Master in Animation and Visual Effects

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Research Methodology

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Description
The starting point of this course is that skills to do good research are not innate. To acquire research skills, this course covers the major considerations and tasks involved in conducting scientific research for first time research students. The course is focused on the doctoral research context for information technology researchers. The development of this course is tightly related to the courses on "State-of-the-art review" and "Research Statement". Both courses are also in the first semester of the MITMA. This course contents is structured around three parts: (one of conceptual nature, another one related to research skills, and the last one, focused on the environment of the research world) 1. CONCEPTUAL PART - General concepts about research and the research process - Knowledge and analysis of the main trends of the scientific thoughts that have fostered the formulation of the Theory of Science - Ethical aspects in the research field 2. RESEARCH SKILLS PART Research skills are beyond the knowledge of a specific research area. Researchers must be aware of the available resources and how to use them. Diffusion of the research results and assessment of the research performed are mandatory skills in the research social context. 3. ENVIRONMENT OF THE RESEARCH WORLD PART Research is essentially a social task that requires specific capabilities and knowledge from a social context.
Type Subject
Optativa
Semester
First
Credits
5.00
Previous Knowledge

None

Objectives

At the end of the course, students should have acquired the following competencies:

1. Understand the research process and the tasks that make up a research activity.

2. Establish generic research skills in planning and organisation, documentation, literature search, and presentation.

3. Justify the different perspectives of the Theory of Science and how they apply to the scientific process in the student's area of interest.

4. Identify ethical and intellectual property issues relevant to research projects.

5. Capability of communicating information efficiently, either by writing or defending arguments (in English) in a clear, coherent and rigorous way

6. Learn to critically discuss and analyze research jobs

7. Understand how research activitty is performed and managed and the main interrelationships between the participants in the research task

8. Identify current research trends within student's area of interest

Contents

I. CONCEPTUAL PART

1.Basic Research Concepts
1.1 Scientific Method
1.2 Research Design
1.3 Theories and Models

2. Research Methods in IT
2.1 Systems Modeling
2.2 Algorithms and Methods
2.3 Experiments and Simulation
2.4 Quantitative and Qualitative Research
2.5 Theoretical and Applied Research

3. Theory of Science
3.1 Logical Reasoning
3.2 Inductive reasoning
3.3 Critical Rationalism
3.4 Introduction to Research Programmes
3.5 The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

4. Research Ethics
4.1 Ethics and Research Governance
4.2 Codes and Policies for research ethics

II. RESEARCH SKILLS PART

5. Research Resources
5.1 Bibliographic Databases
5.2 Reference manager

6. Researcher Capabilities
6.1 Presenting Papers
6.2 Paper Writing and Publication
6.3 Discussing research work and outcomes
6.4 Reading critically
6.5 Meetings and Minutes

III. ENVIRONMENT OF THE RESEARCH WORLD PART

7. Publication and dissemination of the research results
7.1 Publication process
7.2 Journals, Conferences, Workshops and Seminars

8. Research Governance
8.1 Research Groups and Networks
8.2 Research associations and societies
8.3 Structure of Research funding.

9. Research value
9.1 Patents. Intellectual Property rights
9.2 Research assessment tools

10. Research trends in specific research areas

Methodology

This course is based on lecturers that are complemented with assigments that students have to accomplish individually and with presentation and discussion sessions where assigments are discussed.

The conceptual part includes a set of readings that students must elaborate in order to compelte their learning.

Research skills are developped within this course or within the state-of-the-art review course and the research statement course.

The third bloc, environment of the research world, is developed through specific talks of expert professors.

Evaluation
Evaluation Criteria
Basic Bibliography
Additional Material