IMSS005%20Computer%20Science%20Seminar

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IMSS005Computer Science Seminar

• Lecture 2
• Writing a Literature Review
• Writing a Research Proposal

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Writing a Literature Review
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Literature Review

• What is a literature review?
• A summary of what has been published on a certain
  topic
• e.g., after studying a certain problem (say
  testing)
• Write a simple summary about
• An overview of different methods
• The strength of the various methods
• The weakness of the various methods

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Why literature review is necessary?

• A thick book and/or many papers vs several pages
• To understand all recent/related work and use
  that knowledge to propose your own solution to
  the problem at a later stage.

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Format of a literature review

• If it is written as a separate report,
• The literature review includes
• Title page
• Acknowledgments (Optional)
• Abstract
• Table of contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Main text
• References
• Appendices (Optional)

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Format of a literature review

• Main text
• Introduction
• A brief description of the problem
• Method discussion 1
• Technical details
• Method discussion 2
• Conclusions

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Writing a Research Proposal
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Research Proposal

• What is a research proposal?
• A proposal of your new method
• Methods/techniques
• Applications
• It includes the pros and cons (or comparisons) of
  other related methods

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Format of a research proposal

• A research proposal includes
• Title page
• Acknowledgments (Optional)
• Abstract
• Table of contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Main text
• References
• Appendices (Optional)

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Format of a research proposal

• Main text
• Introduction
• Problem
• Methodology/Approach
• Expected Outcomes
• Related work/ Literature Survey
• Work Schedule

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Format

• Abstract
• Viewed as a summary of the document
• Can be used by the readers to understand the
  content of the document quickly
• It is also used to determine the relevancy.

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Format

• Abstract
• Two types of abstracts
• Informative (used to condense the paper) used
  in conference/journal publications, research
  proposal
• State the objectives and scope of the
  investigation
• Describe the methods employed
• Summarize the results or proposed outcomes
• Summarize the conclusions
• Indicative (indicates the subjects dealt with in
  a document) used in literature review

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Format

• Abstract
• It should not be longer than half of a page.
• If you do not know how to write -gt start with a
  draft Abstract in Chinese.
• Avoid using long sentences and you will find it
  easier to translate them into English. 

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Format

• Abstract
• Read these sentences several times to see whether
  they are clearly expressed or not. Then translate
  them into English.
• Make each sentence short and precise.
• Again, read it several times. If possible, ask
  someone to read it and observe how much they
  understand.
• Revise them if necessary.
• Proof read your abstract several times for any
  errors and typos.
• It is very ugly if you have mistakes in your
  abstract.

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Format of a research proposal

• Introduction
• Remember, your reader may not be familiar with
  your area and it is your responsibility to guide
  him/her into your story.
• Begin with introduction to terms and definitions
  related to your problem.
• Start from easy ones and move on to more
  difficult concepts.
• Consistent abbreviations and terms
• E.g., Workflow Management Systems (WfMS). You
  should not use WFMS or WMS or WfMs in later
  sections,....

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Format

• Introduction
• Once you have introduced the background knowledge
  about the domain, you can start talking about
  your motivations. 
• E.g., you might want to give a brief review about
  recent work and
• argue that their approaches lack certain
  functionalities and therefore should be improved
  in certain ways.
• Should be brief and only address recent work
  which is directly related to your research.
  Detail should be postponed to Literature review.

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Format of a research proposal

• Problem
• After you have stated your motivations in
  Introduction Section, you are now ready to
  describe what is your Thesis problem.
• It must be very precise and you can itemize each
  sub-problem. e.g.
• How to improve reporting functions in workflow
  management systems based on audit trail data.
• Remember, these are the problems you are planning
  to solve and you should only write them if you
  are happy with it.

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Format of a research proposal

• Methodology/Approach
• You should describe how to solve the problems
  that you have stated in the previous section.
• Note General description only.
• Technical details ? literature review.
• You can use different approaches for different
  problems.
• E.g., case studies for identifying hidden
  problems,
• or using simulation for testing the
  performance,....
• itemize your approaches with respect to the
  problems defined in previous section.  

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Format of a research proposal

• Expected outcomes
• One of the most important sections in your
  proposal.
• It is also an agreement between you and the
  faculty.
• A lot of students write what they are going to do
  in this section. No, it is wrong!.
• You should state what you are going to produce
  after 12 months.
• if you have an itemized list, then each item in
  the list should start with a Noun. e.g,
• An novel algorithm for improving the performance
  of string matching.
• A detail analysis of reporting functions in
  Workflow Management Systems.

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Format

• Literature Review
• The related methods / techniques / algorithms are
  discussed.
• Sometimes, similar problems (to your thesis
  problem) with solutions are also discussed.
• All of them are usually from papers / books.
• Discuss them in details one by one

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Format of a research proposal

• Pros and Cons
• Then, you should pinpoint what is missing or the
  weakness of the algorithm with respect to the
  scope of the research defined in your proposal.
• E.g. if your proposal is about new algorithms for
  string matching in HTML data.
• In that case, you can argue that the algorithm
  for string matching is only good for ASCII text
  and not suitable for HTML data.

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Format of a research proposal

• Work schedule
• You have one year duration to complete your
  thesis.
• See sample Timeline.

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Work Plan
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Work Plan
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WORK PLAN

• Part I Data Modelling
• Step 1 Build up an automotive engine performance
  model using Neural Networks based on the
  collected dataset.
• Step 2 The output results from the model built
  will be verified on a chassis dynamometer.
• Step 3 Fine-tune the performance model
• Estimated period 4 months

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WORK PLAN

• Part II Parameters Optimization
• Step 1 Apply GA to the performance model built
  
• Step 2 The output results of the optimal
  parameters will be verified though dynamometer
  tests.
• Step 3 Fine-tune the GA parameters for better
  results
• Estimated period 4 months

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WORK PLAN

• Part III
• Preparation of conference journal papers and
  thesis
• Preparation for oral defense
• Estimated period 4 months
• Total period 12 months

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Format of a research proposal

• References
• You have to prepare a list of references which
  are cited in your proposal. 
• Next lecture.