The last DLC is from 2022 and every DLC was great. They announced Anno 117 mid of last year and I see nothing that would indicate that 117 would be any less good

Anno 1800 is pretty recent

Anno 1800 is a masterpiece though

I had to google it, undergrad dissertation apparently means bachelor thesis. It’s a joke to give a bachelor thesis the same name as a real dissertation.

First off: nobody will cite a bachelor thesis in a well regarded publication. In fact, even real dissertations will rarely be cited. They are not considered peer-reviewed. If you can write a paper based on your thesis and get it accepted at a journal or conference, that’s where you get citations. Usually, that requires a major overhaul of the thesis, though. This definitely requires a support network in the form of a research group. Look into what your university is researching and contact the research groups that look interesting to you.