How to brainstorm thesis topic in a wise way

When it comes to thinking about a thesis topic, I easily get overwhelmed. Even starting a normal brainstorming doesn't seem to be easy, because there are so many mixe-up thoughts about diverse concepts in my brain. Therefore, I devised brainstorming steps and going to follow the process to make progress in choosing a thesis topic. The suggested process consists of four phases. 

1. Definition of topic

To begin with, I started with the definition of the topic. The topic is such a banal term we use daily, that the vagueness of the meaning hinders us to come up with original thoughts. Then how can we rethink this term? The topic is the combination of the item(소재) and the idea. An item is an object we can academically define and can describe the history of its prior research. On the other hand, the idea is one's own critical mind, assessment and suggestion about the item. Dividing the concept of topic helped my brainstorming easier because I could freely think of items that I'm interested in and match items with possible attitudes. Below is the actual example of phase number 1.

 

Topic = Item + Idea

2. Next step: Relevant researches

The relevant research section is where professors give students advice. I barely knew why professors are important when students write their thesis, but my 3rd year undergraduate architectural design studio professor told me the reason. He said professors explain to students about the relevant research, theoretical background, how the field has been developed and why the field is worth exploring. The advice was very helpful for me because I started to understand why communication with professors is so important in terms of one's success in Master's thesis and why one should search for a suitable professor who is also interested in my field of interest. 

3. Tuning my idea

One time, I was watching a video of an accountant who specialized in Venture Capital investment. He said there are three aspects of venture companies that are expected to be successful in the future through his real professional field experience. The three aspects were; ➀ Specifically targeted problems, ➁ The quality of the solution or service they provide, ➂ The most optimal and capable team members for ➁. Though he was talking about venture companies, I associated the characteristics with my thesis. The three aspects are in a serial relationship, imposing great priority in ➀. When the problem set is specific enough, we can easily figure out codes of conduct and can objectively assess our ability to execute the required action, and therefore, it becomes more clear where and who we should ask for help to complete the task in high quality. The point is that the idea should be concrete not only for the success of venture companies but also for one's graduate thesis. Under this objective, I made some examples of how ideas can be developed and tuned by simply adding two verbs on each side of the item description.

 

Tuning ideas

4. Ideas into viable action steps

When the topic becomes keen enough, then the next step is to figure out viable action steps. Action steps must be something very concrete, for example, building specific Python code, or making 3D models to verify assembling details, so that we can execute our action right away. Ideas without step-by-step action steps could remain in mere thoughts. For example, to verify a human's innate mental physics model, one viable action step might be building game-like tests that children can play with and measure their physics ability more accurately and quantitatively.

However, I was not capable to apply the method to my own problem yet, therefore, through the next essay, I'll push this process into finding my own thesis topic and share the results.