This is a general course introducing to the methods of science and research. The goal is to teach students the fundamental notions and concepts underlying scientific and technological research, with a focus on Information and Communication Technology.
This course is divided in two modules of equivalent length and complexity.
The first module consists of a series of introductory lectures on the following topics:
- "What is Science, what is Engineering"
- "What is Research". The focus is on the process of how to do research, with an emphasis on the research done during a Doctorate Program
- "How to read", namely how to find and use existing published material, also given the new opportunities provided by the Web and digital libraries
- "How to write", with an enphasis on how to write a scientific paper
- A "hands-on" part where students are requested to write a paper and to evaluate the papers written by other students.
The evaluation of the students' papers are done following the standard reviewing process followed in conferences. The Course teachers act as Program/Conference Chairs while the students are at the same time Authors and Program Committee Members.
The second module builds on the concepts of the first module and is composed of three parts:
- a review of the fundamental notions introduced in module 1
- a series of lectures on how to prepare and give a presentation
- a series of lectures where students give presentations and the others ask questions.
The topic of each student presentation are the contents of the paper written in module 1