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Research Overview and Process

Assoc. 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

AP Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

What is research?
eg journalist nds out who contributed to election campaign fund, to understand political decisions eg repairer nds out what procedure to use to x a washing machine
MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur AP Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

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

MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

AP 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 AP Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

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

MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

AP Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Benets of research project


The development of skills to function more independently The opportunity to put classroom knowledge into practice The identication of career interests
MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur AP Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Benets 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 AP Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Benets 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 AP Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Benets 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 AP Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Types of research project


Independent systems Integrated systems Computational and modelling project Evaluation project

MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

AP Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

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

MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

AP 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

AP 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 AP 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 AP Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

A Question

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

MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

AP 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

AP Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

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

MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

AP 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 elds and within elds

MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

AP 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

AP Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

A Claim

Be explicit about the meaning of better

This is a better way to do something eg eciently 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 AP Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

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

AP 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 AP Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Argument

You should show that the evidence you oer supports the claim you made

MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

AP 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 AP Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Argument

In systems work, this is often called an evaluation of the design

MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

AP 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 oers better functionality for some uses make sure you show it can be implemented with adequate performance
MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur AP 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 eect) 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 AP 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 AP 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 AP 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

AP Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Negative Results

Sometimes, you dont get the result you hoped for

MIIT Universiti Kuala Lumpur

AP 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 AP Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Negative Results
You can still salvage a thesis but publication will be hard, and it wont have much impact Try to nd 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 AP Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

Disclaimer
These presentation slides are designed, organised and compiled by AP 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 AP Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

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Research Proposal
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Shamsul Anuar Mokhtar

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