Reality Check

https://iis-lab.org/misc/realitycheck/

• On this page, we have listed the questions to check how solid the ideas you are considering as a Research project are. When the direction of your Idea is somewhat determined, try this Reality Check and consult with Yatani. Prepare what to write and answer the questions from the top. This Reality Check is designed to be completed by going through it until the end, so please make sure to finish it. If you get stuck or have any questions about how to fill it out, please feel free to ask for Advice from your seniors.
• Please execute this Reality Check when you think your idea is somewhat solidified.

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Think radically: Idea Overview §

• First, let’s organize your current idea a little and grasp the big picture.
• Let’s start sorting out your current idea and build a good overall understanding.

What are you going to do? §

- What exactly are you planning to do? Instead of goals or objectives, describe in detail the system you will create or the survey you will conduct.
- What are you going to build? What are you going to improve? What are you going to investigate?
- Do you provide enough specificity about the system you are going to build so that others can understand it?

Why is it so important? §

- How important is the problem that your idea is trying to solve in the world?
- What impact would you have if your idea could be realized?
- What new insights could you find from the results of your survey?

Who cares? §

- Who benefits from your idea?
- Who are the target users and in what situations are they?
- How many of such users are there in the world? Or how often are they in such situations? Is the user group too narrow?

How new? §

- What aspects of your idea are new?
- What new knowledge and technology can you provide to the world through this research?

How technologically new if you create a new system or algorithm? §

- What technological novelty do you have?
- Why can't it be achieved with existing technology?
- What technological novelty can convince other professors in the EEIC department?

• Once you have answered all of the above questions, please move on to the Execution Strategy.
  • When you have answered all the questions, please proceed to the Execution Strategy.

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Execute Logically: Execution Strategy §

• Next, let’s consider how to implement your idea concretely.
• Now you are asked to think about how you can turn your idea into reality.

How will you implement your system and/or run your study? §

- How will you turn your idea into reality?
- What existing technology can you utilize?
- What novel technology will you have to develop?
- What methods will you use for your survey? And why?

What will you need to build your system and/or run your study? §

- What equipment and facilities will you need to build your system?
- What services will you use for your survey? How will you collect data?

What are the classics? §

- What are typical or common solutions?
- What pros and cons do they have?

Who are competitors? §

- What are competitors' technologies?- Are we just creating something that looks interesting but has no practical use?- Are there actually users who would use the system? If so, who are they and how common are they?

• Are there any useful applications in the real world? If so, what are they? If not, why do we need to develop this technology?
• Is there anything that can only be done with this system or method? If so, what is it and how much would it benefit the users?
• Is the problem you are trying to solve really important? Or are you just creating a problem for the sake of research?
• If you solve that problem, who would benefit from it and to what extent?
• Is your system simply a combination of existing technologies?
• Can your system create more than just the sum of its parts? If so, what is your justification?
• Is your work just a small improvement compared to existing research?
• If you can improve speed or accuracy, how much would it impact the users?
• What makes your work innovative, rather than just incremental?
• Will the utility of your system really have an impact on society?
• Is this idea really something that you should be working on? Are there any other research groups working on similar ideas?
• What unique advantage do we have that others do not?
• Do we have the necessary knowledge to execute this idea? If not, what do we need to learn?
• Can you name a few researchers who are working on projects directly related to this idea?
• Have you checked publications from recent conferences?
• On the other hand, are you sure there are no similar ideas in older literature?
• What is the oldest paper related to this idea?
• Does your system or experiment only work under limited conditions?
• Can your system be deployed as it is in the real world?
• Can you justify your system design rationales?
• How can you justify your interface design?
• How would you determine parameters for your system and/or experiment? How can you convince other researchers of your decision?
• Are you using evaluation metrics that are biased in favor of your system?
• What other evaluation metrics could be used? Why aren’t you using them?
• Are you setting conditions and tasks that are biased in favor of your system?
• Are there other possible tasks and conditions that you haven’t considered? If so, why aren’t you using them?- Have you selected participants for your user experiments who are biased towards your own preferences? Is there a discrepancy between the target user group and the participants you have chosen?
• If you have answered all of the above questions, please proceed to the Executive Summary.

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• State Concisely: Executive Summary

• Finally, let’s explain your idea in a concise and accurate manner.

• Consider how you can introduce your idea to someone you meet for the first time and make it interesting to them.

• Explain the following five points in 1 or 2 sentences each, making the paragraph around 7-8 sentences in total.

• What are you trying to do?

• What problems will you solve?

• Why is your problem important?

• What is unique about your research?

• What merits does your idea offer?

• Explain your research in one sentence.

• Can you explain your idea in a single sentence?

• Does your description contain all important keywords?

• Make sure you are not over-claiming what exactly you are going to do.

• Isn’t your description too generic? Can similar projects use the same description?

• Isn’t your description too specific or narrow?

• If you have answered all of the above questions, you are done. Great job! Please read the last section and write a draft of your paper!

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Congratulations! §

• That’s the end of the reality check. By organizing and revising what you have written here, you can create a draft of your paper. There is a rough correspondence between what you have described so far and the structure of the paper as follows:

• Title

  • Explain your research in one sentence.

• Abstract

  • Explain your research in 30 seconds.

• Introduction

  • Why is your idea so important?
  • Who cares?
  • What is your key scenario?
  • What is your goal?

• Contributions

  • How radical?

• Related Work

  • What are the classics?
  • Who are competitors?
  • What are your advantages?

• Implementation

  • How will you implement your system and/or run your study?
  • What will you need to build your system and/or run your study?

• Experimental Design

  • How will you confirm your advantages?