Reference no: EM133688486

Introduction to Engineering Research Methodology and Application

Topic - Optimizing Energy Consumption in Building Designs Using Building Information Modeling (BIM)

Thesis Research Methodology

Learning Outcome 1: Describe how research fits into various engineering environments and plays a part in engineering design and problem formulation and solution (SILO 1)

Learning Outcome 2: Select and analyse existing technical literature as it applies to a project and research question (SILO 2)

Learning Outcome 3: Develop rigorous project plans and research methodologies to investigate and solve complex real-world engineering problems (SILO 3)

Learning Outcome 4: Employ advanced communication skills by reporting research findings through documentation and presentations (SILO 5)

The Context:
Your literature review demonstrated that your research question is grounded in the accepted knowledge of your discipline, and where your research will make its contribution to what is already known about the topic.

Your Research Methodology sets out and justifies your approach to your research question, and creates the interpretive framework for your data - it asserts their validity through established research and accepted research methods. (Your interpretation of this data against what is already known in your field will become your contribution to filling the ‘knowledge gap')

Your Research Methodology needs to explain how you will address your research question by: identifying and explaining your research approach to generating and validating data; identifying the methods you will use to generate and collect data; and the techniques you will use to interpret the data.

The Task:

You are required to write a research methodology for your proposed thesis. Your Research Methodology must build on the research you conducted for your Literature Review, and have the same title and research question, as well as add to your references. You are required to have 8-12 references for your research methodology. Your additional references should focus on the research approach (quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods), the research design (a framework to validate data or accommodate more than one research method) and the research method(s) you will adopt to address your research question.

Your Research Methodology must:
Briefly introduce the gap in the literature or field to which your work is responding
Demonstrate an awareness of relevant approaches to generating and interpreting data in your research area. (You might need to justify your replication of, or departure from, these)
Nominate the research approach that you will take to addressing your question and the researched assumptions on which it is based
Set out and explain the research design to interpreting and validating your data
Identify the research method(s) you will use to generate and collect data, based on established research
Identity and explain the techniques you will use to interpret data, based on established research
Speculate about the benefits of your research approach to the area - new knowledge contribution, extension of what is known, theoretical shifts etc.

The research skills you will demonstrate through your research methodology include:
Locating, interpreting and referencing relevant research
Formulating a research problem and aligning it to a research approach and methods
Constructing a research design based on relevant research to validate data
Creating a basis for a research approach by synthesising different research approaches or diverging from research approaches in your topic area through critical evaluation and analysis, supported by research