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Research Lecture 1

This document provides an introduction to research, including definitions, purpose, motivation, and time management. It defines research as the systematic investigation into sources to establish new facts and conclusions. The purpose of this course is to familiarize students with different aspects of research, philosophical questions, and good writing and presentation skills. Motivation can come from internal drive or external factors like career goals, while de-motivation stems from issues like lack of support or infrastructure. Effective time management requires planning, prioritizing tasks, and potentially multitasking on sub-tasks from different projects.

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62 views15 pages

Research Lecture 1

This document provides an introduction to research, including definitions, purpose, motivation, and time management. It defines research as the systematic investigation into sources to establish new facts and conclusions. The purpose of this course is to familiarize students with different aspects of research, philosophical questions, and good writing and presentation skills. Motivation can come from internal drive or external factors like career goals, while de-motivation stems from issues like lack of support or infrastructure. Effective time management requires planning, prioritizing tasks, and potentially multitasking on sub-tasks from different projects.

Uploaded by

upender
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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RESEARCH

An Introduction
Research Definitions
• Online Oxford Dictionaries.
• In the noun form:
• the systematic investigation into and study of materials and
sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions.
• In the verb form:
• investigate systematically.
• Origin:
• late 16th century: from obsolete French recerche (noun),
recercher (verb), from Old French re-(expressing intensive
force) + cerchier ’to search’.
• Wikipedia.
• Research can be defined as the search for knowledge, or as
any systematic investigation, with an open mind, to establish
novel facts, usually using a scientific method.
Research Definitions
• Wikipedia (extracts).
• Method can be defined as a systematic and orderly
procedure or
• process for attaining some objective.
• Methodology specifies several processes that need to be
followed.
• These processes constitute a generic framework.
• Methodology may refer to the rationale and the
philosophical assumptions that underlie a particular study
relative to the scientific method.
Purpose of the Course
• To familiarise students with the different aspects of
research.
• To provide an understanding of philosophical questions
behind scientific research.
• To focus on research in social and engineering sciences.
• To provide an idea of good scientific writing and proper
presentation skills.
Motivation for Research
• The broad division consists of two aspects: internal and
external.
External motivating factors would include the following factors:
• Easiest or the only way to earn a living.
• Publishing one (and more and more) papers is important for
• progressing in an academic career.
• Obtaining patents is a good way to become rich and famous.
• Peer prestige: my friends are all doing research and so should
I,
• or, a person that I dislike is doing well and I want to do better.
• Looking up to someone or trying to be like someone.
Motivation for Research
Internal motivating factors would include the following
factors:
• Inner beauty of the subject.
• Challenge of the subject.
• Intellectual pleasure/bliss.
• Spiritual/religious state of mind.
• Inherent human spirit of adventure and curiosity.
Motivation for Research
The following factors would be a mix of external and
internal aspects of psychology:
• Competitive spirit. Wanting to do better than what has
been achieved in the world.
• Improve the state-of-the-art in technology.
• Contribute to the improvement of society.
• Fulfilment of the historical legacy in the immediate socio-
cultural context.
De-Motivation for Research
The external factors would include the following:
• Surroundings is non-appreciative.
• Inadequate infrastructure to carry out the work.
• Non-availability of books, journals and sophisticated
laboratories.
• Peer-pressure.
De-Motivation for Research
Factors for internal de-motivation would be the following:
• Gap between expectations and effort.
• Non-fulfilment of short-term objectives.
• Getting stuck on a specific problem and being
intellectually drained out.
• Lowering of self-esteem.
Preparedness of the Mind
• Motivation and de-motivation refer to psychology.
• The issues of motivation and de-motivation are inter-
related.
• The state of the mind at any point of time is usually a
complex mixture of the above factors.
• May combine different kinds of both motivation and de-
motivation.
• Successful phases of research would indicate a surge in
the positive elements.
• Understanding the different issues is helpful in providing
self-guidance.
Building a Background
• Understanding versus information acquisition.
• General preparation versus preparing for a particular
work.
• Passive learning versus active learning.
• Classroom learning versus learning on one’s own.
• How is preparatory reading for research different from
preparatory reading for an examination?
• How to read a text book? How many problems in the
exercises should one solve?
• Different levels of depth in a book.
• Reading different viewpoints of the same topic is helpful.
Building a Background …contd.
• How to read a paper? How to read a group of papers?
• Learning curve.
• Ability to look at the broad issues.
• Use of judgemental approach while reading.
• Boldness in making judgements.
• Flexibility to discard previous erroneous judgements.
• Form strong opinions and beliefs and at the same time be
open to constructive criticisms. Apparently a self-
contradiction; requires striking a right balance.
Time Management: General Notions
• Performing an activity requires a certain amount of time.
• Usually many activities are required to be performed.
Goal: management of available time of one or more
persons for effective/efficient/creative/proper/... execution
of one or more tasks.
• Management of personal time.
• Social network.
• Time management by other persons affect your time management.
• Your time management affects time management of other persons.
Aspects of Time Management
• Reasonable estimates of time required for each activity.
• Involves taking into account “other” issues.
• Planning and allocation.
• Neither too tight nor too loose.
• Robust: should be able to recover from minor disruptions.
• Prioritizing (rocks-in-container story).
• Relation ‘is more important than’ is usually a partial order.
• But, the order of execution imposes a linear order.
• Personal and external priorities need not match and has to be
balanced.
• More than one plan.
• Long-term: first six months, then three months, then three months,
• ...
• Short-term: for the next months.
• Up to a deadline.
Multi Tasking
• Each broad task can usually be divided into sub-tasks.
• In many cases, there are inherent delays between sub-
tasks.
• Makes sense to interleave the sub-tasks of different tasks.
• Task1: sub-task1a, sub-task1b, sub-task1c;
• Task2: sub-task2a, sub-task2b.
• sub-task1a, sub-task2a, sub-task1b, sub-task2b, sub-task1c.
• Ordering strategies:
• Based on priorities.
• Shortest job first; round-robin; queue; stack; ...
• Multi-tasking versus Sequential.
• Pros: more efficient utilisation of available time.
• Cons: complicated and could be more fragile.

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