infomatics

 
Research
Research is extremely important to any type of project that you are doing. You should be extremely knowledgeable about the problem and solution. It is important that you incorporate your references into your design rationale clearly and concisely. Finally, be sure to properly cite your research, both inline and as references.
Types of Research

Primary Research
This type of research includes interviews, surveys, observation, etc.. It is a first-hand experience with your focus area, people, and other resources. It is crucial that you become the "experts" on your problem space/area. This research should educate your audience about your specific area to set the stage. You should also present research that makes a case for your problem area to support your cause. Is it really a problem? What is the scale of this problem? What contributes to this problem?
Secondary Research
This type of research includes texts, journals, articles, etc.. This is probably what you think of when you hear the word "research." It is not only important to understand and be knowledgeable of the history behind an area or particular problem, but it's also important to note current research that is being done that might already address your area of interest. You don't need to reinvent the wheel; maybe improve or build upon it.
Documentation
Most technical projects have some kind of documentation. Documentation can help a software run after it's been developed or it can help a team perform better by assessing how they performed in a previous project. We will be using documentation in terms of team performance. You will need to include a minimum of two paragraphs (3-5 sentences per paragraph) on how your team performed. These paragraphs should be a team collaboration and should address what you would do differently for future projects (i.e. maybe your timeline was too aggressive or maybe your team should have had more defined roles). The documentation for this project is basically a team assessment. What could you have done better? You should also document your team's brainstorming process.

Minimum Research Requirements (for research.html)

Minimum of 1 citation from academic source (Wikipedia, about.com, and similar websites will not count).
    
Generally, academic sources end with .org, .edu. or .gov. You can also find academic sources through Google Scholar (????????)????????.


At least 1 citation must be from the ACM portal (which you will learn to access in lab).
At least two other sources (can be news articles, blogs, Wikipedia, etc.).
A basic summary of what the research is. For example, you could create a brief summary of each article, book, etc.. Make sure that everything flows well together, like you're writing a paper.
Interview or survey a group of at least 2 people that are not enrolled in I101, on your specific problem area. It can be about their opinions, thoughts, ideas. Be sure to capture your interactions in some way (written, audio, etc.) as you will want to be able to cite it later on. Many students use SurveyMonkey or one-on-one interviews and create infographics or graphs from this research.
Insights from your research (what have you learned from the research and how it has affected your solution).
Use MLA format for works cited and for in-line citations.