Research in Computing Discipline

Prabhas Chongstitvatana

Outline

• What is research– Scientific method

• Why research• How to research

– Current topics in computing– Characteristic of graduates

• Step-by-step of doing research• Examples of research work• My own observation

What is research?

• vi-jai -- collect, search, karn-kon-kwa-ha-kor-moon yang-tee-toan tam-luk-vi-cha

• research -- scholarly or scientific

investigation or inquiry • scholar --

1 a learned person

2 one who attends school or studies with a teacher

What is research

• scientific -- employing the methodology of science

• scientific method -- The totalities of principles and processes regarded as characteristic of or necessary for scientific investigation, including rules for concept formation, conduct of observations and experiments, and validation of hypotheses by observations or experiments.

Scientific method

1 Hypothesis

2 Design of experiment

3 Experiment and collect data

4 Analysis of data

5 Interpretation of results

Why research? (left for exercise)

How to do research?• Curiosity• Asking questions• Refine questions• Formulate method to get the answer

– literature review– background theory

• Design (for synthesis problems)• Experiment (for analysis problems)• Analysis & Validation• Interpretation

Current topics in Computing (from IEEE Computer Science Discipline)

• The World Wide Web and its applications• Networking technologies, particularly those

based on TCP/IP• Graphics and multimedia• Embedded systems• Relational databases• Interoperability

Current topics in Computing

• Object-oriented programming• The use of sophisticated application

programmer interfaces (APIs)• Human-computer interaction• Software safety• Security and cryptography

Characteristic of graduates

• Knowledge• Modeling• Requirements• Critical evaluation and testing• Methods and tools• Professional responsibility

Skills of graduates

• Design and implementation• Evaluation• Information management• Human-computer interaction• Risk assessment• Tools• Operation

Skills of graduates

• Communication• Self management

Step-by-step of doing research

• What is your interest?• Find the right teacher• Work with your advisor• Asking the right research question

– doable in a reasonable time– do you want to publish?

• Do small project (or initial Design)• Experiment with your project/design• Work with your advisor • Write paper/thesis

Examples of the research work

• Web

A Popularity-Based Prediction Model for Web Prefetching

• Computer systems

Simulating a $2M commercial server on a $2K PC• Graphics

Made-to-measure technologies for an online clothing store

Examples of the research work

• Software engineering

Computer-mediated group support, anonymity, and the software inspection process: an empirical investigation

• Computer architecture

Power evaluation of a handheld computer• Robotics

Sharing control

Examples of the research work

• Evolutionary computationGlobally convergent algorithms for dc operating point analysis of nonlinear circuits

• VLSIInstruction-based system-level power evaluation of system-on-a-chip peripheral cores

• Mobile computingA comprehensive resource management framework for next generation wireless networks

Examples of the research work

• Intelligent systems

Intelligent indexing of crime scene photographs

• Programming languages

A Programming System for Children that is Designed for Usability

My own observation

• research is very much social activities[but a lot of time you need quite time and place to think hard.]

• motivation is very important [find the topic that suite your interest and work with your advisor to make it doable.]

• publication always takes more time than you expect.

• start writing a thesis is difficult but finishing one is easy.

Exercise

• Working at home is more comfortable. Why come to school?

• Many things can be self-taught why need a teacher?

• How much time is needed to do research?• What you will get out of doing a research?

End

Good luck and start talking to faculties!