If you are a LEGO fan and interested in data analysis you can combine your interests.
rebrickable.com provides a up-to-date database for every LEGO brick / set ever released, which is a great foundation for a good thesis.
The student may select one of the provided research questions or bring their own.
The topic of the thesis may include one or more of the following directions:
- Analysis of LEGO Trends Over the Decades: Investigate how LEGO sets have evolved in terms of themes, complexity, and number of pieces from the 1950s to the present. Analyze trends in user preferences and market reception.
- Gender Representation in LEGO Sets: Analyze the themes and characters in LEGO sets to evaluate gender representation. Look for patterns in how male and female figures are depicted and marketed through time.
- Cultural Influences on LEGO Themes: Examine how global events, movies, and pop culture influence the themes and designs of LEGO sets. Explore specific cases where a set was introduced in response to cultural phenomena.
- Secondary Market Analysis of LEGO Sets: Study the impact LEGO sets on their resale value. Use data to compare how scarcity affects pricing on secondary markets (data available until 2015).
The available data is rich, but you can bring your own ideas and you can find additional data sets.
requirements
- Concepts of relational databases (the data is in CSV files, working with SQL is not required)
- This project requires some Python skill for the data processing (alternatively R, Julia, etc.)
- It is good to have some experience with plotting tools (matplotlib, seaborn or ggplot2/R, Gadfly/Julia, etc.)