EEET2449: Research Methods for Engineers - Literature Review Assignment

Due Monday 12 May 2014, 5pm (start of Week 10).

Detailed Instructions / Guidelines

If you have not yet done Design 4A:
Read through the topics and pick one that matches your interest.
Download the key reference provided

If you are already doing or have done Design 4A:
Select a key reference in consultation with your supervisor
(this should not be at the frontier itself, but should be cited by some references at the frontier)

All EEET2449 students:
Read this key reference thoroughly
(using the dissection approach from Lectures 1 and 2)

Before you go any further - based on your reading of the key paper jot down some notes of what you
expect to find at the frontier for example:
o What specific topics do you expect people to be focussing on?
o What questions do you expect people will be trying to answer?
o Which researchers do you think might be working at the frontier?

Now, with these questions in mind, perform a forward citation search (follow Lecture 2) on to
discover (about 5) relevant papers at the frontier
o Stick to your specific topics the literature is vast, you will need some criteria to define
which papers are relevant
o You may need to identify intermediate key papers before reaching the frontier

Write a brief summary of the key reference
o Refer to your key reference using the appropriate IEEE style
o Highlight why you think this reference is important
(based on its claim)

Write a brief summary of the frontier papers you have found and any intermediate key references
o Make sure to reference them correctly
o Highlight the claim made by each paper
o Highlight how this paper builds on the work of the previous paper

Look through the references for the earlier key papers that your key paper is based on
o Summarise this paper, why it is important and how it lays the foundations for your key paper.

Now, write an introduction:
o Explain the general field of the key reference and progressively narrow the scope onto the
specific scope of your key reference
o Summarise what you expected to find at the frontier
(from point x above)

Put your summaries of the various papers together into a story below this
(start with the most fundamental papers and end with the frontier)

Discuss whether your expectations of what you would find at the frontier are the same as what you
actually found

Identify any key points that you did find at the frontier that you think are important, but that you
didnt think of initially.


Draw a conclusion as to what you think will come next