Ong Yan leads the Masters Thesis Research Seminar which provides a comprehensive and in-depth research foundation for the Thesis Design Project in the following semester. In the seminar, students are taught to develop research methodologies, how to conduct in-depth literature reviews, analyze case studies, develop programming, and address relevant cultural, social, political, and economic issues, among others. Students are given the tools to define their own topics, which are relevant to contemporary and global issues in their discipline.

The following are excerpts from the Masters student research documents.

This Masters student explored the ways in which phenomenology and aesthetic theories, grounded in a close reading of history, can be leveraged as placemaking strategies in order to design spaces for social equity.

The following is an excerpt of a student thesis research document which studied the concept of ‘whimsy’ in architecture based on a literature review of Postmodern theories and building case studies.