Unit 4 Synergy

Activity 1 Synergy

Read.

Synergy is the "the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects" (Google dictionary). This is important because synergy helps you produce better research, a better graduation thesis, which may in turn help you get a better job.

The perfect research project is one that:

• you are passionate about,
• you have the ability to do, and
• aligns with the aims and objectives of the TNT lab.

This can be visualized as three-interlocking circles: passion (what you are strongly interested in), ability (what you can do) and TNT lab goals.

Activity 2 Your future

Read.

The time spent at university to complete your undergraduate degree is about ten times shorter than a your working life (approx 4 years compared to 40 years). You should consider carefully how you want to spend those 40 years. Choosing a lab project that you can showcase your ability and passion can help you secure your first position in a company. If you know what your target company is looking for, then now is the time to start developing it. Some companies expect high TOEIC scores, some expect strong Python skills, and many expect good problem solving skills. Thus, solving problems using Python and completing the work in English could help all three aspects.

Consider your future carefully. What is truely important for your success and happiness?

Activity 3 Your research project

Read.

Read the aims and objectives of the TNT lab. Which of these aims most closely maps to your interests and ability? The technical level of the projects can vary greatly from basic through to complex programming. The recommended language is Python. Think very carefully about this. Whatever subject you choose, you will spend a very long time working on it, so make sure you choose something that interests you. Doing a boring thing for an hour is no fun. Doing a boring thing for a hundred hours is depressing. Your happiness in your final year depends on this choice!

Knowledge and application

Activity 4 Proposed research area

Decide the following and send a message to your supervisor via Slack. State your choices and the reason for each choice.

1. Research area: What broad area of research you are most interested in (e.g. pattern matching, visualization, machine learning, human-computer interface, etc.)? Why?
2. Research topic: Rank these topics based on your interst. (1 is high, 6 is low).
1. automatic generation of descriptions of graphs
2. authorship analysis (similiarity analysis)
3. grammatical error detection
4. visualizing language features in texts
3. Research ability: Which of these do you prefer to work with.
1. Python
2. Django
3. Webscripting (html, css, js)
4. ML, DL (Keras, etc.)
5. Other - what specifically?

If there is a specific project, you want to work on tell your supervisor.