Seeking clarity

Today, I met with 2 current students of the department on how to narrow down my research area. They were helpful though they did not provide any specifics. The general gist is, to look for what challenges exists in the current systems am reading about. I should be clear on the contribution I am making, what domain I am contributing to and how I will evaluate or judge success.

I did a bit of self meditation to help sort out some personal issues.

Funny thing, I didn't write to my pal today. Don't know why, but didn't feel up to it. I need more direction in my research. I should read more is all every one says. Clarity comes with reading more.

Today

Today I did more of reading than anything else. Oh. did I mention I have a penpal. yes, that's right, I have a friend I have never met and will most likely never meet. We usually exchange mails. He is an IT guru and has published several books in his field. I enjoy writing to him, it helps me a lot when I read a mail from him.

Anyway, today I read a lot about the role of technology in e-health. The reason am doing this is simple. I want my research to be something relevant to society, something that can be applied, a solution that will some void out there. I know the health sector will always be there, and I know there have been several talks about how technology is meant to help the health sector, and i know health always sells... so, I was thinking of how to improve ehealth using technology. Been reading so much, but it seems every way I can think of improving the health sector has already been studied. Any doctors out there? In what ways do you think IT can help make your work easier?

What else did I do today? Oh, yes! I volunteered to help out during the Open House which is this Friday. The open house is simply a day when high school students and their parents come around to the University to have first hand/one on one sessions with the lecturers and school administrators with the hope that these high school kids will in the future attend this Uni. So my duty will primarily be to direct participants in the morning at the start of the event and answer any questions they might have. Today, we had a training session for volunteers, and there was free pizza.

I finished work on an app I was building for a colleague. She didn't make it to school today, so I guess tomorrow she will give me a feedback.

A new dawn

I did something similar during my masters program and it helped me a lot to keep track of my work. So the story is that I have started a PhD program. My area of interest is Trust and reputation in E-commerce. This is kind of a sequel to my Masters final project. Anyway, I am, yet to narrow down my research area to something specific but am looking in the direction of predicting trust and reputation. Simple scenario, I need to find a pediatrician for my nephew for instance, I go online and see so many reviews about a particular doctor, say Dr. X. How can I trust these reviews, how do I know they did not originate from Dr. X. This can be applied in all areas of e-commerce from real estate to hotels to book reviews etc.

Anyway, it's such a wide area. The catch for me is that I want to do something that can be applied in the industry, something relevant not just research for research sake.

Anyway, that's it about research. So why this blog? The blog I started during my Masters degree helped me a lot to keep track and keep focused. Being an introvert, it is easy for me to put my thoughts into writing. I am still finding it difficult making friends. For those that have many, how do you guys do it?