SciPro idea bank: Matchmaking ideas, people and organizations to facilitate innovative theses

This article focus on thesis writing and how to match a large number of students with available supervisors based on creative ideas. Another challenge is to connect the students´ thesis topics with current research activities at the university and businesses. In order to facilitate a good start, the Idea Bank has been developed. This pool of ideas is generated by business, research funding bodies, supervisors and students. This management problem is of general interest for all universities and of importance for quality thesis output as well as for skills and learning in demand by the public and private sector. The Idea Bank is the point of departure for the thesis process, supported by the IT-system, SciPro. Aim: To describe and analyse matching based on ideas, students and supervisors in order to facilitate quality thesis production. Methods: The research approach is based on action research and design research principles. Data collection methods: interviews, observations, focus group discussions and log data during a period of 1,5 year. Results and Discussion: Students appreciate as much information and inspiration as possible when creating their thesis topics. Our model consists of one semester of “thinking” and developing and during that period ideas are available from supervisors, business enterprises and public sector organisations. This paper presents three IT-models that have been developed to manage these thesis ideas and the matching with supervisors. Conclusions: The Idea Bank and matching system definitely add value, saves time and increase the quality of theses. Due to conflicting interests about the process between the stakeholders, the system has been rebuilt each year in order to create the best compromise. The process implemented rewards active supervisors and active students by providing freedom, control and selection of relevant topics to a high degree.