WORKSHOP

Dronacharya Group of Institutions Greater Noida conducted two weeks workshop on “Research Methodology” under the National Mission on Education though ICT (NMEICT) in collaboration with NITTTR, Chandigarh from 6th - 17th June 2016 with an objective to equip the participating faculties with the activities and ethics of research. 9 faculty members from DGI, Greater Noida, GKV, Haridwar, AIMT, Greater Noida attended the workshop.

Day 1: 6th June 2016

The STC was inaugurated by Dr. P K Tulsi, Professor & Head, Education and Education Management Department, NITTTR Chandigarh, Dr. S P Bedi, Professor, Department of Education and Educational Management, NITTTR Chandigarh and Dr. Sunil Dutt, Faculty In Charge Academic Cell, NITTTR Chandigarh.

Dr. S P Bedi gave a brief overview and goal of research. She talked about the gross enrolment of various countries in higher education. She said that India has about 0.15 to 0.25 million full - time researchers / scientists. She discussed the issues in research at individual level, institute level and university level. She talked about the lack of motivation, lack of time, inability to procure costly software and other issues at individual level.

Dr. Bedi then gave a presentation on “Research, Concepts, Types and Process” followed by another presentation on “Emerging Areas of Research” in which a brief overview of Big Data was given. She talked about the need of Big Data Analytics and its applications.

The next presentation was by Ms. Poonam Syal, Associate Professor, Electrical Engineering, NITTTR Chandigarh on “Areas of Research in Sustainable Development”. She discussed the renewable sources of energy and gave an overview of photovoltaic technology.

Dr. Maitrayee Dutta, Professor and Head, Electronics and Communication Engineering, NITTTR Chandigarh gave a presentation on “Research Areas in Electronics and Communication Engineering”. She discussed the process of image segmentation and classification. She gave an overview of remote sensing. She delivered a lecture on wearable biosensors.

Day 2: 7th June 2016

Dr. Sunil Dutt initiated the session with a presentation on “Selecting and defining Research Problem”. He stated the relevance of the activity of selecting a problem. He defined problem as a difficulty which a researcher experiences in the context of either a theoretical or conceptual situation and wants a solution for it. He differentiated between constant and variables.

Dr. Dutt discussed writing /defining a research problem. He explained identifying a research question and the key search terms and then writing research questions. He gave a checklist for testing a problem. Dr. Dutt conducted a task on “Selecting and Defining a Research Problem”. The participants from various institutes presented the experimental research they had conducted. Dr. Aditi Paul from DGI, Greater Noida gave a presentation on “Detection of Sybil Attack in Mobile Adhoc Network using Fuzzy and Neural Network”.

Dr. Tulsi gave a presentation on “Literature Review”. She discussed the characteristics of a high quality research. She said that review of related literature is a systematic, explicit and reproducible method. She discussed the functions of literature review: determining what has been done already, provide insight necessary to develop a logical framework into which the topic fits, providing rationale to the hypothesis, facilitating the interpretation of results, specifying research objectives. She talked about locating, reviewing, summarizing and classifying references. She discussed the seven steps of abstracting the references.

Day 3: 8th June 2016

Dr. P K Tulsi initiated the session with a presentation on “Descriptive Research”. She discussed the four types of longitudinal survey:

1. Trend (samples from succeeding groups studied over time).

2. Cohort (separate samples from a single group are studied over time).

3. Panel (same sample over a period of time).

4. Follow - up (sample studied after formal study).

The second part of the session included presentation by participants. The participants presented on literature review and descriptive study. The descriptive study was required to contain the title of the study, research questions, measuring tool and the sampling plan. Participants from different domains of science, engineering and management gave the presentations. Dr. Tulsi appreciated their efforts and rectified their mistakes.

Day 4: 9th June 2016

The session was initiated with a presentation on “Sampling Techniques” by Dr. T N Thukral, Professor, Education and Education Management Department, NITTTR Chandigarh. He gave an overview to structure of presentation. He stated the advantages of sampling which reduces time and cost, saves labor, accuracy and enhances the quality of research. Dr. Thukral concluded the session with a task consisting of multiple choice questions.

Dr. S P Bedi shared presentation on “Ex Post Facto Research”. She discussed the step - by - step procedure involved in the research.

Day 5: 10th June 2016

The session was initiated with a presentation on “Experimental Research in Mechanical Engineering” by Dr. H Singh. The Factorial DOE Planning Process was discussed. There was a discussion on designing the experiment. He talked about the full factorial design and input cutting parameters and response.

The next presentation was on “Experimental Research in Civil Engineering” by Mr. Gaurav Gupta, Department of Civil Engineering, NITTTR Chandigarh. He talked about the research he had conducted.

Day 6: 13th June 2016

Dr. Kailash C Lachhwani, Professor of Mathematics, Department of Applied Science, NITTTR Chandigarh initiated the session with a presentation on “Operations Research”. He defined operations research as a scientific study of operations for the purpose of making better decisions. He talked about the historical development of Operations Research. There was a discussion on the scope of operation research: finance budgeting and investments, purchasing, procurement and exploration, production management, marketing management and personal management.

Later Dr. Bedi gave a presentation on “Interview and Observation”. She discussed the types of interview and its advantages and disadvantages. Mr Aishwary Sharma (Assistant Professor, Civil Engineering) and Mr. Rahul Verma (Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering) from Dronacharya Group of Institutions, Greater Noida gave a presentation on “Survey of water consumption at homes”.

Day 7: 14th June 2016

Er. Amandeep Kaur, Assistant Professor, Education and Educational Management Department, NITTTR Chandigarh gave a presentation on “Funding Agencies”. She talked about the types of funding agencies: Science Based Funding Agencies, Strategic Based Funding Agencies and Political Based Funding Agencies. She familiarized the participants with the sponsoring agencies from India. She talked about various sponsoring agencies from Ministry of Science & Technology, Ministry of Environment & Forests, Ministry of Agriculture and Universities Grants Commission.

Day 8: 15th June 2016

Dr. S P Bedi initiated the session with a presentation on “Data Analysis”. She discussed the independent sample t-test and demonstrated the calculation of chi - square. There was a discussion on 2X2 Contingency Table.

Mr. Amardev Singh, Assistant Professor, Entrepreneurship Development & Industrial Coordination, NITTTR Chandigarh gave a presentation on “Intellectual Property Rights”. He discussed the essential features that characterize a property.

Day 9: 16th June 2016

Dr. Sunil Dutt initiated the session with a presentation on “Research Proposal”. He talked about the relevance of communication methods and the issues faced during the process of communication. He discussed the roles of written communication.

Dr. S P Bedi presented on “Research Reports". She discussed the components of the discussion (principles, relationships and generalizations shown by results, unsettled points, exceptions, state conclusion, summarize the results).

Prof. Suresh Kumar Sharma, Professor (Statistics), Panjabi University, Chandigarh shared his presentation on “SPSS”. He discussed the nature of data (structured data which is numeric data, unstructured data which is non - numeric data) and types of structured data (categorical data, measurement data).

Day 10: 17th June 2016

Dr. T N Thukral, Professor, Education and Education Management Department, NITTTR Chandigarh initiated the session with a presentation on “Evaluation of Research Report”. He discussed the type of reports. There was a discussion on the evaluation plan of the reports. He stated the purpose of evaluating a research. He gave the guideline for evaluating a research report and talked about the evaluation of research instruments and apparatus.

Dr. P K Tulsi gave a presentation on “Ethics in Research”. She gave example of falsification: alteration of data, falsification of dates, misrepresenting the results, misrepresenting the methods, etc. There was a discussion on plagiarism. She discussed the regulations proposed by UGC (University Grants Commission).

The Course Valediction session took place in the afternoon. Dr. M.P. Poonia, Director, NITTTR, Chandigarh, gave valedictory speech. The participants of all the institutes gave their suggestions and feedback of the STC. The session concluded with vote of thanks from Dr. S P Bedi.

The workshop proved to be very fruitful as the participants learnt a lot about Research Methodologies.

Some Glimpses: