Many (undergraduate) students at KAIST consider having a research career. Although there are research opportunities such as URP or lab internships, it is still difficult to assess whether research is right for oneself with such short research experience. Moreover, mentoring and guidelines for research beginners are not always available. This course is designed for students who want to understand which activities and tasks are involved in research and what characteristics and attitude are required to be great researchers. This course will provide students with a taste of various aspects of research, including how to find the right research area, how to approach your potential research advisor, how to identify papers to read, how to create good research ideas, how to write and present papers, how to interact with peers, and how to write a good CV. Through a series of lectures, projects, assignments and student panels, we will cover the following:
This course is open to highly motivated undergraduate students and also graduate students who are in very early stage of their research career.
Distance Classes: During the distance class operation period, courses will be provided in real-time using ZOOM, and a video recording will be uploaded on KLMS.
Grading: There will be no midterm or final exams. Your grade will be based on how you excel at a series of assignments and projects, in addition to your class participation.
Policy on Class Registration Approval: The space is limited because we want to provide high-quality feedback to each student.
We believe this course would be most beneficial for students with no or very little research experience.
For those students who must take the course this semester, please send an email by 12pm of March 17th to i2r@nmsl.kaist.ac.kr and explain in English why you must take the course now
| Week | Date | Led by | Topic | Due | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3/16 | Lee | Intro: What is research? | ||
| 1 | 3/18 | Lee | How to choose area and advisor | Assignment #1 (2pm) | |
| 2 | 3/23 | Kim | How to find papers for your research | ||
| 2 | 3/25 | Lee | Panel: How I selected my research area and advisor | Assignment #2 (2pm) | |
| 3 | 3/30 | Yoo | How to read papers: which is where? | ||
| 3 | 4/1 | Lee | How to recognise good research and generate good ideas | ||
| 4 | 4/6 | Kim | How to write a good paper | Assignment #3 (2pm) | |
| 4 | 4/8 | Yoo | What happens to my paper: publication pipeline | ||
| 5 | 4/13 | Yoo | How to review papers | ||
| 5 | 4/15 | - | No class (Election Day) | Assignment #4 (2pm) | |
| 6 | 4/20 | All | Abstract Workshop | ||
| 6 | 4/22 | Lee | How to make good presentations | ||
| 7 | 4/27 | Yoo | Panel: What to do when attending a conference for the first time | ||
| 7 | 4/29 | Lee | How to write proposals | ||
| 8 | 5/4 | - | No class (Midterm week) | ||
| 8 | 5/6 | - | No class (Midterm week) | ||
| 9 | 5/11 | All | Presentation Group #1 | Slide Link | |
| 9 | 5/13 | All | Presentation Group #2 | Slide Link | |
| 10 | 5/18 | Kim | Research Ethics | ||
| 10 | 5/20 | Lee | Presentation Feedback Workshop | ||
| 11 | 5/25 | Yoo | How to market yourself and your research | Assignment #5 (2pm) | |
| 11 | 5/27 | Yoo | Statistical Analysis | ||
| 12 | 6/1 | Kim | Designing Human Studies | ||
| 12 | 6/3 | Kim | Life as a researcher | ||
| 13 | 6/8 | All | Resume Workshop #1 | Assignment #6 (2pm) | |
| 13 | 6/10 | All | Resume Workshop #2 | ||
| 14 | 6/15 | Kim | Panel: How to survive grad school | Assignment #7 (2pm) | |
| 14 | 6/17 | Yoo | Job market/career paths | Job market/career paths | |
| 15 | 6/22 | - | No class | ||
| 15 | 6/24 | - | No class | Assignment #8 (2pm) | |
| 16 | 6/29 | - | No class (Final week) | ||
| 16 | 7/1 | - | No class (Final week) |