Final Project
Do one of the following:
- Write a proposal for original research on any topic in the
area of text databases or systems.
It is important that you demonstrate
critical insight into the problem/solution to be investigated (see below). You will be judged using the
following criteria:
- knowledge of area (60%)
- current state-of-the-art explained
- relevant literature cited and understood
- appropriate use of any material from class
- research progress (20%)
- quality of reported results
- appropriate implications drawn
- importance of the proposed ideas (10%)
- novelty
- potential impact
- feasibility
- quality of the presentation (10%)
- clarity of overall proposal
- clarity of details
- Write a short original paper on any topic in the area of
text databases or systems. You
will be judged using the following criteria:
- knowledge of area (30%)
- current state-of-the-art explained
- relevant literature cited and understood
- appropriate use of any material from class
- research progress (50%)
- quality of reported results
- appropriate implications drawn
- importance of the proposed ideas (10%)
- novelty
- potential impact
- feasibility
- quality of the presentation (10%)
- clarity of overall proposal
- clarity of details
Topics may be chosen from any of the areas
addressed during the course: possibilities include models of text;
grammar-defined databases; semistructured databases; text database
querying, loading, updating, and conversion; data interchange and
application interoperability; information retrieval; document storage
and management; etc. The tables of contents and indexes of the course
references provide further examples. You may also wish to look at calls
for papers for XML, document engineering, or database
conferences to see additional ideas. Based on past experience, topics
that are more focused lend themselves to better proposals or papers and,
subsequently, higher marks.
You will benefit from reading Jennifer Widom's
Tips for Writing Technical Papers.
Submit your research proposal or paper to fwtompa@uwaterloo.ca via
email. Naturally the length of the paper will depend on your choice of
topic, but it is expected that 8-12 pages will be appropriate; certainly
20 pages should not be exceeded.
The research proposal
(adapted from NSERC
guidelines)
Any proposal should
- place the proposed research in context,
- articulate the goals that will be pursued,
- summarize relevant prior work in the field,
- describe a research plan and methodology (including milestones
and major decision points), and
- give some indication of why the research is useful or important.
You need to convince your reader that:
- your research program promises a notable advancement or
innovation in the discipline or results of importance to a broad range
of applications;
- you have identified well-formulated short and long-term goals;
- attaining these goals would be a significant contribution to the
discipline;
- you have a good chance of attaining the goals with the resources
available.
You may wish to organize your proposal into five sections corresponding
to the enumerated list above. A major portion of the proposal
should be devoted to a careful description of the research objectives
and of the methodology that will be used. Be sure to indicate whether
the research effort is expected to encompass a few months, one year, or
several years. For the research plan, you should at least know how you
are going to start out and have some ideas for future options (since, by
definition, research may not turn out exactly as you predict).
Examples
The following examples are indicative of some short proposals that
serve to illustrate various aspects. Note that because they were created
for a different audience at a different time, they do not necessarily
include precisely the aspects asked of you for the final project. (Note
also that there may be some errors in converting from the original
formats to something readable on the Web.)