Research and writing thesis Dr. Bahawodin Baha University of Brighton, UK 7 th April 2009

Overview Conducting research and writing a thesis require the following steps: Selecting a topic and identify your objectives Project planning Research – Conducting practical work – Hardware and software design, building and testing Report/thesis writing Presentation

Project Planning A "Project" is a set of activities which ends with specific accomplishment and which has: Non-routine tasks Distinct start/finish dates Resource constraints (time/money/people/equipment). Use Gannt chart

The Original Training Plan of the KPU Lecturers at UoB MSc course Back to KPU Preparatory course Back to KPU English Language Training Sep. 10 Oct. 09Sep. 09 Jul. 09Jun. 09 Oct. 08Sep. 08 Jul. 08Jun. 08 Oct. 07Activities Year 3 Year 2Year 1 English Language Training - 9 Months Return to KPU- 3 Months Prep. Course - 9 Months Return to KPU- 3 Months MSc- 12 Months

The Modified Training Plan of the KPU Lecturers at UoB MSc courses English Language Training Preparatory courses English Language Training Sep. 10Oct. 09 Sep. 09 Jul. 09Jun. 09Oct. 08Sep. 08Apr. 08Activities Year 3Year 2Year 1 English Language Training - 6 Months Prep. Course - 9 Months English Language Training - 3 Months MSc-12 Months

Research Methods Carry out research to find background information about your chosen topic Sources of information – Text books – Journals – Conference proceedings – Internet – Writing to companies – Visiting institutions

Conducting practical work Seeking solutions for the problems, identified earlier It may be hardware, software or combination of hardware and software Divide the task into smaller tasks Try to find solution to every task Test every task Integrate all the tasks Show flow-chart for the software that you may develop

Report writing Title page Abstract or summary Content Main body of report – Introduction Background Main objectives – Chapters and sections – Discuss your results Conclusions References Appendices

References It is important that you use full and proper referencing throughout the text. Findings or assumptions must be referenced. A reference is indicated in the text by a number of square brackets, eg  1 . Each new referred work is given a new number. These references must then be listed at the end of your thesis as follows:  reference number  Authors name(s), Title of paper, article, book etc, Title of Journal, Volume number of Journal, (name of editor), page numbers, year of publication. Example for a Journal paper  1  F G Hammitt, ‘Damage to solids caused by cavitation’ Proc Royal Soc A260, pp , 1966.

Important points to remember People will assess your work on the basis of your written work Check the format of thesis for TU and follow the guidelines Try to minimize spelling and grammatical mistakes Try to publish papers on your work

Thesis iTitle page iiAbstract iiiContents Introduction Background Design of artefact, model, test program, computer simulation etc. Results, including calculation Discussion of Results Conclusions Suggestions for Further Work References Appendices Acknowledgements

THE END Thanks for your attention