Homework 1: What is Computer Science Research?

Short Description:

This assignment is worth 50 points.

Goals

• Understand at least one perspective on research in computer science.

Formal Description

1. [10 points] Write a general summary of this article. This should be a well written paragraph.
2. [20 points] Please answer the following questions. Your responses should be in the form of a sentence or a well written paragraph depending on the depth of the answer required.
   1. What was the purpose of the research described in this article?
   2. How was this research conducted?
   3. What previous work did the study employ? (This answer could be in the form of a list.)
   4. During the period studied, what were the "hot topics" in CS research? How do you think this will have changed in the past 20 years?
   5. The approach categories in section 2.1.2 are somewhat poorly defined in my mind. How would you refine these definitions?
   6. The authors found that 75% of the papers studied used research methods classified as either Conceptual Analysis/Mathematical or Mathematical Proof. Does this surprise you? What does this say about the discipline of Computer Science in the period studied? Do you think that this will have changed in the last 20 years?
   7. I found it interesting that in table 8, a Formative-Process, Method or Algorithm (FP) approach coupled with a Conceptual Analysis Mathematical (CAM) dominated in most journals. Can you think of what might be the discussion of papers that fall into these categories? IE what would you expect from the discussion in such a paper?
3. [5 points] This is a fairly old article. Please address the following questions.
   1. Do you think the classification system is still valid? How might it need to be modified?
   2. Do you think the findings might change if the study were reproduced?
4. [5 points] If you wanted to, could you reproduce this research based on the what is described in the paper?
5. [10 points] Does this paper represent computer science research? Why or why not?

Discussion

• Unless specified otherwise, please answer all questions as either a sentence or one or more well formed paragraphs. This depends on the question and the depth of the answer.
• I would like you to read this article reasonably carefully. I believe that it provides valuable insight into what you can expect in computer science research.
• Please make notes, highlight and otherwise mark up this article for discussion. We will discuss the article in class.

Submission