The following table outlines a 12-week timeline for developing a research proposal in computer systems, with two weeks for identifying the research gap and two weeks for developing the methods section. The timeline assumes 3 hours of work per week, totaling 36 hours, and includes generic tasks and deliverables to produce a comprehensive proposal addressing a research gap in the field.

This post discusses how to evaluate and validate the artifact(usually software implementation) of the research. It describes what to include in the evaluation and validation plan. This is an expanded discussion for the Methods section of the research proposal.

The title of a research proposal in Computer Systems should be clear, concise, and informative, conveying the key focus, contribution, and scope of the work. It should attract the attention of the target audience (e.g., systems researchers, industry practitioners) while adhering to academic standards.

The purpose of the review of related literature is to position your research, highlight the gap, demonstrate expertise, and provide context to your research.

The Aims, Objectives, and Methods should be clearly articulated as this is what the researcher is set to achieve for the research.

Once a research gap has been identified, a Problem Statement can be created. Below is a short discussion on how to write the Problem Statement for a research proposal based on the example from Approach 5: Analyzing real-world systems and industry needs. The example identified a research gap in developing …

The first part of a series of posts to help students come up with a research proposal for their CMSC 190/200/300 or for publication in conferences and journals. I used AI tools to create these posts, Grok in particular. Although this is tailored for systems research, the ideas apply to other areas also.