Research Methods

1. Research Methods Technical Writing • Thesis Report Writing • Thesis Presentation

2. Writing a Thesis: • Writing Style and Format: • Follow guidelines and/or templates provided by the Department • Consult your Advisor • Thesis Content: • Acknowledgements (Optional) • Table of Contents – Table of Figures – Abbreviation and Acronyms • Abstract (No references) • Introduction • Background Information – Related Work (Title can change according to your project – Can be more than one chapter) • Methodology (Title can change according to your project) • Technical description of your work • Evaluation • Evaluation Methodology • Results • Discussion of Results • Conclusions • References • Appendices

3. Thesis - Acknowledgements • Thank the people who helped you in the project • Your advisor(s) for his/their guidance • The members of your evaluation committee for participating in the committee and their comments on the Thesis • PhD students must submit their Thesis early enough for the evaluation committee to read and make suggestions • Your colleagues for sharing their views or reviewing your work • Your sponsors • Research Funding Agencies (if your studies are funded through a research program) • Others who provided you with equipment, software licences, access to data, etc • Others • Family, Friends, God • Don’t overdo it • This section is optional • If omitted it shows that you either did everything by yourself or you show no gratitude to the people who helped you • Bad for you and your work In both cases

4. Thesis - Abstract • This is a short summary of your work • PhD abstracts are often published in • Scientific Periodicals from professional organizations (IEEE etc) • Bulletins (Networks-of-Excellence, Forums etc) • Web sites (University or Specialized such as the Computer Architecture Portal) • Use it to promote your work • People read first the Abstract and if found interesting can search for your papers or contact you for more information • Must contain three main components • Introduction to the problem solved by your work • Motivation for doing this work • Aim of the research work and overview of the methodology used to solve the problem • Evaluation methodology and summary of main results achieved • No references/citations must be included in the abstract • Often needed in English (If the report language is not English) • Typical size – 1 page

5. Thesis - Introduction • This is an extended summary of your work • Main components of the Introduction: • Opening Part (one or two paragraphs) • State what is the problem to be solved and • Your Thesis (the main aim of your project) • Present State-of-the-Art work in the area • Summary of the methodology used • Must relate to the objectives specified in the project proposal and how they are met. • Evaluation • Summary of the evaluation methodology and the main results achieved • Overview of the structure of your Thesis (Last / Optional) • E.g. { Chapter 1 presents an overview of the ….. Chapter 2 describes the ????. The evaluation methodology is presented in Chapter 3 etc. • For PhD include also • Statement of the contributions of your work • List of the publications that describe your work • 3 to 5 pages for MSc, 5 to 10 pages for PhD

6. Thesis – Background Information • This chapter must provide • the necessary background for someone working in the general area of your work to understand it • It should not include what is considered a general knowledge for a Masters graduate in the specific area • A detailed description of the state-of-the-art work related to your project • With adequate references on text and diagrams or pictures used • Well structured • Not just a list of unrelated references to the work of others • It should help in justifying your approach in solving the problem • This is and extended version of the Literature Review of your project proposal • It • Shows that you have studied and mastered the area of your project • Places your work into content • Shows that you acknowledge and give credit to the work of others

7. Thesis - Methodology • Detail description of how you have solved the problem and how the objectives of the project have been met. • Justify your design choices • Use of diagrams and flowcharts and provide a clear and technically sound description of your work • Use of examples to clarify your methodology • Can be more than one chapters • Chapter Title must be related to your work

8. Thesis – Validation/Evaluation • This chapter shows how successful is your work • It must contain: • Validation/Evaluation Methodology • Describe in detail the methodology used to evaluate your work • Use of • experiments, • simulations, • surveys, • analytical modelling • Give the technical specification and settings of equipment used for your experiments or describe the sample used for your surveys and statistical analysis • Justify your evaluation methodology • Results achieved • Use tables and Graphs • Discussion of results • Critically discuss your results • Avoid describing in words what is given by the tables or figures • If possible relate your results with the results obtain by others • Make sure you compare similar and compatible things

9. Thesis - Conclusions • This is the overall judgement of your work • State whether you have met the project objectives stated in the Project Proposal and how good are your results • It should include: • Overview of the problem and the methodology used to solve it • Significant problems encountered and how they were solved • Overview of the evaluation methodology used and a summary of the results achieved • Future work • Important Issues related but not addressed in your work • Significant for PhD students • They are expecteed to continue carrying out research • Academia • Research Organizations • Research & Development Departments

10. Thesis – References and Appendices • For Reference use information in “Publications” lecture • Follow the format set by your Department – if any • Appendices may include: • Extended results of experiments that could no be shown in the main text • Source code of software • Datasheets and Manuals • Other useful information

11. Presentation Structure for Thesis (1/2) • First Slide • Present yourself, your affiliation and the title of your Thesis • Thank your advisor and the members of the committee (or other audience) for being there • Add the logos of organizations that supported/funded your work and thank them • Presentation Overview • List the main contents of your presentation • Use this slide as a table of contents with bookmarks • This can be very useful when you will answer questions and need to navigate in your presentation • Present this slide fast and avoid details that will be presented later in the main body of the presentation. • Keep in mind that your audience will be the members of the assessment committee (well aware of the topic your presenting - some of the members might not know you in person) • In some cases your defence might be open to the public or to other students • If the presentation is open to the public make sure that prepare the presentation to satisfy your assessment committee – not the public

12. Presentation Structure for Thesis (2/2) • Introduction • One or two slides explaining the problem your addressing • It should lead to the motivation of the research • You may add one or two slides from the literature review section of your Thesis to emphasise the motivation for your work (if applicable) • One slide introducing your solution to the problem • Thesis Aims and Contributions • One or two slides describing the objectives of the project • Emphasize • Your contributions • That the idea in novel and interesting • Implementation Methodology • Few slides describing the main components of the methodology • Use a Conceptual Diagram to describe your methodology • Use a simple example to explain your methodology

13. Presentation Structure for Thesis (3/2) • Evaluation Methodology • One or two slides on how you evaluated the outcome of your research • Results • Using graphs and charts describe the results obtained • Analyse, verbally, your results during the Thesis defence • If appropriate relate/compare your results with the results of others • Conclusions • Stress that your idea is novel and interesting • Use your results to point out that your project is a success • Future Work • Briefly present how your research work can be continued/enhanced • Be careful not to show that your work is incomplete • Ask for Questions? • No! This is the work of the chairman of the committee • Just add a “Thank You” slide at the end. • Don’t forget to add “Rescue” or “Lifesaving” slides at the end