This document provides guidelines for students taking a seminar course. It outlines the course objectives which are to develop students' ability to critically design thesis proposals and introduce them to current research issues. Students will be evaluated based on a research proposal report, presentation, and assignment. The document provides details on the expected seminars, recommended research areas, and formatting guidelines for concept notes and full research proposals. It describes the components and contents that should be included in proposals such as the introduction, literature review, methodology, and references. Guidelines are provided on writing each section, conducting literature reviews, describing the methodology, and developing timescales, budgets, and reference sections. The goal is to equip students with the skills to develop rigorous and well-structured

1. Seminar course
• Course Number:
 CN 7214
• Course Title:
 Seminar I
• Credit: 1;
• Lecture: 1 hour;
• Prerequisite:
 Research Methodology

2. Course objectives
• The objectives of the course are to address the
following points:
 To develop the capability of students to critically
design proposal of thesis.
 To introduce students to current research issues and
selected areas of computing technologies
 To initiate with the process of Project or Thesis in
problem identification
 To demonstrate and to justify the necessity and role
of the computing problem identified
 To practice with the literature survey and review
procedures`

3. Method of Evaluation:
• Students will be evaluated accordingly :
– Research proposal report (50%),
– Presentation (25%) and
– Assignment (25%)

4. Expected seminars (2 seminars)
1. The 1st seminar will be present the concept note.
(2weeks)
2. The 2nd seminar will be present the research proposal.
(4 weeks )

5. Recommended Research area
• Networking
• Computer science and
• Both
• Recommendation: your proposal title and
your future master’s thesis title should be
similar.

6. Concept note contents and time frame
1st seminar (within 2 weeks)
• Developing at list two concept notes separately, which
means two different research title.
• The researcher should be address the following goal.
– The researcher clearly defined the purpose of first seminar.
– Put together a rough budget, with your profit goal in mind
– Concept note development duration is not more than 2
weeks.
– The concept note should address the main points such as,
Research title, Introduction, Objective, Literature Survey,
Method, Methodology and References (At list 10 references))
NB: Number of pages for each concept notes are exactly 3 pages.

7. 2nd seminar (within the coming 4 weeks next to the
1st seminar)
• Proposal documentation (4 weeks)
– Contents (Cover page, Table of contents
– Chapter 1. Introduction,
– Chapter 2. Literature review,
– Chapter 3. Methodology,
– Reference/ Bibliography (Only IEEE format)
– NB: Total number proposal documentation pages are
(20-25 pages)
– Plagiarism: Similarity of your document with the
other document will be tolerable up to 20% only.

8. How to organizing your introduction on your
seminar session.
– Welcome your audience and introduce yourself
– Try to capture participants attention
– Give a quick outline of your presentation
– Clearly Identify you’re presentation goal.
– Provide the instruction to audiences for how they
can ask the questions.

9. Documentation format
– Font type: Times New Roman
– Alignment: Justify (except cover page)
– Font size: 12 (except cover page, title and sub
title)
– Font size of your title 14 and Bold, subtitle 12 and
Bold
– Reference format IEEE

10. Kindly use the following addresses for further
communication
– E-mail: almulu1841@gmail.com
– Or
– Web mail: alemebante@ethiocorpus.com

11. How to write research proposal

12. 1.1. Research Proposal
• The research proposal is the detailed plan of
study.
• It is a document which sets out your ideas in an
easily accessible way.
• The intent of the written research proposal is to
present a focused research problem and plan.
• The objective in writing a proposal is to describe
what you will do, why it should be done, how
you will do it and what you expect will result.

13. The purposes of the research proposal
Organising your ideas
– Writing can be the best way of clarifying our
thoughts.
– It will help you to organise your ideas into a
coherent statement of your research intent.
Convincing your audience
– To show that something more modest in scope
is attempted.
– Helps us to show that it will be conducted within
the time and other resources available.

14. Cont…
Contracting with your ‘client’
– To convince your clients about the way
foreword
– Is an essential component submitted for
funding.

15. Components of a Research Proposal
• The recommended research proposal for PG students
incorporate the following elements
– Chapter 1 : Introduction
1. Research title
2. Background of the study
3. Statement of the problem
4. Research question/ Hypotheses
5. Objective of the study
6. Scope of the study
7. Significance of the study
8. Limitations of the study (Optional)
9. Organization of the paper
10. Timescale and budget /cost breakdown

16. Chapter 2 : literature review and related work
• Supported cites for literature review
– Science hub (Sci-Hub)
– Google Scholar
– Research get
– Library Genesis
– The project blog
– IEEE
– Springer
– Elsevier Researcher Academy
– GitHub (for source code)
– https://www.seminarsonly.com/Engineering-
Projects/Computer/Research-Topics-in-Computer-

17. Assignment-1
Identify the difference between this two ambiguous
term.
– Research Vs Project
– Thesis Vs Dissertation
– Proposal Vs synopses
– Reference Vs Bibliography
– Algorithm Vs Code

18. Chapter 3: Methodology
1. Research methodology
 Research design and approaches
 Types and sources of data
 Sampling design --- Sample size and sampling
techniques
 Data collection techniques
 Validity and reliability
 Method of data analysis

19. Assignment-2 (Methodology )
What is the difference between the following terms.
– 1. Methodology
– 2. Method
– 3. Model
– 4. Approach
– 5. Algorithm

20. References and Bibliographies
– Sample Citation Styles:
1. American Psychology Association (APA);
The style is used by Education, Psychology and Sciences
2. Modern Language Association (MLA);
The style is used by the Humanities
3. Chicago
4. Turabian
Chicago/Turabian style is generally used by Business, History,
and the Fine Arts
5. Harvard
6. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE)
This style is used primarily for electronics, engineering,
telecommunications, computer science, and
information technology.

21. 1. Title
• Title should closely mirror the content of your
proposal.
• The title must describe the contents accurately
and concisely with the smallest possible words.
• It should be specified as brief as possible, avoid
compound titles, containing no abbreviations,.
• Put your name, the name of your department,
College, University, the name of your advisor(s)
and date of delivery under the title.
• The title page has no page number

22. 2. Background of the study
• It provides readers with the background
information for the research proposal.
• It should tell the reader why you feel the
research is worth the effort.
• The introduction should cite those who had the
idea or ideas first.
• It shows a clear link between the previous work
that has been done in your field of research
interest and your study

23. Cont…
• This introduction should be placed within the
context of existing research or within your own
experience and/or observation
• You need to demonstrate that:
– you know what you are talking about
– you have knowledge of the literature on this
topic.
– the research is important.

24. 3. Statement of the Problem
• The background section should lead smoothly
into a statement of the problem
• A problem is the issue that exists in the
literature, theory, or practice that leads to a
need for the study.
• The researcher should think on what caused the
need to do the research (problem identification).
• It helps to convince our advisors and prospective
readers that the issue or problem is worth
research.

25. Cont…
• A problem statement is a logical argument with
structure, sequence, substance and rationale.
• It describes the context for the study and it also
identifies the general analysis approach.
• Effective problem statements answer the
question “Why does the research need to be
conducted?”
• It should contain a rationale for your research.
• Organized as: Scientific fact— opposing
statements— gap statement— study purpose

26. 4. Research Questions and/or Hypotheses
• A research question is an interrogative
statement that can be answered by data
• It poses a relationship between two or more
variables but phrases the relationship as a
question
• A hypothesis represents a declarative statement
of the relations between two or more variables.
• The hypothesis is subject to test, i.e., to
confirmation or rejection on empirical grounds
(data).

27. 5. Objective of the Study
• The objectives define the ends or aim which can be
brought bought as a result of completing the research.
• Summarize what is to be achieved by the study.
• They should be closely related to the statement of the
problem.
• Objectives should be simple, specific, stated in
advance, and stated using appropriate “action verbs”.
• are classified into general objectives and specific
objectives.
• They both should be logically connected to each other

28. 6. Limitation of the Study
• Procedural and physical limitations
• Its highly recommended to focus on procedural
limitations
• It indicates some uncontrollable factors that will
affect the quality of your research.
• The best way to identify these would be during the
conceptualization and operationalization phase of
your plan.
• Outline the factors you cannot control, describe
why, and state how they might affect your outcome.

29. 7. Scope of the Study
• It explains the nature, coverage, and time frame
of the study.
• It presents in brief the subject area of
investigation, the place, and the time period.
• In addition, it discusses the variables included in
the study and the exclusion of other variables
which are expected to be included. [though not
in detail]

30. 8. Significance of the Study
• It describes the contributions of the study as new
knowledge.
• It cites the usefulness of the study to the specific
groups.
• Cites all the persons and groups that will be
benefited on the study findings.
• Include a short explanation regarding how those
persons and groups benefited from the study.

31. Cont…
• Issues to be detailed in this section include:
– Description of study area
– Description of study design (experimental, survey, case
study etc.),and approach
– Description of study participants
– Determination of sample size [if any]
– Description of selection process (sampling method [IA])
– Methods of data collection (questionnaire, interview,
FGD, observation, DR..etc)
– Instrument validity and reliability [if any]
– Presentation of the data analysis methods

32. 9.(a) Timescale/ Work Plan
• Work plan is a schedule, chart or graph that
summarizes activities and time of implementation
• Your proposal work plan should include:
o The tasks to be performed;
o When and where the tasks will be performed;
o Who will perform the tasks and the time required
for each activity
• Note: Researchers find it useful to plan their research
using Gantt Chart.
– Developed by Henry Gantt in 1917

33. Sample timescale

34. 9.(b) Budget and Resources
• In your research proposal budget items need to
be explicitly stated
• This may be for travel, subsistence, help with
data analysis, or postage for questionnaires.
– Cost for every budget item should be
quantitatively shown
– There might be a need for budget justification
of certain costs whose requirement is not
obvious

35. 10. Methodology of the Study
• This section is really the heart of every
research proposal.
• Researchers must decide exactly how they
are going to achieve the stated objectives.
• Indicates the methodological steps they will
take to answer every question and to test
every hypothesis stated earlier
• It will justify your choice of method in the light
of those objectives.

36. 11. References
• You must give references to all the information
that you obtain from books, papers in journals,
and other sources.
• Different reference styles are used in different
filed of studies.
• The most dominant ones are the American
Psychological Association (APA), IEEE and the
Harvard style.
• The APA referencing style is decided to be
adopted in our department

37. The End
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