About the Book: The word "research" derives its origin from the French word
"recherche" that means "an intensive force to search" which epitomizes the intensity and passion characterizing the pursuit of research. This pursuit is lifelong and is often fraught with alternating peaks and troughs in achieving the stated outcomes and objectives. It is this elusive nature of "success" in research, "optimal disenchantment" with what one has achieved so far and the firm belief that ones best is yet to come that push the frontiers of human enterprise and creativity. From extrinsic validation like prizes, rewards, name, fame reputation and so on, the journey of research invariably leads a serious practitioner into a space where the intrinsic joy of finding out something new becomes the key and only driver. The reward is intrinsically present and is in the work itself. This has close parallels with the Bhagavad Gita that goads man to work at his best without worrying about the fruits of the labour. Often, true success in research can be truly felt only we are in the autumn of our lives or after we pass away – Time is the highest court to decide on this matter! The ultimate goal of any researcher is to get that “immortal status” – Becoming ‘ananta “ – “infinite”.
Drawing from contemporary theories on intelligence, hard work, flow, creativity and motivation and by looking at lessons from history combined with the authors own research experience at IIT Madras, this book attempts to look at the spirit behind the pursuit of research, particularly scientific research and ways to make this a real joy. The book is not intended to be a text or treatise on research methodology.
While the book is intended for all researchers, it is specially targeted at motivating budding researchers and those in the early years of their research careers.
Contents
1 Introduction
2 Research Methodology - A breezy overview
3 The (Don’t know)2 Problem and Ph.D
4 Becoming a top-notch researcher
5 What is creativity?
6 The genesis of creativity
7 Creativity in modelling - An uncommon
example
8 Creative plotting and interpretation of results
9 Some outstanding examples of creativity
from eclectic fields
10 Hardwork and Research
11 The 10000 hour rule
12 A conducive environment is neither
necessary nor sufficient
13 Role of stress in research
14 Getting the right problem to solve
15 Flow and creativity in research
16 What we learn from history
17 Rejection of a paper is not a big deal!
18 Saying NO to Plagiarism
19 Out of the box thinking
20 My philosophy of research
21 The Takeaway
References
About the Author
Dr.C.Balaji is currently a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras. He graduated in Mechanical Engineering from Guindy Engineering College, Chennai, India in 1990 (University Gold Medal) and obtained his M.Tech (1992) and Ph.D. (1995) both from IIT Madras in the area of Heat Transfer and Thermal Sciences. He has been consistently rated as a very good teacher by students at IIT Madras. He has over 130 international journal publications to his credit and has undertaken several sponsored research projects for the government and industry. He has supervised 19 Ph.D and around 45 Masters theses thus far. He is a recipient of the Humboldt Fellowship of Germany (2005), Young Faculty Recognition Award of IIT Madras (2007), Prof.K.N.Seetharamu Award and Medal for excellence in Heat Transfer Research (2008) Swarnajayanthi Fellowship award of the Govt. of India (2008), Tamil Nadu Scientist Award (2010) and the Marti Annapurna Gurunath Award for excellence in teaching at IIT Madras (2013). He is an elected fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering. He is the author of three other books (all published by Ane Books, New Delhi
|
