Final Research Paper Guideline and Deliverables

(20 points)

On-campus and Off-campus students due: TBD, 2025

Description

This research paper will be co-authored by a group of 2-3 students. A 3-student group is strongly recommended. No single-author paper is allowed.

You will be expected to develop a 11-12 page Software Engineering Conference Workshop research paper on a topic related to the concepts and material that we cover in class.The paper must not exceed 10 pages for the main text, inclusive of all figures, tables, appendices, etc. Two more pages containing only references are permitted. The paper must clearly define your topic and survey some of the related work that has been done in the area that you are investigating. Your paper must put the related work that you are referencing into some sort of context and outline one or more interesting problems or trends related to your topic of choice. In other words, just do not create a readers digest summary of the papers that you select.

You must secure at least 12 references related to your topic, eight of which must come from refereed sources such as the ACM or IEEE. The other references some other generally accepted reputable academic or industrial publication.

A good reference for how to write a research paper can be found [here] . The article states: “In software engineering, research papers are customary vehicles for reporting results to the research community. In a research paper, the author explains to an interested reader what he or she accomplished, and how the author accomplished it, and why the reader should care. A good research paper should answer a number of questions:

• What, precisely, was your contribution? (What question did you answer? Why should the reader care? What larger question does this address?)
• What is your new result? (What new knowledge have you contributed that the reader can use elsewhere? What previous work (yours or someone else’s) do you build on? What do you provide a superior alternative to? How is your result different from and better than this prior work? What, precisely and in detail, is your new result?)
• Why should the reader believe your result? (What standard should be used to evaluate your claim? What concrete evidence shows that your result satisfies your claim?)

Suggested Topics

1.   Requirements Elicitation, Specification, and Analysis (e.g., through gamifications, in software engineering repositories, social media, open source or crowd sourcing environment, etc.)
2.   Requirements Validation and Verification
3.   Requirements Change Management
4.   Traceability and Impact Analysis
5.   Requirements Quality and Metrics
6.   Requirements Tooling and Automation
7.   Software Requirements and Architecture
8.   Requirements-Driven Quality Assurance
9.   Formal RE
10.   RE and Modeling
11.   Requirements in Software Configuration, Maintenance, and Evolution
12.   Requirements in Agile Development
13.   Requirements for DevOps
14.   RE4AI and AI4RE
15.   Creativity in RE
16.   Cognitive, Emotional, and Social Aspects of RE
17.   Distributed and Collaborative RE
18.   Community-based RE (e.g., open source, crowdsourcing)
19.   Responsible RE (e.g., ethics, privacy)
20.   RE for Green and Sustainable Technologies
21.   Requirements and Legal/Regulatory Compliance
22.   Diversity, inclusion, and social concerns in RE
23.   Domain-specific RE (e.g., RE4IoT, RE4VR, Quantum RE, RE for Blockchain)
24.   Advanced Technologies for RE (e.g., IoT4RE, VR4RE)
25.   RE Education and Training
26.   Prompt-based Engineering (e.g., Large Language Models and RE)
27.   The Next New Thing… … embrace the challenge and surprise the RE community!

Final Research Paper Deliverables

STEP 1: Develop your Final Research Paper

To develop the full paper, please follow the general IEEE guidelines for conference papers by limiting your paper to a maximum of 12 pages in length (using a 10 point font, double-column). You must use it as a template for formatting your paper. This is not a lot of space so you will be graded on the quality and focus of your paper. In a traditional conference workshop, papers are reviewed for quality prior to being accepted for discussion. Please don't ramble your way through pages of text - place some thoughts on the organization of your paper. Do Not Copy the text from any sources without references.

STEP 2: Submit Final Paper and Presentation Slides (20 points)

Please submit all of the following on Canvas. Note: Do not embed voice in the PPT slides due to the size limitation.

• Submit Full Paper in PDF via "Final Paper in PDF" link (19 pts);
• Submit Full Paper in Word via "Final Paper in Word" link (0.5 pt);
• Submit Presentation Slides via "Final Paper PowerPoint Presentation" link (0.5 pt).

STEP 3: Final Paper Presentation

Note: Missing the final paper presentation will lower your course grade by one level (e.g. from A to B).

The final class sessions will be used to hold in-class student presentations of your final papers. Each Research Paper Group is required to deliver an up to 21-minute presentation educating the class on the work embodied in your research paper. Each group members is required to contribute to the research paper and co-present a part of the paper. You are required to complete the "Author Contributions" section at the end of the paper. The presentation should not be focused on technical details, but rather be created from the perspective of trying to "sell" the audience on why they should read your paper and investigate the cited references.

How do you record and submit the Final Term Paper Presentation video?

• You may simply use Zoom to record your presentation showing your slides and a small speaker window on the upper right corner of the screen.
• Please record and post an Unlisted YouTube video that can be accessible with URL (no password protection).
• Presentation Video submission: Copy and paste the web URL to your YouTube presentation video in the Comment box of the "Final Paper PowerPoint Presentation" link on Canvas and make sure the URL and video are accessible until your final letter course grade is posted on the my.smu.

Locating References

There are many ways to locate references, the best way might be to simply use Google Scholar to identify, and in most cases, obtain electronic versions of the papers that you will need for references. Other sources include using CiteSeer (http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/cs), or the ACM/IEEE online portals available through the SMU online resources (https://guides.smu.edu/cse and https://www.smu.edu/libraries) using your SMU account.