Research Method and Seminar

At of the end of this course, the students should be able to: 1. define research; 2. enumerate its characteristics and types; 3. explain its process; 4. formulate research problem, objective; 5. construct research tool and questionnaire; 6. analysis data gotten from research for the extraction of useful information for knowledge generation; 7. distinguish between engineering research proposal and other research proposals; 8. cost engineering research proposals; 9. learn how to write and differentiate a proposal and seminar from a research project; 10. write a written report as well as an oral PowerPoint presentation for the purpose of seminar which should be held at the department and for which the students should be graded; 11. write and present the chapter 1-3 of their project on PowerPoint in the first semester; and 12. defend the written and presented chapters.

Definition of research, characteristics of research; types of research; the research process; formulating the research problem; considerations in selecting a research problem; reviewing the literature; procedure for reviewing the literature; formulation of objectives; preparing the research design; consideration for the research design; guidelines to construct a research tool; constructing a questionnaire; piloting the questionnaire; collecting data; ethical issues concerning research participants; ethical issues relating to the researcher; processing and analyzing data; the data processing operations; data analyzing methods; generalization and interpretation of the results; reporting the findings; writing research project report format; general attributes of a research proposal; what distinguishes an engineering research proposal; components of a research proposal; costing an engineering research proposal. The course is designed for final year students who will be required to make seminar presentations. Emphasis here is on how to write an introduction, literature review, methodology, results, and discussion as well as the derivation and/or development of relevant mathematical models and procedures. APA referencing style will also be discussed.