GEC Research Proposal OUTLINE

The GEC Research Proposal is due by the last meeting of the CJS on Thursday Dec. 2. It should include the following contents and pretty much follow this form. It will be posted on the blog on each group's individual page (look to the right).

General Topic (from Grand Challenges for Engineering): Specific Topic

Introduction: overview of the general and (more importantly) the specific topic that you will investigate, including some background information on the site/technique/problem your group is researching, an explanation of why your particular topic is important, and a brief discussion of some of the other issues that your topic is connected to (e.g. providing access to clean water to drink is connected with questions about land use, water treatment, infrastructure, energy, etc.). The challenging is to contextualize your specific question without losing focus, and to motivate the project. This section should be approximately 500 words or about 2 double spaced pages - the longest part of the research proposal.

The research plan must include the following elements:

A Place to Visit: you'll need to provide a link to the place (if available) and a brief (approx. 100 words) description of what's there that you're interested in. This might be the site that you'll conduct your project (for example a clean-up operation or survey), or a place that you'll conduct research to learn more about the subject (for example a museum or research facility)

A Person to Interview: provide a brief introduction and suggest some of the questions you'd like to ask him or her, and a website if available. (approx. 100 words)

Two (2) Academic Sources: These are two sources that everyone in the group will read over the winter break, and they'll form the basis of a collective approach to the project that you'll devise in the spring; these should be academic books, articles or reports directly related to your specific topic. Briefly describe the content of each (approx. 50 words) (this means you'll have to read a little bit of it now, to make sure its going to be a useful source). I highly recommend having at least one member of the group make an appointment with a research librarian for help in locating good sources. You can do that here: Ask a Librarian

Additional Materials and Sources (Recommended but not required): Many projects are the subject of current news articles, blog debates, current research projects, artworks, films, youtube videos, work by community organizations, etc.... In addition to academic research on the topic, these sources provide crucial background information and may end up being central to your project, so I suggest collecting them up as you find them by posting comments to the blog. For the GEC proposal, include a handful (3-5) of links or citations that you've found useful or interesting.

Looking Forward: the next step, in the spring, will be to devise a project in which you do something concrete related to the topic you've begun to research. Some groups have already come up with approaches to the practical side of their topics, others are focused on research now - but every group should include a brief discussion of how they envision the project going forward. This is a place to brainstorm project ideas, questions and concerns.