To Choose a Research Topic

It is always challenging to choose a great topic for your doctoral dissertation or master's thesis. The following provides some ideas and critieria to help decision making.

Choose a topic you love. This may be the most important criteria. You're going to be spending so much time with this project, and your quality of life will be much better if these hours are spent enjoyably. What's more, the quality of your research, writing, and arguments will be much better if you feel genuine passion for your work, Choose a topic you find both fascinating and socially significant. Never let someone pressure you into writing about a certain topic!

Pick something your advisor finds interesting and is knowledgeable about. Of course, is this is not possible, you might want to change your advisor instead of changing your topic.

Pick a topic that will be helpful in your career path. If your goal is an academic career, pick a topic that you can easily modify into journal articles or a book, and that will lend itself well to future research. If you want to work at a teaching oriented institution, consider a topic you can use in the classroom. If you are going into industry, choose a topic that will make you more marketable.

Find a topic that establishes your niche in your field. Do your research and find a topic that fits into existing bodies of literature, but that builds upon theory and expands it.

Choose research that is unique. Do significant research to make sure this topic has not been done before. Be creative and choose an idea that stands out from the pack as original and innovative.

Think carefully before you choose a controversial topic. Academics are a sensitive lot, and in every field there are certain topics and positions that will send highly educated people into intellectual temper tantrums. This doesn't mean you should avoid topics that push people's buttons. However, if you choose a controversial topic, think carefully about whether it might restrict your employment, tenure, or publishing opportunities.

Pick a topic that you already have some expertise about. This will help preserve your sanity and get you out the door faster. This isn't the time to explore a brand new area. Along the way, take coursework and write class papers that will help you write your dissertation or thesis.

Pick a manageable topic. This is a huge project, but it isn't your life's research. A good advisor will help you narrow down your topic so that you don't remain in graduate school for many long years.

(From: http://graduate-schools.suite101.com/article.cfm/dissertation_and_thesis_topics)

More related information:
http://library.weber.edu/ref/guides/howto/topicselection.cfm
http://library.ucsc.edu/help/howto/choose-a-research-topic
http://library.nku.edu/research_help/tutorials/basic_tutorials/choose_a_topic.php

Some useful software in IE

AMPL: AMPL is a comprehensive and powerful algebraic modeling language for linear and nonlinear optimization problems, in discrete or continuous variables.

Arena: Simulation software

AutoCAD: Computer Aided Design software

Automod/AutoSched AP: (AutoMOD) Environment for building highly accurate analytical models. (AutoSched) Planning, capacity analysis and simulation software

CPlex/OPL Studio: (CPlex) Optimizers for solving linear, mixed-integer, and quadratic programming problems. (OPL Studio) A set of lightweight C++ and Java objects for representing optimization problems.

Endnote: Software tool for publishing and managing bibliographies.

ExpertFit: Distribution fitting software

Force: Force is a full-featured programming environment for FORTRAN 77 (the engineering programming language). It uses the FORTRAN G77 compiler to create programs in Win32 platform.

GhostScript: PostScript and PDF interpretor

GhostView: PostScript and PDF interpretor

Gnuplot: Gnuplot is a portable command-line driven interactive data and function plotting utility for UNIX, IBM OS/2, MS Windows, DOS, Macintosh, VMS, Atari and many other platforms.

Lindo: LINDO API creates optimization applications. It allows you to plug the power of the LINDO solver right into customized applications that you have written.

Lingo: LINGO is a comprehensive tool designed to help you build and solve linear, optimization models quickly, easily, and efficiently

LogisticsCAD (Lineback, Spiral, Tours): Spiral is an interactive program that quickly creates and evaluates block layouts for manufacturing, warehousing, and service operations. It includes advanced design tools that reduce material handling costs and time by finding optimized locations for departments and machines.

Maple: Mathematical and analytical software

Mathematica: Integrates a numeric and symbolic computational engine, graphics system, programming language, documentation system, and advanced connectivity to other applications.

Matlab: Tool for model-based design of control systems

Microsoft Expression: Web Expression Web is the latest web development tool from Microsoft it is the successor to FrontPage. Expression Web allows you to graphically design websites using XML, CSS 2.1, ASP.NET 2.0, XHTML, XSLT and JavaScript.

Microsoft Visual Studio: Tools to build a wide range of application types, including component libraries, mobility-enabled applications, Web applications, Web services, and Windows applications.

MikTeX: Implementation of TeX and related programs for Windows

Minitab: Statistical software

Netbeans IDE: A tool for programmers to write, compile, debug and deploy programs.

R: R is a language and environment for statistical computing and graphics

Vanguard Studio: Studio will help you make business decisions that are more likely to yield favorable results by providing you with a rich set of techniques for dealing with risk, planning contingent actions, and comparing competing alternatives where future outcomes are uncertain.

WinEDT: Native editor and shell for Win32

Xpress: MP Optimizer and model building tools

Personality Type or Psychological Type (MBTI)

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment is a psychometric questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions. These preferences were extrapolated from the typological theories proposed by Carl Gustav Jung and first published in his 1921 book Psychological Types (English edition, 1923).

The original developers of the personality inventory were Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers. They began creating the indicator during World War II, believing that a knowledge of personality preferences would help women who were entering the industrial workforce for the first time to identify the sort of war-time jobs where they would be "most comfortable and effective". The initial questionnaire grew into the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, which was first published in 1962. The MBTI focuses on normal populations and emphasizes the value of naturally occurring differences.

CPP Inc., the publisher of the MBTI instrument, calls it "the world’s most widely used personality assessment", with as many as two million assessments administered annually. Some academic psychologists have criticized the MBTI instrument, claiming that it "lacks convincing validity data". Proponents of the test, however, cite reports of individual behavior and have found that the indicator meets or exceeds the reliability of other psychological instruments. Some studies have found strong support for construct validity, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability, although variation was observed.

The definitive published source of reference for the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is The Manual produced by CPP. However, the registered trademark rights to the terms Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and MBTI have been assigned from the publisher to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Trust.

(From: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator)



Free online Jungian typology assessments:
 
http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp
http://www.personalitytest.net/cgi-bin/q.pl
http://similarminds.com/jung_word_pair.html
http://www.personalitypathways.com/type_inventory.html
http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/mmdi/questionnaire/

What is "Industrial Engineering"

Industrial Engineering (often now supplemented as "Industrial & Systems Engineering" or "Industrial & Operations Engineering") is a branch of engineering dealing with optimizing complex processes or systems. It is concerned with the development, improvement, implementation and evaluation of integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information, equipment, energy, materials and/or processes. It also deals with designing new product prototypes more efficiently. Industrial engineering draws upon the principles and methods of engineering analysis and synthesis, as well as the mathematical, physical and social sciences together with the principles and methods of engineering design to specify, predict, and evaluate the results to be obtained from such systems or processes. Its underlying concepts overlap considerably with certain business-oriented disciplines such as Operations Management, but the engineering side tends to greater emphasize extensive mathematical proficiency and utilization of quantitative methods.

Depending on the sub-speciality(ies) involved, industrial engineering may also be known as operations management, management science, systems engineering, or manufacturing engineering, usually depending on the viewpoint or motives of the user. Recruiters or educational establishments use the names to differentiate themselves from others. In health care, industrial engineers are more commonly known as health management engineers or health systems engineers.

While the term originally applied to manufacturing, nowadays the term "industrial" in industrial engineering can be somewhat misleading (leading to the typical extensions noted above). It has grown to encompass any methodical or quantitative approach to optimizing how a process, system, or organization operates. In fact, the primary U.S. professional organization for Industrial Engineers, the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) has been considering changing its name to something broader (such as the Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineers), although the latest vote among membership deemed this unnecessary for the time being. The various topics of concern to industrial engineers include management science, financial engineering, engineering management, supply chain management, process engineering, operations research, systems engineering, ergonomics, cost and value engineering, quality engineering, facilities planning, and the engineering design process. Traditionally, a major aspect of industrial engineering was planning the layouts of factories and designing assembly lines and other manufacturing paradigms. And now, in so-called lean manufacturing systems, industrial engineers work to eliminate wastes of time, money, materials, energy, and other resources.

Examples of where industrial engineering might be used include designing an assembly workstation, strategizing for various operational logistics, consulting as an efficiency expert, developing a new financial algorithm or loan system for a bank, streamlining operation and emergency room location or usage in a hospital, planning complex distribution schemes for materials or products (referred to as Supply Chain Management), and shortening lines (or queues) at a bank, hospital, or a theme park. Industrial engineers typically use computer simulation (especially discrete event simulation), along with extensive mathematical tools and modeling and computational methods for system analysis, evaluation, and optimization.

(From:Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_engineering)


What IEs Do:

Industrial engineering is about choices. Other engineering disciplines apply skills to very specific areas. IE gives practitioners the opportunity to work in a variety of businesses.

Many practitioners say that an industrial engineering education offers the best of both worlds: an education in both engineering and business.

The most distinctive aspect of industrial engineering is the flexibility it offers. Whether it’s shortening a rollercoaster line, streamlining an operating room, distributing products worldwide, or manufacturing superior automobiles, allthese challenges share the common goal of saving companies money and increasing efficiencies.

As companies adopt management philosophies of continuous productivity and quality improvement to survive in the increasingly competitive world market, the need for industrial engineers is growing. Why? Industrial engineers are the only engineering professionals trained specifically to be productivity and quality improvement specialists.

Industrial engineers figure out how to do things better. They engineer processes and systems that improve quality and productivity. They work to eliminate waste of time, money, materials, energy and other commodities. This is why many industrial engineers end up being promoted into management positions.

Many people are misled by the term industrial engineer. It’s not just about manufacturing. It also encompasses service industries, with many IEs employed in entertainment industries, shipping and logistics businesses, and health care organizations.

IEs make processes better in the following ways:

• More efficient and more profitable business practices  
• Better customer service and product quality
• Improved efficiency
• Increased ability to do more with less
• Making work safer, faster, easier, and more rewarding
• Helping companies produce more products quickly
• Making the world safer through better designed products
• Reducing costs associated with new technologies

(From: IIE, http://www.iienet2.org/Details.aspx?id=716)