Sunteți pe pagina 1din 36

Overview of Research

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

What is research?
As a general term,
research is gathering
information that
answers a question
and so solves a
problem. (from Booth,
Colomb, & Williams
The Craft of
Research)

MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

What is research?
eg journalist finds out
who contributed to
election campaign
fund, to understand
political decisions
eg repairer finds out
what procedure to use
to fix a washing
machine
MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Academic Research
In academic research,
you must not only
answer a question, but
you must find
something new and
interesting.

MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Academic Research
You join a community of researchers.
You must advance the collective understanding of
this community.
Each community has a cumulative tradition with a set
of interesting questions, tools and methods, practices,
a style and language for writing up the research.
Research is a conversation and ongoing social
activity!
MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Academic Research
You need critical and careful reading of published
research
to learn what the community already knows
to fit your work into the community
to be prepared for your own work to be
evaluated

MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Benefits of research project


The development of
skills to function more
independently

The opportunity to put


classroom knowledge
into practice
The identification of
career interests
MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Benefits of research project


The building of mentor
relationships between
faculty and students
The stimulation that
comes with critical
thinking
The opportunity to
participate in new
discoveries
MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Benefits of research project


The ability to better
understand research
methodologies
The stimulation of
creativity
The increased likelihood
of acceptance into
graduate or professional
school
MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Benefits of research project


The opportunity to
earn academic credit
The sheer excitement
created by intellectual
activity
The enhanced ability
grasp the philosophy
of life-long learning
MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Types of research project


Independent systems
Integrated systems
Computational and
modelling project

Evaluation project

MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Independent systems
Independent systems
are IT product
developments which
lead to full
applications.

MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Integrated systems
Developing integrated
systems involves the
design and
implementation of a
subsystem which adds
to or extends work
done by others.

MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Computation & modelling


Computation and
modelling projects do
not have as their
primary concern the
production of IT
products, but may
demonstrate
understanding and
achievement via e.g.,
prototyping, proof of
concept product, etc.
MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Evaluation
Evaluation projects
also do not set out to
produce IT product as
their primary aim,
though again this does
not rule out the
production of IT
product which
substantiates claims
made in the report.
MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

A Question
Every piece of
research should
address a question of
interest to the
community

MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

A Question
Each community has a tradition of style of question,
what happens?

why does it happen?


how should one do something?
what something should one do?

MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

A Question
Many questions fit into an on-going agenda
eg find data models to represent different sorts
of information
eg move data and computation in a network to
exploit locality
eg understand the design process

MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

A Claim
Every piece of
research makes a
claim (the
contribution) this
should answer a
question of interest
Claims can be very
diverse, among fields
and within fields
MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

A Claim
This is what happens
eg how often is data corrupted when using weak
concurrency control
This is why something happens
eg what factors lead to project success in opensource development

MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

A Claim Be explicit about


the meaning of
better
This is a better way to do something
eg efficiently recalculate a graph layout after a
change to topology

This is a better something to do


eg allow users to see the model of their skills kept
in a teaching system
MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Evidence
You must back up the
claim
Each research method is
defined by the sort of
evidence that it can
produce
Each community has its
own standards of quality
and reasonableness
MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Evidence
Evidence can be very varied, for examples
a prototype implementation to show that a
system can be built to achieve claimed
functionality
a simulation model which is executed to show a
system has certain properties

MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Evidence
Evidence can be very varied, for examples
measurements of a running system to show it
has good performance
observations of behaviour in an organisation to
show what is happening

a mathematical proof to show that some process


has desired properties
MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Argument

You should show that


the evidence you offer
supports the claim you
made

MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Argument
Its essential that you
deal with natural or
obvious objections to
the correctness or
importance of the work
You must think like
your readers, and
anticipate their
reactions
MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Argument

In systems work, this is


often called an
evaluation of the
design

MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Claim/Argument - Type 1
This system design leads to better performance on some
metric

make sure you limit how much worse this makes other
metrics (such as cost!)
make sure your measurements are fair (dont compare
with strawman design but with state-of-the-art)
This system design offers better functionality for some uses

make sure you show it can be implemented with


adequate performance
MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Claim/Argument - Type 2
This behaviour can be explained by this theory
make sure you dont have confounding factors
such as level of experience, or method novelty, or
subject expectations (placebo effect)
This is what happens
make sure you dont interfere too much with what
happens when you gather data, or misinterperete it
due to observer expectations
MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Common Mistakes 1
Gather lots of data
without a focussed
question or method
A collection of facts is not
a contribution!
it must reveal some
pattern or
understanding that
you make explicit
MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Common Mistakes 2
Build a system without a
focused question or
planned evaluation
eg lets see how to
use aspect-oriented
programming in a
sensor network
eg let design agents
breed and evolve
MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Common Mistakes 2
An innovative system is not
necessarily a contribution!
It must be a worthwhile
innovation in a sense you
make explicit
eg better functionality
eg better performance
eg better model of reality

MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Negative Results

Sometimes, you dont


get the result you
hoped for

MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Negative Results
You gather data that does not reveal any pattern or
understanding

eg no factor seems to correlate well with project


success
You design a system that turns out to be worse than
the state-of-the- art
eg your machine learning algorithm runs slower
than expected
MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Negative Results
You can still salvage a thesis
but publication will be hard, and it wont have much
impact
Try to find some way to contribute to our understanding, or
suggest fruitful directions for further work

eg what features of the algorithm make it slow


Make sure the problem is intrinsic, not just your bad
coding/experiment design/etc
MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Disclaimer
These presentation slides are designed, organised and
compiled by Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar based in
parts from materials by A. Fekete, J. Davis, and others.
The images are downloaded from the World Wide Web.
Copyright of the content and images are owned by the
respective authors.

These presentation slides shall be used solely for sharing


of knowledge and reference purposes only. They shall not
to be transferred to others outside the university nor shall
they be published to the World Wide Web except with the
consent of the author.
MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

S-ar putea să vă placă și