Master Honours Project (MHP)

The Masters Honours Project (MHP) forms the spine of the HPM-students programme.

The MHP covers necessary activities that are aimed at gathering, integrating, and accumulating knowledge related to the topic chosen by the HPM-student and to meet the honours goals. It covers and integrates the learning in the broadest sense of the HPM-student.

Each student is facilitated by a coach from the IDE-staff, who supports the student (when necessary) in making decisions, showing new pathways, and providing contacts regarding the students project. Active participation within both the IDE and TUD Honours community as well as a broader discussion and interaction with peers from research or practice relevant to the chosen HP topic is an integral part of the Honours Project.

One of the main activities in the IDE Honours Community is the organisation of the Masters Honours Seminar that runs at least once each semester (depending on the number of students active in the program).

Each HPM-IDE student acts in a variety of roles within this seminar throughout the three semesters of his/her honours programme.

The roles are:

• Support role (organisation committee) (1st HPM semester)

• Plan, develop and execute own track (program chair) (2nd HPM semester)

• Participate actively (participant) (3rd HPM semester)

• Showcase of your honours project in the HPM-IDE gallery (at the start of your project (e.g., during the HPM-IDE kickoff) you present a preliminary HPM profile, and you submit a final showcase demonstrating the results honours project results to complete your HPM project (part of the final deliverables)

The Honours Community allows students to show their:

• professional skills, such as coaching, giving peer feedback, and building a portfolio, and;

• presentation skills, such as communicating and disseminating insights and results with/to peers in the field outside the TUD community.

Independency is key to the Masters Honours Project.

Students initiate a large proportion of the project and plan, execute, and manage it accordingly. In this way, the student shows that he/she is capable of initiating and running a project from vision to realisation. Activities in the MHP could be, but are not limited to doing interviews with experts related to the HPM-topic, collect and read literature, do research, writing propositions, perform experiments, and/or design and evaluate interventions and prototypes.

The final deliverables of the MHP are threefold:

1) the Knowledge Product aims to transfer the knowledge and insights gained to the student community and the staff of the IDE-faculty.

2) the Showcase featured at the HPM-IDE gallery covers the insights gained in an easy to grasp (and stand-alone) form, e.g. a poster, video clip or model.

3) the Honours Thesis is an academic report that, similar to a graduation report, shows in a logical order the rationale the HPM-IDE project. The Honours Thesis motivates the justification of the work done, the approach followed, and decisions taken leading to the Knowledge Product. In short, it reports on relevant activities that have led to mastering the Honours Project, properly referring to literature, courses followed, interviews, or websites. Special attention should be given to the lessons learnt in the Masters Honours Seminar.

Please address all formal communication and/or general questions to the official email address HPM-io@tudelft.nl;
and if applicable, send it also directly to the responsible person for your own master.

Team HPM-IDE:
Coordinator for DfI students: Dr. Ingrid Mulder, i.j.mulder@tudelft.nl, room 3C-070
Coordinator for SPD students: Dr.ir. Sylvia Mooij - s.c.mooij@tudelft.nl, room B4-060
Coordinator for IPD students: Dr. Jacky Bourgeois - J.Bourgeois@tudelft.nl, room B3-270

The Master's Honours Project (MHP) is assessed by the student's HPM-coach and the HPM-coordinator of his/her MSc-programme.

The grade will be a pass or no pass. No further detailing.

The MHP including active participation in the IDE/TU Delft honours community, needs to be successfully completed before the student requests the Greenlight meeting for graduation. Hereto, all three final MHP deliverables addressing the criteria outlined below, should be submitted to hpm-io@tudelft.nl in time.

The first deliverable of the MHP concerns a "Knowledge product", which communicates the acquired knowledge/ insights during the project to a specified or general public. Examples of a knowledge product are a publication in an academic journal, a conference paper, publication of the findings in a sector magazine, a popular-scientific magazine, by documentary/movie, or via a renowned weblog. It is also possible to publish your findings in the form of a 2D or 3D object in public space or a museum or a public presentation. When choosing the latter option, this always needs to be supported with a brief description reflecting the findings and reasoning for presenting it in the chosen way.

The second deliverable is the Showcase. The aim of the Showcase is to exhibit the results of honours projects in the Gallery of the Masters Honours Program (part of the Education section at the faculty's main website). The Showcase must clearly illustrate and convey the insights gained to a generic audience. As part of the Showcase, each HPM student should make sure their project has been included in the gallery with a representative image and a brief description explaining the main results.

The third deliverable is the Honours Thesis. The leading line in this thesis is reporting on the activities that supported the creation of the new knowledge, including the creation of the 1st deliverable: the knowledge product. One of the final chapters of the thesis should be dedicated to the development of the knowledge product, its content, and the consequences for the futures of relevant subjects or stakeholders (e.g., education, research, society, students, business, creative industry). An executive summary and a critical/personal reflection on the student's Masters Honours Project should be included.

The honours thesis should not exceed 25 pages, apart from appendices with additional data and information.

Ensure your name and a clear reference to the HPM IDE program are included in each deliverable (Your name, honours cohort, acknowledge your honours coach, and mention that the work is part of the Masters Honours Program of the Faculty Industrial Design Engineering). Please label the final names of your final deliverables accordingly (e.g., HPM0xx_KnowledgeProduct_YourName).