Researchers use four basic moves to show their work is
innovative and worth implementing.1
1. Establish the Significance
Explain why someone would care about this topic. You audience for this statement should
always be broader than the target audience of your paper. If possible, it should be apparent why
the general public should care
2. Describe the “Status Quo”
Describe the practices that are currently used. The status quo often contains two parts: 1) an
existing problem and 2) an existing (but flawed) solution used in current practices
3. Identify a “Gap”
Show that the current practices (i.e. “status quo”) are unsatisfactory, incomplete, or
otherwise problematic. A common way to signal the gap is the word “however.”
4. Fill that Gap with your Solution
Show how your current research is a necessary or innovative solution to fill the existing gap.
Examples and Exercises
1. Although plastic has revolutionized modern life, the environmental impact of traditional
petroleum plastics is staggering. Bioplastics may provide a sustainable alternative to
petroleum plastics because they use fewer fossil fuels in production and reduce
greenhouse gas emissions as they biodegrade. One particularly promising bioplastic is
polylactic acid (PLA)… PLA resembles traditional plastic and can be processed on
equipment already used for petroleum plastics. However, the commercial viability of
PLA is currently limited because it is only compostable in industrial facilities and cannot
be mixed with other recyclable materials [1, 2]. To make PLA more commercially viable,
we propose a device that composts PLA and other bioplastics within a home composting
environment [3]. Such a device, we argue, would encourage the production of more
sustainable and economic bioplastics.2
1
These moves are adapted from John Swale’s Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings.
Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1990.
2
Created by the Global Communication Center
2. Transmitter Identification (TxID, or transmitter fingerprinting) technique is used to
detect, diagnose and classify the operating status of radio transmitters. Due to an everincreasing number of transmitters, the need for transmitter identification is becoming an
urgent issue since it enables the broadcast authorities and operators to identify the source
of in-band interference. The transmitters, which share a single broadcast channel,
naturally interfere with one another in some coverage overlapped areas. Unwanted strong
multipath distortion may be generated by neighboring transmitters in an SFN [6].
However, traditional techniques, like the estimation of the direction of arrival using
antenna array, can only give the multipath information from all transmitters. It is difficult
to identify the source of each particular interference path, since the carrier frequency and
DTV signals are all identical within the SFN. Therefore, a new transmitter identification
technique capable of identifying multiple transmitters and weak interference sources and
independent of the DTV reception is highly desired.
This project describes a new transmitter identification technique based on….3
3. Malicious activities and alterations in integrated circuits have raised serious concerns to
government agencies and semiconductor industry. These malicious alterations, known as
hardware "Trojans," pose great detection and isolation challenges. Currently, Trojans are
detected by physical inspection, which is labor intensive and requires deconstructing the
hardware board. This project attempts to discover if Trojans can be detected by
incremental, exhaustive testing in order to reveal the presence of unexpected
functionality. 4
This example is based on: Wang, Xianbin, Yiyan Wu, and Bernard Caron. “Transmitter Identification Using Embedded
Pseudo Random Sequences.” IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting 50.3 (2004): 244-252.
4
This example is based on an ECE research project conducted by CMU students, available on the CMU website.
3
Identify the moves for introducing new ideas in the following abstracts (A and B) and then decide
which version is stronger; be prepared to explain why.
A. The long-term goal of this project is to analyze neural signals collected from human brain and
eventually use these signals to build a brain computer interface (BCI). BCI aims to provide a direct
control pathway from brain to external devices such as a computer. It is a radically new
communication option for those with neuromuscular impairments that prevent them from using
conventional augmentative communication methods. In this project, I will develop an application
programming interface (API) to extract electroencephalography (EEG) signals collected by a
commercial headset.
B. Many different disorders can disrupt the brain’s neuromuscular channels making communication
impossible for those afflicted. One radically new communication option for those with
neuromuscular impairments is the brain computer interface (BCI). BCI aims to provide a direct
control pathway from electroencephalography (EEG) signals in the brain to external devices such as
a computer. Currently no programming tools exist to aid researchers in encoding and interpreting
commands embedded in EEG signals. Thus, the goal of this project is to develop an application
programming interface (API) for translating EEG signals into specific commands that can assist
researchers in developing BCIs.5
Identify the moves for introducing new ideas in the following abstracts (C and D) and then decide
which version is stronger; be prepared to explain why. 6
C. Land-use management agencies are in the role of identifying changes to land use that can contribute
to environmental hazards, affect species diversity, and affect local and regional economies. One
useful tool in monitoring land-use changes is digital elevation modeling. Digital elevation models
(DEM) are three-dimensional representations of terrain, depicting the topography of the region with
exacting detail. DEM allows researchers to estimate vegetation height and biomass, which are
important factors in land-use management. However, the accuracy of DEM declines in forest-type
territories, due to the difficulty of mapping forestial structures. When canopy is dense, such as in a
forest, the error of DEM increases. This paper attempts to correct for the error in DEM by
combining it with data from radar and lidar datasets. This new information can lead to improved
estimates in a variety of terrains.
D. Digital elevation models are three dimensional representations of terrain, depicting the topography
of the region with exacting detail. However, the accuracy of the models declines in forest-type
territories, due to the difficulty of mapping forestial structures. Using radar and lidar data, the aim is
to improve 3D rendering of terrain, including digital elevation models (DEM) and estimates of
vegetation height and biomass in a variety of forest types and terrains. The 3D mapping of
vegetation structure and the analysis are useful to determine the role of forest in global warming
5
This example is based on an ECE research project conducted by CMU students, available on the CMU website.
This example is based on: Liskovich, Diana and Marc Simard. “Radar and Lidar Remote Sensing of Forests.” Caltech
Undergraduate Research Journal. (Winter 2011-2012): 26-35. Available at www.curj.caltech.edu
6
(carbon cycle), in providing habitat and as a provider of socio-economic services. This in turn will
lead to potential for development of more effective land-use management.
Unscramble the introduction below by putting the sentences in the correct order. 7
7
A
CSMA algorithms are attractive because they incur low computational complexity and
low communication overhead and can be shown to achieve optimal capacity under
certain assumptions.
B
In this paper, we propose a new algorithm, called Virtual-Multi-Channel (VMC-) CSMA
that can dramatically reduce delays without sacrificing the high capacity and low
complexity of CSMA.
C
CSMA algorithms have recently received a significant amount of interest in the
literature for designing efficient wireless control algorithms.
D
However, it has also been observed that CSMA algorithms suffer from the starvation
problem, incurring large delays that may grow exponentially with the network size
This example is based on ECE technical report from Purdue University, available on the Purdue University website.