While the national Mastermath program allows you to follow courses all across the country, the master thesis project should make the difference in your choice of university. Have a look at a list of exciting thesis topics that you could explore at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Project: Enhancing Real-Life Simulation Optimization
Supervisor: Joost Berkhout
Short Description: Simulation optimization can address diverse real-world challenges, such as resource allocation in healthcare, improving manufacturing processes, and refining transportation systems. This project will explore innovative strategies to allocate simulation resources more efficiently, streamlining the optimization process and expanding its applicability.
Project: Fitting Stochastic Diffusion Models for Power Grid Network Data
Supervisor: Alessandro Zocca
Short description: This project starts with the analysis of power grid frequency data provided by transmission network operators and has as its final goal tuning/fitting a suitable stochastic diffusion model that can describe and predict the system's behavior and reliability. Strong proficiency with Python is a must, as this project involves working with a large dataset with frequency data at a 0.1-second interval resolution, resulting in over 300 million data points annually. Familiarity with data analysis and statistical techniques is also a plus.
Project: Modelling the impact of climate extremes on power grid networks
Supervisor: Alessandro Zocca
Short description: As the climate crisis intensifies, extreme weather events are expected to become more frequent and severe, posing unprecedented challenges to critical human infrastructure like power grid networks. The project aims to develop stylized stochastic models for high-impact weather events on power grid networks that capture the spatial and temporal correlations in node and edge failures. The project lies at the intersection of graph theory, probability, and stochastic simulation.