How to Choose a CS Research Topic?

After a long search i came across this good post on choosing a CS Research Topic...

This post is motivated by questions from some of the new grad students looking for research topics. Here are a few things that can help you in this quest.

Follow your passion

Often, when you take an undergrad course, you wonder about a few things. Why is this system designed like this? Why can’t I use that sorting algorithm? etc. If you are more curious, you probably use Google to find more information, and you develop an interest. As you learn more, you realize that among the sea of questions, there are a few that you really want to go after. Go for it!

Learn state-of-the-art

State of the art is probably the most mis-used word in marketing, but in research it has a very concrete meaning. When some one says that they understand state of the art, that means they know every thing that’s been done so far, and the latest technology that probably is the best.
Good way to learn is to start reading latest publications from reputed conferences. For CS, journals are just treated as archival data, so it is not that important to read journals. Finding reputed conferences in a field is pretty easy. Good conferences can be found from Citeseer impact ratings, rankings maintained here and here.
The next step is to start reading publications. Reading papers is an art in itself and will require another long post. First, try to find papers that are of interest to you. One of the problems faced by newbies is that they don’t understand the paper fully, because some papers point to prior work that they are not aware of. You have to recursively read more papers pointing to prior/related work, and understand how people solved the problem. It’s a difficult and some times boring task, but you will get better at it.
In the end, you should be able to summarize the state of the art by listing the first work that tried to solve the problem to the latest. Often, there are solutions that have trade offs, and there may not be a single best solution. Your job is to figure out why some thing works and why some thing does not
work.
You may even find that there is no solution, and there you have your research topic.

Broad and narrow enough

The topic you choose should be broad enough to puruse for 2 or 3 years. It should still be narrow enough for you to solve it completely. For example, building the next generation search is a topic for multiple PhDs, but developing better clustering algorithms might be a good topic.

Follow your advisor

: Advisors vary in how they assign topics to students. Some advisors have certain research topic in mind, and they want you to pursue that specific path. Some (like my advisor Kang Shin) give you complete freedom to choose a topic. There are benefits and downsides to both approaches.
If your advisor gives you a specific research topic, and if you like it, you are all set. You can start reading papers related to that topic, and start formulating a research problem. Your advisor is probably aware of the state of the art and might also have thought of possible solutions. The downside is that you are stuck with it, and you may feel like you are forced in a certain direction.
Free-form topic choosing gives you great flexibility. Its benefits are obvious, as you can choose whatever you like within certain area (say software systems). Some people (like me :) ) often have strong opinions on solving certain problems, and want to pursue them. However, you are bound to make some mistakes in the process. It is not always easy to judge state of the art, and it is not easy to find a concrete research problem in a big area. I originally wanted to work in grid scheduling, but I switched after reading a survey paper with 640 references. This surely will waste some of your time, but the process is highly rewarding.

Work with a fellow graduate student

If you are part of a research group (usually your adviser’s), then you will see senior graduate students who have already chosen a topic and/or close to graduation. They have done the hard work, and understand the pitfalls in research. Often, they can give you certain problem, which can be a PhD topic in itself. It is also a good way to learn more about an area that you are not familiar with. There might even be a continuation project to what your fellow student is doing. Downside is that the topic might be too narrow and may not be big enough for a PhD. Nevertheless, the experience is worth it.

Attend reading groups

Most universities have research students gathering in a group to discuss various research topics. Software systems reading group at UMich is a great place to mingle with other systems students. Usually, students, and some times guest speakers, professors present a paper and the group has a free flowing discussion about the work. You can even present a topic and gather opinions from your peers. You will also learn how to support your arguments, and how to criticize rationally. Also, free food is great
If your university does not have one, you can start one. It doesn’t take much effort to gather a few students with similar interests and start reading papers. Every one has to go through the latest publications, why not do it together?

Don’t get too attached

After you decide on a topic and start spending a few months learning the state of the art, you may find out that some one already solved it or it is too narrow. Don’t get too attached to the topic. It is OK to choose a new topic, and many PhD students change their core focus.
If all else fails, you can try the systems topic generator or crypto topic generator or classic Douglas Comer’s topic generator

By
Pradeep Padala