How do perspectives change with Research? An Industry Approach!

Change is the only constant and the fast-paced nature with an ever-transforming digital world only adds up to the hullabaloo. From Technological advancements to making functional developments, to better understand an end-user persona, it is a mandate to dive deeper into the subject and identify the nitty-gritty that stayed microscopic to the normal eye! One might wonder why the title relates to an Industry approach and not an Academic way of looking at it, but it is all about the difference in the way we approach our problem statements. Although minor, researching while one is part of the Industry is a bit different from how it might happen if one is from Academia. But, whichever field we may be in, research forms the backbone for success, and publishing what we learned from the ocean of knowledge after a fresh dive, makes us what the supernovas call, Researcher Scholars or sometimes, Thought Leaders! But, how does it really change the course we think? Or does it really change the way we work now? Let's explore this with some instances and also see what can be published and taken up as research topics.

The Architecture that NO one saw!

Reading is the best strategy one needs as a vehicle to unlock windows of opportunities. One may say, Wisdom, but for a technical topic, it is about Relevance! Research is built on the objective of finding something that NO one has ever considered. Ever wondered, how easy is it to write a research paper if researchers have missed a common bridge between highly important components of a system. Even a small value to bridge gaps between mission-critical systems can be good content to be published. An exercise of reading papers from the likes of IEEE Xplore, Springer, and ACM, gives you a hang for similar works in a topic, and what if a common architecture is found to be missing? Read them, jot them down and publish! This section is all about my latest works on a Multi-Tier architecture for real-time systems. An entire research paper to bridge the gap just by reading 15-20 research papers and understanding the possibilities of newer implementation and integration. It can be that simple! Click here to know more about the published work.

Diving deeper to Discover NEW!

When you work on a topic day in and day out, you become accustomed to the workings of your application! There are open challenges that we observe, starting from performance, security, accessibility, and even UI Design. This serves as a strong base to work on something new and publish it for a wider audience. An algorithm can be an improvement of an existing one in terms of performance, complexity, or any metrics that weren't considered before. The above certificate marked the presentation of an algorithm that would provide reimagined User Interface mockups based on the behavior of existing applications and was published in the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Speech Technology (AIST-2019).

A similar example was presented at INOCON 2020, about how project scheduling can be improved and better resource reallocation can be achieved through a new algorithm. It was observed that the problem can be solved using multiple ways on the lines of Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). The ever-growing demands of ML and AI complement the continuous ask for smart solutions to address unsolved problems. The areas to come up with new algorithms, as a result, is huge and can be a good starting material for someone with an analytical and logical mindset. But, please ensure that any confidential new idea is still protected within the confinements of ownership rights of your organization.

Your Study can be a Paper with a NEW perspective!

Combining what many have done to understand in-depth various aspects of a subject or software offering can be good content that gathers the attention of a large number of people. We look at a few examples that fall under this category:

1. Study of Cloud Security in Hyperscalars: This paper compared the offerings from the big players like Google, Amazon, Alibaba, etc. and what they bring to the table.
2. Study of Distributed File Systems: The cumulative study to suggest which Distributed file system is to be used under different circumstances is a ready reckoner for someone who wishes to go in-depth about the topic.

On top of this, if you have any data that can provide significant insights for the betterment of the society or even the Balance sheet of an organization can be good research too. This dataset can also work towards helping the Governments to understand which initiatives might be relevant for its citizens for different sectors, eg. Healthcare. The objective here is to answer the "WHAT" for an open problem faced by an entity with a light on the "WHY". Figuring out results that save lives, time, or money, is generally perceived as research Well DONE! We often also find new perspectives for topics like Design Thinking, Agile, Security, etc. and can be very good content for publication. For example, an agile practitioner with a Design mindset can end up observing a similarity of the processes with how threats are modeled and propose a new perspective. What happens then? Go ahead and publish it! Your expertise could just produce a fresh publishable perspective and could be available as part of the IEEE Xplore through an IEEE conference.

Researcher to a Thought Leader and the Art of Writing!

While a new perspective forms a basis for a new paper, it elevates an individual from being just a researcher to a budding Thought Leader. The imminent gap to introduce problems from the industry and finding solutions has a huge impact on society. For an Agile Coach to give a fresh perspective on better Threat Modelling measures goes a long way in connecting dots on different topics and helps an individual explore topics in depth. And once this happens, a long-awaited transformation is complete. The academic aspects continue to drive new content for addressing open challenges in the industry.

But, the challenge always lies with how do we express ourselves best through a paper that can be accepted for presentation and publication at a conference? A common challenge is to summarize a work of more than 3-4 months into a paper of 6 or 8 pages with an objective to make the content understandable for even an individual (readers and reviewers combined) with very little expertise on the topic. Getting your reviewer on the same page and accept the paper calling for suggestions that can improve the paper is the key to getting an acceptance mail from a conference. It is essential to understand the Do's and Don'ts to be followed for drafting the various sections of a paper, ie., Abstract, Introduction, Literature Survey, and so on. These can be further explained in a separate article on how to write Research papers.

While there are many ways to get into research through our regular work, having the relevant content published from reputed conferences is the next BIG step. We don't really do anything new from what we have been doing, but dive deeper into the topics and look for gaps that can be taken forward. With Invention disclosures also forming a baseline to protect the rights on a particular topic, it is highly recommended that the Author takes extra care on what content is taken forward and by which means, ie., a patent or an external paper in a reputed conference or journal. But having said that, it is important to adapt our current perspective of work and reciprocate our ideas or studies forward using the above means and establish a strong band of Research-oriented thought leaders from our respective industries.