The PhD Research Proposal

1
The PhD Research Proposal

• 3rd CTI
• PhD Conference
• September 9, 2000

2
Typical PhD Milestones

• Course work
• Candidacy exams
• Research Proposal
• Dissertation Defense

3
The Proposal Beast in a Nutshell

• Difficult but crucial for timely completion
• The blueprints of the research
• A plan for the students
• A yardstick for the committee
• An iterative process
• Originality and clarity, not the length

4
Pre-Proposal PhaseTopic Finding

• The subject should be timely and well-defined
• Given or chosen by the student
• Become an active reader and listener
• Research log (journal)
• Magnum Opus Fallacy
• Heuristics The most liked papers

5
The Structure of the Proposal

• Not standardized yet (ISO might jump in at any
  time!)
• A matter of taste of the student (or advisor?)
• Two common formats
• Non-dissertation style
• Mini dissertation format

6
Non-Dissertation Style

• Sections of the Proposal
• Summary / Introduction
• Hypothesis, Problem or Question
• Prior Research and Importance of Topic
• Methodology, Limitations, Key Assumptions
• Contributions to Knowledge
• Proposed Dissertation Chapters

7
Typical Dissertation Chapters

• Introduction
• Background / survey of previous work
• Description of research methodology
• Research results
• Analysis of the results
• Summary and conclusion

8
Mini Dissertation Format

• Introduction and statement of the problem
• Literature review
• Research methodology

9
Proposal advice

• Choose a good title
• Read others proposals
• Attend others proposal presentations
• If asked so, choose committee members wisely

10
Last Word
Practice What You Preach!
THANK YOU!