Publishing a research in Top-Tier Organizations

ACM and IEEE are two of the most popular and the most influencial organizations in the industry right now specifically in the field of engineering and information technology in general. These organizations conduct researches which are very relevant to the readers. Journals, papers and researches that are found in their websites are sure to be informative, reliable and relevant. Readers has a guarantee that what they read are reliable since it is well evaluated by such an expert. I think anyone can or have their work published on such prestige and well renounce organizations provided that you follow on the criteria which they establish. I have read some journals and researches and based on my observations, some of their criteria are as follows:

1. Relevance factor - is the journal or the research serves a major role in providing a new dimension in learning? Not only relevant to the readers but also the journal or the research also related to the context in which organiozation's are expert with.

2. Reliability factor - is the author of the research really has a knowledge on the topic he/she is researching? It is important also to know whether the author has a knowledge on what he/she is doing. Addon to the reliability factor, does the work is based on previous works or articles which are from reliable sources? It is also important to know that the theories and information are based from facts.

3. Uniqueness factor - does the paper has not been published before? or is the paper is not copied from the work of others? The organization must review the work very carefully to avoid issues like plagiarism. They must also inspect proper referencing styles.

4. Presentation factor - does the paper well presented to be easily understood by its readers? Or the paper/journal's topic is well organized for its readers.Seeing your work published in these organizations website means that you are a good researcher and your work is well recognize by everybody.

I think this should be the goal of anyone, to see their work published in ACM,IEEE and many more.

How Research are Evaluated?

It is very important for a work to be evaluated in order to determine if that work has served a particular purpose. Especially research paper, it should be evaluated thoroughy since it serves as a foundation of new knowledge in a specific field. Evaluating a research whether it is good or bad will play a major role in the development of the new learnings and also to determine its reliability and relevance.According to Todd Litman, "Good research reflects a sincere desire to determine what is overall true, based on all available information, as opposed to bad research that starts with a conclusion and identifies supporting factoids (individual facts taken out of context)."[1]. This means that a good research is conducted to prove that a certain phenomena is true or false but we need available information in order for us to support our findings. This is one characteristics of a good research.

For me, I can say that a research is good if it can solve a particular problem either global, national or local problem, or maybe discover a new dimension in the field in which it is conducted, discovery that will shock all. The research is important if it is being used by everybody in the society to solve a problem. In short, a research is good if it is relevant and can others can benefit from it. A research is also good if it possesses uniqueness. Unique in a sense that it is not conducted before. Although there are some researches already conducted that are topic related, the research should not be the same with the previous researches. A research is good if it is unbiased. A research should present its findings based on the results and the researcher must not manipulate data. And last, a research is good if it can provide consice and reliable resources to verify that the theories and ideas presented in the research were based on previous researches conducted prior to the work. These will make the research more reliable and also to prove that the researcher is doing some readings and has a lot of knowledge of the topic and not just pretending.

How Research are Evaluated?

I think these are the criteria for evaluating a research:

1. relevance - The research should answer the question "What is the purpose of conducting the research?"

2.uniqueness - "Is the research not conducted before?"

3. presentation (grammar etc.)- "Is the research presented well for readers to understand?"

reference:

[1] http://www.vtpi.org/resqual.pdf

RP university partners with US company to offer computer subjects

This news article is courtesy of

Good news for all colleges and universities and also for the students who are taking up computer courses such as Computer Science and Information Technology.

The local office of Massachusetts-based EMC Corporation has picked De La Salle University’s (DLSU) College of Computer Science to be its first domestic alliance partner for its global EMC Academic Alliance program. Read full article.

With this partnership, there will be a very good orientation for every students on what the real world really needs. There will be an assurance that what we learn from school is what the industry needs. Maybe years from now it will be all over the Philippines because there are still misconceptions on what are the qualities of being an IT/CS student.

This will mark another milestone of Philippines-America partnership.

EEE-tactic

Embrace, Extend, Extinguish tactic, it is a tactic which usually done in the vendor side who implement the open standard. The concept is very simple, a company announces or inform the Standardization organization that they will implement the open standard in the products that they will going to produce in the market at the same time contribute resources that will enhance and develop the standards in which it is adopting. In simple word, the company Embrace the open standard. After the company embraces the standard, it is a common sense to the company that it will modify or add additional features to the product that comply to the standards. The features or addition is of course for proprietary purposes or to make their product unique from the other. It is natural for the company to gain profit from the products that they sell. It is legal to add and implement new features from the standards since it is open. In other words, the company Extends the capability of the standards for the good of the company. Now the scenario is that the additional features in w/c the company added is proprietary in nature, so cases occurs is that standards dominate the industry and sometimes became a de facto.

Extinguish part of the EEE tactic allows the vendor to completely monopolize the market. After a vendor or company embraces and add some additional features of the standard in which they adopt. Now there are cases that the enhanced implementation of the standard in nature become so popular in the industry which makes it a de facto standard. Since the standard is proprietary in nature, therefore the company can marginalize competitors from using that standard. Since this enhanced implementation is so popupal already in the market, the open standard in which its parent standard is now overlapped by this new standard. The open standard in which the new de facto standard is derived becomes obsolete since the new standard is tested to be very good.

A very simple analogy of this scenario is a fire that is completely burned out by a fire extinguisher. The fire is the open standard and the fire extinguisher is the enhanced version of the standard.

Sad to say, this EEE tactic is usally done by large companies cause they can easily dominate the market because of their influence. EEE tactic will be an advantage to everybody if it is used for the welfare of others.

I think this tactic is one of the disadvantage of open standard in w/c organizations has no control at all. This tactic also in my opinion usually done by large companies in w/c becomes the yardstick of all vendors in the market. Large companies can easily monopolize the market by doing such tactic. I agree to the fact that adding additional features is a must for every company for proprietary and uniqueness reasons but there should be such limitations on how they will going to implement such features. Some are taking advantage of the availability of the standards. I think this is the challenge for every organizations and the government to fight and protect the interest of every vendors and users. This is the risk everyone should take for making a standard open...

More information on wikipedia.org

State of Computer Science Research

According to Latanya Sweeney [1], computer science research can be divided into 3; theoretical computer science, programming languages and systems and artificial intelligence (AI). Computer Science is a very young discipline which is still evolving as years have passed [3]. Up to this moment, many research groups, companies and even schools conducting some researches regarding the 3 divisions of computer science research.

The article I found is entitled "Computers trained to "read" mind images of words" (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2939892820080530?sp=true). The article was about how the computer was used inorder to perform one of which I think very impossible to know or determine, and that is reading a person's mind by looking at scans of their brains as they thought about specific words[2]. This article belongs to the programming languages and systems division of the computer science research. As far as the state of computer science research is concern, this research marks another milestone when it comes to computer application. Unlike on past researches which focuses only on optimization of algorithms and mathematical concepts, this research focuses on the new trend of computer application, in this case in the field of human anatomy. The discipline of the research is really unique from other researches on the past. This findings is very important in order for the scientist to know how our brain stores information.

Technical topics Mentioned:

- human - computer interaction
- bioinformatics

References:

[1] http://privacy.cs.cmu.edu/dataprivacy/projects/csresearch1.pdf
[2] http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2939892820080530?sp=true
[3] http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/~feit/papers/exp05.pdf.
[4] http://www.answers.com/topic/state

Research topic for CS/IT students

Being in the field of computer science a research in the field of our specialization will be an advantage and very applicable to us. Research topics in genetic algorithms, detecting and reducing spams over the internet will be a very good topics in research. These are international problems that needs to be solved. But I am studying in a school which has no adequate resources to support researches to the field in which we are studying as of the moment and there are also local problems that needs to be addressed first. For me, topics in which our expertise could be used in solving such local problems is a bright idea and worthy to be expanded more. Maybe topics such as how computers can be used to increase rice productions of the country and creating a more powerful system in order for us to predict or to accurately identify the movement of a typhoon. We can't deny the fact that we are living in a third world country and we need to exert our efforts to discover new learnings in the field of ICT in order for us to compete to other countries.

Reserach for the future

Selecting a research topic plays a major role in every student's future in a sense that selecting a topic will surely determine what are the fields of interest of a student. For sure he/she will select a topic which he likes or he/she has a concise and brilliant ideas at the same time ample resources. This will help a student choose a right career in the future knowing the fact that the student master that field of specialization.

I totally agree to the saying "Nothing is constant except change". Specially students like us who are in the field of Information Technology in general, we must be updated to new knowledge available in the industry today. Conducting a research allows us to gain new insights with regards to the latest knowledge available so that students like us will not act as "ignorant" when we face the real world. By just merely reading previous researches conducted, we can discover a problem which needs further studies to solve.


As a summary, conducting research will serve as a preparation of students in facing the real world. This will serve as their tool on how their fortunes go.

Water-Fueled Vehicle

Filipino Engr. Daniel Dingle and American Stanley Meyer invented a new trend in automobile technology. The vehicle uses "tap water" as its fuel. The vehicle was called "water-fueled vehicle" or Hydrogen-Oxygen Powered Car (HOPC). According to this secret technology, through the separation technique called "electrolysis", 2 particles of water can be separated into hydrogen (2H) and oxygen(O) gases. This flammable gases will serve as the fuel for the vehicle which is a good alternative to ever increasing price of gasoline. According also to the U.S Department of Energy, hydrogen-oxygen is 50% more powerful than gasoline. Companies such as Honda, BMW and Chevrolet already released limited number of this Hydrogen_Powered cars. But the price is $300,300 or more than 12 million pesos.

With this new technology, 1 gallon of water allows this car to run a distance of 100 to 300 miles. That's a very far distance already. Conversion of ordinary vehicle to Water-Fueled vehicle is possible.There's no need to worry since all the electrical and mechanical system of the ordinary vehicle can still be used.

I think the government should support this project because this will be the best solution for the oil crisis that the world is facing right now. I don't know the reason why the government has no action for supporting the project. Mr. Dingle has perfected this research already for 30 years.

Water-Fueled vehicle is the best way to solve world oil crisis.

RP Made Solar- Powered Car Unleased

The first solar-powered car that was made here in the Philippines was finally released which will promote the country's usage of alternative energy like solar power. The solar-powered car was named "Sinag" by its creators who are students from De La Salle University Engineering Department. The car weighed 150 kilograms.

"Sinag" solar-powered car will represent the country in the world solar challenge this coming October in Australia.

Can't Fight This Feeling Anymore

by: REO SPEEDWAGON


I can't fight this feeling any longer
And yet I'm still afraid to let it flow
What started out as friendship has grown stronger
I only wish I had the strength to let it show

I tell myself, that I can't hold out forever
I say there is no reason for my fear
Cause I feel so secure when we're together
You give my life direction, you make everything so clear

And even as I wonder I'm keeping you in sight
You're a candle in the window on a cold dark winter's night
And I'm getting closer than I ever thought I might

And I can't fight this feeling anymore
I've forgotten what I started fighting for
It's time to bring this ship into the shore
and throw away the oars forever
Cause I can't fight this feeling anymore
I've forgotten what I started fighting for
And if I have to crawl upon the floor
Come crashing through your door
Baby I can't fight this feeling anymore

My life has been such a whirlwind since I saw you
I've been running around in circles in my mind
Baby it always seems that I'm following you
Cause you take me to the places that alone I'd never find
And even as I wonder I'm keeping you sight
You're a candle in the window on a cold, dark winter's night
And I'm getting closer than I ever thought I might

And I can't fight this feeling anymore
I've forgotten what I started fighting for
It's time to bring this ship into the shore
And throw away the oars forever
Cause I can't fight this feeling anymore
I've forgotten what I started fighting for
And if I have to crawl upon the floor
Come crashing through your door
Baby I can't fight this feeling anymore

Lyrics by : seeklyrics.com

This song really describes what I'm feeling right now.

I really love the song.

Who will benefit from Open Standards?

Actually, some of the benefits of open standards were already discussed in the first question. There are a lot of benefits of using open standards to products specification depending on the field in which it is applied. Consider a company that manages thousands of computers and doing their transactions over the internet. Now try to imagine if the company not using an open standards in their products? If the product's standards became obsolete, then it will be very disgusting for the company to purchase another computers just to meet their needed requirements. The cost for doing so will be very horrible. Another thing is that there is a tendency for what we call "product locking". Companies will have no choice but to stick with the product since the cost of shifting from one product to another is another issue. These are the scenario which leaves the company a great decision making in adopting an open standard.

Now, I think a good question here is "Who are the beneficiary of Open Standards"?

A very simple logic is that nothing is created without a purpose and Open Standards has no exemption to that fact. Standards in general is created because there is a need for creating such guidelines in order for the industry specially the ICT community to allow interoperability and flexibility of all the products that will exist. The single most important factor for successful standards and industry specification is responsiveness to real user needs. Standards created for things with no real user needs are rarely successful.

The Beneficiary of Open Standards:

Vendors - Standards are a two-edged sword for vendors: on one hand they must consider the standards, while on the other hand they must consider developing something proprietary to differentiate their products. Vendors can also drive standards, either by de facto industry standardization. They will also benefit in a sense that it can be used as a market strategy, to attract costumers to purchase the product.

Users - Users do better when they purchase products when conforming to open standards, because they can competitively shop for products and services and be assured that there will be some kind of interoperability. A certain benefit exists when users know that the equipment has the ability to interface with other vendors hence a great save of money for the users. Vendor acceptance of the open standards or standards by buying products w/c conforms to standards determine the success or failure of the standards. Even though users are not active when it comes to standards, their money will determine the life of the standard.

Service Providers - another type of user with different benefits compared to an ordinary user. Service providers can select vendors that adopting an open standards since they can achieve a good service quality through quality products since they can still communicate with the other. Providers must not also ensure the availability of open standards interfaces to provide value - added services to users.

Please add some beneficiary....thanks........

References:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/FOSS_Open_Standards/Importance_and_Benefits_of_Open_Standards#Benefits_of_Using_Open_Standards
Data Network Design 2nd Ed. by Darren L. Spohn (book reference)