For a thesis, understanding the underlying principles of how anything works would seem to be better than just inventing something new. Understanding how something works on a widely unknown field, seems like magic in their world is still a budding flower. Our civilization has progressed well in the industrial age and the Renaissance as people started trying to understand the laws in how the world operates... A magical revolution might be near since she's got the motivation to completely(or as completely as a human can, I guess) understand magic.