IGERT in Magnetic and Nanostructured Materials

Interdisciplinary Research Course

• Intellectual Property Protection in the IGERT-MNM

• Presenters Schedule, Year Three

• Presenters Schedule, Year Two

In this module you will engage in the design of a research proposal across disciplines.

Interdisciplinary collaborations bring a wealth of opportunities for brand new science.

You goal in this module is to identify a research problem, in an area different from your own, that you may be able to solve using the techniques and knowledge you acquired during your research training.

Recommendations for the design of the proposal in this module:

1) Read the review paper

- to understand the overview of a field of research different from your own, and

- with a keen eye to look for unresolved issues that you may be able to address using the skills and knowledge you have, and that you are aware of.

2) Follow up on the unresolved issues you identified in the review paper

- look up papers about the issues themselves (some references will be from the review paper),

- summarize the information from the papers that describe the problem to be solved.

3) Articulate the problem to be addressed, and the solution you propose

- methodology

- expected outcomes

- impact of your research

4) Look up papers that support your proposal:

- show that the methodology you chose may lead to the outcome you foresee

Your proposal should have the following components:

1) The big picture: the importance of this area of research

2) A very clear description of the problem you intend to address

3) Literature review describing attempted solutions of the problem (if existent)

4) Your proposed research approach to solve the problem

5) Literature review supporting the argument that your approach will lead to the expected outcome

Download the document with assignments related to this course from our shared folder.