WHAT IS A DISSERTATION? Dissertations are academic works that are intended to demonstrate an individual's ability to undertake research in a field and demonstrate the ability to build and develop new systems. A fundamental expectation for Dissertations is that the problem that will be studied is an important one. A second expectation for Dissertations is that they will be thoroughly embedded in the research literature on the topics selected for investigation. A third expectation is that all Dissertations will involve original investigation. A fourth and related expectation is that a Dissertation will set out to find new answers to the question being explored.