Research Methodology - Introduction to the Scientific...

Course presentation Assessments Introduction to Scientific method

Research Methodology

-

Introduction to the Scientific Method

Romuald Jolivot

1Electrical and Computer Engineering,

Graduate Program

Bangkok University

Romuald Jolivot [email protected] ECE-GRAD

Research Methodology - Introduction to the Scientific Method 1


Outline

1 Course presentation

2 Assessments

3 Introduction to Scientific method




Introduction

Course content (1/2)

• Introduction to the Scientific Method

• Academic ethics

• Research resources

• Introduction to literature review

• Literature review




Course content (2/2)

• Article review presentation

• Scientific presentation

• Conference presentation

• Patent knowledge

• Reviews




Aim of the course

• Give students key features of research methodology

• Expose students to research practice and requirements

• Involve students in written and oral scientific presentation

• Learn how to structure a research plan

• Learn about research ethic

• Know how to find research resources

• How to do a literature review

• Write research paper




Course Materials

• 1. David V. Thiel, Research

Methods for Engineers,

Cambridge University Press,

1 edition, 2014.

• 2. Committee on Science,

Engineering, and Public

Policy, on Being a Scientist -

A Guide to responsible

conduct in research, third

edition, 2009.




Assessment

• Literature review paper: 20% (A1)

• Paper Presentation: 20% (A2)

• Research paper writing: 20% (A3)

• Research presentation: 20% (A4)

• Poster: 20% (A5)




Assessement A1

Write a short review paper on on your research topic based on at

least 15 academic papers.

Requirements:

• Number of pages: 4-6

• Font: 12 pt mininum

• Deadline: End of November




Assessement A2

Make a short presentation about a relevant paper related to your

work. Be concise and synthetic. Don’t go too much into details.

Requirements:

• 10 minutes maximum

• Next week




Assessement A3

Write a short paper about your research using the structure that

will be presented on another lecture.

Requirements:

• 2-3 pages maximum

• Font: 12pt minimum

• Mid-october




Assessement A4

Make a short presentation of your research. You can use the

paper from assessment A3 as a basis for it.

Requirements:

• 10 minutes maximum

• One presentation at a time




Assessement A5

Make a poster about your research. Similar to A4, you can use

your article from A3 as a basis for it.

Requirements:

• A0 format

• Deadline: End of the course




Scientific Method

What is Research?

• The systematic investigation into and study of materials and

sources in order to establish facts and reach new

conclusions 1.

• The process to make new discovery through:

• reasoning

• intuition

• use of appropriate methods (most important)

1Oxford dictionary, Oxford University Press




Scientific Method

What is the scientific method?

The scientific method is defined by a set of methods that

researchers applies aiming to gain knowledge.

The different steps involved in the scientific method differ among

different scientific fields.

• The goal of the scientific method is to solve a

problem/improve a process.




The interest of the scientific method is to accurately define a

physical processes happening in a phenomenon.

Key elements

• Objective: aims to remove biases by using define testing

procedures.

• Consistent: the reasoning should be consistent with scientific

laws.

• Observable: the experiments should be in the form of an

observable results.

• Reproducible: the experiments should produce similar results

when tested by others.




Scientific Method

There are four basic elements of the scientific method:

• 1. Observe a phenomena

• 2. Form hypothesis

• 3. Perform experiment

• 4. Interpret data and

conclude




Research project plan

• Formulation of objective

• Formulation of hypothesis

• Literature review

• Theory/Methodology

• Experiment

• Results and analysis

• Conclusion

• References




Question

What do you want to find out ? What phenomena would you like

to explain? Define the problem you face using a question. Be

specific to simply the answer.




Hypothesis

• Based on your knowledge, formulate a hypothesis about the

relationship between a cause and the effect of a

phenomenon.

• State your hypothesis to be easily measure.

• You hypothesis should help answer your original question

(with only one possible explanation).

A hypothesis allows predictions using deductive reasoning

(mathematical analysis).




Experiment

Experiments are used to test hypothesis Experiment must:

• be accurate

• be reproducible.




Experiment

Write a clear procedure for your experiment. Experiment must

include:

• List of materials required

• Define the steps and procedure

• Design data collection

• Repeat experiment




Data analysis

Observe and analyse your data

• Use mathematical analysis

• Do you notice any patterns

• Does it support your hypothesis

• Do you need more data

• If hypothesis is not supported, construct a new hypothesis

(back to square one).




Conclusion

Summarize your hypothesis, procedure, results in few sentences.




Replication

Replication refers to performing the same experiment again and

check whether the obtained results are similar.

When reproducing the experiment, if one does not obtain similar

results, there should be an error either in the replication or the

original experiment.




Common mistakes when using the scientific method.

• Minimize the influence of the outcome. Stay bias. One

fundamental error is to use the hypothesis for an explanation

(use common sense).

• Discard data not supporting the hypothesis. Tendency to

believe that the hypothesis is true (but it can also be false).

All the data must be treated in the same way.

• Estimate properly systematic errors.



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