How to do research Giorgio Buttazzo Scuola Superiore SantAnna - - PDF document

How to do research

Giorgio Buttazzo Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna Credits: 3 Lectures: 6 lectures of 3 hours each (18 hours). Homeworks: 4 assignments (paper writing, paper reviewing, project writing, presentation). Notes: The course is limited to 12 participants. Priority will be given to first year students. Attending lectures and completing each homework is mandatory for credit acquisition. Given the limited number of attendees, please register only if you can attend all lectures and commit to the homeworks within the given deadlines Registration: Students who want to attend the course must register by sending an Email to Giorgio Buttazzo (giorgio@sssup.it) specifying the following information: First name: Last Name: PhD curriculum (ES/PR/TLC): Year of PhD study (1/2/3): Email: Availability to attend all the lectures (YES/NO): Abstract

The course will cover the entire process needed during a research study, from the initial phase in which a new problem is addressed, formalized, and solved, up to the final phase in which the achieved results have to be communicated to the scientific community. The course is divided in six lectures of 3 hours each. The first lecture explains the meaning of research and how to approach the various steps involved in the

• process. The second lecture explains how to write papers, set a good structure, outline the contents, make

figures, cite references, and avoid common mistakes. The third lecture explains how the scientific publication process works and how to participate in it, simulating a typical paper selection process of a

• conference. The fourth lecture explains how to write successful research projects. The fifth lecture will

simulate a program committee meeting, where papers are discussed, evaluated, and comments are sent back to the authors for revision. The sixth lecture explains how to make presentations, good slides, and have the appropriate attitude when presenting the work. The seventh lecture part is devoted to paper presentations, simulating a small conference run by the students.

Course calendar

Lectures Date Time Teacher Room Lecture 1 Wednesday, January 15, 2020 15:00 – 18:00

• G. Buttazzo

Blue Room Lecture 2 Wednesday, January 22, 2020 15:00 – 18:00

• G. Buttazzo

Blue Room Lecture 3 Wednesday, January 29, 2020 15:00 – 18:00

• G. Buttazzo

Blue Room Lecture 4 Wednesday, February 5, 2020 15:00 – 18:00

• T. Cucinotta

Blue Room Lecture 5 Wednesday, February 12, 2020 15:00 – 18:00

• G. Buttazzo

Blue Room Lecture 6 Wednesday, February 19, 2020 15:00 – 18:00

• G. Buttazzo

Blue Room

Course Program

1. How to do research (3 hours) – Giorgio Buttazzo Wednesday, January 15, 2020

• What is research and why to do research?
• Basic vs. applied research.
• Typical steps of the research process: key points and common mistakes.
• How to get ideas.
• Research as a holistic system: main components and their relationships.
• Reducing Complexity.
• Importance of hierarchy in research organization.
• How to identify good work in the literature.
• Class assignment: select a topic for a short paper.
• Homework: literature search on a selected topic.

2. How to write scientific papers (3 hours) – Giorgio Buttazzo Wednesday, January 22, 2020

• Why writing scientific papers?
• Setting a good structure.
• Contains of typical sections.
• How to describe and present experiments.
• How to cite work by other people.
• Seven important steps
• Figures and visualization issues.
• Avoiding common mistakes.
• Class assignment: start writing an outline of the paper.
• Homework: write a scientific paper.

IMPORTANT: Intermediate checks must be sent to Tommaso Cucinotta (tommaso.cucinotta@santannapisa.it) (exact deadlines will be given during the course). 3. Getting into the publication process (3 hours) – Giorgio Buttazzo Wednesday, January 29, 2020

• Why to publish?
• Types of scientific publications and scientific communities.
• Conference call for papers.
• The submission process.
• Reviewing process and evaluation criteria.
• How to review a paper.
• Program Committee meeting.
• Making the final program:
• Session chair and its role;
• Tracks, workshops, WiP, keynotes;
• Awards ceremony, social events.
• Logistic and advertising the conference.
• Publishing on Journals.
• Surviving the peer review.
• Preparing a revised version.
• Homework: review a paper and send reviews by a given deadline.

4. How to write research projects (3 hours) – Tommaso Cucinotta Wednesday, February 5, 2020

• Why writing a research project?
• Types of research projects: Regional, National, European
• Finding the appropriate place for your ideas
• Key elements of a project proposal
• Objectives
• Background and Bibliography
• Project organization
• Impact
• Structure of a proposal
• Work packages
• Milestones
• Deliverables
• Dependencies
• Risk Management
• Budget Concepts
• Example of Projects
• Homework: Structure a research project on a selected topic.

5. How to make presentations (3 hours) – Giorgio Buttazzo Wednesday, February 12, 2020

• Identifying the audience and the main message of the paper.
• Setting a good structure: what to include and what to leave out.
• Preparing good slides: easy to follow and highlight main message.
• Animations, colors, figures: when are they good and when bad?
• Amount of text.
• Things to avoid.
• Having the right attitude when presenting the work.
• Handling time: the speed of the talk.
• Class assignment: Start preparing slides, deciding template and structure.
• Class work: PC meeting for evaluating the papers.
• Homework:

prepare the slides before the next lecture. 6. Simulating a small conference (3 hours) –Buttazzo, Cucinotta Wednesday, February 19, 2020

• Paper presentations.