ILKOM Jurnal Ilmiah
Vol 18, No 2 (2026)

A TOPSIS-Based Decision Support System for Thesis Title Recommendation: Design, Implementation, and Experimental Evaluation

Firdaus Firdaus (Universitas Putra Indonesia YPTK Padang)
Ritna Wahyuni (Institut Teknologi Sawit Indonesia)



Article Info

Publish Date
09 Aug 2026

Abstract

Selecting an appropriate thesis title is a critical step that significantly influences the direction and quality of undergraduate research. However, students often face difficulties due to limited understanding of research domains, lack of structured guidance, and subjective decision-making processes. This study proposes a web-based Decision Support System (DSS) utilizing the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) to recommend thesis titles based on multiple criteria. The dataset consists of 120 thesis titles collected from the Information Systems program at Putra Indonesia University YPTK Padang over the period 2019–2024. Data collection involved 10 lecturers and 20 students through questionnaires and interviews to determine the relative importance of four criteria: relevance, availability of references, level of difficulty, and innovation. The system was developed using Python (Flask) and evaluated through experimental scenarios using representative alternatives. The results show that the proposed system successfully generates consistent rankings, with the alternative “Designing Mobile Applications for Local MSME Mapping” achieving the highest preference value of 0.697. The findings indicate that the system effectively balances benefit and cost criteria, providing objective and transparent recommendations. This study contributes to the development of practical and implementable decision support systems in academic environments by integrating TOPSIS into an interactive web-based platform. The proposed approach demonstrates strong potential to improve the efficiency, consistency, and objectivity of thesis title selection, although further validation using larger datasets is recommended

Copyrights © 2026






Journal Info

Abbrev

ILKOM

Publisher

Subject

Computer Science & IT

Description

ILKOM Jurnal Ilmiah is an Indonesian scientific journal published by the Department of Information Technology, Faculty of Computer Science, Universitas Muslim Indonesia. ILKOM Jurnal Ilmiah covers all aspects of the latest outstanding research and developments in the field of Computer science, ...