This talk was given to students in the third year of their Computer Engineering degree program at the University of Pune, India. It was intended to instill ideas of basic research methodology and that research is not something other-worldly. The message was that they can perform "research" in what they do everyday. The talk was very interactive, encouraging students to clarify their misconceptions about research.

1. RESEARCH
AND
THE
ART
OF
DOING
WHAT
YOU
WANT
SATYAJEET
RAJE

2. INTRODUCTIONS
• BE
2009
SKN
• Final
year
project
“Automa;c
Text
Summariza;on”
• Natural
Language
Processing,
Intelligent
Search
• MS
2012
The
Ohio
State
University
• Thesis:
Sema;c
Search
Engine
for
Resource
Discovery
• Domain:
Biomedical
and
Healthcare
• Currently
pursuing
PhD
• Research
in
Seman;c
Web,
Ontologies
and
their
applica;ons
in
Knowledge
Management
and
Data
Integra;on

3. TODAY’S
TALK
• Is
“Research”
what
it
really
seems
to
be?
• Can
anybody
do
research?
• Is
it
really
necessary?
• How
will
it
help
• for
my
project
• in
my
job
• for
higher
studies
• What
research
can
be
done
right
now?
• Steps
in
research
• Easy
research
prac;ces
• Transla;on
to
project

4. RESEARCH?

6. A
NEW
WAY
TO
LOOK
AT
RESEARCH?
• Not
restricted
to
ACADEMIC
circles
• Helps
ORGANIZE
your
work
• Not
all
research
needs
to
be
GROUND
BREAKING
• The
best
way
to
SHARE
YOUR
THOUGHTS
AND
IDEAS
to
the
world
• “Research”
does
NOT
need
to
be
tedious
and
cumbersome!
• A
way
to
GET
RECOGNIZED
for
your
work
“Research”
is
a
WAY
OF
DOING
THINGS
!

7. TYPES
OF
RESEARCH

8. COMPUTER
SCIENCE
AND
ENGINEERING

9. COMPUTER
SCIENCE
AND
ENGINEERING
Applied
Research
Theore;cal
Research

10. COMPUTER
SCIENCE
AND
ENGINEERING
• More
of
an
applied
science
• Making
the
connec;ons
is
important
• Every
soware
or
hardware
is
meant
to
aid
someone
in
a
different
domain

11. RESEARCH
AND
COMMON
SENSE
• Commonly
used
“big”
words
• Hypothesis
–
The
UNANSWERED!!
research
ques;on
• Research
Methodology
–
Your
research
PLAN
• Literature
Review
–
Your
READING
on
the
subject
• Cita;on
/
Reference
–
An
ar;cle
relevant
to
your
work

12. THE
RULES
OF
THE
RESEARCH
GAME
• KNOW
your
resources
• USE
resources
well
• DO
NOT
GIVE
UP
the
game
• BE
FLEXIBLE
about
the
outcome
• FAILED
EXPERIMENT
does
not
mean
failed
research
• EVALUATE
your
solu;on

13. THE
RESEARCH
GAME
Illustra;on:
Ernest
Harburg.
Source:
The
Science
Game,
N.
Agnew
and
S.
Pyke,
Pren;ce-­‐Hall
(1978)

14. WHAT
CAN
BE
DONE
RIGHT
NOW
BE
Project
• Choose
something
that
YOU
like
• Use
it
to
test
the
waters
• Experiment
now
rather
than
during
the
Job,
MS,
ME
..
Tips
and
Tricks
• USE
WIKIPEDIA
but
properly
• READ
RESEARCH
ARTICLES
related
to
your
project
• PARAPHRASE
from
what
you
have
read
• Have
a
RESEARCH
PLAN
and
more
importantly
an
EVALUATION
PLAN
for
your
project

15. BE
PROJECT
• Stay
Focused
on
what
you
want
to
do
• A
“plan”
needs
well
defined
reasons,
methods
and
objec;ves
• Have
not
only
a
PLAN
A
but
PLAN
B
and
C
as
well
• Be
cau;ous
of
the
companies
and
the
projects
that
they
offer
• An
in-­‐house
project
is
as
good
if
done
properly
• Take
note
of
everything
you
do
and
your
contribu;ons
to
the
project
• Know
your
ul;mate
professional
goal

16. BE
PROJECT
• Stay
Focused
on
what
you
want
to
do
• A
“plan”
needs
well
defined
reasons,
methods
and
objec;ves
• Have
not
only
a
PLAN
A
but
PLAN
B
and
C
as
well
• Be
cau;ous
of
the
companies
and
the
projects
that
they
offer
• An
in-­‐house
project
is
as
good
if
done
properly
• Take
note
of
everything
you
do
and
your
contribu;ons
to
the
project
• Know
your
ul;mate
professional
goal

17. USING
WIKIPEDIA
• Great
staring
point
for
new
research
and
researchers
• Go
one
stage
deeper
The
most
important
part
of
a
Wikipedia
ar;cle
• DO
NOT
refer
to
Wikipedia
or
Blogs
directly
• Compare
Wikipedia
to
Big
Bazaar

18. READING
RESEARCH
PAPERS
• Where
to
find
them
• Wikipedia
references
• Top
conferences
and
journals
for
your
domain
(Microso
Academic
Search)
• Google
Scholar
• What
to
read
in
them
Style
Language
Content
• “How
to
read
a
research
paper”
-­‐
Michael
Mitzenmacher
www.eecs.harvard.edu/~michaelm/postscripts/ReadPaper.pdf‎
• Make
a
note
or
summary
of
the
paper
and
how
it
relates
to
your
work
• A
collec;on
of
these
notes
is
your
literature
survey

19. PARAPHRASE
AND
NOT
PLAGIARIZE
• Plagiarism
–
copy
pas;ng
directly
• Professional
and
academic
suicide
• Copy
the
thought
paste
your
ideas
• Learn
to
paraphrase
“although
the
storage
capaci;es
of
hard
disks
have
increased
massively
over
the
years,
access
speeds
–
the
rate
at
which
data
can
be
read
from
drives
–
have
not
kept
up”
[1]
White,
Tom
(10
May
2012).
Hadoop:
The
Defini<ve
Guide.
O'Reilly
Media.
p.
3.
ISBN
978-­‐1-­‐4493-­‐3877-­‐0
Over
the
years
there
has
been
an
exponen<al
increase
in
the
storage
capacity
of
hard
disks.
However,
according
to
[1]
the
access
speeds
for
these
disks
have
not
been
able
to
scale
at
the
same
rate.

20. HAVE
A
RESEARCH
PLAN
• Know
the
scope
of
your
project
• Define
a
realis;c
;meline
for
your
own
benefit
• Does
not
need
to
be
the
same
as
the
one
in
progress
report
• You
must
have
an
idea
of
how
you
are
going
to
evaluate
your
work
apart
from
a
working
demo
/
technology
User
Interface
/
Human
Computer
Interac;on
Survey
based
evalua;on
AI
/
Machine
Learning
/
Task
based
Experimental
/
Task
based
evalua;on
Architectural
/
Soware
Engg
/
Technology
Comparison
based
evalua;on

21. PLAN
TO
WRITE
A
PAPER
• Not
as
hard
and
;me
consuming
as
it
seems
• Most
of
the
work
is
already
done..
It
is
just
needed
to
be
expressed
in
the
right
way
• Concentrate
on
the
idea
(WHY?)
and
not
the
implementa;on
(HOW?)
• Every
BE
project
has
the
poten;al
to
be
converted
into
a
decent
published
paper
• Need
not
be
at
the
best
conference
or
journal
• Worst
that
can
happen
is
that
it
will
get
rejected
• Learn
from
the
reviews

22. ANATOMY
OF
A
GOOD
PAPER
• Clear
and
Concise
• Every
word
counts
• As
short
as
possible
• Good
relevant
references
• Explana;on
of
what
is
done
and
planned
to
be
done
• Evalua;on
method
and
results
if
possible

23. ANATOMY
OF
A
GOOD
PAPER
• Introduc;on
• Brief
overview
of
your
idea
or
project.
What
sets
you
apart.
• Literature
Review
• Notes
on
what
you
have
read
• Methods
• Explain
what
is
done
• Discussion
• What
you
think
about
it
and
future
work
• Evalua;on
• How
have
you
evaluated
the
work
and
its
results
• Conclusion

24. TO
SUMMARIZE
• Research
is
not
difficult
• Cri;cal
thinking
is
the
most
important
outcome
• Ask
the
right
ques;ons
to
the
right
source
• Choose
your
project
well
• Do
consider
wri;ng
a
paper
right
now
• ALWAYS
DO
WHAT
YOU
WANT

25. CONCLUSION
Ques;ons?
Project,
Research
Process,
Mentality
aer
BE,
Studies
in
the
US,
Start-­‐ups,
…