Topics for semester or master projects supervised by Prof. Philippe Thalmann with his team at LEURE
The topics below can be analyzed individually or in groups of 2 students maximum. Each project will be co-supervised by Prof. Philippe Thalmann and a senior collaborator or PhD student of his lab LEURE. Students are expected to produce a scientific report and defend it in an intermediate and a final presentation, according to the regulation applying to the course under which they register for the semester project, respectively to master projects in their section. The expected length of the scientific report and research work in general will depend on the number of credits given for this project.
Les sujets sont proposés en anglais, mais les rapports peuvent être rédigés en français ou anglais, à convenir avec l’enseignant.
If you are interested in one of these topics, prepare a half-page draft in which you describe which topic you are interested in and what specific issue you would examine, and send this to Prof. Thalmann.
Topics proposed in Spring 2026
Topic33
How to transform existing buildings towards shared spaces?
Based on literature, identify successful and unsuccessful space sharing models, such as share kitchens, guest rooms, reception rooms, activity spaces etc. Summarize and propose new models designed to minimize m2 per person and facilitate shared activities, leading to higher wellbeing with less resources.
This topic, under the direct supervision of Sascha Nick, is specifically for architecture students.
Topic45
Back to the Future: The World Energy Outlook forecasts in the rear-view mirror
The annual World Energy Outlook (WEO) is the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) flagship publication on global energy projections and analysis. It provides an extensive set of statistics on energy prices, energy balances, and technological costs related to energy consumption by regions. The Outlook is published annually since 1977.
This thesis will perform a statistical analysis of historical projections (2000+) and seek to identify possible biases. Particular attention will be paid to energy prices, energy balances, electricity generation and CO2 emissions.
Project under the direct supervision of Marc Vielle
Topic50(2)
What is “fair” inequality for energy, mobility, and housing?
As part of the SWICE project (sweet-swice.ch), the Swiss Fair Inequality Survey aims to investigate multidimensional “fair” inequality, focusing on developing consumption corridors for energy, mobility, and housing. The goal is to establish fair maximum consumption levels in these areas. The survey, comprising 15-20 questions and taking about 15 minutes to complete, will target 1,000 representative participants from French and German-speaking Switzerland.
This semester project will build on an earlier semester project that prepared the survey categories and questions. It will carry out the full-fledged survey and analyse the results. The ultimate objective is to learn from the survey about widely shared perceptions of fair inequality in the specified domains.
Project under the direct supervision of Sascha Nick
Topic60
Cheap clothes, high costs: the hidden costs of fast fashion
Fast fashion is responsible for significant pollution, particularly of water and air. It is known for low-wage high-risk working conditions and human rights violations. As part of this project, your role will be to assess and analyse the hidden costs of the fast fashion value chain using the True Cost Accounting (TCA) approach. TCA is a methodology that aims to quantify and monetise the hidden costs of a value chain, including environmental costs (e.g. GHG emissions, water consumption, biodiversity), social aspects (e.g., modern slavery, child labour, access to social security), economic aspects (e.g., living wage, minimum wage) and health impacts (e.g., pesticides ingestion, chemicals exposure). Through this project, you will contribute to a larger SNSF research project: From farm to fork and beyond: A systems approach to implementing real cost accounting for food in Switzerland.
Master project only, under the direct supervision of Gino Baudry
Topic61
Reframing Living Wages through the lens of Decent Living Standards
A living wage is the income that workers need to meet their basic needs with dignity. It is generally estimated based on the cost of a minimum bundle of goods and services. In this project, this bundle shall be derived from the comprehensive, human-centred framework of decent living standards (DLS). The DLS approach defines a minimum set of material and social conditions necessary for well-being, ranging from adequate food and housing to access to energy, mobility, education and communication. Your role will be to estimate living wages based on DLS thresholds, rather than on minimum consumption baskets or market-based indicators. The objective is to identify gaps between existing living wage benchmarks and the actual income needed to achieve the DLS in selected contexts (e.g., urban vs. rural, global vs. national, cantonal). The context may include the global/national level, the EU/NUTS 2-3 level or the Swiss level. The analysis will consist of modelling typical household needs in terms of energy, food, housing and mobility, to estimate the corresponding incomes required. Through this project, you will contribute to a larger SNSF research project: From farm to plate and beyond: a systemic approach to implementing real cost accounting for food in Switzerland.
Master project only, under the direct supervision of Gino Baudry and Sascha Nick
Topic63
Financing the decarbonization of Costa Rica’s transport sector in an equitable way
Costa Rica has been praised as a role model for the decarbonization of middle-income countries. As early as 2007, Costa Rica voluntarily committed to carbon neutrality by 2021. While this goal was not achieved, Costa Rica remains committed to becoming carbon neutral, and 2050 has been set as the new target year. In this context, CO2 emissions from the transport sector represent a major challenge. Electrification is an obvious strategy for reducing transport emissions, given that Costa Rica’s electricity system is almost entirely based on renewables. The related investments into the vehicle fleet and the charging infrastructure require large amounts of financing. Furthermore, vehicle taxes and mineral oil taxes are important as fiscal revenues and as household expenditure and business costs. Thus, the electrification of transport and mobility affects financial flows in multiple ways. Although Costa Rican society is known for comprising an extensive middle class, poverty remains a pressing issue. Costa Rica has set the goal to cut poverty in half by 2030, but has made little progress toward this goal in recent years. Transport and mobility are crucial for economic activity. Thus, inequitable decarbonization policies in the transport sector have the potential for becoming a financial threat to the poor as well as lower middle-class households. Equitable solutions are needed that are well adapted to the circumstances of a middle-income country.
10-credit semester project or master project only, under the direct supervision of Frank Vöhringer
Topic65 (already taken)
The price of transition: Regional cost assessment of EU climate policy – Downscaling the economics of decarbonization to NUTS-2 regions
The European Green Deal and the Fit for 55 package are not just policy blueprints – they are disruptive economic forces. But while climate ambitions are set at the EU level, their economic costs are felt locally. Who pays, where, and how much? That remains an open – and urgent – question.
This thesis project tackles the challenge by downscaling EU climate and energy policy impacts to the NUTS-2 regional level. By enhancing the spatial granularity of assessment, the project offers a robust framework to evaluate not only the effectiveness but also the equity of policy interventions.
Through this lens, you will estimate the regional cost of the economic transition, examining how initiatives like the Fit for 55 reshape decarbonization pathways across Europe’s diverse regions. The goal is to uncover the hidden geography of climate policy costs – and to inform a more just transition.
Master project only, under the direct supervision of Sigit Perdana and Marc Vielle
Topic66
Psychology of satisfaction, cognitive biases and welfare measurement
It is well known that conventional economic indicators fail to represent welfare for several reasons, including non-market values, externalities, distribution of wealth, and negligence of disaster-related capital loss. While conventional economic indicators show continued growth, we witness stagnant or even declining scores for satisfaction in some areas. So far, this paradox has been addressed by capturing more aspects of wellbeing with broader sets of indicators and composite indices. Yet, a gap remains between the evidence presented by observable indicators and stated life satisfaction. Solving this puzzle may require considering the psychology of satisfaction and cognitive biases. Rather than aspiring to create new indicators or indices, this project seeks to structure the field through identifying the most important mechanisms that must be factored in and linking them to existing psychological and economic concepts.
Semester project only, under the direct supervision of Frank Vöhringer