Speaker 1: Hi guys, in this video we are going to talk about how do you choose a research topic. So if you are in your final year of undergrad or doing your masters or PhD, you will come across this juncture where you have to complete a research project and the first thing that you need to do is choose a research topic. So how do you even go about it? How much time does it take to choose a topic? And what are some of the things that you need to keep in mind while choosing a research topic? Well, let's find out. I am Neha Agrawal. I am the founder of VizUp Communications and I have three research papers in journals of international repute. In this video, I am going to share with you what are the three different criterias that the research topic you choose should fulfill. After that, I will also share with you the different ways how you can choose a research topic and you can go for the one which works best for you. So let's begin. The first criteria that your research topic should satisfy is that it should be interesting. If the topic is not interesting to you, you will not have the motivation to dig deeper and learn more about it. Also, conducting research is not easy. It can get monotonous when you have to work on the same topic for a very long time. It can also be frustrating sometimes if you are not getting the results that you actually hoped for. So if the topic is not interesting to you, you will lose the motivation to continue on that journey and complete the project. So choosing a topic that appeals to you is very important. The next criteria is novelty. The problem that you choose to solve should be new, should be innovative, something nobody has done before, no matter how small the problem is. There is no point in repeating something that has already been done by some other researcher. So do your literature survey very carefully, read a lot of research papers pertaining to that topic and make sure that the problem you are trying to solve is novel. Finally, the third criteria to choose your research topic is that it should be manageable. When you are in your final year of undergrad or doing your masters, you have limited time to complete a research project. So choose a topic which is manageable and can be completed in the given time frame. Sometimes what happens is that we underestimate the demands of the research project and then college gets over and you are forced to submit the project even if you have not completed it fully. And the worst part is that it remains abandoned and no tangible outcome comes out of it like a research paper or a conference presentation. So from the very beginning, choose a research topic which is manageable and can be completed in the given time frame. So now that you know what are the different criteria that your research topic should fulfil, let's see how are you supposed to choose a research topic. The first and the most easiest way to choose a research topic is to approach a professor. If you are studying in a research focused institute, professors usually have their own research groups and multiple research projects running parallelly. So what you can do is approach a professor and ask them if they have any research problem for you to solve. If they do, they will share a research topic with you or even link you with somebody from their research group, either a PhD or a postdoc to help you out. Then you can learn more about the topic by reading review papers, books, research articles and even discussing with the members of the research group. Through this way you will have a research topic almost instantly and with guidance you will be able to complete your research project as well. The second way to choose a research topic gives you slightly more flexibility in understanding what you like and then figuring out the research topic on your own. So here what you can do is visit the website of your college or any other institute for that matter where you would like to conduct your research project. Look at the research that is being conducted by the different research groups of that institute. Let me share an example here. Since I am an alumnus of NTU Singapore, I will go to NTU's website and then to the specific school which is the School of Material Science and Engineering. Here I can see the research that is being conducted by different research groups of that school. Now I will pick any professor to zoom into their research areas. Say for example I pick Prof. Chen Zong. He is conducting the research on all these topics. I look at the papers that have been published by him and I choose one of them and start reading it. When I do this, I will be able to understand more about the topic and also see whether it interests me or not. Why I am suggesting this process to you because in this way you will be able to know what is the latest research that is happening all across the world. Now say for example the topic does interest you. Then you can start backtracking the paper. Read the research paper carefully and pick out some keywords that have been used again and again. Download more papers related to those keywords and try to understand its meaning. When you keep backtracking the paper in this way, you will be able to establish the fundamentals on which this research is based upon. And once you have understood the fundamentals, you can dig deeper into the topic and finally arrive at a problem that nobody else has been able to solve. So through this method, you can choose a topic that really interests you and it also gives you the flexibility to either work with that professor or anywhere else where the research facilities are available. However, this process is slightly lengthy. It can take you up to 1-2 months of good literature survey to finally arrive at your research topic. The third and the final way to choose your research topic is the most traditional way. It takes the maximum time but the foundation that it builds for you is something that helps you throughout your research journey. So here what you should do is choose a broad topic that interests you and then keep digging deeper until you arrive at a problem that other researchers have not been able to solve. So let me explain this with an example. Say a broad area that interests you is nanotechnology. To know more about nanotechnology, you can download review papers to understand which are the current areas on which nanotechnology research is taking place. Then you will come across multiple areas like nanomaterials, nanomedicine, drug delivery, energy storage and even solar cells. Read the review papers to learn more about these different topics. After reading, say for example, you feel that you connect with solar cells research. So again what you can do is read a lot of books, articles, review papers to understand what is happening in solar cell research. You will come across different areas again. Say for example, what are the different materials that are being used to make solar cells or what are the different fabrication processes through which solar cells are made. Out of those, say solar cell materials really interest you. Then you again download papers and read more about it. So continue this process till you finally arrive at a problem that other researchers have not been able to solve. Say for example, in this case, you arrive at a problem that a particular material that is used to make solar cells which is perovskite, the other researchers have not been able to increase its efficiency beyond 10%. So there you go. That can be your research topic to increase the efficiency of perovskite based solar cells so that they function even better. As I said earlier, this process is long and it can take somewhere between three to six months for you to finalize your research topic. But the foundation that you will build for yourself from this process, it will be rock solid. If at any point you feel that you're getting lost and you need guidance, don't feel afraid to seek out help from professors or researchers in this process. So guys, these are the three different ways how people in academia usually go about choosing their research topics. You can choose any of the method based on what works best for you and the resources that are available to you. If you want me to make more videos on how to conduct research, do hit the like button and subscribe to this channel. You can also join me for my research paper writing workshop. The link is given in the description. And now wishing you all the very best for your research journey ahead.