I designed the thesis project board kit as a physical visualization tool that will help folks with both planning and monitoring a Master or PHD thesis. It also is a social tool, i.e. on display in an office or a living room it will show others where your are.

So far there are two approaches:

1) 2 1/2D project boards

A thesis project board has three components:

1. A task list (made of lettered Lego bricks) that should include all major tasks, such as getting in a program, finding an adviser, writing the research plan and having it accepted, literature review, data collection, data analysis, development, etc. Configuration of this list depends on the field, the nature of the thesis and the institution.

2. An issue list - again made with lettered Lego bricks - that should include each major problem that pops up or that is known right from the start.

3. A text list that simply lists the various chapters.

Monitoring chapter writing and the task list are different views of the "problem" although some items strongly correlate.

Each list is built with special-purpose lettered Lego bricks. Print the ones that you need. Next to each item the candidate then should build towers using standard bricks and that represent its state.

I suggest to use 5 standard 2x2 blocks, each representing 20%. Once you reached 100%, these towers can be replaced by a special "smilie" tower.

The issue items are associated with two columns, one that measures severeness and the other progress (problem resolution)

Expand and fit to your needs...

2) 3D Approach

For example, use the stack_tower_element STL to build towers. Each element can be assigned a function using a task brick. Progress is indicated by tiling the floor. Once it is smooth, you are done.

Create one or more towers. One netfabb screenshot and a picture of a quick print show the principle. Read the wiki article for more details.