CSCD 506 Research Methods for Computer Science Winter 2018

1. CSCD 506Research Methods for Computer Science Winter 2018 Lecture 9 Generating Research Ideas What is Good Research 1

2. Topics • Creating Research Ideas • Excellent Research • How to Recognize it • How to do it 2

3. Generating Research Ideas Most graduate students have been passive consumers of knowledge May ask questions, but they do not generate course content Rely on professor to present ideas, and lecture on various topics in a course. Agree?

4. Generating Research Ideas Graduate school is different Requires a different set of skills Advice is to ... Becoming an Active Reader and Listener What does this mean? You transition from passive mode of learning that traditional lecture courses encourage to An active and critical learning style

5. Getting Research Ideas Whenever you read technical material, evaluate a piece of software, or listen to a research talk, Ask yourself these questions: From where did the author seem to draw the ideas? You may never get the exact answer What exactly was accomplished by this piece of work? How does it relate to other work in field? What would be a reasonable next step to build upon this work? Are there ideas from related fields might be relevant this subject? In this mode, you should ask lots of questions

6. Exposing Yourself to Research Set aside some time every week for trying to generate research ideas Some possible catalysts: Make a weekly effort to read abstracts from premier conferences or journals in your field Choose an article or two to read in depth and then critique it Make a weekly search to find preprints in your field. Read selectively and critique Attend a research seminar or colloquium series Listen and critique These can be online, TED talks or other

7. Directed Study What do you think? Which comes first: the thesis advisor or the thesis topic? The answer is, both ways work If you have identified a compatible advisor, you could ask for an independent study course Both of you together set focus for course, with you having more or less input depending upon your progress in identifying a subfield of research, CSCD 599

8. A Pitfall to Avoid It is possible to spend almost all of your time in literature review and seminars Is this enough to develop research ideas? The truth is that nothing will come of it unless you are an active reader and listener You must also assign yourself time to develop your own ideas, too

9. A Pitfall to Avoid (2) More questions ….. Is it possible to “finish a literature review and then start research." Not really New literature is always appearing, You will continually see new connections and related areas that must be studied Active listening and reading must be viewed as “continuing education'' that will involve your entire career Don't fool yourself into thinking it must be finished before you can begin research

10. Choosing an Idea How? From reading, interacting with your advisor, course work, or working on a research assistantship, some possible projects will emerge Also, interacting with other students Talk to your peers about ideas Make a list of open problems and possible projects that are of interest to you, and discuss them with potential advisors

11. Remain Active Even after you have decided on your initial focus, important to continue a routine of reading new material All of these sources can contribute to the development of your idea At this stage you can add one more question: How can these ideas help me solve my research problem? Initial idea can be quite far from final thesis topic If you remain active in identifying new ideas, it will be much easier to generate alternative topics if the time comes.

12. Excellence in Research

13. Research Excellence Each year, many papers are produced and research conducted, question is What makes a great research problem? Ideas? No one right answer Research is a matter of taste or opinion Over time, a research idea will gain in importance

14. Research Excellence However, great research problems tend to share many characteristics: Problem is difficult Solving the problem creates new knowledge Problem changes conventional thinking. While there is value in confirming conventional wisdom, great research typically offers surprising results, creates a new way of thinking about an area In other words, a Paradigm Shift Can you think of examples of this?

15. Research Led to Paradigm Shifts Standard Networking Protocols → Universal Networks Graphical Browsers → Internet PC Computers → Ubiquitous Computing Wireless Technology → Cell phones, Wi-Fi, Everything wireless

16. Picking a Good Problem Picking a good problem is important Developing taste in research problems and learning how to identify good problems can take many years of experience Students get structured training Attend classes, read textbooks, and grind through problem sets in areas that might be called “established science”

17. Research Patterns Do you believe that there can be “research patterns” that can be applied to problems? Like software engineering design “patterns” for software but instead for research problems. Research process is a lot more of a recipe than it might appear There appears to be research patterns that can be applied to problems A design pattern is a reusable solution to a commonly occurring problem Example design patterns include iterators (for lists) and locks and thread pools (for concurrency)

18. Research Patterns Researchers tend to coalesce around certain paradigms as they emerge Finding these emerging paradigms puts you at the cutting edge of a research problem

19. Research Patterns Reading conference proceedings to identify trend is reasonable, but you might not be at cutting edge A better place to identify trends, is “upstream” of conferences. Funding agencies often set research agendas, through “calls for proposals”, and research community chases those opportunities So, for example, if you see a funding call for digital health, it’s reasonable to expect that three or four years down the road, a trend or sub-community may emerge around this topic. Funding agencies even hold workshops to help shape these trends, before calls for proposals are released.

20. Finding Good Research Problems Revisit old problems where assumptions may have changed Old problems can be a great source of new problems. Previous solutions to old problems may have assumed certain constraints about processing power, storage, the cost of memory, the set of prevailing applications or protocols, etc. Yet, technologies are continually advancing A problem that was difficult or otherwise intractable five years ago might suddenly become solvable because old assumptions are now invalid Can you think of some examples?

21. Finding Research Problems Dream, and maintain wish lists Many research solutions are ultimately about making everyone’s lives better. Think about the “grand” research problems—curing cancer, forecasting disasters, and so forth Note – There are already many “cures” for Cancer They are just not profitable to the medical community

22. Finding Good Research Problems These solutions seem like science fiction, yet they are achievable. Significant problems involve sub-problems, some of which require creation of new knowledge If they didn’t require new discoveries, problems would be solved already

23. Summary • Good research doesn't just happen • Takes a lot of work and dedication • Identify important problems • Go outside the box to find solutions • If it was an easy problem, would already be solved • Inter-disciplinary solutions often yield better results (mine and other opinions) • Ideas come from a broader background 23

24. References How to do Great Research https://greatresearch.org/2013/09/20/research-patterns/ Graduate Study in Computer and Mathematical Sciences http://www.cs.umd.edu/~oleary/gradstudy/gradstudy.html

25. Assignment – Project Proposal End 25