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MSc Communications Software Dissertation Support 01 Research Process

MSc Communications Software Dissertation Support 01 Research Process. Mícheál Ó Foghlú mofoghlu@tssg.org. Revised Schedule. Mon 12th Jan Thomas Magedanz - Guest Lecture on IMS Wed 14th Jan Presentations Wed 21st Jan Presentations Wed 28th Jan IPv6 Summit (Dublin Castle)

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MSc Communications Software Dissertation Support 01 Research Process

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  1. MSc Communications SoftwareDissertation Support01 Research Process Mícheál Ó Foghlú mofoghlu@tssg.org

  2. Revised Schedule • Mon 12th Jan Thomas Magedanz - Guest Lecture on IMS • Wed 14th Jan Presentations • Wed 21st Jan Presentations • Wed 28th Jan IPv6 Summit (Dublin Castle) • Wed 4th Feb EMPTY- to be scheduled? • Wed 11th Feb Session 01 • Wed 25th Feb EMPTY - CHANGED was Session 02 • Wed 4th Mar Session 02 - CHANGED was EMPTY • Wed 11th Mar Session 03 • Wed 18th Mar EMPTY - to be scheduled? • Wed 25th Mar EMPTY - to be scheduled? • Wed 1st Apr Session 04 • Wed 22nd Apr Session 05 • Sessions 01-05 to be delivered by Mícheál Ó Foghlú

  3. Schedule Detail • 01 What is research? • Philosophy, Epistemology, Methodology and Method • 02 How to write academically? • Some simple language rules • Some simple structure rules • 03 What’s the big deal with plagiarism? • Bibliographies, references and citations, … • Doing it in Word • Doing it with other tools like LaTeX/BibTeX • 04 Results - how to do experiments • Support tools: simulation, data analysis, … • 05 Discussion

  4. About the Presenter • Current Position • Research Director Telecommunications Software & Systems Group (WIT) –160 staff and students; 20 PostGrad students; 40 projects • Lecturer in department of Computing, Mathematics & Physics (a.k.a. P&Q) • Supervision and Research Procedural Related Experience • Member of 2nd and 3rd WIT Academic Councils (Support Subcommittee, Research Subcommittee) • Involved in numerous HETAC evaluation panels, in particular for delegation of authority to award at levels 8, 9 and 10. • Supervised 3 MSc to completion as named primary, 11 MSc to completion as named secondary, 27 MSc to completion as TSSG research co-ordinator. First 3 PhD graduated 2008. • External examiner for NUI Maynooth (1 MEng), Cork IT (2 MSc), Athlone IT (1 MSc)

  5. Presentation Outline • A) Theory (What is the big deal about epistemology and research methodology?) • B) Practice (What does it mean in practice for the MSc Communications Software dissertation?) • C) Conclusion

  6. Presentation Outline • A) Theory (What is the big deal about epistemology and research methodology?) • B) Practice (What does it mean in practice for the MSc Communications Software dissertation?) • C) Conclusion

  7. What is Science (Philosophically)? • The distinction drawn between science and philosophy is of relatively recent origin. Prior to the nineteenth century, science was considered to be a part of philosophy and not an intellectual endeavor separate from it. What we know today as the scientific method began to take on its modern form in the period from the mid-1500s to the early 1700s, and what we now call science was known until into the nineteenth century as natural philosophy. • http://www.mrc.uidaho.edu/~rwells/Critical%20Philosophy%20and%20Mind/Chapter%2002.pdf

  8. What is Science (Philosophically)? • So Science is “Natural Philosophy” – an attempt to understand the rules of the natural world by observation and testing (experimentation) • In general the Scientific method was finalised by Karl Popper as the attempt to confirm a falsifiable hypothesis • e.g. Are the tides caused by water in the ocean expanding? • Test by observing high tides at opposite sides of the ocean. • In logic (the philosophy of science) Pierce emphasised the requirement to combine inductive reasoning (to generate a hypothesis) with deductive reasoning (to test it) • Syllogisms were first formalised by Aristotle, e.g. deduction… • Socrates is a man (assertion 1) an observable fact • All men are mortal (assertion 2) a generalised rule • Socrates is mortal (deduction) a new fact, harder to observe directly • Aside: a third form of syllogistic reasoning, abductive reasoning, was defined by Pierce and has since been very influential in attempts at artificial intelligence in the 20th Century

  9. What is Engineering/Technology? • The typical natural scientist does not go to any great effort to conceal his belief that engineering is not a science. “You do not study science in order to add to our knowledge of nature,” he will say. “You only study science in order to exploit nature for commercial purposes.” • But, on the other hand, it is also true that some engineers (usually those with Ph.D. degrees) do engage in research and do carry out investigations on topics in a fashion that is practically indistinguishable from the working practices of the physicist.

  10. The Research Process • Simple view: • Register for a postgraduate degree • Automatic if registered on MSc (taught) • Read, write and work on “research” • Produce thesis (mini-dissertation) • Graduate with postgraduate degree

  11. The Research Process • Related skills: • Writing (final thesis, work along the way, academic papers) • Presenting (papers at conferences, internal seminars) • Understanding (development of expertise within the domain of the thesis) • Ownership/Management (charting a path through - creation and management of work programme)

  12. “Research” Definitions (UK RAE) “‘Research’ for the purpose of the RAE is to be understood as original investigation undertaken in order to gain knowledge and understanding. It includes work of direct relevance to the needs of commerce, industry, and to the public and voluntary sectors; scholarship*; the invention and generation of ideas, images, performances, artefacts including design, where these lead to new or substantially improved insights; and the use of existing knowledge in experimental development to produce new or substantially improved materials, devices, products and processes, including design and construction. It excludes routine testing and routine analysis of materials, components and processes such as for the maintenance of national standards, as distinct from the development of new analytical techniques. It also excludes the development of teaching materials that do not embody original research. * Scholarship for the RAE is defined as the creation, development and maintenance of the intellectual infrastructure of subjects and disciplines, in forms such as dictionaries, scholarly editions, catalogues and contributions to major research databases.” (UK RAE 2006)

  13. “Research” Pasteur’s Quadrant • Stokes, DE (1997) Pasteur’s Quadrant: Basic Science and • Technological Innovation Brookings Institution Press: • Washington DC

  14. Models: Humanities • Scholarship • Produce an edition of a text (e.g. translate a text and produce annotated edition) • Criticism • Argue a case based on examples from literature • Artistic creation • Create a portfolio of work

  15. Models: Social Sciences/Business • Experimental (quantitative) • Carry out experiments to test a series of hypotheses • Show that the figures produced prove or disprove the hypotheses • Ethnographic (qualitative) • Discuss a series of case studies in great detail abstracting general principles (though not strictly proven)

  16. Models: Science/Mathematics • Experimental (quantitative) • Carry out experiments to test a series of hypotheses • Show that the figures produced prove or disprove the hypotheses • Theoretical • Propound a new theory which it may not be possible to test at present • Mathematical • Produce a proof in mathematics

  17. Models: Engineering/Technology • Developmental • Develop a prototype using innovative technologies • Experimental (quantitative) • Carry out experiments to test a series of hypotheses • Show that the figures produced prove or disprove the hypotheses • Ethnographic (qualitative) • Discuss a series of case studies in great detail abstracting general principles (though not strictly proven)

  18. Models of the Research Process

  19. Models: Managing the Research Process • Project management • Traditional project management tries to control as many of the variables as possible • Each step is precisely estimated (time and cost) • Research is much more fluid, but can still benefit from some of the rigour of project management • Usually deadlines are set

  20. Managing the Research Process (MSc taught) • Investigation phase (during 1st 2 semesters) • Read and analyse the state of the art, produce a draft literature review • Place your work in the context of other academic work in the domain • Explore feasibility by doing what you intend to do so you know if it is going to work out • Activity phase(s) (start of summer Jun/Jul) • Using an appropriate methodology carry out the main body of the work • Translate and edit a book • Carry out experiments • Develop software prototypes • Write-up phase (end of summer Aug) • Produce the thesis

  21. Models: Managing the Research Process • Despite having a “write-up” phase, you should be writing all the way through your research, much of which can be reused in the final thesis, but much will need reworking

  22. Scientific Method • Pose a research question in the form of a testable hypothesis • Define an experimental process to test this hypothesis • Carry out the experiments to these this hypothesis • Analyse the results and decide if the hypothesis is proved (for now) or disproved • Publish the results (and the process used to generate them) • Allow other to refute the results with counter examples so that nothing is ever proved fully, but is always open to refutation later

  23. Summary: The Research Process • The Research Process • What is the research process? • It is different in different disciplines • Within a discipline there may be a number of options • There are a lot of similarities across disciplines • How can you manage it? • As research students you should take control of the process for yourselves • Ideally this should happen within a structured environment (and research ethos)

  24. Presentation Outline • A) Theory (What is the big deal about epistemology and research methodology?) • B) Practice (What does it mean in practice for the MSc Communications Software dissertation?) • C) Conclusion

  25. MSc (research) versus MSc (taught) • No MSc has to produce new knowledge – that’s a PhD • An MSc (research) has much more emphasis on the full research process as defined here • An MSc (taught) has some emphasis on introducing you to the research process as defined here

  26. So how does that effect my mini-dissertation? • You must be aware of the need to validate your work in a wider context • You cannot simply develop something and run it – that does not prove anything • You must, at the very least, test what you have built, and compare it with the state of the art showing how you have progressed things in some way

  27. So what can I do? • Ideally: situate your work as a testable hypothesis, and present your results in this context • Otherwise: at the very least situate your work firmly within an academic research field (for comparison), and demonstrate how you evaluated your work formally within this context.

  28. So what does that mean? • If you want to develop some software, you must show that it is not simply doing the job inefficiently, that has been done elsewhere more efficiently already (though it is okay to be somewhat derivative in an MSc (taught).

  29. Danger Signs of a Bad Research Mini-Dissertation • All the references are websites and/or standards documents (no academic papers) • The work describes how a software prototype was built, does not discuss or test/evaluate whether the software is any use for anything • The literature review discusses an abstract set of papers without being critical of any of them, and without having an argument being made (literature reviews support the understanding of a research question – they do not exist for their own sake) • The mini-dissertation is not formatted or structured properly, and/or reads too informally or just uses bad English

  30. Good Signals of Good Research • The mini-dissertation makes a clear argument all the way through from introduction to conclusion • The dissertation is clearly formatted, structured, and written • It is clear how an academic research paper could be written based on the research in the dissertation (not a requirement for an MSc (taught) but a clear indication of quality) • The dissertation is focused on the results, and not on stating the problem

  31. Nomenclature • Epistemology • A systematic structure for knowledge (what does knowledge mean to you)? • In scientific research this is not usually debated – it is assumed – there is an assumption that any solution to a problem can be modelled mathematically and then that such models can be tested • Methodology • A systematic approach to carrying out research (e.g. use a real testbed experimental-based approach to investigate new Quality of Service protocols, or use a simulation approach for the same purpose) • Method • A particular mechanism for conducting some research (e.g. carry out a particular experiment using a Latin Square design of control group and tested groups to measure QoS on a network using different QoS schemes)

  32. Methodology • A software development methodology is about developing good software code and is not the basis of any research process • A research methodology is about producing new knowledge in a way that can be validated • This does not mean you shouldn’t use software development methodologies, but simply that these are not the focus of your research

  33. Presentation Outline • A) Theory (What is the big deal about epistemology and research methodology?) • B) Practice (What does it mean in practice for the MSc Communications Software dissertation?) • C) Conclusion

  34. Common Weaknesses • How do/can you evaluate your research work? (if you cannot – then refocus towards something you can evaluate) • Have you left at least 2 months to do this evaluation? The actual process of evaluation may involve running experiments to test the performance of your code, for example, this takes time. • Have you written your dissertation to allow for at least 1/3 of it being critical evaluation, supported by evidence?

  35. Conclusion • You must step back from your research and put it in some context • You must consider the question: was your research any good? And try and answer this in your mini-dissertation • The requirement for an MSc (taught) is the lowest for any such research, so merely attempting to do this should be enough • For a PhD the requirement is the highest, and you must prove that you have created new knowledge in your field and can defend this in your thesis and in an oral examination • You should understand this difference having done an MSc (taught) even though you are not under a requirement to produce new knowledge

  36. ASIDE: 10/20/30 RULE • Anything important should be able to said in 20 minutes - shorter is better • If using slides the maximum number should be 10 (2 minutes per slide) • If using slides the maximum point size should be 30 points (otherwise the slide is too crowded) • All rules are made to be broken - but aim to follow these rules and justify any exceptions to yourself

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