The following have been nominated in IRW as Outstanding Graduate Theses

Identification of Saudi Arabian License Plates
http://library.kfupm.edu.sa/lib-downloads/A1Y685.pdf

A Language-Based Approach to Categorical Analysis
http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~cameron/cv/pubs/01-thesis.pdf

Just in time Information Retrieval
http://www.bradleyrhodes.com/Papers/rhodes-phd-JITIR.pdf