There Is No Hope of Doing Perfect Research
Nalinda C. Perera
30 October 2010
There is no hope of doing perfect research (griffiths, 1998, p97). Do you agree?
Research is “an original investigation undertaken in order to contribute to knowledge and understanding and, in the case of some disciplines, cultural innovation or aesthetic refinement” according to Performance Based Research Fund Quality Evaluation Guidelines. People with specialized knowledge in their respective fields conduct independent creative, cumulative and often long-term research activities. The basic reason for humans to do research is their curiosity. It makes them explore and find reasonable explanations or answers for the problems with proper justification. This paper provides a discussion on why perfect research is not a possibility. As a graduate student I was involved in few research projects. The latest was the research project of my M.Sc. We were given the freedom to select a topic of our desire. I was interested in implementing a prototype system to remotely monitor electricity meter units in an apartment complex from the electricity company. The Internet was the media of communication between the apartment complex and electricity company. To fulfill that requirement a microcontroller with networking capabilities was used. The next step was to find a methodology to interconnect the meter units at the apartment complex with the microcontroller. The most obvious choice was the serial port of the microcontroller and serial communication protocol was explored. Few weeks into the implementation, I understood complex circuitry was needed and building such circuitry is research of its own. And it will also consume much of the time that should be dedicated to other parts of the project. So it was decided to explore some other communication technology which supported by the microcontroller. Even though I decided to use a different technology, there was a doubt whether it could be interfaced with the digital counter.
30 October 2010
There is no hope of doing perfect research (griffiths, 1998, p97). Do you agree?
Research is “an original investigation undertaken in order to contribute to knowledge and understanding and, in the case of some disciplines, cultural innovation or aesthetic refinement” according to Performance Based Research Fund Quality Evaluation Guidelines. People with specialized knowledge in their respective fields conduct independent creative, cumulative and often long-term research activities. The basic reason for humans to do research is their curiosity. It makes them explore and find reasonable explanations or answers for the problems with proper justification. This paper provides a discussion on why perfect research is not a possibility. As a graduate student I was involved in few research projects. The latest was the research project of my M.Sc. We were given the freedom to select a topic of our desire. I was interested in implementing a prototype system to remotely monitor electricity meter units in an apartment complex from the electricity company. The Internet was the media of communication between the apartment complex and electricity company. To fulfill that requirement a microcontroller with networking capabilities was used. The next step was to find a methodology to interconnect the meter units at the apartment complex with the microcontroller. The most obvious choice was the serial port of the microcontroller and serial communication protocol was explored. Few weeks into the implementation, I understood complex circuitry was needed and building such circuitry is research of its own. And it will also consume much of the time that should be dedicated to other parts of the project. So it was decided to explore some other communication technology which supported by the microcontroller. Even though I decided to use a different technology, there was a doubt whether it could be interfaced with the digital counter.
Cited: The University of Auckland. “PBRF definition of research-2006.” Performance Based Research Fund, 2010. Web. 29 Oct. 2010 Tony Russell, Allen Brizee, and Elizabeth Angeli. "MLA Formatting and Style Guide." The Purdue OWL. Purdue U Writing Lab, 04 Sep. 2010. Web. 31 Oct. 2010.