CS 5014 -- Research Methods in Computer Science -- Spring 2006

Virginia Tech- Computer Science Department

Prof. W. Frakes

Course Hours: Wednesday 7-9:45 Room 324 NVGC First Class January 18

This web page may change throughout the semester - please check it regularly

Announcements:

Midterm March 1, Spring Break - March 8 -- No Class

Texts:

[KCC] Katzer, Jeffrey. et. al.Evaluating information : a guide for users of social science research New York : McGraw-Hill, ISBN: 0070343098; 4th edition (June 1, 1997)

[SPE] Research designsPaul E. Spector. Sage Publications; ISBN: 0803917090; (November 1981)

[ZIN] Zinsser, William. On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction, Harper Resource; ISBN: 0060006641; 25th Annv edition (September 18, 2001)
Links

The midterm and projects are subject to the Virginia Tech Honors System

Grading -- Midterm 55%, Project 40%, Class participation 5% 

Readings and Milestones 
 

    

  1. Introduction KCC 1 (number refers to section of book)

    
Science, Engineering, Research

    Hypothesis
    
Tools: citeseer, web of science, ACM taxonomy, stat programs, amazon, writing tools, 
IEEE paper template, SWEBOK, VT forms, grammar checker, survey tools, OWL.

  2. Discovery and Communication KCC 2

  3. Error KCC 3 - Project Proposals Due

  4. Measurement and Control KCC 4

  5. Generalizability KCC 5, 6

  6. Descriptive Stats

  7. MIDTERM

  8. Spring Break - No class

  9. Inferential Stats SPE 

  10. Experimental Design SPE

  11. Writing and Presentation ZIN

  12. Writing and Presentation ZIN - Prof. Belli - Survey Research

  13. Project Presentations - Projects Due

  14. Project Presentations

  15. Project Presentations


Course Projects

Proposals should have a 1-2 page abstract, an outline, and a list
of key annotated references

Presentations should be 30 minutes long

Some Suggested Project Topics:

    

  1. Do a study of some aspect of software production

  2. Quasi-experimentation 

  3. Software Measurement

  4. Visual presentation of data. 

  5. Critique several experimental studies in some area of computer
science

  6. Data gathering

  7. Relation of Experimental Methods to Quality Improvement

  8. Statistical computing

  9. Taguchi experimental design methods. 

  10. Artificial Intelligence Research 

  11. Research on computing hardware. 

  12. Co-citation analysis


Some New Research


Quantum Computer

Wikipedia vs. Britannica

Fastest Computer


Computer Science Researchers

Charles Babbage

Don Knuth

Noam Chomsky
Dennis Ritchie

Claude
Shannon

Herbert
Simon

Alan Turing

Turing Award


Writers

George Orwell

--Politics and the English Language

Paul Fussell

Natalie Goldberg


Research Organizations

IBM Research

Microsoft Research



Movies about Computers (and robots)

Colossus - The Forbin Project

Blade Runner

War Games

The Day the Earth Stood Still

2001 - A Space Odyssey



Bibliography



ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct

Ashenhurst, Robert,(Editor)ACM Turing Award Lectures:
The First Twenty Years 1966-1985, Addison Wesley Professional; ISBN: 0201548852; 1st edition (July 1, 1991)

Collected algorithms of the ACM

Demarco, Tom and Tim Lister. Peopleware. New York: Dorset House, 1987.

Fenton, N. E. (1991). Software Metrics: a rigorous approach. London: Chapman and Hall.

Feynman, Richard, Feynman Lectures on Computation, Perseus Books; ISBN: 0738202967; (July 2000)

Feynman, Richard,, The Character of Physical Law, Modern Library; ISBN: 0679601279; Modern lib edition (November 1994)

Feynman, R. (1997). Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!': Adventures of a Curious Character. W.W. Norton & Company; ISBN: 0393316041.

Fussell, Paul, Thank God for the Atom Bomb and Other Essays, Ballantine Books; ASIN: 0345361350; Reprint edition (February 1990)

Gardner, M. Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science. Dover Pubns; ISBN: 0486203948; 2nd edition (December 1957).

Goldberg, Natalie, Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within, Shambhala Publications; ISBN: 0877733759; (October 1986)

Gonick, L. (1994). The Cartoon Guide to Statistics. Harper-Collins.

Grady, Robert B. Practical Software Metrics for Project Management and Process Improvement. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1992.

Langley, P., Simon, H. A., Bradshow, G. L., & Zytkow, J. M. (1987). Scientific Discovery : Computational Explorations of the Creative Processes. MIT Press; ISBN: 0262620529.

May, W. (1996). Edges of Reality: Mind Vs Computer. Perseus Books; ASIN: 0306452723.

Simon, Herbert, Models of My Life, MIT Press; ISBN: 026269185X; Reprint edition (October 8, 1996)

Simon, Herbert, The Sciences of the Artificial, MIT Press; ISBN: 0262691914; 3rd edition (October 1, 1996)

Tufte, E. R. (1983). The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press.

Watson, J. D. The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA. Touchstone Books; ISBN: 074321630X.