Research

Research - well, I think it the most challenging part in the curriculum a student may face. Working on a research makes students lessen the time spent for gimmicks, to play online games like DOTA specifically to the guys and other student activities. It is sad to know but it is the fact. It will be the time to reflect, to be observant, to be attentive, to be positive, to be courageous, be serious and time to travel – but that is if you have to. It may transform one into something such as a geek. But that is just too exaggerated to think.

There are a lot of daily routines to be changed in order to complete your research, especially the ones like me who doesn’t know how to manage their time (laugh). Aside from being tied up to the changes made in ones daily routines, the first thing that makes research so hard is to have a topic. Yes, a topic; which is up until now, I still don’t have one. I hope I can find a good one. But before that, let us go back to where we have left in. Yes, choosing a topic for research is quite frustrating and sometimes, when you had your topic, it is disappointing to know that you cannot have a grasp of what it is all about and go back to where everything started – from scratch. Well, if you luckily have a topic, then, it’s time to start the research!

“Writing research just for the sake of passing is just a waste of time and a waste of effort.” This is what I have learned from our instructor every time he meets us for the Research course. Actually, I have learned a lot from him (credits for sir!!!) . So, from the phrase above, one can think of how to know that a research is good or not? I know that not all is that serious in doing the research, but there are times that a student prefers to know which is good and bad for the research because, practically, research counts a significant portion on the student’s grades, so it means that a good research means a higher grade. Who among the research students do not want a good grade in research? But others really want to discover something new, something good and something that will be useful for the generations to come.

Before we discuss and differentiate a good research from a bad one, let us first investigate what are the advantages or the goals of research in the lives of the graduating students. According to the article that I have read, research is assigned so that students can (1) become familiar with scholarly research, which is a central skill for college success, especially career success as well. (2) Students can gain expert knowledge on a particular subject which is related to the course and (3) for the students to learn how to synthesize and report on a secondary research in such a way that it can be available for the others. Knowing these three goals, the student may wonder how to create a good research.

Creating a good research involves not only skills and attitude but it also involves tools and guidelines. Now I understand why our instructor required us to read those one hundred articles about green computing and encouraged us to read more not only articles of those kinds but also on how to make a research paper. Ah, How I wish I could turn back time and try to finish reading those one hundred articles. If I only knew that I can use it for the times like this, then I should have read it. But I know it is my fault. Why I’m in a great regret right now? It is because one of the guidelines in making a good research is extensive reading. Due to extensive reading, one may fully understand what the subject is all about and with this; one can formulate a topic to be researched. From another article that I have read, states that the first step in creating a good research requires that a student understands the assignment requirements and the topic for the research paper. With this reading is highly recommended.

After the student understands the topic of the research, the student can begin his research. Bear in mind that the topic for the research makes sense and not just for the sake of passing. But I know that a topic cannot be approved if it doesn’t make any sense at all. It would be a useless research after all. Once the topic is set up, it is time to gather information. For some of us, students, the simplest tool to have research is the internet. Yes, we can gain much knowledge on the internet due to its wide range and that we can gain information from people around the world. The question is, does the information we get from the internet all valid and correct? We are not sure, right? Then it just proves that the internet is not an effective place to gather information. Not all information found in the internet is appropriate for a college-level research. Majority of the scholarly materials are found in libraries. Make use of the libraries and leaf the pages of the variety of academic materials. If books and the internet are not enough for the research, try to reach out to others. Try setting up an interview with someone who is familiar with the subject. In this case you can gain information out of real persons you meet face to face. In addition, a good research paper writer requires that the writer keep detailed research notes that remind the student of the details he or she had discovered through his or her research. So, it is just right to have a personal memo or notebook for us, students to jot down what we had read, learned and researched on that notebook for us not to miss necessary points in our research.

In order not to be troubled on how to arrange the information you had gathered, an outline for the research is a good tool to use. Student should deal time for making outlines before beginning the actual drafting of the paper. Using outline can group relevant information or ideas into one and can make the flow of the paper smooth. After the student completed his or her research outline, he or she can now begin the writing process. But that doesn’t ends there. One of the most lessons in writing a research paper is how to determine which quotes, paraphrases, and pieces of information to include and which is to set aside. Setting quotes in research papers can make your research credible due to lots of sources you had. These are the general guidelines in setting quotes. First, only quote when the way the writer put the words cannot be changed without changing the meaning of the passage. Second, quote when what the writer said is exceptionally important or insightful. Paraphrasing must always be cited properly and information that does little to contribute to the topic must be omitted. A good research must be double checked and is subjected to proofreading. It is just normal to write a draft and write it once more until there are no flaws to be found. There should be more time in drafting. With this, the student may be able to improve what he or she have written when they are being reviewed and checked by the adviser or by professional writers.

After beating the demons of sleepless nights due to typing drafts, the glory of finishing the research comes your way. Seems so easy but is not that simple.

Now, let’s sum up how to determine that a research paper is good. As long as the student followed what was stated above, it is quite sure that he or she can produce a good research paper. To differentiate a good research paper from a bad one, a good research paper is well-researched, well-written and well-developed. It is also focused, direct and it makes the reader care about the subject. A good research paper also follows style guidelines, is properly documented and stylistically polished. On the other hand, an ordinary research paper is poorly researched and developed, it is loaded with formatting and grammatical errors, unclear and wandering, does not engage to the readers, poorly cited and stylistically weak and may result to a lesser grade.

The difference between a good and an ordinary research paper can be linked to how the student handles himself or herself about analyzing, revising and engaging. Most students can make a good research paper if and only if they take everything by heart. He or she must be completely armed with the skill, the tools, information, courage and determination to finish the research he or she began.

In addition in terms of how a good research is evaluated, well, I think, the grade that the student gets after submission of the research paper says it all.



References:
How to Evaluate Your Research
By kris777
eHow Community Member
http://www.ehow.com/how_2109938_evaluate-your-research.html

How to Write a Good Research Paper
http://www.essaytown.com/writing/how-to-write-a-good-research-paper

Good Research Paper
http://www.essaytown.com/writing/good-research-paper

Computer Science Research

As I browsed pages on the Internet about the state of computer science research, I had landed on certain articles in various sites that tackle such topic.

By the way, one of the articles that I have read was all about the statement of Wm. A. Wulf, Ph.D, the president of the National Academy of Engineering and was on leave as an AT&T professor of Engineering and Applied Science of the University of Virginia that time. He presented it before the U.S. House of Representatives on the 12^th day of May, 2005. He testified before the honorable about the state of Computer Science research in US.

As to what I have understood about his statement, Wulf, first presented the Science in Endless Frontier, the report that launched their system of federal funding of basic researches.  Vannever Bush promoted a system in which the government will support the research such as giving funds in order for the research to be possible. But it is sad to know that the research to be funded by the government is selected depending on how the researcher presented the good points of his research.

Upon the aforementioned system, I can say that the Computer Science researches in the United States are lucky enough even though researches to be funded by the government are selected only through how much the people can benefit by the research being proposed. Speaking of benefits, Wulf presented the kinds of benefits the research being selected should give. The dividends of the research are for the nation – for national security, prosperity and health.  For the national security, he summed up the researches that have made possible. These are the smart bombs, GPS, unprecedented “information awareness” for war-fighter, unmanned robotic vehicles for surveillance, enormously enhanced training through the use of virtual reality. Among the benefits gained by the nation are the three percent of national productivity fueled by information technology, dozens of multi-million dollar of industries per year, internet-enabled business model, a forty-fold reduction on the cost of telephony, a global wireless phone system and many more. Among the researches that helped the field of health is the medical imagery such as CAT scans, cochlear implants, bio sensors, smart prosthetics, and smart defibrillating pacemaker.

Some may say that the researches of the technologies aforementioned are just a huge expense by the government, huge expense in a sense that the government prepares a huge amount of money in order to make the research possible. But as to what these technologies had imparted to the nation, these technologies returned huge investments to the nation. It may even return the investment twice or thrice depending on how beneficial these researches will make. Though some of the investment made by thee government take time to be returned, these will not be wasted because it will have equally large return fort he future generations.

Secondly, Wulf also said that Computing and computer science is in the unusual position for being both a challenging intellectual discipline and at the same time it provides infrastructure in the other fields of science, engineering and commerce. Well, I guess, it is quite visible to what we, The CS research students are experiencing right now. To think it clearly, the topics being presented on the open forum last September 2 proved Wulf’s statement about Computing and Computer Science. As we can see, the proposed topics belong to computing. Engineering is also visible because the student/ researcher should plan for a framework of the project, must calculate necessary data if there are and things like that. Commerce; because all the topics presented can be manufactured for the use of the respective kinds of people the project is intended for. Research such as this made the quality of life to be better. With this, Wulf had justified that funding a research is not an expense but an investment. You can see the benefits after the research has been done and what you invest returns back to you.

“There is a marvelously rich and productive interplay between basic scientific discovery and applications, between universities and industries, between societal need and technology.” This is what Wulf believe rather than that of “basic research begets applied research begets development begets benefits to society”. I wish I had seen the figures he presented that time so that I can totally relate to what he is saying. Well, he pointed out a figure showing the relationship between industry and universities in the development of information technology which produces more that a billion dollars of revenue per year. With this, he pointed out that progress does not always start with basic research. It often involves iteratively exchanging roles between industry and university. However, if federally-funded, university basic research didn’t jive together, the technologies we are enjoying right now would not exist.

With Wulf’s statements above, I though that he is not pro to research, but as his following statement, he said that though basic research may not be the original source for the benefits that we are enjoying from technology, but it is the vital and irreplaceable component of the rich system that produces them.

Speaking about the state of Computer Science research, he pointed out that when resources are tight, researchers propose more incremental, less risky projects and that they get less on what they spend. In terms of funds, he cited that at NSF the budget for CISE (Computer and Information Science and Engineering) has grown nicely when it was in the late 80’s. A number of studies have shown but it takes years for these researches to make their way from laboratory to product. In fact, only a few of these ideas become commercial and there is no good way to predict which of these ideas will be the most important. Wulf also vent an old annoyance about agencies who gained a lot of benefits from information technology but does not even contribute to the development of the technologies to fulfill ther missions  and yet Computer science research haven’t got any contribution from these agencies – NASA, DoE, NIH, etc.

What is the variety of topics in Computer Science research?

According to the Department of Computer Science, Yale University, these are the technical topics involving CS research. These are Artificial Intelligence, Vision & Robotics, Computer Systems and Networking, Distributed Computing, Machine Learning, Programming Languages, Scientific Computing & Applied Math, and Security & Cryptography.

References:

http://www7.nationalacademies.org/ocga/testimony/Computer_Science_Research_in_the_United_States http://www.cs.yale.edu