Transcript Does Language Technology Need Linguistics?

Research Planning
PS700
astro.kent.ac.uk/mds/Modules/modules.htm
or Moodle
Prof Michael Smith
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What this module is about
CHOICES. Throughout life, you will have to make
decisions after having researched the issues or
choices. How do you carry out the research?
PROCESS. To equip students with a range of
technical, managerial and personal skills which
enable them to effectively propose, plan and
manage their research projects.
SECTORS. ….. whether working for government,
education, commerce or industry.
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What does that entail?
• Knowledge
– Understand the objectives and rules specific to an academic PhD
project OR other science-based career opportunities.
– Project planning (including risk analysis)
– use of appropriate tools to support project planning
– necessary writing skills for academic writing (including referencing)
• Intellectual skills
– Produce coherent, structured reports aimed at giving
– background to the problem
– analysis of relevant literature and related work
– project requirements and when possible a design overview
– Produce a coherent project plan and risk analysis
• Subject practical skills
– Devise a project plan and specify milestones and deliverables
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Today’s session
• General ideas about doing research
– Some Golden Rules
– Skills and Resources
• How this Module works
• Quick overview of future topics
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A variety of topics
• Choose your own Science Interest
• Student backgrounds are varied
• Not all skills covered will be equally relevant for
YOUR dresearch (this time around)
• But, this Module is about developing research
skills in general
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Golden Rule #1: Know what you
are doing
• ….and be able to communicate it.
• You should have
– a clear and concise one-sentence summary
of your topic
– a clear and concise one-paragraph summary
of your topic
• You should be able to explain your topic
– to your peers
– to your friends
– to someone you meet on the train
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Golden Rule #2: Always have a
plan
• What you want. Know what the targets for your
research are, in precise enough terms that you will
know when you are done
• How to get there. Make explicit what the
intermediate steps on the way to your targets look
like
• Obstacles. Risk analysis should realistically
assess the likely/possible main difficulties
– Have some contingency plans in mind, and
make them explicit in your planning document
• “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”
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Today’s session
• General ideas about doing research
– Some Golden Rules
– Skills and Resources
• How this module works
• Quick overview of future topics
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Skills Area #1: Reading -Input
• Read widely
• Split your reading time between material focussed on
your topic and more general background material
• Read for important content
– What should you read?
– Learn how to get the most out of what you are
reading
– Recognize whether something really is worth reading
• Read with specific questions in mind
• What does it mean if you don’t understand the paper
you’re reading?
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What does it mean if you don’t
understand the paper you’re
reading?
• You are the problem
because
– you are stupid
– you aren’t stupid, but
you lack some
background knowledge
– you’ve misunderstood
some key element, or
made some false
assumption about the
paper
• The paper is the problem
because
– it’s badly written, or
badly structured
– it’s not relevant after
all
– it is making
unreasonable
assumptions about the
reader
– it’s bad science
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Skills Area #2: Writing - Output
• Write constantly
• Write clearly and get colleagues to read your
stuff
• Examine other people's writing to see what you
think makes it good
• You develop your academic writing style by
reading
• On a practical note:
– Think about “Version control”
– Use your word processor properly
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Use your word processor
properly
• Spell checker, paragraph lengths, ……
• Style definitions
– They help you keep your presentation style consistent
– Automatically number sections: this helps readability
• Tables, figures: images, schematics
• What fonts and font sizes should you use?
– Check out the regs: you might as well use the prescribed style from
the outset
• A nicely presented piece of work says “Read me”
• A badly presented piece of work says “Fail me”
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Skills Area #3: Presenting
• Work on being interesting to listen to
• Audio- and video-tape yourself
– identify your idiosyncracies
• IMITATE. When you see a good presentation, consider
why it was good, and adopt those features in your own
presentations
• AVOID. When you see a bad presentation, consider why
it was bad, and eliminate those features from your own
presentations
• Watch and analyse COLLOQUIA
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Skills Area #4: Organization
• Always have a plan
– Research plan with contingency plans
– This is the main outcome of this Module
• But also a personal plan
– Understand where your time goes
– Ask others how they organise their time
– Don’t spend all your time planning
• Involve your supervisor in your plan
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You and your research supervisor
• Different supervisors have different styles
• Be proactive in meetings
– On first meeting (have you arranged it yet?):
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–
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Ask what they expect of you
Tell them what you expect of them
(Actually, what do you expect of them?)
Decide on frequency of meetings
• At least 6, probably 12 (= fortnightly) for this Module
– Subsequently, YOU set the agenda
– Be ready to tell them what you have done since last meeting
– Know what you want to talk about
– Take notes and produce a summary shortly after the meeting
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Skills Area #5: Researching
• NOVELTY?
• More on this over the next 12 weeks but, briefly,
– Be aware of what has been done before and try to
BUILD on that: Don’t reinvent the wheel
– Understand how to use on-line resources
• ISSUE?
• Research is about a hypothesis
– What is your research question?
– How will you know you have answered it?
– What if the answer is “No”?
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Today’s session
• General ideas about doing research
– Some Golden Rules
– Skills and Resources
• How this module works
• Quick overview of future topics
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How this Module works
• Weekly lectures
– Big class so not as informal as I would prefer
– Appointments: [email protected]
• A range of topics
– Not all necessarily relevant to your research
– But should be of interest (long term)
• Assessment
– Colloquium Reports, 30%, WEEKS 12 and 24
– Proposal Outline – 10%, WEEK 17
– Poster, 10%, WEEK 20
– Project Case for Support, 50%, WEEK 24
–
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Preparatory Work report
• Precise content will depend upon the nature of a particular
project but will typically include:
– Requirements and specifications
– Success criteria
– Project plan (for the overall project including dissertation
stage)
– Initial survey of the relevant literature
– Initial study of the relevant research methods, design
methodology, and implementation tools
• Length max. 6 pages (excluding abstract and list of references)
– Additional material in appendices up to 2 pages
– Strict size limit will be enforced; excess pages will not be
marked
• Due in 11:55pm, WEEK 24
– e-version via the Moodle page
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Today’s session
• General ideas about doing research
– Some Golden Rules
– Skills and Resources
• How this module works
• Quick overview of future topics
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Future topics
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L1 Introduction (Lecture 1) – Colloquia Report Writing
L2 The Peer Review System
L3 History, Organisation of Research Councils
L4 The Research Councils. European Union programmes
( L5 Astrophysics)
L6 Research Proposal Writing
L7 The Case for Support and Application Form
L8 The Startegy
L9 Costing
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Future topics
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L10 Scheduling, milestones
L11 Summary; Information Retrieval
L12 Colloquia Report
L13 What is Research?
L14 PhD applications
• Weeks 13-16:
Individual appointments
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