Nodes Research Methodologies

582701
1-2
Networking and Services
Advanced studies
Year Semester Date Period Language In charge
2015 spring 16.01-01.05. 3-4 English Lea Kutvonen

Information for international students

 

NEWS

  • Course form instructions have been updated and the Facebook group created.

General

 

Overview

The NODES research group coordinates the various research groups at the Department of Computer Science on the area of Networking and services. The NODES group interestes range from the effective organisation of Internet protocols and wireless communication to the new challenges of globally interoperating business services. The focus areas are networked systems and their enablers: interoperability (e.g., service and software platforms, interoperability management, contracting, trust management, privacy), mobility (technology and location independence, wireless computing), information networks, service networks, context awareness and ubiquitous computing. The group combines the departmental tradition of wireless and mobile computing to new research themes. The focus of the group has been extending for the last years from platform protocols to solving application layer challenges.

The NODES group also coordinates the BSc, MSc and PhD level education on this area. At this front, the NODES group mission is to educate experts and strategic leaders  for the design and realisation of new,  global platforms or infrastructures for example in collaboration and interoperability, mobility,   information networks / service networks, and  context awareness.
 
The professional skills of graduating students from any university program include those of research methodologies in their selected topic area. Students who become researchers must be able to conduct their work according to accepted norms on their field, and potentially, also further develop these methodologies. Students who seek into positions in companies or governmental institutions, or create their own companies, must understand the quality of the research results they are applying in their work.
 
The common thing in scientific methods is the constant questioning of previous hypothesis and improvement of already reached solutions. Beyond that, the research methods differ in terms of the artefacts produced and the techniques applied in testing their qualities and adoptability. 
 
The aim of this course is to increase the awareness of research results and corresponding research methodologies, methods and techniques used in the NODES network research groups. The students collect their credit units, increase their awareness and become part of the working community by getting an overview of the large scope of NODES themes and techniques through guided reading assingments and through participation in community events flagged especially suitable for this purpose. 
 

Completing the course

Taking the course

To whom:

This course is open to all computer science students. As we are working in a research university, all of us need to be aware of the scientific principles and of the practical research methodologies and techniques. This knowledge helps us to choose an appropriate technique for our work, to critically read research publications, and to produce good quality exam answers, seminar papers and presentations, as well as working in an appopriate and effective way on thesis work. Identification of different techniques is essential not only for active researchers and research group leaders, but also for all of those people who follow research results in order to apply them in their work in companies.

In practice, the themes are appropriate for everyone from BSc students to PhD students.

How:

The course is passed based on learning  diaries on literature and lectures pointed out as being suitable targets. The learning diaries can be short, but for each type a small set of guiding questions are provided. There are minimun requirements on the quality of the learning diaries (concise, intelligble, analytical and reflective instead of overly repetitive on the article or lecture contents). The list of literature and lectures can be found on this course page.

Each student can work on the course tasks at their own pace. Depending on the number of learning diaries accepted, the course size can range between 1-2 cu. The course is graded as "passed".

As a measure of amount of work we use the working hours estimated to be involved to each task. Our university norm for  1 cu is 27 hours of work, either listening to lectures, taking part of exercises or working individually on assignments. 

For all learning diaries, use this submission form to give reference to a pdf or text file, and identifying yourself and your favourite address for receiving feedback. The form automatically timestamps the submissions. The feedback of received learning diaries is organised to take place in a weekly session.

Facilities for the course

  • List of literature and related learning diary tasks (see tab). Informal reading groups are encouraged.
  • Semi-structured interview questions for doing interviews on researchers for sharing with other students through the Facebook group (below) or even becoming published otherwise. (see tab)
  • List of events (events will be published as they become available, see bottom of this page) and related learning diary tasks. Suggestions from staff and students are welcome.
  • Some slides collected from NODES network and department introductions in shared slides directory 
  • Closed Facebook group for discussing research methodologies (link to appear here). All computer science students of our department are welcome to join.
  • Submission form for learning diaries
  • Coordination of course grading and communication is done by Lea Kutvonen.