| Metodologías de investigación | Código: M1.905 : 6 |
This course provides the student with an introduction to the research process and methodologies usually applied in the computer science and Information Systems (IS) field.
This course covers the different issues addressed by researchers in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) field, including the kinds of research questions, the research strategies, examples and models of research and the analysis and evaluation of the research activity.
The student is introduced to the research process and, then, different research paradigms in the ICT environment are presented and described.
The theoretical issues addressed in the course materials are combined with practical assessment and learning assignments to make the student familiar with the research methodologies and such that a successful research in the ICT field results.
This course is designed to provide the basic competences about research methodology in computer science and information systems. No previous subjects are required.
This can be one the first courses in a research track of a Master's degree or Doctoral programme.
The competences of this course are related to scientific research in computer science or Information Systems. Thus, the field of application of the addressed competences is the academia or the R&D departments in industries or organisations. Both applied and basic research are considered in this course.
The following competences will be developed in this course.
General competences:
Specific competences:
- Capacity to use English as a communication language in the technological field.
- Capacity to learn autonomously by seeking information.
- Capacity to select, implement and integrate appropriate scientific and technical knowledge to solve problems in new environments
- Capacity to write scientific literature, and summarize and present the results of a research project.
- Capacity to determine the relevant characteristics of an ICT system for its modeling and simulation, and capacity to summarize and present the results.
- Capacity to analyze various ICT systems that are commonly used and criticize their applicability and to understand the non-applicability of other theoretically interesting systems.
- Capacity to interpret, analyze and explain the conceptual differences and their applicability among the various schemes proposed to solve the same ICT problem.
Note on the use of English
As clearly specified in the list of competences, the communication skills in English is a mandatory competence that must be evaluated in this course. Hence. the student must submit all messages to the discussion and forum spaces in English. Also, it is mandatory to write the solutions of all the assignments in English. Failure to satisfy this requirement will imply that the competence of English will not be evaluated positively, leading to a "fail" mark in the course. On the other hand, private messages to the course tutor can be written in English, Catalan or Spanish.
This course consists of the following contents:
· Introduction to the research process
o Introduction
o The purpose and products of research
o The research process
o Research ethics
o Reviewing the literature
· Research Methods
o Surveys
o Design and creation
o Experiments
o Case studies
o Action research
o Ethnography
o Formal proofs as a research strategy
§ Introduction
§ Defining formal proofs
§ Anatomy of a formal proof
§ Tool-supported proofs
§ Planning formal proofs
§ Proof strategies
§ The Internet and formal proofs
§ Examples of proofs in IS and computing
§ Evaluating formal proof research
§ Further reading
· Research techniques for data generation
o Interviews
o Observations
o Questionnaires
o Documents
· Data analysis
o Quantitative data analysis
o Qualitative data analysis
| Formal Proof. Understanding writing and evaluating proofs |