Research Introduction Seminar: Computer Science Research Methodology

Master Level – Spring Semester

Summary

The goal of this course is to teach students the basis of the computer science research methodology, i.e., how the research community in computer science is developing, testing and validating new ideas and concepts.

Through this course, students will learn to identify and read relevant research papers with a critical view, to extract and understand key innovations from those papers and to evaluate the scope and validity of those innovations.  This course is also an introduction to research in computer science for students who consider pursuing their curriculum with an academic master thesis and/or doctoral studies in ICT.

Content

The course is structured around a set of fundamental questions related to computer science research and associated methodology, some of which are listed hereafter.

  • What is research? Why do it in universities? What is the basis of the scientific method?
  • What is specific about computer science research? What is its methodology?
  • What is the notion of state of the art and why is it important in research?
  • What is a scientific publication and what is the process to produce one?
  • How is research in computer science evaluated? Where is it published?
  • How is the computer science research community organized? 
  • What are some key research areas in computer science?

Additional Links

https://doplab.unil.ch/csrm/