Lesson 7

7.1. Listen to the students speaking about their fields of study. Make up a list of necessary terms and expressions. Get ready to present your own field of study and the direction to each it belongs.

Fields of study

Student 1: Computer modeling

Computer modeling is a very important instrument of modern science and engineering. Before implementation of a new industrial process or material, it’s necessary to model its properties to optimize the quality and reduce the costs. Modeling is also useful in theoretical studies, as not all hypotheses can be immediately tested by experiments (in some cases it’s just impossible to carry out an experiment, as in the case of studies of the Universe evolution).

As for me, I am planning to work on new methods and algorithms for computational experiments in various fields of study and technology. Research in the field of computer modeling has great opportunity to provide studies of a variety of interesting subjects.

Student 2: High performance systems

The core of my field is parallel programming and multiprocessing. Learning of a variety of different programming language is a must in my speciality. This field of study is connected with supercomputers and parallel computations. Functional programming is especially important. Then program verification and the problem solving.

I want to work with parallel programming, where the main task is to translate the program that needs unlimited resources to the computer with limited resources. But now I need to study various information in this field to enlarge my knowledge.

Student 3: Security and information protection

My field of study is security and information protection. This field includes study of many standards of security, for example, ISO 17799, ISO 27001 etc. This standards are the base of information security. I can’t tell anything more, because this information is in secret and for its disclosure you must have a permission.

In the future I’ll do my best to drive off hackers’ attacks and to create really reliable and secure software.

Student 4: Geographical Information Systems

The main characteristics of my field is the Earth monitoring from space satellites (such as LANDSAT, SPOT, MODIS and others). Making complex digital maps based on scanned paper maps and new aero and space images. Engineers in this speciality research vegetation, ocean,deserts etc. They participate in expeditions, survey different natural phenomena, process data and make conclusions.They create different types of maps. Making up maps and their reading is of great interest for me.

In the future I will continue to increase my knowledge of geographical information systems and I will also continue my work in this field.

Student 5: Computer networks and telecommunications

In my opinion, the main characteristics of my field of study is a very important data mining in compater science and. To my miond my future activity in my field of study will be very active. I will write my own scientific articles and will translate the articles into English. I will configure servers and workstations and design new hardware devices and develop new software programmes.

Student 6: Mathematical and software support for computers, complexes and computer network.

This direction is connected with software development processes. There is a lot of different problems and discussions in this field because new programming languages and techniques are appearing. Current development environments have a lot of functional capabilities. For example, they allow to autocomplete and highlight native language functions and methods. But different libraries and frameworks necessary for evolutional expansion of source code have a low level of integration with development environments. There is a problem: how not to use benefits of support tools separately, but to build common universal platform.

7.2. Listen to the student speaking about his research. Fill in the gap and answer the question what field of study the research belongs to.

Student 7: …

Establishment close links between level of native language facilities, level of libraries and applied level of editing source code is a goal of my research. I have to fulfil the following tasks: first, to analyze existing development tools; second, to explore necessary criteria in order to build a universal platform, effective functions and methods of tools implementation.

The experimental part of my work will help me to achieve this goal. The analysis of existing development tools and an implementation of my own tools are an important part of my research. I should make diverse tools to interoperate with each other in order to improve the efficiency of development process. These tools can be created not only as a single application, but as a plug-in too.

The results of this project can expand the utility of existing development tools. This research can explain modern demands to software development processes theoretically and this information can be used in learning process. It will create the prototype of universal development environment in practice.

Student 8: …

I proved the theorem in which the case of convergence of Mellin-Barns integrals representing general algebraic equations solutions was considered.

The research of the set of bidimentional Mellin-Barns integrals convergence of a special kind has been carried. And the statement was proved. The received results were presented and published in the Preceedings of the third all-Russia scientific and technical conference "Youth and science: the beginning of the XXI century " in 2007. The article was called “About convergence of bidimentional Mellin-Barns integrals of a special kind”.

What are multi-dimensional Mellin-Barns integrals? They are multi-dimensional integrals depending on the parameters. The set of integration represents imaginary subspace, shifted on a vector taken from a corresponding simplex. The simplex is a polyhedron of a special kind. Solutions of these integrals can be presented in the form of series.

Student 9: …

I'm involved in research of smart probe technology. The smart probe technology consists of two main components. The first is an array of data collection instruments which include accelerometers, gyroscopes and odometers located within each of the probe bodies. The second is a proprietary software package which extracts and interprets the collected data and allows for the seamless transfer of the collected data into various data bases.

As the smart probe moves through the pipeline it records all changes in inclination, heading and velocity at a rate of 800 times per second. This information is held on a hard drive within the probe. The probe is autonomous, meaning that it is not tethered via a data cable to the surface. In fact the probe does not communicate with the surface at all. This means that the probe is not restricted by the depth of ground cover over the pipeline nor is it subject to possible interference derived from other pipeline or metals located within the soil. There is no requirement to “trace” the movement of the probe from above ground.

The smart probe is provided with its starting coordinates and its ending coordinates, and the internal data collection instruments along with the software record everywhere that the probe travels between those known coordinates. By transferring the starting and ending points into a database, you then have the accurate “x, y, & z” centerline coordinates depicted in either a 3D or “plan & profile” view.

7.3. Answer the questions and tell your partner about the beginning of your research biography:

1.When did your research biography start?

2.What hobbies did you have at school? What optional classes did you attend?

3.What were your favourite subjects at school?

4.What subjects do you prefer at university?

5.When at school, you participated in contests and competitions, didn’t you?

6.You were good at Maths and Programming, weren’t you?

7.Name your favourite subjects at university.

8.What field are you interested now?

9.Were you a winner of student Olympiads?

10.You made reports at student conferences, didn’t you?

11.Which your reports do you remember best of all? Were they published?

12.Name the titles of your student reports or the themes they were devoted to.

13.What themes were chosen for your student research?

14. Were you a success in their implementation?

7.4.Answer the questions about your speciality and research activity:

1. What was your major?

2. What are you majoring now?

3. Why have you chosen your field of study? What direction of a master’s level study does it belong to?

4. Who is your scientific supervisor? Why have you decided to work under his guidance?

5. You have published articles, haven’t you?

6. You participated in scientific conferences and symposia, didn’t you?

7. Did you make reports at conferences?

8. What are their titles? What themes were they devoted to?

9. Were your reports a success ?

10. Were they published?

11. What research are you engaged now?

12. What is the theme of your future thesis for a master’s degree?

13. Prove the importance of your theme. Explain your choice.

14. What experiments have you already carried out ?

15. What experiments are you planning to make?

16. Have you surveyed the works of scholars in your field of study?

17. What conclusion have you come to after your surveillance?

18.Can you give a brief summary of the most important books on the problem you research?

19.What results of your research are expected?

20.What’s the main goal of your work? What stages do you have to complete?

21.Will your research be used in practice in the future?

22. Will it have a prominent impact on the theory of your field of science?

23.Can you describe the expected novelty of your research?

24. New technology innovation contributes to science, engineering and national economy, doesn’t it?

25.Are you going to keep on your research at post-graduate level and further on?

7.5. Make presentations of the topics «My speciality» and «My research activity». Use the programme «Power Point». Get ready to comment your slides and answer the questions of the class.