kelvins

Research Methodology

* 論文旨在敘述一套方法在特定的場合下的應用
* 論文的研究題目必須具備
o 創新 (Creative)
o 突破
* 論文的貢獻通常會在以下場合
o 方法的創新
o 舊有方法的應用
* 論文內文必須具備
o 方法敘述
o 方法的限制
o 演算法
o 實驗結果
o 結果的比較
* Journal Paper和Conference Paper的差異
o Conference Paper傳統上是區域性
o Jounal Paper傳統上是廣域性
o 在電子媒體和網路發達的今日，Jounal Paper勢必要走向強調具有保存價值的研究
o 具有保存價值不外乎具備方法的創新和詳述，而在實驗結果的描述方面，不必太過於贅述
o 詳述創新的方法會比豐富的實驗結果更引人注意!!

Step by step to solve a problem

1. Step 1: Define Problem
* Look at the situation carefully.
* Figure out what it is that you are trying to solve.
* Don't try to find solutions under this step!
2. Step 2: Consult Resources and Identify Options and Outcomes
* Make a list of all the things you can do about the problem.
* Resources: technical papers, tools, etc.
* Options: for this problem, what kind of work you can do for it. It may be not only one option you can do for it.
* Outcome: for each option, find its outcome.
* Find related technique papers under this step!
3. Step 3: Identify best solution
* Think about each option and pick or decide which option is the best for you.
* Think about what might happen if you do this.
* Find upper bound of benefit and what you must pay under this step!
4. Step 4: Plan How to Achieve Best Solution
* Think about what you will have to do get there and what resources you might need to use.
* Use available tools or well-known knowledgement to achieve it under this step!
5. Step 5: Put Plan into Action
* If your problem is still not solved, go back to Step 2 and choose another one.
* Optimize your solution!
...繼續閱讀

兩篇文章皆來自紐約時報報系.
"彩虹盡頭"
"愛爾蘭在進攻, 法國德國在防守" 是第二篇文章評論雙方成敗的主題.



Op-Ed Columnist


The End of the Rainbow


By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN


Published: June 29, 2005


Dublin


Here's something you probably didn't know: Ireland today is the richest country in the European Union after Luxembourg.


Yes, the country that for hundreds of years was best known for emigration, tragic poets, famines, civil wars and leprechauns today has a per capita G.D.P. higher than that of Germany, France and Britain. How Ireland went from the sick man of Europe to the rich man in less than a generation is an amazing story. It tells you a lot about Europe today: all the innovation is happening on the periphery by those countries embracing globalization in their own ways - Ireland, Britain, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe - while those following the French-German social model are suffering high unemployment and low growth.


Ireland's turnaround began in the late 1960's when the government made secondary education free, enabling a lot more working-class kids to get a high school or technical degree. As a result, when Ireland joined the E.U. in 1973, it was able to draw on a much more educated work force.


By the mid-1980's, though, Ireland had reaped the initial benefits of E.U. membership - subsidies to build better infrastructure and a big market to sell into. But it still did not have enough competitive products to sell, because of years of protectionism and fiscal mismanagement. The country was going broke, and most college grads were emigrating.


"We went on a borrowing, spending and taxing spree, and that nearly drove us under," said Deputy Prime Minister Mary Harney. "It was because we nearly went under that we got the courage to change."


And change Ireland did. In a quite unusual development, the government, the main trade unions, farmers and industrialists came together and agreed on a program of fiscal austerity, slashing corporate taxes to 12.5 percent, far below the rest of Europe, moderating wages and prices, and aggressively courting foreign investment. In 1996, Ireland made college education basically free, creating an even more educated work force.


The results have been phenomenal. Today, 9 out of 10 of the world's top pharmaceutical companies have operations here, as do 16 of the top 20 medical device companies and 7 out of the top 10 software designers. Last year, Ireland got more foreign direct investment from America than from China. And overall government tax receipts are way up.


"We set up in Ireland in 1990," Michael Dell, founder of Dell Computer, explained to me via e-mail. "What attracted us? [A] well-educated work force - and good universities close by. [Also,] Ireland has an industrial and tax policy which is consistently very supportive of businesses, independent of which political party is in power. I believe this is because there are enough people who remember the very bad times to de-politicize economic development. [Ireland also has] very good transportation and logistics and a good location - easy to move products to major markets in Europe quickly."


Finally, added Mr. Dell, "they're competitive, want to succeed, hungry and know how to win. ... Our factory is in Limerick, but we also have several thousand sales and technical people outside of Dublin. The talent in Ireland has proven to be a wonderful resource for us. ... Fun fact: We are Ireland's largest exporter."


Intel opened its first chip factory in Ireland in 1993. James Jarrett, an Intel vice president, said Intel was attracted by Ireland's large pool of young educated men and women, low corporate taxes and other incentives that saved Intel roughly a billion dollars over 10 years. National health care didn't hurt, either. "We have 4,700 employees there now in four factories, and we are even doing some high-end chip designing in Shannon with Irish engineers," he said.


In 1990, Ireland's total work force was 1.1 million. This year it will hit two million, with no unemployment and 200,000 foreign workers (including 50,000 Chinese). Others are taking notes. Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said: "I've met the premier of China five times in the last two years."


Ireland's advice is very simple: Make high school and college education free; make your corporate taxes low, simple and transparent; actively seek out global companies; open your economy to competition; speak English; keep your fiscal house in order; and build a consensus around the whole package with labor and management - then hang in there, because there will be bumps in the road - and you, too, can become one of the richest countries in Europe.


"It wasn't a miracle, we didn't find gold," said Mary Harney. "It was the right domestic policies and embracing globalization."


Thomas L. Friedman: The Irish on offense

The New York Times


SATURDAY, JULY 2, 2005

DUBLIN There is a huge debate roiling in Europe today over which economic model to follow: the Franco-German shorter-workweek-six-weeks'-vacation-never-fire-anyone-but-high-unemplo yment social model or the less protected but more innovative, high-employment Anglo-Saxon model preferred by Britain, Ireland and Eastern Europe. It is obvious to me that the Irish-British model is the way of the future, and the only question is when Germany and France will face reality: Either they become Ireland, or they become museums. That is their real choice over the next few years - it's either the leprechaun way or the Louvre.


Because I am convinced of that, I am also convinced that the German and French political systems will experience real shocks in the coming years as both nations are asked to work harder and embrace either more outsourcing or more young Muslim and Eastern European immigrants to remain competitive.


As an Irish public relations executive in Dublin remarked to me, "How would you like to be the French leader who tells the French people they have to follow Ireland?" Or even worse, Tony Blair!


Just how ugly things could get was demonstrated the other day when Blair told his EU colleagues at the European Parliament that they had to modernize or perish.


"Pro-Chirac French [parliamentarians] skulked at the back of the hall," The Times of London reported. But not all. Jean Quatremer, the veteran Brussels correspondent for the French left-wing newspaper Libération, was quoted by The Times as saying, "For a long time we have been talking about the French social model, as opposed to the horrible Anglo-Saxon model, but we now see that it is our model that is a horror."


Given that Ireland received more foreign direct investment from the United States in 2003 than did China, the Germans and French may want to take a few tips from the Celtic Tiger. One of the first reforms Ireland instituted was to make it easier to fire people, without having to pay years of severance. Sounds brutal, I know. But the easier it is to fire people, the more willing companies are to hire people.


Harry Kraemer Jr., the former CEO of Baxter International, a medical equipment maker that has made several investments in Ireland, explained that "the energy level, the work ethic, the tax optimization and the flexibility of the labor supply" all made Ireland infinitely more attractive to invest in than France or Germany, where it was enormously costly to let go even one worker. The Irish, he added, had the self-confidence that if they kept their labor laws flexible some jobs would go, but new jobs would keep coming - and that is exactly what has happened.


Ireland is "playing offense," Kraemer said, while Germany and France are "playing defense," and the more they try to protect every old job, the fewer new ones they attract.


But Ireland has started to play offense in a lot of other ways as well. It initially focused on attracting investments from U.S. high-tech companies by offering them a flexible, educated workforce and low corporate taxes. But now, explained Ireland's minister of education, Mary Hanafin, the country has started a campaign to double the number of Ph.D.s it graduates in science and engineering by 2010, and it has set up various funds to get global companies, and just brainy people, to come to Ireland to do research. Ireland is now actively recruiting Chinese scientists in particular.


"It is good for our own quality students to be mixing with quality students from abroad," Hanafin said. "Industry will go where the major research goes."


The goal, added the minister for enterprise and trade, Micheal Martin, is to generate more homegrown Irish companies and not just work for others. His ministry recently set up an Enterprise Ireland fund to identify "high-potential Irish startup companies and give them mentoring and support," and to also nurture midsize Irish companies into multinationals.


And by the way, because of all the tax revenue and employment the global companies are generating in Ireland, Dublin has been able to increase spending on health care, schools and infrastructure. "You can only do this if you have the income to do it," Deputy Prime Minister Mary Harney said. "You can't have social inclusion without economic success. This is how you create the real social Europe."


Germany and France are trying to protect their welfare capitalism with defense. Ireland is generating its own sustainable model of social capitalism by playing offense. I'll bet on the offense.