunk in a furry costume reeking of vomit, they will want you to pass and will do everything within their powers to make that happen.

That being said, should you choose to go down the drunk furry route, could you please hide a go-pro somewhere in that costume?

TheRealBicycleBuck > Cash Rewards 09/12/2018 at 16:29

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If the committee members aren’t worth a damn, that’s the student’s fault . T he only exception would be those members that are assigned by the university. By the time I was ready to defend my dissertation, my university had dropped the assigned committee member requirement, so I didn’t have to deal with a random member who didn’t know what was going on.

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > Klaus Schmoll 09/12/2018 at 17:12

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Oh I’m sure I will pass, and I definitely agree that failing me now would be a very weird thing to do (especially as they get around €30k from the government when I graduate). It’s just that I’m a ‘bit’ of a perfectionist, and want to extract the maximum possible (which would ideally mean graduating cum laude, for which I would  need a 9/10 or higher for the defence )

I think I’m not going to go the drunk furry route, though, just to be safe :p

RallyWrench > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 09/12/2018 at 18:28

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I have a hunch you’ll nail it , D utch people are good at stuff. ;) Good luck, dude!

Cash Rewards > TheRealBicycleBuck 09/12/2018 at 20:07

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Committee members, yes. Primary? Kinda stuck when you're already tied to grants

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > RallyWrench 09/13/2018 at 00:28

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Thanks man! I hope your hunch is correct  :)

TheRealBicycleBuck > Cash Rewards 09/13/2018 at 00:48

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I went about it a bit differently. I found the person I wanted to work with, then sought out grants to do the work I wanted to do. Unfortunately, a bad year led to a budget cut which meant my grant dried up. I changed it up a bit so I didn’t have to rely on funding and cranked out my research.

Cash Rewards > TheRealBicycleBuck 09/13/2018 at 10:08

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I came in expecting to work with one proof based on area of research, and thought he was great up until the proposal, when I realized he doesn't hold up his end of things like that. He walked in, saw the slide, and realized we need to change the title. He had "seen" the presentation several times before and "read" the draft. Ugh.