System Software: Smart cards and biometric identification and embedded software
A research paper is not simply a place for you to gather information on some topic by
reading a few articles and then regurgitating what you read back. If that’s all I wanted you to do,
I simply would have said “go read 3 articles and tell me what they told me.” That is not a research
paper! No, instead a research paper is where you absorb some information, really think about it
and draw some conclusions on your own. Let’s put it another way: explore some area that you
are unfamiliar with, summarize what you learned in a very concise manner, analyze what was
presented combining it with what you know and synthesize some conclusions for where things
are going. Do you see the difference? You may have handed in summaries of articles in other
classes, but that’s just what they are – summaries. What I want is for you to examine a topic and
tell me how it affects our discipline and where you see it going down the road – stuff that’s not
going to be in most articles you read. Sounds like work I know, but that’s why they are called
RESEARCH papers.
Your research paper should contain 2 to 3 academic journal articles related to the topic
that you intend to research. If you don’t know what an academic journal is, take a look at the
following: Communications of the ACM, IEEE Computer, IEEE Software. Basically anything that
you find in the library that is published by a professional society like the ACM (Association for
Computing Machinery) or IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers) are academic
journals. Each of those organizations prints numerous different journals each month in different
areas, so explore what’s out there. If the topic you are selecting is too new for academic journals,
then you may use trade journal articles (these are the magazines you can buy at Barnes & Nobles),
but you should find 4 to 6 of these. An article could be from a web page. Now, I want to point
out that any “article” that you consider using should be at least one full page in length as a
minimum, therefore a column in a magazine or a snippet on a web page will not count as an
article.
You should write your paper using a very formal style and citation method (in our case
IEEE citations). You’ve probably used MLA or APA in the past, but IEEE is what our industry favors.
It’s pretty easy to use and I’ve included a summary of the IEEE from the University of Calgary up
on Canvas.
Okay so let’s assume that you’ve gathered your articles, read them, summarized them,
put some serious thought into what they mean, how they affect you and the discipline and where
things are going. You now want to start writing your paper. Here’s the way I would suggest that
you organize the research paper into sections:
1) Introduction to the topic
2) Why is the topic of interest to you and to the field?
3) Coverage of the topic with regard to the literature survey that you performed
4) A discussion of how you see the topic changing in the future
5) Any conclusions/applications that you have drawn from your research
6) References/Citings
Now for the gory details… I would expect that your paper should be
at least 5 pages in length (4 pages of the paper body and 1 page for citations), double spaced – default Word font
size and borders. Don’t play around with trying to make things a bit bigger to take up more space.
This is plenty of room to do your research and to say what you need to say. You should make sure
that you cite any work you use – don’t plagiarize! It’s usually pretty apparent and it will get you
a zero! You will be graded on content as well your writing ability – I support the university’s
Writing Program. I appreciate good writing – I will deduct points for poor writing. Finally, again
remember that research papers are more than look up and repeat – you need to formulate some
conclusions from your readings and apply the material. Just be sure that you justify anything that
you argue. Have fun!
Solution Preview
System Software: Smart Cards and Biometric Identification and Embedded Software
Introduction
In the wake of development in technology, organizations and individuals have made significant investment in systems considered effective enough in management of information and security. Most efforts to understand and discuss technology often border along the role played in advancing communication, but it would be important to appreciate the rolesof technology in factors such as improving the quality
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