RESEARCH PROBLEM
RESEARCH PROBLEM
A
problem in simple words is some
difficulty experienced by the
researcher in a theoretical or
practical situation

E.g. What is the fastest algorithm for
multiplication of two n-digit numbers?
choice
of a suitable problem is
difficult
SOURCES TO A RESEARCH PROBLEM
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Know the field
Study of Relevant Literature on the
Subject
Discussions with persons having rich
practical experience in the field of study
Daily problems
Technological changes
SELECTING A RESEARCH PROBLEM
Get from Literature and then replicate the
research with modifications – population,
geography, method, etc
 Apply an existing technique to a new
domain such as borrowing from
engineering


Population gravity Model from Physics Gravity
Model
Address Contradiction and Ambiguity
 Challenge existing Findings

THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT R.
PROBLEM
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Is the problem interesting?
Is it new?
Will it add to knowledge?
Is it feasible?
Has anyone else a prior claim
to it?
GOOD QUALITIES OF RESEARCH PROBLEM
Research statement written clearly
 Problem stated in grammatically complete sentences.
 Problem has clearly stated limitations
 Statement has potential for leading to important results.
 The statement will lead to the analysis of data.
 The problem is focused enough to lead to an answer with
reasonable effort.

CONT’D
Be sure that the topic chosen is neither too vague
nor too broad in scope.
 Define any special terms that must be used in the
statement of your problem.
 Problem has been reviewed by someone else who
provided feedback.

CONDITIONS FOR SUCCESSFUL RESEARCH
PROBLEM
Importance
 Immediate Application
 Feasibility or Amenability
 Availability of Data
 Availability of Other Facilities e.g. laboratory facilities
 Experience in the Research Problem
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EXAMPLE - MOBILE APPLICATION - HCI
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Mobile phones have become an unmissable tool in
society’s everyday life. According to the study
published by Telefonica (European broadband
and telecommunications company) [1], nearly
74% of people with an intellectual disability aged
15-64 own or use a mobile phone.
Additionally the number of touch-enabled
smartphone devices has increased considerably
in recent years [2], as well as the number of
existing applications for operating systems.
CONT’D
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When developers create a new application, it
usually follows the basic rules of user interface
design, which sometimes implies an accessibility
problem, especially for people with intellectual
disabilities, due to some specific designs.
An Intellectual disability is a broad concept
encompassing various intellectual deficits, i.e.
individuals who are mentally challenged [3], have
specific learning disabilities or suffer from
problems acquired later in life through sustained
brain injuries or neurodegenerative diseases like
dementia [4].
CONT’D

One possible cause of this problem might be due
to the functional impairment experienced by the
class of disabled mobile phone users. The nature
of this problem is inherently complex and results
in difficulty grasping the underlying problems,
which in turn leads to a lack of understanding
among mobile phone designers and developers.
What are the difficulties that intellectually
challenged people face when using mobile
phones?
 What are the characteristics of a disabilityfriendly mobile interface?
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CONT’D --- HYPOTHESIS
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One possible approach to the problems disabled
mobile phone users experience is to add
additional requirements to the development of
mobile phones.
Method ??
 The specific set of requirements needed can be
found by involving intellectually challenged users
in the design process starting at the requirement
stage and ideally throughout the entire
development phase as well
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ANSWER TO QUESTIONS
The proposed set of requirements is described
below:
 Eliminate non-essential
images/buttons/functions: Be critical of the
purpose of any image/button/function. Is it just
there purely for aesthetic purposes or does it
convey a practical one?
 Components like images, buttons or text boxes
must be of a suitable size so that they can be
easily seen or pressed, e.g. the keyboard display
size.
 Etc ….
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RESEARCH AREAS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE
 Program
structure -- it evolves from
procedural languages, then object oriented
programming. Now program structure is
represented as a hybrid mixture of loosely typed
languages, open source libraries, and
decentralized multithreaded cloud architectures
over multi-layer data representations.
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What are the central patterns underlying the optimality
of these new architectures? How are open APIs changing
the definition of an application?
CONT’D
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Virtualization -- Time-sharing operating systems and
virtual memory were the first attempts at virtualization.
Then it was the virtual machine for software execution
(e.g. Java VM, Microsoft CLR). Then the virtual machine
architecture that enabled cloud computing.

How far can virtualization as an approach to abstraction go?
CONT’D
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Statistical machine learning -- The use of statistics
against large data sets has taken over artificial
intelligence. This has been proven in industry as well
(Google, collaborative filtering, ad targeting, "big data").
This area of math has also taken over theoretical
neuroscience, not to mention computer vision.
CONT’D
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representation of data at scale -- How do you
represent data when there is too much to fit in
one database and millions of people are accessing
it simultaneously? Many hybrid complex data
structures have evolved that include clever
caching, layers of servers, NoSQL, sharding,
inverted text indexes, and cloud base archives.
What ties all these patterns together?
CONT’D
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Computer security -- Computer security is the
central contact point at which the irresistible
force of openness meets the immovable object of
privacy. Whether this is encryption, security
layers, permission models, or system integrity
techniques, the future is both open and protected.
How to achieve both?
CONT’D
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Network models -- Networks and the graphical
models that underlie them have become
profoundly complex. Networks now include social
networks, computing node networks, web-page
link graphs, network data models, and neural
networks. Network structures are unwieldly to
analyze, but central to the future of computing.
ASSIGNMENTS
Browse three research articles in computer
science
 Identify their research problems
 Why the researchers say they are problems.
What justifications they forwarded
 What was the contribution of each paper for
theory and practice
 What methods they used to solve their research
problems
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