Research with Yue    

Read on if you are an UHCL CS/CIS undergraduate/graduate student interested in taking one of the following courses.

Note that most capstone projects are not research intenisve, but there are exceptions where capstone projects have led to published technical papers..

Why research?

If your future career goal is in the academic area, research is a must. Period.

Even if you want to work in industry after your graduation, research, in the form of thesis, and to a lesser degree, capstone projects and independent studies, will provide invaluable experience for you. Regular lecture-type courses do not simulate a true working environment. Assignment specifications are well defined. Their scopes are limited and they tend to be 'quick and dirty,' to be thrown away after grading.

In the real world, the higher your career level you are in, the less defined the problems (and opportunities) you will face. Frequently, high level (and high paid) jobs are about (1) identifying problems (and thus challenges and opportunities), and (2) solving problems (through research and experimentation). Regular courses are good at equiping students with basic knowledges of the subjects. They are however relatively passive and thus do not provide training and experiment in identifying problems and researching solutions. This is where research may be very helpful.

Another big advantage of research is the opportunity to interact deeply with a faculty member on a given subject. Much can be learnt through frequent and direct interaction with the supervisor, which is missing in regular courses. Many have argued that the apprentice system, where a student learns closely with the master, is one of the most effective way of learning. Thesis is closest to this system (though I do not claim to be a master in any way).

Other benefits of research, especially thesis, are:

Mostly importantly, with enough dedication, research can be a lot of fun and excitement!

(Most highly successful persons will tell you that the keen love of what you are doing is one key ingredient of a highly successful career. Even though a highly successful career may not be your number one priority, it is difficult to imagine spending eight hours every day in work that you do not truly enjoy. What is not obvious is that it is necessary to learn to love one's work, just like learning to appreciate art. Research is one great way to cultivate such enjoyment.)

Why research with me?

Here are some potential reasons:

My research interest is quite broad. My current focus is on:

  1. XML and semi-structured data.
  2. Intenet computing and Web development
  3. Database
  4. Computer security
  5. Computer science education

In the past, I have worked on concurrent programming, real-time systems, artificial intelligence, expert systems and software metrics.

Technical publication is always an important goal in my student research and I provide a lot of guidance and assistance in this direction. Some recent work:

  1. McDowell, A., Schmidt, C. & Yue, K., Analysis and Metrics of XML Schema, to appear in the 2004 International Conference on Software Engineering Research and Practice, Las Vegas, June 21st - 24th, 2004 (result of a capstone project and an independent study).
  2. Yue, K., Alakappan, S. & Cheung, W., Inlining Algorithms for Mapping XML Document Type Definitions to Relational Schemas, submitted to the Second International XML Database Symposium (XSym 2004), in conjunction with VLDB 2004, August 29-30, 2004, Toronto, Canada (result of a thesis).
  3. Yang A., Yue K., Liaw K., Collins G., Venkatraman J., Achar S., Sadasivam K., and Chen P., Distributed Computer Security Lab and Projects, submitted to the Thirteenth Annual Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges: Rocky Mountain Conference, October 22-23, 2004, Utah Valley State College, Orem, Utah (partial result from an independent study).

What do I look for in my students?

For efficient research, a good match between the supervisor and the student is highly beneficial. Thus, you may want to know what I expect from my student:

  1. Good background in computer science in general: this includes proficiency in software development and at least one high level programming language.
  2. Highly motivated: Motivation and success go hand in hand.
  3. Be a self starter: You will need to work on your own most of the time to ensure the project to be successful.
  4. Good communications skill: You will need to write papers, make presentations and discussed with me.
  5. Hard working and disciplined: Without a regular course structure, it will be easy to fall behind if you are not careful.

As my student, you will need to study the designated topic and report back to me frequently. You will know your assigned subject better than me, teaching me about key concepts and important details and raising new ideas from time to time. In return, I will provide useful discussion, suggest direction for further research, and ask smart and dumb questions.

What do I expect you to do?

  1. Work hard, learn much, and hopefully, have fun.
  2. Plan your own work, and follow the plan.
  3. Discuss with me frequently.
  4. Make sure that I know your progress.
  5. In case of doubt, ask.
  6. Discuss ideas that may not be mature.

How should you start?

No matter whether you are interested in thesis, capstone or independent study, start by scheduling a meeting with me. The purposes of the first meeting are:


Dr. Kwok-Bun Yue
Professor, Computer Science and Computer Information Systems
Chair, Division of Computing and Mathematics
University of Houston-Clear Lake
2700 Bay Area Boulevard
Houston, TX 77058
Yue's Home  Yue's home page     Yue's email  yue@uhcl.edu     phone  281-283-3864