6.141/16.415 Robotics: Science and Systems I

Sample debate topic

Resolved: a Turing test is useful in the field of robotics

Why is previous work important?

Knowing what research has come before your work will help you in a number of ways.

1. You can avoid this situation!
2. When you do research you are building on the discoveries of others who have come before you, even if your research is new.
3. By knowing what others have done and are doing, you are joining a community of scholarship in a particular field.
4. "A month or two in the lab can save you hours in the library." -- James Faller, NIST

Literature Searching

Links to databases useful for debate assignment

• Inspec -- citation database for electrical engineering, computer science and applied physics
• Google Scholar -- free academic search engine that has citation browsing
• Web of Science -- citation database for the sciences
• Books 24 x 7 -- full-text of electronic book, many in computer science
• IEEE Xplore -- portal to IEEE journals, conferences, magazines and standards
• ACM Digital Library -- portal to ACM journal, conferences and magazines
• Lecture Notes in Computer Science -- online access to this conference series

How to find previous and related work

• Keyword search databases
• Citation browse using Google Scholar and Web of Science
• Look for Review Articles that summarize a field
• Ask your advisor and/or a librarian

This page was last updated on 04/03/08