Trends In Computer Science Essay

794 Words2 Pages

Computer Science is a vast research field that is continuously evolving. It is acknowledged that scientific research depends on grants. This type of funding often comes from an external source. All areas of research; whether it be medical, financial, or meteorological use trend analysis to study the relationships on publication papers and the development of “x” field. Furthermore, the authors of this article propose that scientific research in the field of Computer Science is greatly influenced by funding opportunities. Apirak Hoonlor, Boleslaw K. Szymanski, and Mohammed J. Zaki wrote an article entitled “Trends in Computer Science Research” which appeared in the article Communications of the ACM. The authors back up their arguments with three key points of observation: new keywords that appear in grants result in new publications using those same keywords, Computer Science is continuing to go through changes, and lastly scientists are required to switch their focus of study roughly every 10 years due to evolving technology. This article examines the evolution of trends in Computer Science research and analyzes how funding correlates to publication topics.
The first observation that Hoonlor, Szymanski, and Mohammed make is that generally, whenever new keywords appear in grants, the same keywords subsequently receive a “burst” or increase in publications. The authors gathered data from the datasets ACM, IEEE, and NSF from 1990-2010 on proposals for grants and on Computer Science publications. They analyzed the relationship between awarded grants and research topics. The authors found that if a keyword in a publication had a high frequency, funding usually increased. For this, the authors used a data mining technique that used the...

... middle of paper ...

...innovations, while sometimes leaving behind outdated ideas. As a result of all the rapid changes, Computer Science depends largely on funding in order for it to continue to grow. The authors of this article support this statement with three elements: new keywords that appear in grants result in new publications using those same keywords, Computer Science is continuing to go through changes, and scientists are often required to switch their focus of study roughly every 10 years due to evolving technology. Hoonlor et al, went through great lengths to demonstrate every one of their assertions so that there might be no room for uncertainty on any of their points. All of this is to say that the analysis of trends in Computer Science allows researchers to continue to acquire funding. Funding is essential for the field of Computer Science to be able continue to thrive.

Open Document