Senior Thesis
Engineering A.B. Thesis Timeline
The timeline below is for students graduating in May. The thesis deadline for May 2025 graduates is Friday, March 28, 2025 at 2:00PM. For off-cycle students, a similar timeline applies, offset by one semester. The thesis due date for March 2026 graduates is Friday, November 21, 2025 at 2:00PM. Late theses are not accepted.
End of Junior year (6th semester):
Students often find a thesis supervisor by this time, and work with their supervisor to identify a thesis problem. Students may enroll in ES 91r for their next term (first semester of senior year) to block out space in their schedule for the thesis.
September of Senior year (7th semester):
All fourth year engineering A.B. concentrators are contacted by the Office of Academic Programs. Those planning to submit a senior thesis are requested to supply certain information via a brief thesis proposal form, including a summary of their project objectives and confirmation of the thesis advisor.
Mid-January:
A tentative thesis title approved by the thesis supervisor is required by the concentration.
Early February:
At least three readers are required for any Engineering A.B. single or joint thesis. The faculty advisor is one of the three readers. The student should provide the name and contact information for their additional two thesis readers, together with assurance that each individual has agreed to serve. Thesis readers are expected to be teaching faculty members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences or SEAS. Please see the Engineering A.B. Thesis Reader section below for more information.
On the thesis due date:
Thesis due at 2pm. Late theses are not accepted in Engineering. Electronic copies in PDF format should be delivered by the student to the advisor and two readers and to the submission email for your concentration (es-submit@seas.harvard.edu, ese-submit@g.harvard.edu, bme-submit@seas.harvard.edu) on or before the deadline. An electronic copy should also be submitted via the SEAS online submission system on or before the deadline. SEAS will keep this electronic copy as a non-circulating backup and will use it to print a physical copy of the thesis to be deposited in the Harvard University Archives. During this online submission process, the student will also have the option to make the electronic copy publicly available via DASH, Harvard’s open-access repository for scholarly work.
Contemporaneously, the readers will receive a rating sheet to be returned to the Office of Academic Programs before the end of classes
Late May:
The Office of Academic Programs will send readers' comments to the student in late May, after the degree meeting to decide honors recommendations.
Engineering A.B. Thesis Readers
For engineering A.B. students, thesis readers are chosen by the student, in consultation with their thesis advisor. It is the responsibility of the student to select their thesis readers and to ensure that the readers are committed. No readers are ever assigned. For Engineering only (non-joint) the thesis committee typically consists of the advisor and two more faculty from FAS/SEAS. At least two of these must be from SEAS. For joint concentrators the student must still have at least three readers, two of whom must be from SEAS.
Senior Thesis Submission Information for A.B. Programs
Senior A.B. theses are submitted to SEAS and made accessible via the Harvard University Archives and optionally via DASH (Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard), Harvard's open-access repository for scholarly work. Please note that the thesis won't be published until close to or after the degree date. During this submission process, the student will also have the option to make the electronic copy publicly available via DASH. Basic document information (e.g., author name, thesis title, degree date, abstract) will also be collected via the submission system; this document information will be available in HOLLIS, the Harvard Library catalog, and DASH (though the thesis itself will be available in DASH only if the student opts to allow this). Students can also make code or data for senior thesis work available. They can do this by posting the data to the Harvard Dataverse or including the code as a supplementary file in the DASH repository when submitting their thesis in the SEAS online submission system.
Whether or not a student opts to make the thesis available through DASH, SEAS will provide an electronic record copy of the thesis to the Harvard University Archives. The Archives may make this record copy of the thesis accessible to researchers in the Archives reading room via a secure workstation or by providing a paper copy for use only in the reading room. Per University policy, for a period of five years after the acceptance of a thesis, the Archives will require an author’s written permission before permitting researchers to create or request a copy of any thesis in whole or in part. Students who wish to place additional restrictions on the record copy in the Archives must contact the Archives directly, independent of the online submission system.
Students interested in commercializing ideas in their theses may wish to consult Dr. Fawwaz Habbal, Senior Lecturer on Applied Physics, about patent protection. See Harvard's policy for information about ownership of software written as part of academic work.