A CS Research Topic Generator
or
How To pick A Worthy Topic In 10 Seconds
Computer Science is facing a major roadblock to further research.
The problem is most evident with students, but afflicts many researchers
as well: people simply have a tough time inventing research topics
that sound sufficiently profound and exciting.
Many Ph.D. students waste needless years simply coming up with a thesis topic.
And researchers often resort to reading documents from government grant
agencies so they will know what to work on for the next proposal!
Good news for the CS community: the problem has at last been solved.
The table below provides the answer.
To generate a technical phrase, randomly choose one item from each
column.
For example, selecting synchronized from column 1, secure
from column 2, and protocol from column 3 produces:
A synchronized secure protocol
Best of all, two phrases can be combined with simple connectives, making
the result suitable for the most demanding use.
Possible connectives include:
For example, one could generate a thesis title by selecting a second
phrase and a connective:
A synchronized secure protocol for an interactive knowledge-based system
The technique described here for selecting a research topic is far superior
to the method currently in use because it can be automated -- a computer
program can be written to select a phrase at random whenever one is needed.
Furthermore, thanks to an enhancement by Ian Stark at The University of
Edinburgh in Scotland, it is possible to automate an additional step in
the research process by performing an automated literature search.
Try the system by first generating a random topic and then performing an
automated literature search.