Lesson Two

Types of Research Projects

2.1 Objectives

At the end of this Lecture, students should be able to:

 Distinguish between scientific and engineering design research projects.

 Explain the meaning of the terms discovery, invention and innovation as applied in scientific
and engineering research projects
 Explain the interactions of discovery, invention and innovation in a research project
 Outline the steps of a scientific research process
 Outline the steps of an engineering design research process
 Explain how the engineering design process for software products (SDLC) differ from that of
other products
 Explain how the two processes can be applied in computer science and IT research projects

2.2 Classification of Research Projects

Research projects may be classified into the following two categories:
a) Investigative or experimental Projects (scientific research project)
b) Design research Projects (engineering design research projects)
2.2.1 Investigative or experimental Projects (scientific research project)
This type of research projects focus on discovery: According to Cambridge
Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, discovery is the process of finding information, a
place, or an object, especially for the first time.

Discovery can also be defined as the process of recognizing something that

already exists for the first time that nobody has found before.

With reference to sciences and academic disciplines, discovery is the observation

of new phenomena, new actions, or new events and providing new reasoning to
14
explain the knowledge gathered through such observations with previously
acquired knowledge from abstract thought and everyday experiences. A discovery
may sometimes be based on earlier discoveries, collaborations, or ideas. Some
discoveries represent a radical breakthrough in knowledge or technology.
Discoveries are acquired through various senses and are usually assimilated,
merging with pre-existing knowledge and actions. Questioning is a major form of
human thought and interpersonal communication, and plays a key role in discovery
(this explain why research questions are an important element of a scientific
research process e.g. Why is X happening or How can Y be solved). Discoveries
are often made due to questions. Some discoveries lead to the invention of objects,
processes, or techniques. A discovery may sometimes be based on earlier
discoveries, collaborations or ideas, and the process of discovery requires at least
the awareness that an existing concept or method can be modified or transformed.
However, some discoveries also represent a radical breakthrough in knowledge.

Take note: research questions vs. Hypothesis

A hypothesis is a supposed answer to a research question e.g.

Research question:
How does the efficiency of a program written using a purely functional language compare
with that of one written using imperative language?
Research Hypothesis:
H1: A program written using a purely functional language is more efficient than one written
using imperative language
H0: A program written using a purely functional language is not as efficient as one written
using imperative language

2.2.2 Design Projects (engineering design research projects)

15
This type of research projects is concerned with development of new products or
improvement of existing products to perform additional tasks. Hence engineering
design research projects are about invention and innovation. These terms are
explained next:
 Invention: An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition or
process within an overall engineering and product development process. The
invention process is a process within an overall engineering and product
development process. It may be an improvement upon a machine or product, or
a new process for creating an object or a result. An invention that achieves a
completely unique function or result may be a radical breakthrough. Such
works are novel and not obvious to others skilled in the same field. An inventor
may be taking a big step in success or failure. Some inventions can be patented.
A patent legally protects the intellectual property rights of the inventor and
legally recognizes that a claimed invention is actually an invention. The rules
and requirements for patenting an invention vary from country to country, and
the process of obtaining a patent is often expensive but worthy.

Take note: when an invention qualifies for patenting

To qualify for a patent an invention must pass a test of originality--that is, be sufficiently
different from previous inventions. Most inventions are minor improvements on existing
inventions which do not qualify for patents. Only a small percent of patented inventions have
any economic value.

 Innovation: innovation may be defined as “change that adds value”. If

someone improves on or makes a significant contribution to an existing
product, process or service then that is innovation. For instance spreadsheet
software is an invention but a new business application that uses spreadsheets to
improve service delivery and increase profits is an innovation. An example of
16
 an innovation in government is submitting tax returns to Kenya revnue
authority (KRA) using Itax instead of manual paperwork. An example of an
innovation in personal lifestyles is telecommuting by professionals.

Many current innovations are the result of applying new technology in (1)
manufacturing and (2) processing of business and government paperwork.
Empirically, better performance is not achieved by the new technology to
improve the performance of the old process. Rather, the manufacturing or
paperwork process is redesigned from ground up to make optimal use of the
new combination of technology and people. A portion of the performance gain
is from carefully analyzing the process to be replaced and asking what really
needs to be done to maximize profits. In the business media, this is the origin of
the word "reorganization".

Take Note: Invention vs. Innovation a comparison and example

In its purest sense, “invention” can be defined as the creation of a product or introduction of a
process for the first time. “Innovation,” on the other hand, occurs if someone improves on or makes a
significant contribution to an existing product, process or service.

Example one: Consider the microprocessor. Someone invented the microprocessor. But by itself, the
microprocessor was nothing more than another piece on the circuit board. It’s what was done with
that piece — the hundreds of thousands of products, processes and services that evolved from the
invention of the microprocessor — that required innovation.

Example two: Consider the Mpesa money transfer system in Kenya. Someone invented the Mpesa
system. Initially the Mpesa system was to transfer money from person to person using mobile phones.
But over time many other services have been added17
such as: Lipan a Mpesa for bill payment and
purchase of goods via Mpesa etc, — the additional services on Mpesa required innovation
2.2.3 Interactions between Discovery, Invention and Innovation
It is important to note several features concerning the interaction between
discovery, invention and innovation.
a) Invention is promoted by discoveries in the natural sciences and more recently
the biological sciences; whereas, innovation is promoted by discoveries in the
industrial engineering, the social sciences and the business disciplines.

Discovery in natural Leads to Invention

and biological sciences

Figure 1: From discovery in natural and biological sciences to technological invention

Examples:
 Discovery of the properties of iron led to invention of iron tools such as
hammer etc
 Discovery of electrons in cathode ray tube led to invention of television

Discovery in industrial
Leads to Innovation
engineering, social
sciences and business
disciplines

Figure 2: From discovery in industrial engineering, social sciences and Business disciplines
to technological invention

Examples:
 Discovering that the reason why people do not adopt mobile banking is
poor security can lead to innovative ways of designing a more secure
mobile banking system

18
  Discovering that the reason why customers avoid a business is slow
service can lead to the business adopting an innovative service delivery
system e.g. an online system.
b) The interaction between discovery and invention is a two-way street.
Obviously, as science advances, it produces opportunities to create new
inventions. However, the development of the full economic value of an
invention requires massive discoveries for many inventions. For example, the
modern airplane required the scientific development of aerodynamics. The
economic development of superconductivity will require the physicists to
develop a theory of superconductivity. The interaction between scientific
discovery and Innovation is such that scientific knowledge allows us to build
new technologies, which often allow us to make new observations about the
world, which, in turn, allow us to build even more scientific knowledge,
which then inspires another technology … and so on. This interaction is
summarized in Figure 3

Discovery may lead Invention may lead

to new discovery to new invention

Discovery in natural Discovery Leads to Invention

and biological sciences Invention

Invention Leads to
Discovery
Figure 3: Interaction between scientific discovery and technological invention

To appreciate how scientific discovery and technological innovations are

intertwined as well as how science and technology feed each other thus propelling
each other forward, consider how the discovery of electrons in the 1800s led to
modern forensics and DNA fingerprinting. This is presented in the case example
that follows

19
Case example of how scientific discovery and technological innovations propel
each other forward

In 1897, physicists discovered that the cathode rays in the cathode ray tube were
actually streams of electrons. The discovery of the electron lead to the discovery of
the atomic nucleus in 1910. On the technological front, the cathode ray tube slowly
evolved into the television (which is constructed from a cathode ray tube with the
electron beam deflected in ways that produce an image on a screen) and, eventually,
into many sorts of image monitors.
In 1895, the German physicist Wilhem Roentgen noticed that his cathode ray tube
seemed to be producing some other sort of ray in addition to the lights inside the
tube. These new rays were invisible but caused a screen in his laboratory to light up.
He tried to block the rays, but they passed right through paper, copper, and
aluminum, but not lead. And not bone. Roentgen noticed that the rays revealed the
faint shadow of the bones in his hand! Roentgen had discovered X-rays, a form of
electromagnetic radiation. This discovery shortly lead to the invention of the X-ray
machine, which would evolved into the CT scan machine which would became
essential to non-invasive medical diagnoses. Additionally, the discovery of X-rays
would eventually lead to the development of X-ray telescopes to detect radiation
emitted by objects in deep space. The discovery of X-rays also pointed William and
William Bragg (a father-son team) in 1913 and 1914 to the idea that X-rays could
be used to figure out the arrangements of atoms in a crystal. This works a bit like
trying to figure out the size and shape of a building based on the shadow it casts:
you can work backwards from the shape of the shadow to make a guess at the
building's dimensions.
20
Case example Continued
When X-rays are passed through a crystal, some of the X-rays are bent or spread out
(i.e., diffracted) by the atoms in the crystal. You can then extrapolate backwards
from the locations of the deflected X-rays to figure out the relative locations of the
crystal atoms. This technique is known as X-ray crystallography, and it has
profoundly influenced the course of science by providing snapshots of molecular
structures.
Perhaps most notably, Rosalind Franklin used X-ray crystallography to help
uncover the structure of the key molecule of life: DNA. In 1952, Franklin, like
James Watson and Francis Crick, was working on the structure of DNA but from a
different angle. Franklin was painstakingly producing diffracted images of DNA,
while Watson and Crick were trying out different structures using tinker-toy models
of the component molecules. In fact, Franklin had already proposed a double helical
form for the molecule when, in 1953, a colleague showed Franklin's most telling
image to Watson. That picture convinced Watson and Crick that the molecule was a
double helix and pointed to the arrangement of atoms within that helix. Over the
next few weeks, the famous pair would use their models to correctly work out the
chemical details of DNA.
The impact of the discovery of DNA's structure on scientific research, medicine,
agriculture, conservation, and other social issues has been wide-ranging — so much
so, that it is difficult to pick out which threads of influence to follow. To choose just
one, understanding the structure of DNA (along with many other inputs) eventually
allowed biologists to develop a quick and easy method for copying very small
amounts of DNA, known as PCR — the polymerase chain reaction. This technique
(developed in the 1980s), in turn, allowed the development of DNA fingerprinting
technologies, which have become an21 important part of modern criminal
investigations.
c) Similarly the interaction between discovery and innovation and between
invention and innovation is two-way. This is summarized in Figure 4 and 5

Discovery may lead

Innovation/invention
to new discovery
may lead to new
innovation
Discovery Discovery leads to Innovation or invention
innovation

Innovation Leads to
Discovery

Figure 4: Interaction between discovery and technological innovation

Invention may lead Innovation may lead

to new invention to new Innovation

Invention Invention Leads to Innovation

Innovation

Innovation Leads to
Invention

Figure 5: Interaction between Invention and innovation

2.2.4 Motivations for the Promotion of Discovery, Invention and Innovation

It is important to understand that discovery, invention and innovation have very
different incentive systems. Moreover, these differences create problems in transfer
from one activity to another. For example, the culture for discovery and invention
are very different and transfer between the two activities requires incentives.

a) Motivation for Discovery: Fame. Scientists want to become famous. Such

fame brings them both praise and wealth. With fame as an incentive system,
22
 scientists have powerful incentives to immediately broadcast their results, thus
creating a free flow of ideas. This means that researchers have at their disposal
all the current results in conducting their ongoing research. However, fame does
not create a sufficient financial incentive for funding basic research.

b) Motivation for Invention: Intellectual property. There are three important

forms of intellectual property: Patents, copyright, and trade secrets. Without
property rights rivals would immediately copy inventions and the producer with
the lowest costs would claim the financial reward. Incentives to invent would be
diminished. However, the creation of a socially efficient form of intellectual
property rights is difficult because such rights can grant excessive monopoly
rights and create an atmosphere of secrecy which impedes the free flow of
ideas. Intellectual property law is modified over time to create better incentives
in changing economic conditions. For example, copyright, which originally was
for books, plays and other literary works, has been extended to software and
integrated circuit masks. In the US, a patent is issued to the first to discover, not
the first to file. As you might expect this leads to endless law suits. Bell's patent
for the telephone is an example. Currently, there is a debate whether patents
should be issued to the first to file, which is the practice in the rest of the world.
c) Motivation for Innovation: economic gains by improving service delivery

2.3 The place of computer science and IT Research in Scientific and

Engineering research.
Computer science and IT research tend to adopt a combined research approach that
encompasses both scientific investigation and engineering design research
processes. Figure 6 below depicts the nature of research in computer science and
IT
23
 Engineering
Science

Scientific research Design research

Computing
Entails discovery Research Entails invention
and innovation

Figure 6: Placement of computer Science and IT research in scientific and engineering

research designs

As shown in Figure 6, computer science often progresses from discovery to

innovation or invention and vice versa.
Example:
 Supposing it is noted that bank customers do not like using internet banking
system.
 This observation may prompt the following research question:
o Why don’t bank customers like using internet banking?
 This is a discovery question where the researcher would attempt to discover
the reasons that make bank customers shy away from internet banking
 Once the reasons are discovered, the researcher may ask the following
research question
o How can the internet banking system be improved to it attractive to
customers?
 This is an innovation question where the researcher is seeking to improve
the internet banking system by addressing the customer concerns
As can be observed in this example the researcher will progress from discovery to
innovation thus using both scientific and engineering research design methods.

24