This document provides some general guidelines on PhD thesis proposals expected from our research group. A proposal must be written in LaTeX, with minimal typographic errors and written in an appropriately mature and grammatical style. A proposal is expected to be about 10 pages of A4. The full literature survey and the accomplishing references (which are typically in the order of 50 - 150) are not included in the page limit.
A typical thesis proposal should contain the following sections:
Your proposal should be introduced by an abstract of 300 - 500 words, which enables any reader to get an overview of the contents of the proposal without reading it. It must include a clear statement of the expected novel contribution to the field.
This section describes the research problem to be addressed during your PhD work. There must be a clear focus on a clearly identified problem. Also, be sure to identify both the particular problem you are solving and also the foundational issues you are addressing. The latter will consist of the generic problem you are solving, and its solution will enable you to clarify the contribution to your field. For example if you are writing a program analysis tool for C++ and Java, your problem is to implement the tool in a well engineered way. This alone is not enough. There must be some generic issues, e.g., the novel issues posed by object-oriented programming languages that can be your contribution to the field.
The objectives of this section are to show that you understand the context in which your particular area of research fits. For example, if you are undertaking a project on compiler cache optimisations for multicore processors, you need to set the problem in a wider context of compiler optimisations for caches and in turn to set your research in the context of compiler cache optimisations. A useful technique is to explain the issues in terms of the historical development of the subject, and/or current industrial problems.
This must be in two parts. In the thesis proposal itself, a concise synopsis must be given, identifying key trends, latest results, a critical assessment, a reference to just a few key papers, and a summary of the gap in the field you have identified.
The thesis proposal must be accompanied by a full literature survey, typically of 20-50 pages, which could constitute one or more chapters of the final thesis.
This survey should include a comprehensive and up-to-date review of literature in your area. Appropriate standards for citing work should be used. It is important to stress that although the supervisor will be looking for breadth and depth of review, as well as the inclusion of the most up-to-date references possible, an extremely important criterion for this section is an adequate, critical analysis. It is of no use just summarising work done by others. It is essential to present a detailed critical analysis of the literature so that at the end of this section you can present an authoritative statement of the state of the art, including research that is still required to be done, including your own.
Having defined the problem and shown its relationship to the rest of the field in previous sections, you now need to state the way in which you are going to solve it, and the criteria for success such that you know when you have solved it. Different sorts of projects will use different methods; for example a project might involve constructing and evaluating a register allocator, developing a set of thread scheduling algorithms, developing a cost model for cache optimisations, and so on. Adequate attention must be addressed to the actual underpinning of work. Note that the method must be judged sound by established philosophy of scientific or engineering research. If the method is unsound, this could result in the complete failure of the thesis independent of the rest of its contents.
A short summary is required here of the form of results that is expected from the research. Clearly at this point few results if any are likely to be available, but it is required to think about what sort of results will come out of the work.
This section should establish clearly the criteria by which you intend to judge the success of the work. If you are not clear about this now, it will be much more difficult towards the end, and then it may be too late to take remedial action.
The above represents the minimum requirement; if more work happens to have been done by then, so much the better. However, please do not use diary style in the proposal.
A brief plan for the remainder of the research should now be given. This should show the write up of the thesis being included in the overall period available for the research. The major milestones should be shown.
A list, in correct style of citations used. As noted above, the main reference list will be in the literature survey.
This must be produced using bibtex.A glossary of terms used in the proposal.
This should also be produced automatically in LaTeX.