Latest Comments on Science and Academia
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Plagiarism on the rise?
I recently reviewed a paper where, a few paragraphs into the introduction, the words seemed strangely familiar. After some cross-checking, I realised that the author of the paper had copied about two paragraphs verbatim from one of my papers. After a bit more digging, I found other places in the paper where the author had…
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Rigor vs. relevance, or: What is the size of a dissertation?
While listening to a colleague’s talk the other day, I got an idea for a Ph.D. thesis (grant proposal). I wrote up a short summary and sent it to him. He thought it was fine but commented that it might be a bit “thin”. This made me wonder: How do we determine sufficient size of…
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Why I’m interested in computer games research
Just before my inaugural lecture at University of Erlangen, a broad panel of scientists was debating the merits of computer games. Except for a computer games researcher and a games professional, all participants thought that computer games are of no particular interest. When I asked: “But isn’t there anything to learn from computer games?” I…
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Das AMOS Projektkonzept (2011)
NACHHALTIGE PROJEKTE ZUM LERNEN UND AUSGRÜNDEN Dieser Artikel stellt das AMOS Projektkonzept vor, welches ich in der Informatik-Lehre an der Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg einsetze. Ziel des AMOS Projekts ist es, Studierenden professionelle Softwareentwicklung in einem konkreten Projekt zu vermitteln, welches idealerweise zu einer Startup durch die am Ende ihres Studiums befindlichen Studierenden führt. Das AMOS Projekt…
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A broader notion of computer science
A recent article in the CACM complained about the dominance of reductionists’ views in computer science research. “We are sorry to inform you that your paper has been rejected, due to the lack of empirical evidence supporting it.” [1] The author goes on to discuss other views of science, suggesting that the focus on empirical…
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The 2010 AMOS project (from OSR Group)
The AMOS Project is the Open Source Research Group’s main class, teaching students agile methods and open source practices. It is also part of my incubator for startups. We just finished the first year. For your convenience, here are links to the most recent and relevant blog posts on the 2010 AMOS Project. I intend…