This course is designed to impart necessary soft skills for the incoming students. It is a mandatory course for all incoming students (M.Tech. (CDS)/M.Tech. (Research)/Ph.D.) joining in the August 20XX term. The course is divided into ten modules and all modules are compulsory for everybody to complete. The course registration will be in second year August (20XX+1).
Student Evaluation: Attendance: 40%; Module 4: 15%; Module 9: 10%; Rest 8 Modules completion: 35%.
Completion of this course in the first year is mandatory for the renewal of scholarship for the next academic year.
The details of the modules for the year 2023 are as follows
Module 1 (for 20XX batch students): Aug 19, 2023: 10:00 – 12:00: “Introduction to Research Methods” – Debnath Pal (Course Coordinator)
Desirable to be completed (within a month) – Optional:
– Create a list of research topics (at least three) that you are interested and read at least one research paper in each topic.
Module 2 (for 20XX batch students): Sep 2, 2023: 10:00 – 12:00: Research Ethics and copy rights – Yogesh Simmhan. This module will expose you to ethical practices that needs to be followed both for completing course work as well as performing research in your professional life.
To be completed (within a week):
– Learn how to use on-line plagiarism detection tools.
Module 3 (for 20XX batch students): Sep 16, 2023: 10:00 – 13:00: Research Communication – Jayant Haritsa. Will help you learn how to communicate your research ideas and outcomes. The module will also cover aspects related to research process, including academic job search.
To be completed (within a week):
Module 4 (Seminars) (for 20XX batch students): August 2023 – November 2024: Attending at least 8 research seminars in the CDS Seminar series: This module will enable you to understand the realm of related research topics and the recent trends in the area of computational and data science.
To be completed (by the end of November, 2024):
– Write a brief summary of eight research seminars you attended with each seminar summary being not more than 250 words.
Assessing your seniors: Write on two research presentations heard by you over the past year that impressed you the most. Write the reasons in detail in not more than 250 words each.
Module 5 (for 20XX-1 batch students): Sep 23, 2023: “Literature Review & Software tooling” – Yogesh Simmhan. This module will show you example cases of literature search and also introduce you to available open-source and paid tools for keeping track of the literature. This module will also introduce you to available software tools that come in handy for the research, including Latex, SVN, github, plotting libraries, and Cloud resources.
To be completed (within a week):
- Create a bibliography file related to your research topic and review atleast 2 research papers listing major strengths and weakness of the presented work in the research papers.
- Create a github page of your own.
Module 6 (for 20XX-1 batch students):: Sep 9, 2023 (11:00 – noon, in person): “Effective Scientific Writing” – Chirag Jain. This module will enable you to develop skill of effectively writing a scientific manuscript/report.
To be completed (within a week):
– Write a brief summary of your research problem.
Module 7 (for 20XX-1 batch students): Oct 7, 2023: “CV & Resume Preparation: Industry vs Academic Job search” – To be announced. This module will have Academic CV and industrial resume preparation included in this module.
To be completed (within a week):
- Create your own academic CV or Industry Resume.
- Write a cover letter for academic or industry job.
Module 8 (for 20XX-1 batch students):: Sep 30, 2023: “Effective Technical Presentations & Teaching Methods” – Deepak Subramani. This module will enable you to effectively present your work in technical fora and also teach for academic jobs.
To be completed (by the end of November 2023):
- Make a 5 minute presentation on your research topic
- Teach a small topic out of courses you have taken to the entire class.
Module 9 (for 20XX-1 batch students): October 14, 2023: “Research Proposals and Grant Writing” – Partha Talukdar. This module will give outline of effectively preparing a research proposal for both funding agencies as well as industrial partners and shows you example cases of the same.
To be completed (within a week):
- Describe one idea that could be patented from your research topic (one page)
Module 10 (for 20XX-1 batch students): October 28, 2023: “Entrepreneurship and Intellectual Property” – Debnath Pal. This will showcase the opportunities existing for being entrepreneur as well as describe the methodology for generating intellectual property.
To be completed (within a week):
- Create an outline of a research grant based on the research problem you are working.
To be completed (by the end of November 2023)
- Write a complete grant including cover page, personnel listing, and budget.
