Thesis

Qualified graduate students have the opportunity to write a thesis based on their own original research, guided by an HFID faculty member. If you are interested, you should inform yourself early on. For questions regarding process, time commitment, etc. see the MSHFID Thesis Document and/or contact Roland Hübscher.

To discuss a potential topic, talk to the appropriate faculty member. Before you pick a thesis advisor and topic, please check out Marie desJardins's advice.

Mentoring

Current and former HFID students may sign up for a mentor who is typically a former HFID student. Depending on their backgrounds and experience, mentors can provide guidance for things related to the HCI/UX community, designing a career path, looking for jobs and internships, the MSHFID program, dealing with a family and caeer or a graduate program, etc.

If you are interested in being matched with a mentor or becoming a mentor, please contact me at rhubscher@bentley.edu.

Finding Literature

There are many large online repositories of conference and journal papers. Here are a few to get you started. But don't just use the first "okay article" you run into.

• ACM Digital Library
• HCI Bibliography
• Computer Science Bibliographies
• Google ScholarMake sure you learn the query language to find what you specifically need.
• WikipediaThis is a good place to start when you are unfamiliar with the topic. However, a Wikipedia page is not a valid reference in a research paper.
• BlogsThey are only acceptable if the writer is a recognized expert, e.g., has published in peer-reviewed outlets. Then, the Wikipedia rule applies.
• General magazines or commercial websitesJust kidding…

Plagiarism

Cite all your sources properly. Note, that not citing all sources may be considered plagiarism and can have severe academic repercussions. To learn more about it, see How to Recognize Plagiarism (Indiana University). I use Turnitin. to help you and me detect omitted citations.

Most research papers in the MSHFID program require proper APA citation and bibliography. Get a copy of the manual or use one of these online references.