Research Methods in Electrical Engineering Overview

1. Research Methods in Electrical Engineering Professor David Thiel Centre for Wireless Monitoring and Applications Griffith University, Brisbane Australia

2. Purpose • To make attendees familiar with the process of rigorous research in an academic environment. • To encourage attendees to critically evaluate research papers they read. • To outline the processes required to undertake a research project.

3. Topics • Overview of the Research Process • Literature Search • Report Writing, Data Collection & Presentation • Statistical Analysis of Data and Sampling • Making a Presentation • Survey Research Methods • Review

4. Topic 1 Overview of the Research Process

5. What is Research? • Discovery of new things that have been independently verified by other professionals. • Something new to humanity (not just new to you or your group).

6. Good & Bad Research Examples • Case 1 A high school research paper • Case 2 A good idea • Case 3 Tested outcomes for a new idea

7. Prior knowledge An idea Submit Report, Thesis, Journal or Conference Paper Discovery Independent verification: literature, experiment, numerical model, analytical model, etc Independent verification: literature, numerical model, analytical model, etc Assessors The Scientific Method The Outcome is Recognised as a Major contribution to the field

8. The Research Community • All use the same scientific method. • All follow the same ethical principles. • All use the same language and terms. • All provide information to the world-wide community reported in a full and open manner. • All acknowledge the previous work of others.

9. Publications and Referencing • The archival literature (must be printed somewhere and unalterable). • Must be reviewed by independent professionals before publication. • Must be complete so others can reproduce the results. • These three form the basic validity test!

10. Types of Publication • Scientific papers (refereed journal and conference papers) • Trade articles • Newspaper articles • Infomercials • Advertisements You must only rely on refereed papers in accredited journals and conferences.

11. How can you tell? • Length of title • References (and their quality) • Author’s name and affiliation • Evidence that the paper has been reviewed and revised. • Date of submission & date of publication. • The paper includes a review of previously published work. • Conclusion contains a critical reflection on the contents of the article.

12. Activity • Use http://scholar.google.co.id/ and enter the key words from the paper you have. • Did you find it? • What else did you find?

13. “Next step” research • Incremental advance compared to paradigm shift. • Lateral translation research.

14. Topic 2 Literature Search

15. Literature Review • Who has done what and how? • What is their plan for “further work”? • Have they reported more recent work in a conference? • What opportunities are available for confirming the results of others and expanding their results and conclusions?

16. Key Words • Essential for searching the literature. • Must be both general and specific. patch antennas, dielectric, electrically small, mutual coupling

17. Publication delays • Check your paper and see the submission date and the publication date. • This delay may mean that this team has moved forward with their research. Following their suggestions for further work might have you gazumped. • Conferences often have a 6 month delay between abstract submission and the conference presentation.

18. Planning for an outcome • What is convincing “proof”? • What is the evidence you will provide? • Data • Sampling techniques • Accuracy. • Who is interested in this research? • Where will you release (publish/present) your research results?

19. Anticipating problems • Team planning meetings • Circulate outcomes immediately following the meeting • Action items • Equipment calibration • Reliable power • Preventing Data loss

20. Publication of Data • Internal report? • Choosing a conference • Choosing a journal

21. Journal rankings • Impact factor • Half life • Citations (Google, ISI Thomson Web of Knowledge, Scopus, etc) http://scholar.google.co.id/ • Weaknesses of the ranking systems • H index – The number of papers that have more than that number of citations fpr person.

22. Research Planning • Concurrent Engineering • Assembling the equipment • Arranging access to the site • Writing the paper draft • Choosing the journal • Concurrent Research

23. Using the right language • Definition of terms (standards, standard usage, standard methods of analysis). • Standard Measurement Procedures • Standard values (eg copper conductivity) • Spelling (US English or UK English?), Lexicon and naming conventions. • Key words in publications • This is vital for accurate electronic searching of indexes.

24. Searching the Web • Google scholar http://scholar.google.co.id/ • Journals and publisher’s indexes • IEEE Xplore digital library http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/dynhome.jsp • Elsevier http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journal_browse.cws_home • and many more.

25. IP Searching • Patents http://www.uspto.gov/http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/search-adv.jsp • PCT Applications http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/ • Country Based Searching http://www.wipo.int/ipdl/en/resources/links.jsp

26. Activity • Find some scientific terms in your paper, and check the definition. (Why not wikipedia?) • Key word searches, key word selection. • Definition of terms.

27. Topic 3 Report Writing

28. The title • 10-15 words is most common. • Must be sufficiently specific.

29. The Abstract – an example • High speed electronic beam switching is a desirable feature of smart antennas.

30. The Abstract – an example • High speed electronic beam switching is a desirable feature of smart antennas. Most smart antennas are too large for most applications and require significant power during normal operations.

31. The Abstract – an example • High speed electronic beam switching is a desirable feature of smart antennas. Most smart antennas are too large for most applications and require significant power during normal operations. A thirteen element switched parasitic antenna was optimised for gain, speed and beam coverage.

32. The Abstract – an example • High speed electronic beam switching is a desirable feature of smart antennas. Most smart antennas are too large for most applications and require significant power during normal operations. A thirteen element switched parasitic antenna was optimised for gain, speed and beam coverage. Antenna characteristics were determined at 1.8 GHz by finite element modelling and measurements on a prototype.

33. The Abstract – an example • High speed electronic beam switching is a desirable feature of smart antennas. Most smart antennas are too large for most applications and require significant power during normal operations. A thirteen element switched parasitic antenna was optimised for gain, speed and beam coverage. Antenna characteristics were determined at 1.8 GHz by finite element modelling and measurements on a prototype. The antenna had a gain of +9.8 dBi, a footprint of less than one half wavelength squared and was switched ion less than 100 ms.

34. The Abstract – an example • High speed electronic beam switching is a desirable feature of smart antennas. Most smart antennas are too large for most applications and require significant power during normal operations. A thirteen element switched parasitic antenna was optimised for gain, speed and beam coverage. Antenna characteristics were determined at 1.8 GHz by finite element modelling and measurements on a prototype. The antenna had a gain of +9.8 dBi, a footprint of less than one half wavelength squared and was switched ion less than 100 ms. This is a better performance compared to previous antennas.

35. The Abstract – a general guide • 2 sentences on the wider field – context and significance. • 2 sentences on the research method • 2 sentences on the results and conclusions.

36. Scientific writing style Do’s and Don’ts • Past tense • Third person • Usually timing of events is not included unless it is essential to data collection. • Sections and subsections (one level? two level? three level?). • Quotes from other authors – not common!

37. Creating equations • There are standard symbols for quantities (eg V=IR). • There are standard forms for scalar symbols (often lower case, italics, not-bold) and vector symbols (upper-case, bold). • The symbols must be the same font on every occasion used in the equations and in the main text. • All symbols must be defined. • MS Equation editor allows for equation creation. • There are standard upper-case and lower-case type settings.

38. Data Collection & Presentation

39. Types of Data • Quantitative data (numerical) • Integers (eg animal counts, packets received, bit error rate) • Non-integers (eg analog sensor output) • Qualitative data (descriptive words) • Binary data (yes/no, success/failure, present/absent etc) • Scalar information (1D, 2D, 3D, nD) • Vector information (1D, 2D, 3D, nD)

40. Quantitative Data • Kelvin’s First Law of Measurement: “The measurement must not alter the event being measured”. • Microwave current measurements? • The impedance of an antenna?

41. Data Presentation • Plots (2D and 3D), histograms, pie charts, tables of numbers. • Printed papers usually black and white (lines distinguished by dots, dashes, ellipse, legend etc) • Colour in power point slides and web publishing. • For comparison plot more than one data set on the same graph using the same scale. • Images and flow charts. • Interpolation and extrapolation. • Curve fitting (covered in later lectures) • Contour plots.

42. Plotting and analysis tools • MS EXCEL (Chart Wizard - 4 steps) - demonstration • Matlab (plot, subplot, contour, quiver, etc)

43. Graphing Guidelines • Always plot discrete points clearly. • Do not join points unless you have a continuous mathematical function. • To compare data plot several lines on the same axes. • Consider including error bars on all points

44. X X

45. Matlab scalar 2D plots contourf surf image mesh

46. Matlab vector 2D plots quiver North-south (metres) East-west (metres)

47. Qualitative Data • This can be a challenge as everyone will use a different description. • One approach is to convert qualitative data to quantitative data (eg rate from very bad to very good on a score of 1 to 10).

48. Decision Matrix

49. Decision Matrix - Histogram Score Survey Questions

50. Data Collection • Asking the right questions without leading the person (survey instruments - questionaires). • Use redundant questions that always need a positive response (discussed in a later lecture). • Survey results (Is 35% return good enough?).