Postgraduate Research

Overview

A special thanks to Dr Yunus Abdul Gaffar, The initial author of this initial guide.

For more resources pertaining to research in the EE Department at UCT, see Category:Research.

What is research

Research is a logical and systematic search for new and useful information on a particular topic. It is an investigation of finding solutions to problems through objective and systematic analysis.

What is design

Design is the process used to create something to solve a problem. Design involves the transformation of an initial user requirement to produce documentation instructions on how to realise the end product. In determining a solution, barriers must be overcome. A design assignment, there, is an engineering problem and involves sub-problems that must be addressed.

The design process typically consists of the following steps:

1. User requirements: client describes the problem and constraints (time, budget, using specific components) that the solution must fit within. Engage with client to understand who is going to use the product, where is it going to be used and how often, and for how long (lifespan) is it going to be used. Separate the core requirements from the ‘nice to have’ ones
2. Technical requirements: translate the user requirements into concise technical requirements that contain technical jargon.
3. Identify multiple solutions: synthesises a range of potential solutions to the problem or a range of approaches to developing a solution that is consistent with assumptions, premises, limitations and constraints
4. Evaluates the potential approaches against criteria. Examples of criteria include cost, efficiency, performance, reliability
5. Chooses a preferred approach and presents reasonable arguments to justify this decision
6. Develops the full design of the selected option. This can include developing a functional-flow block diagram for the proposed solution, and a block diagram showing the major sub-systems + interfaces between sub-systems: for each subsystem, identify multiple solutions and justify your choice based on the requirements and constraints of the system
7. Test each sub-system to ensure that it is functioning accurately as expected
8. Perform integration and testing: Build prototype and perform testing. Assess if system technical requirement are met
9. Develop improved prototype by iterating through steps 6 -> 7 -> 8 . The more iterations are done, the better the quality of the developed system.
10. Produces design documentation for implementation. A design document provides detailed information or the ‘blueprint’ to implement the proposed solution.

Postgraduate studies

Note: keeping a research journal throughout your postgraduate studies can be useful to document ideas, problems, notes and reminders. During measurement trials, this is especially useful and will help a lot in the write up phase. A journal can be a hardcover book, or a word document, a blog or a combination of these.

Masters Degree

A Masters degree is training to equip candidates with skills necessary for further independent research. The dissertation should demonstrate that a candidate has the ability to be adequately acquainted with the relevant literature, has mastered appropriate techniques and analytic methods, assess the significance of findings in a thorough and logically-coherent manner, shows evidence of critical and independent thought and the write-up of the dissertation is satisfactory in presentation and literature style. The dissertation does not need to involve original research or distinctly advance knowledge of the subject.

PhD Degree

A PhD degree shows that a candidate can work independently and make an original, significant and meaningful contribution that adds to the existing body of knowledge. Student must demonstrate that he/she is working at the cutting edge and at the academic forefront in the topic. Evidence of a ‘significant contribution’ includes publishing in accredited journals and writing a good quality, polished PhD thesis. The ideas relating to the original contribution of the PhD work should come directly from the PhD candidate and not from the supervisor. This shows that the PhD candidate can think creatively, which is one of the skills that it certified when a PhD degree is granted. Examples of an original contribution can include:

• Providing a new angle on a previously researched problem
• Providing a single new observation
• Bringing new evidence to an old issue or taking a particular technique and applying it to a new area
• Carrying out empirical work that has not been done before or making synthesis that has not been made before
• How to demonstrate Significant Contribution & Original Study in your PhD Thesis

Critical and creative thinking are two important outcomes of a PhD degree. Research what these are and how to further develop your critical and creative thinking skills.

A PhD degree is typically examined in the context of the scientific process, which is made up of the following steps

1. Research questions are stated
2. Background research is done
3. A clear, concise and achievable hypothesis is carefully phrased
4. The hypothesis is tested by doing an experiment
5. The data obtained from experiments is analysed and conclusions are drawn

Choosing a field of study and a research topic

There is a difference between a field of study and a broad research topic. Examples of a field are “passive radar”, ‘radar imaging’, ‘cognitive radar’. Examples of a research topic is “Optimum placement of receivers for FM-based passive radar for detection and tracking of aircraft” or “Radar imaging of small boats in high sea states”.

A field of study is more general and does not focus on a problem. A research topic is more focused and does focus on a problem. When looking for a field to work in, look at ‘hot-topics’, ie topics that there are recent publications in journals and conferences and researchers are actively trying to advance the field by contributing knowledge

When choosing a broad research topic, ensure:

• You are interested in the topic and developing/applying the skills required to complete the research. You are going to spend many months on this single topic and being passionate about is a key ingredient.
• Topic is not ‘saturated’, ie not have so many publications that there is little room left to make an original contribution.
• Enough literature that a critical literature survey can be written to show understanding of the published literature and the recent findings
• You have the time/budget/skills to develop a radar to get measured data or have access to equipment/radar to get measured data to sufficiently address your research objectives. Or, use existing good quality measured datasets. For new fields of study, measured data might not be critical. Theory and simulations may be enough.
• A simulator can be developed to obtained simulated data to compare against measured data and to generate simulated data for scenarios that is difficult/time-consuming to measure
• ‘Nice to have’: recent books on the field/topic, IEEE journal or magazine review on the field/topic, accept to experts (supervisor, industry partner, international expert), dissertations/thesis on the topic, existing datasets for initial analysis to get an understanding/appreciation for the complexity of the problem

The next step is to fine-tune the broad research topic to a more focus topic, then to phrase research objectives or research questions.

It is challenging to refine a broad research topic or to identify a ‘good research problem’. There are many problems out there: some are solvable and others are not, some are important and some are not. A ‘good research problem’ is one that is both solvable and important. The process of finding a ‘good research problem’ involves:

• reading the literature to understand what has been done and the boundaries of existing knowledge. However, if you spent too much time reading the literature and believing everything, you’ll never notice the flaws. While experts that publish are knowledgeable in their area, they rarely admit what they don’t know. Furthermore, experts have biases and work within hidden constraints. If you don’t read the literature enough, you may have doubts of what can be achieved. Reading the literature requires a balance. Hamming suggests reading the literature until the problem becomes reasonably clear. Then stop reading the literature and think through the problem yourself and brainstorm solutions. Think about how you would slightly change the problem to be the ‘solvable’. In conclusion, reading to find solutions does not lead to great research.

PhD students: the PhD candidate leads the process to identifying and refining the topic. This is because the journey of "finding the problem" and "clarifying the problem" is part of the PhD work. It is a skill that every PhD candidate needs to learn. If your supervisor gives you a clear topic + hypothesis + research objectives, and clearly outlines your methodology, what data should be used and what outcomes to expect, then this is more master’s research than independent PhD research.

Roles of the students and the supervisor

Responsibility of the students

The following is taken from the UCT EBE postgraduate handbook:

• To accept that the primary responsibility for his/her education rests with the student. This includes selecting a topic for research, setting up meetings and developing and managing a plan to complete your postgraduate studies.
• To demonstrate a reasonable work ethic and to make every effort to meet the normal throughput rate (2 years for a Masters student, 4 years for a PhD student)
• To share ideas and to work collegially
• To participate in and to contribute to the life of the department
• To assist in the mentoring and orientation of fellow students from outside Cape Town
• To commit to co-publication with the supervisor
• To commit to constructive feedback at the end of the process

Responsibility of the supervisor (from UCT EBE postgraduate handbook)

• To provide quality supervision on a regular basis (as a guideline, a minimum of one hour per week)
• To respond timeously to the submission of written work requiring feedback.
• To arrange for a suitable replacement if the supervisor is absent for a lengthy period (more than 3 weeks)
• To treat the student with unfailing respect and politeness
• Providing an opportunity for the student to teach undergraduate students in the candidate's area of growing expertise
• To organise a seminar by the student, involving staff and senior students in the Department
• To facilitate postgraduate students, on a voluntary basis, playing a mentoring role to undergraduate students
• To assist in the incorporation of the student into the social life of the department

UCT Memorandum of Understanding between student and supervisor

• Clarifies responsibilities between supervisor and candidate
• Contains a plan of work for the next 12 months or up to completion. Important milestones should be clarified
• For returning students, it contains a comparison of last year’s plan with the actual progress achieved

Writing a research proposal

The contents of a proposal, as given by the UCT Researchers guide, are as follows:

• Title: should give a clear indication of what the study is about
• Brief description of the area of research: locate the proposed research in its wider context
• The research questions: Crisply stated single question that can later be broken down into multiple sub-questions
• Rationale: gives a motivation of why you chose this area of research and what contribution the completed research work will make to our understanding of the field.
• Literature review: Sufficient insight of the literature to justify the research questions. Locates the proposed research in the context of existing work. Literature survey must have a direct link to the problem/questions/objectives being addressed in the thesis.
• Research methods: These indicate what techniques/methods to be used to address the research objectives.
• Research design: Addresses how the project will be broken down and what key decisions need to be made
• Data collection and analysis: what data will be collected (simulated? Measured?). How will data be collected? How data will be analysed to fully address the research objectives stated in the work
• Research ethics: If the project involves working with humans or animals, ethics approval needs to be obtained before the search begins.
• Thesis outline: prove a preliminary outline of the dissertation/thesis, indicating chapter and heading titles
• Timeline: short research plan identifying milestones and how the research work and write-up will be completed in the specified time
• List of references: reference all literature used in the proposal

For Masters students

The following are taken from UCT EBE postgrad handbook:

• Clearly explain the research topic that will be investigated. Include a background section that describes the application and why this work is meaningful, ie has a real-life application and state all research objectives
• Include a literature survey that shows familiarity with the central literature within the broad field of study
• Provide clarity on the research methods or the methodology used to achieve the research objectives stated
• Typical length of masters proposal is less than 10 pages and submitted 3 months after registration for research project

PhD Seminar

A PhD Seminar should demonstrate the following (from UCT EBE postgrad handbook):

• The candidate is familiar with the main literature in the field
• There is sufficient scope in the topic for a PhD and there is clarity in the stated hypothesis and research questions/objectives
• The candidate has the right background, undergraduate degree and ability to undertake the work
• The potential contribution to knowledge has been identified and there is a clear definition of the key questions to be addressed in the context of the proposed hypothesis
• The method of research is sound and achievable and there is a clear knowledge of the experimental procedures to be used and the methodology to be pursued in analysing the results

PhD proposal

A PhD proposal intends to (taken from UCT Researchers guide):

• Indicate the focus for research
• Set out aims of the research project
• Indicate how the student intends to achieve those aims
• Provide a benchmark which progress is measured and adjustments made
• Typical length of PhD proposal is between 15 – 20 pages and can take 6 weeks to 6 months to complete

Broad Chapters of a Research proposal

Problem statement or research objectives

A research problem is a statement about an area of concern, a condition to be improved, a difficulty to be eliminated, or a troubling question that exists in scholarly literature, in theory, or in practice that points to the need for meaningful understanding and deliberate investigation.

It should contain:

1. Clear problem formulation
2. Clear, achievable, concise, clearly scoped + application clear. Also mention what is not in the scope of the project.
3. Each research objective should have a direct link with results presented later in the report
4. Original, engaging and thought provoking

For a PhD:

• The hypothesis should be a golden thread uniting each chapter in a common story
• The hypothesis should be clear, concise and results in the thesis should confirm if the hypothesis is true or false

Note: reference work/code used that was generated by other people

Theory related to your research objectives

• Identify relevant theory concepts that need to be understood and written up
• Write up theory using diagrams/photos/graphs, and simple examples to explain key concepts
• If the theory is not too long, then can include this into Chapter 2 before the literature survey write up
• If theory is long, then put this as a separate chapter before the chapter on literature survey

Critical literature survey

• Use academic search engines (IEEE Explore, Scopus, Engineering Village, Google scholar) and effective search phrases to find credible literature (journals, conference papers, not websites/blogs) in the field.
• Search for literature in the general field and slightly outside of your topic. Your literature survey will start off looking at the broad field and then tunneling down to your specific research objectives.
• Credible literature in decreasing order are: textbooks, journal articles, magazine articles, thesis, dissertations and then conference papers. Conference papers are reviewed with the least scrutiny and may have mistakes/shortcomings in them.
• Identify recent books in the field and IEEE journal or IEEE magazine articles that review the field (ie. extensive literature survey)
• For papers identified, read and understand abstract, conclusion and skim through body of paper focusing on results obtained
• Filter related literature from non-related literature
• Understand original contribution of papers, summarise main results obtained. Don’t focus on the detailed mathematics as yet.
• Identify core literature that is very relevant to your problem statement or research objectives. Go through the math.
• For core papers, use Google Scholar to find papers that cite each of the core papers. Then read these papers as well.
• Ensure that your literature search contains recent journal/conference papers that are less than 5 years old
• Critically identify gaps in papers, identify limitations + assumptions and aspects not sufficiently addressed
• Explain how your contribution fills the current gap in the literature
• Write up draft literature survey with diagrams/photos and key results/graphs from the literature
• Refine your literature survey to be more engaging, where pertinent issues in the literature are drawn out to justify problem being addressed
• Locate your research in the existing literature: clearly frame any contributions in contexts of these ‘gaps’ in the literature

Notes:

• Setup an alert in Scopus to send you notifications on new publications in your field of interest
• Use tables to summarise and compare details, results and assumptions from various papers/literature
• It will take many drafts to finalise your literature survey for your final submission of your dissertation/thesis. Don’t delay writing your literature survey until the end. Write as you go along, together with the references. As you finalise your dissertation/thesis, you can refine your literature, which is less work than starting from scratch.

Design process

1. Write user requirements: assign each one with a unique ID. Write so that a test can be developed to assess if user requirement is met or not. Capture in use case diagram
2. Write technical requirements: assign each one with a unique ID. Must have a function and how well the function is being done. Write so that a test can be developed to assess if technical requirement is met or not
3. Clarify system being developed using relevant diagrams: sequence diagrams, activity diagrams, block diagrams
4. In the block diagram of the system: identify inputs/outputs and major subsystems, identify and label all interfaces between subsystems, identify all external interfaces
5. For each major sub-system: identify and explain properties of multiple feasible sub-systems that can work, choose one based on requirements of project
6. The design process needs to have a logical flow
7. Enough details need to be given in the write-up to allow another student to duplicate the work
8. Creative development of design process and meticulous care in the design description

Practical work

1. Identify what practical work needs to be done to address research objectives
2. Include all hardware, simulation and software and planning of experiments
   1. Hardware: include schematics, PCB layout
   2. Simulation: include flow chart and verification tests to build the examiner’s confidence in the accuracy of the simulator
   3. Software: flow chart and verification tests
   4. Planning experiments: illustration of experiment showing radar + target (distance from radar to target, etc), list of experiments planned
3. Write up should contain enough details for another student to duplicate the work

Note: reference software/hardware done by others that you are using in your work

Results and discussion on results

• Measured data: show ‘simple’ results to show that radar was generating good quality data
• There should be results (ie graphs) that link directly with the research objectives
• Compare the results of your work with the ‘state of the art’ (current algorithms/techniques in the literature)
• Graphs should be clear, font size of labels and numeric values should be big enough to read
• In the graphs, consider annotating important features using arrows and text
• In the discussion of results, make specific reference to figures. Example: In Figure 4.1, ...
• Interpret graph to the reader and explain important trends/features/annotations in graph
• Show insight by explaining why the results were positive or why the results were poor
• Do not make strong conclusions from results obtained using few data points and from only considering one or a few scenarios. This leaves a poor impression in the mind of the external examiner. Rather, generate statistics (mean, variance, etc) from analysing larger number of data points (‘large’ depends on your field/problem) in many scenarios and then make conclusions.
• Demonstrate creative analysis that brings out pertinent solutions to the problem statement and research objectives

Conclusion and Future work

• Conclusion should link directly to research objectives stated in the Introduction
• Conclusion should not include anything new that has not been discussed in the main body of the write-up
• Conclusion should be concise, precise
• Future work: clear and achievable ideas for future research
• Future work: include creative suggestions for future research

Writing up dissertation/thesis

• Outline of dissertation: chapter headings, section headings
• Structure of report must have a clear and logical flow, with transition paragraphs to explain when the topic changes
• Ensure you have methodology section/chapter in your dissertation, where the approach used to address the research objectives are clearly outlined.
• Coherency: ensure that each paragraph starts with a topic sentence & contains a single idea
• Language: check spelling, grammar, punctuation. Sentences in past tense. Use third person. Do not use ‘I’, ‘we’, ‘he’, ‘they’
• Graphs: font size of labels, values, legend clear
• Table captions: above table
• Figure captions: below figure
• References: conforms to IEEE referencing style, complete, accurately referenced
• Acronyms defined before they are used
• Abstract: write this last. A good abstract should contain the following
  • What was done? (what ideas and concepts were investigated?)
  • Why was it done? (what was the rationale for the study?)
  • How was it done? (How did you do the work? What data was generated and used? What was the origin of the data? How were data gathered? What tests, scales or summary measures were used? In order words, how was the analysis and/or synthesis done?)
  • What was found? (What were the conclusions and what were the significant findings)
  • What is the significance of the findings? (what difference does it make? What next?)

Note: read many Masters dissertations and PhD thesis in your field. See https://open.uct.ac.za/ for UCT dissertations/thesis. Learn the following: the level of written English expected, the structure of a dissertation/thesis, the flow of the literature survey chapter and how to write-up a good quality critical literature review and how to identify the ‘gap’ in the literature, how to describe algorithms/methods used in the work, discussion and presentation of results, …

How external examiners mark dissertations/theses

Elements of a good quality dissertation/thesis

• Clear format, presentation, literature review, theoretical framework of the thesis and the problem of unsubstantiated and over-generalised conclusions.
• A pertinent literature review, clear hypothesis, achievable problem, sound data analysis and methodology and justifiable conclusions
• Dissertation/thesis is consistent and does what they said they were going to do rather than adhere to a particular paradigm or methodology. Examiner’s words “I try to see it from their eyes and whether they have been true to what they set out to do”
• Logically presented, focused, succinct, summarised and in which signposts are used to help readers to understand the path they are taking through the work
• Coherence (the student has done what they said they would do)
• Professionalism: as demonstrated by mature comments and the accuracy of the logic
• A student who makes the ideas his/her own with some originality of presentation
• The development of a well-structured argument (highly valued part of a thesis): Logical progression of ideas, work and presentation, higher level thinking and analysis, the selection of a “real” problem, and a sensible do-able question along with a literature review that tells a story. the student takes you on a journey and “succinct writing without speculation”
• Examiners value students that critically analyses their work: “They are critical of their own argument”
• Examiners are looking for students who are able to work their way through problems: “How they recognise and deal with contradictions"

PhD specific:

• Originality: the original use of a concept or theoretical framework. Novel work opens up new areas
• Sense of a student autonomy or independence (The student makes the ideas their own)
• Sufficient material in the thesis to submit to result in 2-4 good journal articles
• Student shows confidence in the way they dealt with the material and level of sophistication in the way they presented their argument
• When student has generated 2-3 good quality publications, the examiner can ‘put his feet up’ and enjoy the read
• When student has not produced any publication, examiner may question: “that’s interesting”, reflecting on his/her on experience of publishing when he/she was a PhD student

Typical details of the examination process

• Takes 4-5 full-time days to examine a thesis over a period of 2-3 weeks
• First impressions count: initial assessment about whether the assessment of a dissertation/thesis is going to be “hard work” or “an enjoyable read”
• Initial impressions of the quality is usually formed by the end of the 2nd or 3rd chapter of the dissertation/thesis
• If the examiner believes that the student has critically analysed the literature and grasps the problem, then the examiner reads the rest with much more of a sympathetic view and he feels he can relax. If chapter 2 is not good, then he reads the rest much more critically
• Some examiners read chapter 1 and then the last chapter. To check if these two ties up.

Questions that examiners ask themselves while marking the dissertation/thesis

• Sloppiness: typographical errors, mistakes in calculations, referencing and footnotes. Concern: if writing up is sloppy, then the results and conclusions become highly questionable to the examiner
• Lack of coherence
• Lack of understanding of the theory
• Lack of scoping the project in the introduction of the dissertation
• Incomplete description and lacking details for duplicating the results in the work
• Researching the wrong problem
• Work that is not meaningful enough, significant enough or original enough for a PhD thesis
• Not being able to explain at the end of the thesis what has been argued/achieved in the dissertation/thesis
• References that are poor with many references to websites/blogs, poor quality journals and conferences. Lack of references of recent publications which asks the question in the examiners mind: “does the student understand the ‘state of the art’ of the current trends in this broad research topic.