Seminar: International Scholarships for Higher Studies (MS ...€¦ · Seminar: International Scholarships for Higher Studies (MS/PhD) •Research Proposal •MS/PhD International

Naeem A. Mahoto e-mail: [email protected]

Department of Software Engineering, Mehran UET

Jamshoro, Sind, Pakistan

Friday, August 16, 2013

Seminar: International Scholarships for Higher Studies

(MS/PhD)

• Research Proposal

• MS/PhD International scholarships

– Scholarships in USA

• HEC Scholarships (Local and Foreign)

Naeem A. Mahoto

Outline


Source: How to write great research grant proposal: Simon Peyton Jones, Microsoft Research, Cambridge

• A written document that provides detailed description about the proposed program/area/field

• A summary of entire research process

• A plan of the study

• It identifies problems, states questions or hypotheses (depending of research type)

• It defines clear purpose of the study and its justification, besides, it states step by step procedure to carry on the study

Naeem A. Mahoto

Research Proposal


Naeem A. Mahoto

Why this unnecessary

detailed proposal for my study before I even

begin? Things are likely to change when I start!!!

That’s true. Changes are inevitable, but a little thought now

will save a lot of grief later on.

Research Proposal


• Proposal will be read carefully by one or two experts - convince them!!!

• It will certainly be read superficially by non-experts… - panel members. convince them too!!!

Naeem A. Mahoto

Research Proposal


The Vague Proposal • I want to work on better type systems for

functional programming languages

• Give me the money!

Identify the problem that is going to be tackled!

• What is the Problem?

• Is it an interesting problem? That is, is it research at all?

• Is it an important problem? That is, would anyone care if it is solved? (jargon: “impact”)

• Having a "customer" helps: someone who wants the problem to be to solved

Naeem A. Mahoto

Research Proposal: Identify Problem


Aspirational Proposal

• I want to solve the problem of avoiding all deadlocks and race conditions in all concurrent and distributed programs


• Easy to identify impressive mountain – Not enough

• Convince reader to climb the mountain

• Two sorts of evidence

1. absolutely must say what is the IDEA

that lets one to bring it in the proposal

2. Explain modestly but firmly why writer is ideally equipped to carry out this work

Not enough without Evidence - 1

Naeem A. Mahoto

Proposal: Climbing the mountain


• Give real technical “food” so an expert reader could (without reading doubtless-excellent papers) have some idea of what the idea is

• Many, many grant proposals have impressive sounding words, but lack almost all technical content - Rejected!

• Offer objective evidence that it’s a promising idea: – Results of preliminary work – Prototypes – Publications – Applications

Naeem A. Mahoto

Research Proposal: IDEA


Don’t let reader to think: “They’ve already solved the problem”

Naeem A. Mahoto

Research Proposal


Arrogant Proposal

• I am an Important and Famous Researcher. I have lots of PhD students. I have lots of papers


• Such proposals do sometimes get funded - shouldn’t • proposal should, all by itself, justify grant

Naeem A. Mahoto

Research Proposal


I’ll-work-on-it Proposal

1. Here is a (well-formulated, important) problem

2. Here is a promising idea … (evidence) 3. We’re a world-class team … (evidence) 4. We’ll work on it 5. Give us the money!

• Key Question: How would reviewer know research SUCCESS?

• Jargon: “Aims and Objectives”

• “Gain insight into…”

• “Develop the theory of…”

• “Study…”

Naeem A. Mahoto

Proposal: Suspicious Phrases


The trouble with all of these is that there is no way to distinguish failure from success

• “We will build an analyser that will analyse our 200k line C program in less than an hour”

• “We will build a prototype walkabout information-access system, and try it out with three consultants in hospital Y”

Naeem A. Mahoto

Proposal: Good Phrases


The most convincing success criteria involve those

• Goal 1: demonstrate that writer totally knows the field - Appearing ignorant of relevant related work is certain death.

• Goal 2: a spring-board for describing the promising idea

• But that is all! Do not spend too many words on comparative discussion - The experts will know it, the non-experts won’t care

Naeem A. Mahoto

Proposal: Related work


• Methodology, or describing the step-by-step plans, is usually over-stressed

• Concentrate on: – (a) idea, and

– (b) aims/objectives/success criteria.

• Then the “methodology” part writes itself

Naeem A. Mahoto

Proposal: Methodology


Naeem A. Mahoto

Research Proposal


The Ideal Proposal

1. Here is a well-defined problem 2. It’s an important problem (evidence…) 3. We have a promising idea (evidence…) 4. We are a world-class team (evidence…) 5. Here is what we hope to achieve 6. Here is how we plan to build on our idea

to achieve it 7. Give us the money. Please!

• Start with a one-page summary, that tells the whole story – The Ideal Proposal!!!

• Remember: most of the readers will only read this page

• This page is worth 10x the other pages. Every word is precious

Naeem A. Mahoto

Proposal: One page - Summary


• Cheap: what someone thinks after a 10-minute read is Really Really Important

• Informative: after reading 20 proposals by others, someone will write better ones - Much better proposals

• Effective: dramatic increases in quality. There is just no excuse for not doing this

Naeem A. Mahoto

Proposal: Help each other


• Ask others to read the proposal critically • Revise, and ask someone else Repeat

Better get criticised by friendly colleagues than by panel member at the meeting

Naeem A. Mahoto

Research Proposal

Casual comparative

Experimental

Survey*

Historical

Ethnographic*

Correlational

Action reseach

Research Proposal


• Title (concrete and self-explanatory)

• Introduction (description)

• Problem statement (major issues)

• Scope of the study (importance)

• Objectives of the study (tangible targets)

• Hypothesis or research questions

• Literature review

• Methodology of the study (procedure)

• Limitations and delimitations of the study

• Biography/References

Naeem A. Mahoto

Difference between Aims and Objectives

• Aims are abstract and open benefits, i.e. general advantages

• Objectives are quantitative measures, achievable targets

Example Aims: To facilitate healthcare services Objectives: Design of an computerized application

Research Proposal


• Bibliography: Referring all material that is consulted during writing research proposal/article

• Reference: Those article that are cited in the article/research proposal

– References have different format styles, e.g. APA (American Psychological Association), ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) and BibTeX etc. • ACM Format: Dario Antonelli, Elena Baralis, Giulia Bruno, Tania Cerquitelli, Silvia

Chiusano, and Naeem Mahoto. 2013. Analysis of diabetic patients through their examination history. Expert Syst. Appl.40, 11 (September 2013), 4672-4678. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2013.02.006

• APA Format: Antonelli, D., Baralis, E., Bruno, G., Cerquitelli, T., Chiusano, S., & Mahoto, N. (2013). Analysis of diabetic patients through their examination history. Expert Systems with Applications.

Naeem A. Mahoto

References vs. Bibliograpghy


http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2013.02.006

• MS/PhD International scholarships

– United States of America

• Higher Education Commission (HEC) Scholarships

– Local (Indigenous) scholarships

– Foreign scholarships

Naeem A. Mahoto

Scholarships


• Check websites of the intended universities

• Select the most appropriate Research Group/Tutor for the research study

• Send to the Tutor an e-mail containing: Curriculum Vitae, Research Proposal – Try to get an acceptance letter from tutor stating that he/she is agreed

to supervise for the study

– This acceptance letter may help in hunting scholarship award

• Individual universities ask for admission which may require deposit of some amount, others may not.

Naeem A. Mahoto

International Scholarships


• Individual universities may require enrolment and some amount deposit for enrolment

• Funding agencies and universities may be two separate bodies

• Fulbright scholarships (founded by US Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946)

– Highly competitive, merit-based for international applicants

– International GRE (General Records Examinations) required, some universities also require TOEFL (Test Of English as a Foreign Language)

• Personal statement, Research proposal and Reference/Recommendation letters from University teachers

• Register with USEFP (http://www.usefpakistan.org/) for detailed information

Naeem A. Mahoto

Scholarships in USA


http://www.usefpakistan.org/

• Higher Education Commission (HEC) announces Local as well Foreign scholarships in many disciplines including IT, Engineering and Business etc

• Applicant must have passed GRE (either local organized by NTS or International) and have valid Score card

• Visit (http://hec.gov.pk) for detailed information

• HEC requires: – SSC and HSC degrees attested by IBCC

– Bachelor’s degree attested by HEC (fill online form http://hjp.hec.gov.pk/)

– Passport, CNIC, Academic documents, Personal statement and Research proposal

Naeem A. Mahoto

Local scholarships (Pak)


http://hec.gov.pk/

http://hjp.hec.gov.pk/

• HEC requires: – IELTS/TOEFL will be bonus point

– Research publications will be bonus points

– Applicants having offer letter (acceptance letter) may be given priority

– Applicants enrolled at some university will be given preferences

• Apply for the Project/Program

• HEC will short list the candidates and will take interviews

• Awardee applicants will get email/letter from HEC

• HEC will guide the applicants through email for further process

Naeem A. Mahoto

Local scholarships (Pak)


• HSP Huygens

• Netherlands Fellowships

• Erasmus Mundus

• Endeavour Awards

• Australian Development Scholarships

• DAAD Scholarships

• Government Scholarships off different countries (China, Spain, Korea, Indonesia, Japan etc)

• Fulbright Scholarship

• HEC Scholarships

• Bank of Japan Scholarships

Naeem A. Mahoto

Google these scholarships names to get detailed

information

Target MS/PhD scholarships


Naeem A. Mahoto Friday, August 16, 2013

Seminar: International Scholarships for Higher Studies (MS ...€¦ · Seminar: International Scholarships for Higher Studies (MS/PhD) •Research Proposal •MS/PhD International

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