Defining the Study Problem

All of you must start with the introduction, where the problem is defined. Begin by describing the research problem in general terms, including a research question. Then, compare how this problem has been addressed in prior research and how this question has been answered in the literature.

In the literature survey, consider papers published in refereed journals, at least within the quartile Q4 (e.g., according to Scimago), and reputable conferences. Additionally, you may consider papers published as chapters in books. If you aim to address a problem already solved in the literature according to a specific metric (e.g., if you're using a dataset collected by someone else and published, such as on Kaggle or another repository), what further contributions have been made? For instance, if your goal is to improve the accuracy of a given prediction, what is the highest accuracy attained in prior research? Are there any insights that explain why achieving better accuracy is challenging?

Once you've defined the problem and compared related work, you must formalize the problem. What are the independent and target variables? Is the target variable a real number, or are its possible values discrete?

The next step is to describe your key assumptions and limitations to clarify the scope of your study. For example, if you aim to predict whether a loan should be granted to a given customer, you might assume that variables such as their salary and savings are sufficient for making the prediction. As a limitation, in this particular example, considering the customer's hobbies (like swimming with sharks) would be out of scope.

The introduction must end with a summary of the findings. However, since your work is just starting and you haven't found anything yet, you will write this part later.

You must upload your draft into this folder. The deadline is due October 14th (Monday) at noon. I won't accept late submissions. Furthermore, you must prepare a presentation for the next lecture. You'll be graded on your written work and your presentation, hence, you'll get two grade scores.

Originality and quality of the contribution (20%)

Coherence and writing quality (25%)

Literature survey (it's not about quantity but quality) (15%)

Formalization (25%)

Scope (15%)