2016

Classrooms: Mondays: M108 – Fridays: M105

Instructors: Kristinn R. Þórisson (KRÞ), Jacky Mallett (JM), Jordi Bieger (JB)

Date: 16 Nov. Time: 9-12 Place: M201

The topics the final 3-hour exam will cover are: Experimental design, statistics and philosophy of science, roughly in the proportions that these have been emphasized in the lectures and lecture notes. The emphasis will be on understanding of the concepts, topics and issues, rather than rote memorization, but of course students should know all the key important issues by heart. Final example example questions from 2015. Note that this is a closed-book no support-material exam. The final exam counts 55% of your final grade.

The course has two main aims. First, to provide the student with a compact foundation for the principles of scientific knowledge discovery, its foundational principles and concepts, the use of statistics for scientific investigation, and philosophical context out of which science came. Second, to provide the student experience in writing scientific text, focusing on scientific papers with results and data.

After taking the course the student should be able to:

1. Explain research, research methodologies, research in computer science;
2. Choose a research subject and conduct a research project;
3. Write technical reports, papers, thesis, proposals effectively;
4. Extract key points of a body of scientific research and present in a concise manner;
5. Read and review technical papers;
6. Explain professional ethics in science: author credit, conflict of interest, misconduct.

NB: For all homework and correspondence sent via email: PLEASE PUT “REM4” SOMEWHERE IN THE TITLE OF YOUR EMAIL, SO IT GETS CLASSIFIED CORRECTLY IN THE INSTRUCTOR'S INBOX. Thanks.

By the end of the course you are expected to have read, learned, and thoroughly understood the following texts and topics:

• Book: Research Methodology - a step-by-step guide for beginners (“RM”), Ranjit Kumar - All chapters except Ch10 (and Ch18 if you have the 3rd edition). Emphasis on those covered in class.
• http://www.music-ir.org/mirex/wiki/2016:Main_Page
• martal-rem4-autumn2016.pptx
• Paul Halmos: In His Own Words

• Introductory Material
  • What is philosophy?
  • What is science?
  • What is technology?
  • What is philosophy of science?
  • What is Occam's razor?
  • What is causation?
  • What is empirical evidence?
  • What is a scientific experiment?
  • The scientific paradigm
• In-Depth
  • Introductory Readings in the Philosophy of Science (“IRPS”). E.D.Klemke, R. Hollinger, D. W. Rudge and A. D. Kline (Eds.). - Selected chapters (see below). IRPS - selected chapters
  • Thomas Kuhn
    • Short overview: http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9002756/Thomas-S-Kuhn
    • Longer overview: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/thomas-kuhn/
    • Example of a paradigm shift a la Kuhn: http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-261582/plate-tectonics#936104.hook
  • Karl Popper
    • Short overivew: http://nostalgia.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Popper
  • Imre Lakatos
    • Short overview: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imre_Lakatos
    • Short summary of his attempt to reconcile Kuhn & Popper: http://coraifeartaigh.wordpress.com/2011/02/11/kuhn-vs-popper-the-philosophy-of-lakatos/

• Scientific progress

• Introduction to information / information philosophy
• What is information?

• Short definition: http://nostalgia.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_positivism

Use the Stanford Encylopedia of Philosophy and Google to further explore concepts and ideas that we encounter. Wikipedia is an excellent source of relatively high-quality texts on numerous scientific, philosophical and mathematical topics.

Useful hub on science: http://undsci.berkeley.edu/resourcelibrary.php

Philosophy of Science with humor: http://consc.net/phil-humor.html

Using LateX for writing scientific papers.

LaTeX Reverse Engineering exercise

Excellent talk on Leslie Lamport, Turing Award Winner, by Magnús Már Halldórsson (RU) -- highly recommended for all CS majors