Research Problem

Outline 1. Learn how to define a research problem in CS field.

How to Find Research Problems “There were two kinds of scientists: big-bone hunters and small-bone hunters” The biological anthropologist Loren Eiseley If Eiseley had been a programmer, he would have called this "bottom-up science."

How to Find Research Problems Computer science includes many different kinds of research efforts. You can contribute to one of these 1. The smallest bone in CS –implementation of someone else's work. –Not original but useful to your education and to the field. Example : Implementation of an authentication algorithm.

How to Find Research Problems 2. A significant small bone that improves a well- known technique. –When reading papers, stay on the lookout for such bones. In particular, notice when the author may be making harmful simplifications or arbitrary choices in his/her approach. These are opportunities for you to try something different..

How to Find Research Problems 3. (Medium Size Bone) Along the same lines, you might make a controlled comparison of two or more algorithms – Evaluating them by some objective measure of efficiency or accuracy. –Designing a clean comparison does take thought, and carrying it out is often a lot of work. –Note that quantitative studies of this sort are becoming increasingly important in some areas of CS (e.g., operating systems, machine learning, natural language, algorithms). –Example : Comparison between genetic algorithms and particle swarm optimizationComparison between genetic algorithms and particle swarm optimization

How to Find Research Problems 4. Review the existing research in some area. Note that this takes a good deal of time to do well, and is not likely to do much for your career unless a lot of people read and cite your lit review. Writing a lit review will make you 1.An expert, able to talk confidently with other researchers in the area; 2.it will give you an idea of the shortcomings of past research; 3. and it may suffice for M.S.E. thesis, or the first part of a Ph.D. thesis. Example “Brain–Computer Interface Technologies in the Coming Decades” This paper focuses on using online brain–signal processing to enhance human–computer interactions; it highlights past and current BCI applications and proposes future technologies that will make significant expansion into education, entertainment, rehabilitation, and human– system performance domains.

How to Find Research Problems 5. Build a large program or device of some kind. This gets you some name recognition confirms your ability as a software engineer. Ex; King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology’s SANAM 6. Identify various problems or issues as significant. These often represent big bones in the skeleton of the field – problems that arise often, and whose solution makes a difference. How ? Get to know some of these problems and the work that's been done on them. If you see how to achieve the first-ever solution, or a better solution, or a different style of solution, that's a big deal. Example : 3D Gaze estimation. (vedio)

How to Find Research Problems 7. Big-bone Research 1. study important papers in your branch of computer science, flip through some conference proceedings to see what people are working on 2. ask: What problems (recognized or unrecognized) are obstructing progress in my field? Can I solve them? If not, can I at least formalize them? Can I prove to my colleagues that solving them would make a difference?

TOPICS DISCUSSION

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Assignment#1 Submit by –20 articles –Top conferences or journals

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