Research projects for MSc dissertations

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Research projectsfor MSc dissertations

• Antonella De Angeli
• Centre for HCI Design
• School of Informatics

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Styles of project

• System development
• Use and integrate established techniques in order
  to build a computer-based system
• Research project
• Original research on the deployment, engineering
  or evaluation of a computer-based system

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Types of research project

• Devise new algorithms
• Test existing algorithms in new context
• Develop new methodologies (design-development-eval
  uation)
• Investigate adoption and acceptance of IS

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Must have

• Clear success criteria
• Is the project good or bad?
• Risk analysis
• What can go wrong?
• Contingency plan
• How do I minimise risk?

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Acquiring knowledge

• Tenacity
• Accept ideas as valid because they have been
  accepted for so long
• Intuition
• Accepting ideas as valid because they feel
  intuitively true
• Authority
• Accepting ideas as valid because some respected
  authority asserts that the ideas are true
• Rationalism
• Developing valid ideas using existing ideas and
  principles of logic
• Empiricism
• Gaining knowledge through observations
• Science
• A process which combines the principles of
  rationalism with the process of empiricism, using
  rationalism to develop theories and empiricism to
  test these theories

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Scientific research

• Systematic search for information
• What distinguish scientific research from other
  forms of research is the emphasis on using
  integrated empirical and rational processes
• gaining information through sensory experiences
  and reasoning

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Science is a way of thinking
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Scientific research

• Is the process of formulating specific questions
  and finding answers in order to understand a
  phenomenon better
• SCIENCE IS A PROCESS OF INQUIRY

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• The essence of modern science is the way of
  thinking, the disciplined way in which questions
  are posed and answered.
• It is the logical process and demands for
  evidence, and NOT the technologies, that lies at
  the centre of science.
• It is an intellectual process, and its ultimate
  goal is to understand the natural universe.

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Asking questions

• A question is one side of an idea on the other
  side is an unknown A POTENTIAL ANSWER
• Asking questions is creative it is the exercise
  of curiosity

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Approach to questioning

• Disciplined rigorous scientific
• Researchers are pervasive Sceptics they
  constantly challenge existing accepted wisdom
• It may have some consequences
• May be undesired
• Knowledge is always incomplete it is always
  tentative

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Scientific research - stages

• Posing a question
• Developing procedures to answer the question
• Planning for and then making appropriate
  empirical observation
• Rationally interpreting the empirical observation

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Elements of research

• Facts
• data or empirical observations
• Observation
• empirical process of recognising and recording
  facts
• Inference
• intellectual process in which conclusions are
  derived from facts or ideas
• Constructs
• Non observable inferred events (gravity-
  electricity intelligence, personality,
  user-experience)

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Type of reasoning

• Inductive
• Begin with empirical observations and then infers
  construct
• Deductive
• Use the constructs as the basis of making new
  specific observations
• Both type of reasoning are part of science

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Theories

• Formalised set of concepts which
• summarises and organises observations and
  inferences
• Provides tentative explanations for phenomena
• Provides the basis for making predictions
• A scientific theory must be
• Testable
• Contradictable

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Models

• Description or analogy that represents something
  usually unseen and/or more complex
• Mini-theories
• A model REPRESENTS reality

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Phases of a research study

• Idea-generating phase
• Identify a topic of interest to study
• Problem-definition phase
• Refine the vague idea(s) into a precise question
  to be answered
• Procedures-design phase
• Decide on specific procedures/methods to answer
  our question
• Testing phase
• Use the procedures devised in 3 to test your
  idea/theory/model
• Interpretation phase
• Answer your question based on results from
  phase 4
• Communication phase your Dissertation!!!!
• Should include a description of all preceding
  phases

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Problem-definition phase

• Learn how other research have conceptualised,
  measured, and tested these ideas
• Library research
• Refine research question so that it can be
  answered

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Conclusion

• Research is asking the right questions
• Applying proper methodology to find answers
• It is challenging, tiring, fashinating