Introduction to Research

Credits
6
Types
Elective
Requirements
This subject has not requirements , but it has got previous capacities
Department
FIB
This subject aims to introduce students to the research tasks specific to Computer and Software Engineering. The aim is for students to become familiar with research by collaborating with the related UPC research groups. The student will be tutored by a professor from the bachelor degree in Computer Engineering. In this process, they will be able to adopt the guidelines specific to research work, which may include participation in existing projects, testing hypotheses, writing scientific publications and, in general, those activities that the tutor considers appropriate to contribute to initial training in research.

Teachers

Person in charge

Weekly hours

Theory
2
Problems
0
Laboratory
2
Guided learning
0
Autonomous learning
6

Competences

Technical Competences

Common technical competencies

  • CT4 - To demonstrate knowledge and capacity to apply the basic algorithmic procedures of the computer science technologies to design solutions for problems, analysing the suitability and complexity of the algorithms.
    • CT4.1 - To identify the most adequate algorithmic solutions to solve medium difficulty problems.
    • CT4.2 - To reason about the correction and efficiency of an algorithmic solution.
    • CT4.3 - To demonstrate knowledge and capacity to apply the fundamental principles and the basic techniques of the intelligent systems and its practical application.
  • CT5 - To analyse, design, build and maintain applications in a robust, secure and efficient way, choosing the most adequate paradigm and programming languages.
    • CT5.2 - To know, design and use efficiently the most adequate data types and data structures to solve a problem.
    • CT5.3 - To design, write, test, refine, document and maintain code in an high level programming language to solve programming problems applying algorithmic schemas and using data structures.
    • CT5.4 - To design the programs¿ architecture using techniques of object orientation, modularization and specification and implementation of abstract data types.

    • Objectives

    1. Knowledge and practice of the scientific method
      Related competences: G9.1,
    2. Knowledge and practice of research methods in Computer Science
      Related competences: G9.1, G9.3, G6.3, CT4.1, CT4.2, CT5.2, CT5.4, G9.2, CT4.3, CT5.3,
    3. Ability to reason and argue to discuss and validate research methods and results.
      Related competences: G4.3, G4.2,

    Contents

    1. Research planning
      Preparation of the research plan: objectives, review of the state of the art, selection of experimental method, design of experiments, validation criteria.
    2. Research: development of the research activity
      Experimentation, development of algorithms and their testing, discussion of results with the tutor and review of hypotheses
    3. Reporting
      Preparation of research reports, articles or scientific conference-type presentations and deposit of documentation on the research process and its results in article format.

    Activities

    Activity Evaluation act


    Research Plan

    Information from the tutor on the context, objective and scope of their participation in the research project. Joint agreement on the milestones and time allocated, as well as the type of final result expected from the student's participation. Presentation and discussion of the research plan, method to be followed, data sources, bibliographic and software sources and, in general, everything you need to know and have at hand to start and follow the research project. Agreement on the frequency and form of review throughout the project. Agreement and definition of internal documentation formats, and publication format and possible participation in scientific conferences. Decision on the type of storage environments for the developed software. Sharing criteria and licenses for the developed software. Criteria for protection and exchange of other research results.
    Objectives: 1 2
    Theory
    10h
    Problems
    0h
    Laboratory
    0h
    Guided learning
    0h
    Autonomous learning
    20h

    Research Development

    Development of the research project
    Objectives: 3 2
    Theory
    15h
    Problems
    0h
    Laboratory
    30h
    Guided learning
    0h
    Autonomous learning
    50h

    Reporting

    Preparation of internal reports, software and hardware development documentation, information on all types of resources necessary to use and replicate the research results: repositories, specific computing systems, hardware and software configurations, specific hardware devices, datasets used and their storage location and sharing method; bibliographies, written articles, possible conference presentations, etc. Preparation of the final report of the research project.
    Objectives: 3 2
    Theory
    4h
    Problems
    0h
    Laboratory
    0h
    Guided learning
    0h
    Autonomous learning
    20h

    Discussion of the activity report with the tutor


    Objectives: 3 2
    Week: 1
    Theory
    0h
    Problems
    0h
    Laboratory
    0h
    Guided learning
    0h
    Autonomous learning
    0h

    Teaching methodology

    The teaching methodology is eminently practical. It will be necessary to develop practical activities specific to the research, organized in collaboration with the tutor. It is expected that the student will go through, guided by the tutor, a process of understanding the research objectives, planning research tasks, assessing the state of the art, original research proposal and development and testing of specific research tasks agreed with the tutor.

    Evaluation methodology

    The student evaluation is carried out by the activity tutor. The person responsible for the degree may modify the grade based on the quality of the report.

    The evaluation seeks to assess the quality of the work carried out by the student from the point of view of consistency and agreement with the research methods and the objectives and methodological particularities of the specific research carried out.

    For this reason, the student must (a) prepare a short report (in the style of a scientific article or presentation at a scientific conference) and (b) make a presentation/discussion to the tutor who will evaluate it.

    The final grade must consider both the development of the research work and the quality of the report, with equal weight given to both parts.

    It is recommended to structure this report and its presentation and discussion as a presentation at a scientific conference. Therefore, it must have clear sections for a summary ("abstract"), introduction, development, conclusion and discussion of the results obtained and their relationship to the research objectives, in addition to a bibliography section. It is recommended to make the data used in the development of the research available (using an accessible repository such as Gitlab), so that the scientific community can check how any algorithms developed in the research work.

    Bibliography

    Basic

    Previous capacities

    Those previously acquired during the career.