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Research Methodology
A Personal View
Branka VuceticSydney University
Sydney, Australia
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Presentation Outline Research as Career What It Takes?
Nature of Creativity
Research Sequence
Topic Selection Research Planning
Literature Survey
Problem Formulation
How Extraordinary Creative Ideas Occur?
Stories of Extraordinary Creative People A Neural Basis of Creativity
Nurturing Creativity
Verification of Theoretical Results
Communication of Research Results Commercialization of Research Outcomes
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Research as Career
Rewarding and satisfying career
Opportunities for life-long growth
ICT - exciting fields for innovation
Global career opportunities
Main reward in doing
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Creativity
Open mind
Curiosity Patience
Persistence
Positive Attitude Discipline and focus
What It Takes?
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The ability of making something new Originality
Utility
No correlation with intelligence
Nature and nurture both important
Creative personality
Nature of Creativity
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Research Sequence
Topic selection Research planning
Literature survey
Formulating the problem
Creating new solutions Verification of analytical results
Communication of results
Commercialization of research outcomes
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Topic Selection
ICT problems - ranging from experimental tomathematical
Problem sources supervisor, industry,
research papers, conferences, hot areas Important problems lead to important
discoveries
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Research Planning
Time and resource planning Planning of research processes
Planning of developing new skills
Planning of presentations
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Literature Survey
Recognizing new problems Important to read outside the area
Books, journal and conference papers
IEEE Internet Explore
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Problem Formulation
Asking the right questions
Developing analytical models Designing algorithmic descriptions
Discussions and brain storming with the
supervisor and group
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How Extraordinary Creative
Ideas Occur?
Sudden spontaneous visions
Dreams
Cross-pollination from different fields
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Stories of Extraordinary Inventors
Sudden Vision Discoveries The great mathematician Gauss
proved in an instant a theorem on
which he had worked unsuccessfullyfor four years. "As a sudden flash of
light, the enigma was solved. . . .
Similar accounts given by extraordinarycreative people such as Mozart,Tchaikovsky, Poincare, Coleridge etc.
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Stories of Extraordinary Inventors
Dream Discoveries Frederick Kekule fell asleep and
dreamed of the benzene molecule
as a snake biting its tail.
Otto Loewi had a dream that led to
his discovery of the chemicaltransmission of nerve impulses.
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Stories of Extraordinary Inventors
Cross-pollination Trellis codes by G. Ungerboeck modem
designer
Turbo codes by C. Berrou electronics
expert
Viterbis algorithm dynamic programming
from computer science
Frequency hopping byHedy Lamarr - famous actress
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A Neural Basis of Creativity
A human brain is
a self-organizing system
Brain centers specialized
for individual functions
The cortex contains neurons
Communications between
centers occurs via neural links
Creative activities occur
in the associative cortex
Creative people have rich
neural links in the associative
cortex
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Creating New Solutions Ordinary creativity consists of conscious
activities, represented as linear processes
Extraordinary creativity involves unconsciousmental processes consisting in interactions
between various regions in the associative
cortexbypassing consciousness
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Nurturing Creativity
Exploring in depth a new area
Think creatively on a regular basis
Know when to work more deeply or to
move on
Daily meditation
Practicing observation and describing
Practicing imagination
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Supportive Environment
Critical mass of creative people
A competitive atmosphere
Inspiring mentors
Economic prosperity
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Verification of Theoretical Results
Computer simulations
Hardware and field tests
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Communication of Research Findings
Seminars
Conference papers
Journal papers
Theses
Books
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Writing Papers
Focus on innovation
Paper structure
Make it readable and interesting
Where to publish?
Ethics and integrity
Quality counts more than quantity
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Commercializing Research Outcomes
Intellectual property
Developing prototypes
Business plans
Venture capital