Research Guide

Shyh-Kang Jeng
Department of Electrical Engineering/
Graduate Institute of Communication Engineering/
Graduate Institute of Networking and Multimedia

1
 Outline
Finding Research Topics
Planning Research Project
Conducting Research Project
Presenting and Publishing Research
Results
Summary

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 Outline
Finding Research Topics
Planning Research Project
Conducting Research Project
Presenting and Publishing Research
Results
Summary

3
 Self Assessment
Know yourself
– Interests, talent, skills, accomplishments,
weakness
Needs and trends in society
Career planning
– Begin with the end in mind
– 20-5-1 planning
– A plan not realized is better than no
planning
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 Good Books
柯維 (Stephen R. Covey)
著，顧淑馨譯，《與成功有
約》 (The Seven Habits
of Highly Effective
People) ，天下遠見

西恩．柯維 (Sean Covey)

著，汪芸譯，《與青春有
約》 (The Seven Habits
of Highly Effective
Teens) ，天下遠見
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 Brainstorming
Write down as many as ideas (no matter
how crazy they are) you may be interested
in without criticizing yourself
Try to eliminate ideas not fit to your career
planning, your self assessment, and social
needs
For the ideas left, collect more information
to keep elimination until only about 5 areas
are left

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 Setting Research Goal
Collect more information and study
to try to narrow down the ideas such
that you can create something new
Assess/scale your new ideas by the
resources you have
Arrange priority of these ideas
Form your research goal

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 Collecting Information
Books, Magazines, Journals, TV, Web sites,
Teachers, Friends, Parents, Meetings, Talks
Theory of Concentric Circles
– From new to old, near to far
– Achievements of the Lab
– Books and theses in NTU library
– Theses in National Central Library
– Google Scholar
– Web sites of other research institutes

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Reference Management
Software: EndNote

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Good Books about EndNote
童國倫 , 潘奕萍 , 張鼎
祥 , 《 EndNote &
RefWorks 論文與文獻
寫作管理》 , 五南
童國倫 , 潘奕萍 , 張鼎
祥 , 《研究你來做論文
寫作交給 EndNote
Word 》 , 五南

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 An Example of Research
Inspired by Reading Literatures

Inspired by an article in Scientific American

A pioneering work in UWB antennas
Cited 60 times up to 2009/7 (Google Scholar)
Highly cited paper (1%) 2008

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 Thinking and Learning are
Equally Important
學而不思則罔，思而不學則殆
– Just learning without thinking leads to
confusion. Just thinking without
learning leads to danger.
– 荀子，勸學篇 , Xun Zi (ca. 312–230 BC)
It is important to form your new idea
while reading the collected
literatures

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Strategy in Reading Literatures
Textbook reading vs. goal-oriented reading
Browse the literature for the first time
Classification of literatures
– Closely related (read and study it)
– Roughly related (read roughly)
– Possibly unrelated (just know it)
– Unrelated (skip)

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Can’t Understand the Literature
Theory of ladders
Key concept and key words that
you don’t understand
textbooks, References,
wikipedia, Amazon
Difficulty
– Paper > monogram > book

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 Entering an Unfamiliar Field
Split your time for doing research project and
building up background knowledge at the same time
Build up background knowledge
– Collect information
– Keep research goal in mind
– Try to find a good and suitable textbook or take a course
– Know what is to be studied thoroughly, and what is to be
simply browsed

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 Creating Something New
Academic research emphasizes
innovation (contribution)
Persuade yourself and others why
the idea is new and useful to other
researchers
Scale the goal to be achievable to
get your degree
Avoid “me too” researches

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 An Example of
Research Topic Setting

A pioneering work in channel modeling

and base station planning
1998 Outstanding Research Award of
National Science Council
Cited 49 times up to 2009/7 (Google
Scholar) 17
 Background
Channel modeling/base station planning is
important for cell phone systems which becomes
popular in late 1990
Two approaches
– Measurement and statistical model
– Site-specific model
Outdoor and indoor

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 Previous Approach :
Ray-Tracing / Reception Sphere

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 New Idea: SBR-Image

Sq

RSq

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Research Goal

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 Outline
Finding Research Topics
Planning Research Project
Conducting Research Project
Presenting and Publishing Research
Results
Summary

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 (Invalid) Waterfall Model

Collect Build up Write

and read theories Implement
thesis
literatures

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 Iterative Model
Collect
and read
Present Results literatures

theories
Build up
Implement

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 Basic Principles of
Doing Works
80/20 principle
– Pareto principle
– For many events roughly 80% of the
effects come from 20% of the causes
– 80% of progress come from 20% of
project items
Put first things first
– Things I should do vs. things I like to do

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 Planning Research
Core/key part vs. nice to have
Setting priority
Simplify the problem
– Legend of late Professor Y. T. Lo
Starting from a simplified scenario
– Learning by doing
Check special cases against results from
independent approaches

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Fast Prototyping and Evolution
v 0.1
v 0.3
v 0.2
v 0.2
v 0.1
v 0.1

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Research Goal

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 Core Idea: SBR-Image

Sq

RSq

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 Version 0.1:
Generating Ray Tubes

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Version 0.2: Reflection from a
PEC Ground Plane

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Version 0.3: Multiple Reflection
between PEC Planes

Sq

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Version 0.4: Multiple Reflection
between Coated PEC Planes

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Version 0.5: Reflection from a
Dielectric Slab

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Version 0.6: Diffraction

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Version 0.7: Room with Single
Closet

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Version 1.0: Room with Multiple
Closets

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 Outline
Finding Research Topics
Planning Research Project
Conducting Research Project
Presenting and Publishing Research
Results
Summary

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 Quadrant II
Time Management
Important

II I

Not Urgent Urgent

III IV

Not Important
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 Batch vs. Time-Sharing
Batch system
– If A is not finished, I can not start B
– Prepare your exam in just one night
Time-sharing
– Do multiple tasks at the same time
– Bookkeeping system
A research project can not be finished in
a very short period
– 10~40 hours/week is reasonable
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Batch vs. Time-Sharing

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 Recording Your Research
Use research notes to write down
everything about your topic
Prepare Power Point slides for important
literatures or stable results
Report your progress periodically
– Power point file (group meeting)
– Brief summary (every semester)
Final results
– Thesis, PPT file for oral exam
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Example of Research Notes

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Example of Research Notes

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 Verification, Comparison,
Explanation
Verification
– Power of evidence
– Reliability of your
contribution
Comparison
– Value of your contribution
Knowledge comes from
comparison and
explanation
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 Verification, Comparison,
Explanation
Check special cases against results
from independent approaches
– Compare accuracies, efficiencies, or
other measurable performances
– Explain the differences
For the innovated parts
– Check if the results are expected and
explain the differences
– Parametric study, trend analysis
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Version 0.4: Multiple Reflection
between Coated PEC Planes

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Version 0.7: Room with Closet

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Room with Closet

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Version 1.0: Room with Multiple
Closets

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Room with Multiple Closets

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Example of Parametric Study:
Ma and Jeng, 2005

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 Debugging
Search for comparable special cases
Start debugging from the point
where things agree
Incremental debugging
– e.g., add diffraction
Decremental debugging
– e.g., remove diffraction

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 What can you think and do
when results do not check?
Is it a key/core problem?
Is there anybody else who has similar problems
before?
– Search for literatures in same/different fields
Ask for the help of friends/advisors/other
researchers
Writing emails to authors
Can we try different approaches or bypass the
problem?

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 It doesn’t work!
Find the reason
– Is the difficulty possible to be eliminated in the near
future?
– Find the range that you can handle
– Can we modify the problem?
Risks of failure
– Inevitable
– Legend of Edison
– A research failed still has its contributions

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 Outline
Finding Research Topics
Planning Research Project
Conducting Research Project
Presenting and Publishing Research
Results
Summary

56
 Publishing and Presenting
Research Results
The goal of research is to find something
new and useful to other people
Results must be published for someone
else to use them
Thesis, journal, conference,
web
Attending conferences
– Financial aid

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 Judging a Contribution
Novelty
Reliability
Completeness
Range of possible applications

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 Preparing a Presentation
If you can
show just 1~3
slides . . .
Tree structure
Magic number
7

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 Writing a Paper/Thesis
Running title
Brainstorming
Identify key ideas
Outline
Start writing
In general 3-4 weeks are required to
revise your paper/thesis

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 Outline
Finding Research Topics
Planning Research Project
Conducting Research Project
Presenting and Publishing Research
Results
Summary

61
 Summary
Find a topic fitting your interest and
career planning
80/20 principle, put first things first,
quadrant II Time management
Prototyping and evolution
Work by time-sharing, not in batch
Keep records for your research
Verification, Comparison, Explanation
Publish and present your results
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