TDDD89 Scientific Method

Seminar 1

Seminar 1

Purpose

To understand general requirements for a master's level thesis, and to critically review research questions.
To get group peer feedback on your thesis topic outline from the first week.

Reading material

The selected Masters' theses pertain to the different groups' topic areas / method types. Each thesis has a number of keywords describing it, and student groups are formed based on the similarity of the thesis proposals submitted by students and the topics/methods of these theses.

• Instructions for final thesis reports:

  For theses conducted at the Computer and Information Science department (IDA):

  • J. Åberg (2015). Instructions for final thesis reports. ( English, Swedish).

  For theses conducted at the Electrical Engineering Department (ISY):

  • J. Wikner (2015): Anvisningar för exjobbsrapport på ISY ( Swedish).

• The chapters/sections covering introduction, background, related work ("theory") of the published sample master's thesis pertaining to your group.
• The LiU library page on plagiarism and copyright
• The NoPlagiat quiz on the Lisam page for our course, see the left-menu entry "Quiz".
• Stylistic advice to my students for writing a thesis, by C. Kessler, IDA
• The grading rubric used for peer review in the course.

Preparation

• (Individually) Read the chapters about Introduction, Background and Related work (sometimes called Theory) of the published master's thesis pertaining to your group, and glimpse through the rest of the thesis.
• (Individually) Read the material in the reading list above. Then answer the questions below. Each question below makes explicit reference to one or several items from the reading list.
  Make sure to justify your reasoning by referring to the items from the reading list.
• (Individually) Submission see below. Deadline: the day before the seminar, i.e., Wednesday 8 November 2023 23:59.

Questions

1. Are the research questions in the published thesis easy to find, clear, and with a reasonable scope, as required by the Instructions for final thesis reports?
2. What are the promised (if any, usually to be found in the abstract and/or introduction) type of result and concrete contributions of the thesis, and how do these relate to the listed research questions?
3. Are the research questions followed up and actually answered later in the thesis?
4. How do you interpret the items in the grading rubric? Are any items difficult to understand?
5. How would you assess the chapters covering Introduction and Background + Related work ("Theory") of the thesis based on the grading rubric?
Before answering the following two questions, you should have completed the NoPlagiat quiz on plagiarism and copyright issues on Lisam.
6. What are the most common causes of plagiarism or copyright infringement do you think? How can you work to avoid these issues?
7. Are there violations to the Guidelines on plagiarism in the thesis? For instance, is it clear that all figures are created by the author or used with expressed permission?
For your answers to the following three questions, a total of 0.5 to 1 A4 page of text is expected:
8. Consider the different career paths in research and development (R&D) in Computer Science and Engineering. What are the main differences between professional careers in academia, research institutions, and industry? And what particular challenges and opportunities might come up if working abroad or in a multi-national organization? Refer in your answer to concrete examples and insights gained from the panel discussion of 31/10. (If you missed it: you can find the panelist slides on Lisam.) Feel free to add own experiences if applicable.
9. What kind of information was, from your point of view, still missing about professional R&D career paths? Where could you get such information?
10. What could you do already now and during your thesis project in order to better prepare for your intended professional career path?

Submissions

Upload your answers to the questions above in a Word, PDF or plain text file in the collaborative workspace for your group under folder "Seminar1" (see the general description). NB this is to be done per individual, not per team. Deadline: The day before Seminar 1.

The seminar

Part 1: You will compare your submitted answers to each of the questions with the answers by the other students in your group (i.e., breakout room).

Part 2: You will present to one another your team's thesis topic outline (from the first week), and discuss it using the following questions:

1. Does the outline describe a clear problem? Justify your answer.
2. Does the problem seem generally interesting? Justify your answer.
3. Does there seem to be relevant literature pertaining to the subject? Justify your answer.
4. How does the thesis topic outline compare to the thesis introductions from the published Master's thesis you have all read?

Page responsible: Christoph Kessler
Last updated: 2023-11-07