Category Course

As in any kind of writing, it is necessary to present the background or the scenario or the current situation relating to the issue or the focus of the research. In a story, it is known as scene-setting presented in prose so the reader will understand what the current situation is. This section also explains why it is necessary to conduct research in order to address the issue, the step of indicating a gap. The background can be started with:

• An existing situation that is common knowledge or which has been researched into earlier.
• The present study attempts to build on or even counter the earlier findings.
• A statement relating to something ordinary with reference to our everyday lives.

The opening line in the background of the study is usually the “kicker” of the writing process just as the whole introduction chapter is the jumpstart of the thesis.

Please give at least 5 citations to support your introduction. Your reference doesn’t have to be the latest because maybe some references refer to the basic fundamental or highlight certain past researchers.

Example introduction for chapter 1

This chapter discusses the research background that drives this project and the reasons why it is important. Following an explanation of the problem statement, which clarifies the problem to be solved, comes the study’s scope, which establishes the project’s main objectives. The research questions and objectives are then presented, which briefly outline the project’s progression and finally provide an idea of what to anticipate from this study. At the end of this chapter, the study’s importance for this project will also be discussed. 

Example of background of study (Aqilah Saibah – CS230)

Gestational diabetes mellitus is a condition where a woman has a high blood sugar level during their pregnancy. Approximately 87.5% of all diabetes in pregnancy, is gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) (Lefkovits et al., 2019). There are two classes of gestational diabetes which are type 1 and type 2. Women with type 1 can manage it through diet and exercise and those who have type 2 need to take insulin or other medications. GDM usually happens in the second half of pregnancy. Usually, the time range where the doctor will check for GDM is between week 24 and week 28. But if you are at high risk the doctor will check sooner. (Common knowledge about the topic selected)

Diagnosing women with GDM is crucial during early pregnancy to reduce maternal and neonatal morbidity. Based on the current screening guidelines, there will be two tests to diagnose GDM. According to Iftikhar et al. (2020), the first diagnostic consist of a 50 g of oral glucose challenge test performed after 24 weeks gestation, followed by a second diagnostic test guideline. If the patient is at high risk but the test results are normal, the doctor might test again later in pregnancy to get the confirmation. This will require more time to do the screening again. A lot of research in cohort studies has been made using predicting modeling techniques where the patients are followed up routinely. (Describe more on common knowledge and focus on a certain area)

However, according to Qiu et al. (2017), the studies on risk factor analysis did not consider the details of gestational trimesters. The risks for GDM can be predicted in the first trimester of pregnancy according to the mix of maternal demographic and characteristics.

If we can predict disease earlier, we can improve health and improve outcomes (Sundeep Bahn, 2017). The machine learning algorithm is one of the AI techniques that are capable to predict the percentage of a pregnant woman who diagnosed with gestational diabetes mellitus earlier. Machine learning methods application can give worthy information and prediction on health risks based on the electronic health record dataset. According to Shinde and Rajeswari (2018), the recent machine learning algorithms progress in designing and applying it on Electronic Health Record (EHR) dataset has given positive results. Machine Learning algorithms facilitate the development of intelligence into a machine. Hence, it can perform better in the future using the experience that has been learned. In this research, the early prediction of GDM will be made based on multiple common risk factors of the pregnant woman. (Highlight the importance of this research)

Conclusion:

• A clear conclusion section help editors and reviewers to judge our work easily
  • Keep it brief.
  • Summarise the motivation/purpose of the study, what we did, and what we found.
  • State the key conclusions.
  • Do not cite (old or new) referencesin this section.
• Discuss the implications of the findings.  Are the findings:
  • supporting a given theory?
  • solving a corporate problem?
  • helping managers and policymakers to make better decisions or design new strategies?
• If possible, discuss broader implications of the findings for the society, governments, investors, etc.
• Do not overstate the findings, however. The implications must be based only on the evidence reported in the paper. Do not exaggerate the results.
• No speculative statement.
• Recap the objectives and explain on how you achieved that objectives.
• State the limitation of the project.
• Possible future work recommendation.

Example outline for results

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Example of conclusion and recommendation

• In this chapter, you need to elaborate everything about the development of your project.
• Explain the process, code, algorithm for every process/stage of your and the output of it.
• Give the screenshot of the system/app
• Lastly, explain the testing and validation of the project. Usually, just use functionality test, however it also based on the project.

Example outline for results

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• State and explain the project methodology we are using in the project. 
• Define all the terms and notations clearly.
• Do not be repetitive: If the method is well known or described extensively in other studies, briefly summarise the methodology and move on.
• Tell how this project methodology helps us accomplish the key objectives of the paper; that is, it is the right methodology to use.
• List papers that use a similar methodology.
• If there are alternative methodologies, state them and explain clearly why we are not using these methods.

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What should in your methodology:

• Explain what project methodology will you use. Use MDLC for mobile app and need to explain why choose the methodology.
• Explain each phase.
• In design phase, show the ERD diagram, use case diagram, flowchart, storyboard and etc.
• In development phase, mention the hardware and software requirement.
• In testing phase, describe the testing procedures. Subjective/objective test. Just pick one test, usually functionality test.

 Guidelines for Chapter 3 

Topics that MUST be included in Chapter 3: 

1. Software Development Methodology. Organize your Chapter 3 to adhere the stages of the software development methodology that you choose in Chapter 2. For example, If you choose the Waterfall Model, the stages are: 1) Requirement Analysis; 2) System Design; 3) Implementation; 4) Testing; 5) Deployment and 6) Maintenance. Since you are developing a prototype, ignore Stage 5 and 6. 

2. Phase 1: Requirement Analysis 

In this phase, describe the preliminary study that you need to do to start the project. If you have conducted a survey, interview or questionnaire, describe in detail who were involved and what are the findings that you get from the preliminary study. You can also put the hardware and software requirements to develop your prototype in this phase. 

3. Data Collection 

If you use primary data, describe in detail the data collection process (i.e. source of data, persons involved, size of data). If you use secondary data, describe in detail how you acquire the data (i.e. source of data, persons involved, size of data). If you use machine learning technique, describe your training and testing dataset. Show examples of each dataset. If you do not use a dataset, skip this section. 

4. Phase 2: System Design 

Draw the flowchart of the process flow OR draw the architecture of all the different platforms that you used. Show and describe all the user interface of your prototype according to the process flow. If you use a database, draw the database design here (i.e. ER diagram / metadata / database structure). 

5. Phase 3: Implementation 

Describe all the tools, platforms, programming language that you used to develop the modules in prototype. The subsections here should follow the processes that you described in the flowchart of Phase 2. Describe how you implement the interface of your prototype. If you use a database, describe how you implement the database. If you perform training and testing, explain the implementation in this phase. 

6. Phase 4: Testing 

Explain how the functionality testing is done for each module in your prototype. If you measure accuracy, show the equation and explain. If you measure efficiency (time), explain the measurement process. 

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Example outline for project methodology

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A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources on a specific topic. It provides an overview of current knowledge, allowing you to identify relevant theories, methods, and gaps in the existing research.

Writing a literature review involves finding relevant publications (such as books and journal articles), critically analyzing them, and explaining what you found. There are five key steps:

1. Search for relevant literature
2. Evaluate sources
3. Identify themes, debates and gaps
4. Outline the structure
5. Write your literature review

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What should be in the literature review (FYP)

1. Introduction of the case study
2. Related information about the case study
3. Comparison of the methods/technique that can be used
4. Similar studies/application/system/research
5. Summary

Additional info

A good literature review doesn’t just summarize sources – it analyzes, synthesizes, and critically evaluates to give a clear picture of the state of knowledge on the subject.

• Do not include all published papers on a given topic.
• Need to be selective: Include the most relevant articles to our topic and make a footnote for others
• Do not cite too broad a literature and too much literature
• Make sure is that references are up-to-date.
• Do not cite papers in low-tier journals. Also, normally do not cite papers published before 2000 unless they are critically important (i.e. theoretical underpinning / core authors in the topic)
• Do not list/summarize the literature findings /results:
  • Accumulation of papers
  • Start with the reference of a paper (e.g. Kim (2010) examines…..” and then describes the paper (each paragraph)
• Organize the discussion in an effective manner 
  • Integrate the literature ->“Transitions”
  • Transitionshelp connect paragraphs together. Examples:
    • One of the first researchers to investigate this problem is Lee (2010)….. 
    • Peter and Smith (2013)counter Lee’s argument . . .
    • The issue becomes more complex when a third school of thought is considered …..
    • The issue becomes more complex when a third school of thought is considered …..
  • Divide long paragraphs
    • If there are two or more ideas in a single paragraph, split them up
    • Break up long paragraphs even if they contain in a single idea
    • Readers tend to skip long paragraphs.
    • No paragraph should be longer than half a page (around 15-18 lines) 
    • A paragraph should have more than two sentences.
• In the similar application/system/research section, compare with your proposed application/system/research
• Word Choice in the literature review:

Example outline for literature review (Aqilah Saibah – CS230)

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Example outline for literature review (Muhammad Iqbal – CS253)

The scope is what you set out to achieve, the limitation is caused by factors beyond your control.

Notes: At least 1 paragraph with 3 project scopes and limitation

Example scope:

• This study attempt to cover towns within the five zones of peninsular Malaysia: north, south, east, west and the central zone of the Klang Valley.

Example of limitation:

• Although ideally the study should cover all the major towns in Peninsular Malaysia, the constraint of time and resources led to the selection of one town each representing the north, south, east, west and the central zones.
• During the process of this research, the difficulties in obtaining relevant information on Malaysia were considerable.

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Example scope (Aqilah Saibah – CS230)

• User

For this project, the target user is pregnant women in Malaysia. 

• Data 

The data were retrieved from the website plos.figshare.com with the advised from doctors from Obstetrics and Gynecology (O&G) Department, Faculty of Medicine, UiTM Sungai Buloh. 

• Technique 

The technique used in this project is Machine Learning (ML). ML is widely used for making prediction or decisions without explicitly programmed to do so. 

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Example limitation (Aqilah Saibah – CS230)

The limitation of this project are as follows: 

• This prediction data scope is only based on general risk factors. 
• Does not provide specific suggestions based on the risk prediction result. 
• Only supported on Android devices. 

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Example scope (Anis Atiqah – CS253)

Users that will be using this mobile application are limited to cataract patients that aged 50 years old until 80 years old in Malaysia by providing the services to remind about the eye drops routine and appointment schedule. This project will be taken about 1 year to be completed and used by this targeted user. The application was limited for the user to create an account for the login in the system, daily eye drops intake record, viewing the record at any time and appointments schedule details.

In the problem statement sub-chapter, we need to highlight “what is the problem” or “what is the issue” in this project/research. Usually, an introductory sentence or paragraph precedes a problem. The example statements of the problems to show the signal of the problems are:

• At a glance, we can already see that there are difficulties at the structural level.
• Yet, there is no provision for recognising the organisational element.
• We have thus raised several issues that point out the difficulties of applying the model.
• Very little attention has been focused on this area.
• Recent work suggests that this is not exactly the case.
• Problems associated with sediments have become a major issue for years.

If you are students from computer science, you need to come out with the computer-based problem such as the problem with the technique/method/architecture of the a program/application. I will give an example, if a general problem is inaccurate diabetes mellitus prediction, so we come out what the technique that been use previously and what the problem of the technique that you can improved. The problem/limitation of the technique is the computer-based problem.

Please give at least 3 latest citations (within 5 years) to support the problem statements. More than 3 citations are better to strengthen the problem statement and it is showing that you have done good reading before come out with the problem statement.

Please don’t put your suggestion or proposed something in the problem statement, just mention or highlight the problem.

Example of problem statement (Aqilah Saibah – CS230)

In order to provide excellent patient care at a minimal cost and provide easiness for the doctors, the hospital needs gestational diabetes mellitus prediction application that is safe, efficient, and accurate. In addition, the procedures should not be overly painful for the patient. (Paragraph to continue the background of study)

Currently, the hospital’s main screening tools are oral glucose tolerance tests. According to Reddi Rani and Begum (2016), screening for GDM is usually being conducted at 24-28 weeks which is around the second to the third trimester of pregnancy because during the second trimester, insulin resistance and glucose resistance increases in women who do not have the ability to produce enough insulin to adopt this resistance. (Introduction to the problem)

Performing tests too late in the third trimester limits the time in which metabolic interventions can take place. Gestational will go away after you give birth. But the baby’s health will get affected. Besides, it will increase the risk of getting type 2 diabetes later in life. Gestational diabetes occurs when your body cannot make enough insulin during your pregnancy. Gestational diabetes can lead to an increase in the risk of high blood pressure during pregnancy and also increase the risk of having a large baby where the baby needs to be delivered by caesarean section (C-section) (Michael, 2019). Screening is not effective where it sometimes will misdiagnose women with GDM, undiagnosed women with GDM will lead to both maternal and fatal complications. Such a problem should be taken seriously as the cost of screening and health-related implications connected with high sugar levels during pregnancy. Without us realising, having GDM will results in more costly outcomes because of the increase in caesarean deliveries. (Paragraph to mention the problem in details)

If the hospitals continue to do the screening at 24-28 weeks of pregnancy, it will lead to a lot of negative impacts towards an individual where these problems can actually be avoided if a more convenient screening test was available. (Paragraph to mention effect from the problem)

* This problem statement missing computer-based problem.

Example of problem statement (Anis Atiqah – CS253)

Based on the table of Age and Gender Distribution, CSR 2009-2018, from the 12th Report National Eye Database 2018, the age group that registered for cataract surgery that has the most frequencies, through the year 2009-2018 is patients that aged 65-69 years old and 70-74 years old (Aziz Salawi et al., 2018). (Paragraph to continue the background of study). At that age, forgetfulness is a part of the normal process of aging, it will take longer for a person to adapt to the new routine of their life. Different types of eye drop need to be applied several times in a day (Marilyn Haddrill, 2019), the patients might forget the eye drops routine which is essential for the recovering process. (Introduction to the problem).

After the surgery, their eyes will be vulnerable to post-op complications surgery such as infections, inflammation of the eye, and eye irritation. They will be requiring extra care and attention to make sure that their eyes heal properly without any issues. Sometimes it is possible to forget simple things such as medical appointments. According to an article in the Journal of Family Medicine and Disease Prevention entitled “Why do Patients Miss their Appointment at Primary Care Clinics”, a telephone survey was performed by calling patients who missed an appointment concerning the reasons for their missed appointment. As a result, the highest percentage reported that they forgot about the appointment scheduled by their doctor (Saif Ullah, 2018). (Paragraph to mention the problem in details)

If it happens, it will become a burden to both parties because the doctor in charge needs to reschedule the appointment and the patients will waste their money. (Paragraph to mention effect from the problem)

* This problem statement missing computer-based problem.

Example of problem statement (Alia Sabrina – CS253)

 To ensure accessible and affordable quality healthcare and comfort in a hospital, the hospital needs to prepare the best hospitality and services for the patients and visitors including the wayfinding to find a certain room, such as the doctors’ room and therapy room. Besides, the solutions also should be easy, and user-friendly for them to use. 

Currently, due to the modernization and evolution of medical institutions in this current world, the size of the certain hospital has become huge and complex. Hence, the areas consist of many buildings, departments, medical wards, and facilities with many differences in terms of name and usage. Besides that, for people to move from one location to another location, it will take some time and will get lost easily if they did not know the exact way to go there (Fai & Audah, 2017). This has become difficult in finding exact ways to a certain department and area within the hospital vicinity (Ford et al., 2020). 

An ordinary map or directory also usually will not be much help because not all people understand how the map think. The hospital map just indicates the name of the building in the hospital and does not have detailed information about a certain room (Fai & Audah, 2017). This will make newcomers or patients and visitors easily get lost (Sharin et al., 2020), and feeling disorientated as well as add to their worry and cause further stress. The more stressed people get, the less information they will be able to take in (Khan, 2019). 

If the hospital does not find other alternatives for the best way of wayfinding, this will lead to bigger problems and negative impacts in the future towards an individual including discomfort around the patients, visitors, and all the medical staff. 

* This problem statement missing computer-based problem.

Example of problem statement (Alia Sabrina – CS253)

Since the epidemic began, over 3.94 million children worldwide have been infected with the Covid-19 virus, according to data from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children’s Hospital Association (CHA). To ensure that children get comfortable in the hospital, the paediatrician need to prepare something interesting for the children to play around. Besides, the solutions should not be complex to overcome the pain in children and easy for them to use. 

Nowadays, children are becoming afraid of Covid-19 infection. Hence, the children fear of the hospital environment or medical intervention prompted the hospitalisation to have an influence on the kid, resulting in trauma such as anxiety, bored and sobbing (Morgul et al., 2020). Besides, isolated children seek to meet friends, lack of physical contact with family members at home and feel disappointment if they do not meet friends (Fleming & O’hara, 2020). This extended isolation period prevented children from attending school and interacting with their friends, resulting in counter-emotions displayed by children in the face of boredom and even loneliness (Idoiaga et al., 2020).

An ordinary book usually does not be much help because not all of the children are able to read at the young age but some of them are able to do so. The book only shows the words and does not have any multimedia elements. This will make those who are unable to read harder for them to understand what they are reading or looking and frequently associated with boredom as well as tiredness (Chin et al., 2017). 

If the paediatrician does not find any alternative way to overcome the children’s fear and boredom, it might impact hospitalization which causes trauma to the children. 

* This problem statement missing computer-based problem.

ARTICLE: “Research Methods and Strategies: Problem Statement Development: How to Write a Problem Statement in A Dissertation”

• Abstract is just like the advertisement of your article. 
  • One of the most important parts of your paper.
  • Make it interesting and easy to be understood without reading the whole article.
• Although it comes first, wait to write the abstract when the paper is completed.
• The abstract is the first thing editors and referees look at. The first impression is very important!
• Most scholars skim papers by reading it first.
• Papers with uninteresting abstracts are not read or downloaded much (even if the rest is great!); Hence, they are not cited much either.
• Do not copy and paste from the introduction or conclusion sections.
• The quality of an abstract will strongly influence the reviewer’s decision.
• Usually 150-300 words

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Abstract need to contain all of this to summarise your thesis:

• Introduction
• Problem
• Purpose of the project
• Solution/technique/method
• Methodology used
• Result and key conclusions
• Importance (contribution) of the project
• Future work

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Example of abstracts:

 E-MUSLIM TRAVELLER: LOCATING PLACE FOR JAMA’ AND QASR PRAYER USING HAVERSINE METHOD 

This report represents a Prediction of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus using Machine Learning technique. It is obligatory for a Muslim who is physically and mentally capable for performing prayer five times a day. For Muslim travellers, who are in a state of Musafir, it is permissible for them to perform Jama’ and Qasr prayers if their journey exceeds two marhalah which is equivalent to 81 kilometres. Allah SWT bestows leniency to Muslims to shorten prayer which is shortening the four rakaat prayer into two rakaat. However, some Muslim travellers are not aware of the distance that they travelled already exceeded two marhalah which qualify them to perform Jama’ and Qasr. Therefore, this project aims to develop a mobile application called E-Muslim Traveller that measures the distance (in kilometres) travelled in real time and find the nearest mosque from the user’s current location. This will make it easier for Muslim travellers to manage their travelling when they know they are eligible to perform Jama’ and Qasr ahead of time. Mobile Application Development Life Cycle (MADLC) methodology is used as a guideline along the progress of the project which is very suitable when developing an application. To calculate the distance travelled in real time, this project relies on Google Cloud Platform and GPS to get the coordinates needed for the calculation. When the distance travelled exceeds 81 kilometres, the user will be notified that they are eligible to perform the prayers. To get the distance of the nearest mosque from the user’s location, Haversine method is being used because it is more suitable to calculate the distance between two locations on the Earth’s surface. After the project has been developed, user evaluation is conducted, and the overall feedback is positive. At the end of this project, looking back, the objective has been successfully achieved. However, there are still some limitations that have been identified and future improvement that can be made. 

 USAGE OF CANVAS: HTML5 FOR USAGE OF CANVAS: HTML5 FOR ONLINE EDUCATION 

Since the COVID-19 outbreak are spread, the online learning is widely use in any institution. The online learning system quality, user-friendly interface and modern graphical can increase the level of user satisfaction. This paper describes how the use online learning in institutions to put on the good amount of engagement opportunities for students to experience and learn in high quality course provided. For this research, the preliminary study has been conducted to determine the best methodology for the development of the system. The methodology use for this project is ADDIE model. This flexibility model helps to develop the system step-by-step and provide effective quality design, coherent content and incorporate visualization. After some research, the method use for this project is using HTML5 based approach including canvas element that have potential to make the webpage an appearing browser and support widespread webpage support. The canvas element is the main element in this project. The canvas drags and drop function add more interactivity to the web pages since it can control the graphic, image and text with a scripting language. The drag and drop canvas can help to move the elements and place it to another place. The feature is aimed to be implemented in this project to provide the user the activity after some learning. The functionality test and result show the positive outcome hence, the important part in canvas drag and drop are able to function successfully. In conclusion, this project can give a high system quality that will increase the interest of the user that challenge with online learning and give the benefits to user to perform in their course. 

 Tracking Calories Intakes for Malaysia’s Food Using Image Recognition on Mobile Application 

Health problems such as obesity due to unhealthy eating habits are increasing worldwide including Malaysia. It makes the individuals involved potentially suffer from serious diseases such as stroke and cardiovascular disease. This is because according to numerous studies, Malaysians are less sensitive to the nutritional content in their daily diet as well as less awareness in maintaining good health. With today’s technological advancement along with the help of computer vision and database of food, the process of acquiring information of food’s nutritional facts is become effortless especially on mobile application where it is involved food image recognition and nutritional facts. Some of the application are commercially available, however, most of the available application has low applicability on Malaysia’s food due to lack of information available for Malaysia to use. This project proposes a system that could solve all those problem by creating a mobile application that will recognizes images of Malaysia’s food including provides a library of Malaysia food’s nutritional facts. The development of this project will be involved 4 phases which follows the Waterfall model of System Development Lifecycle (SDLC) but every phase is connected to each other and can be reviewed as well as changed when it is necessary. In addition, the mobile application developed with Android operating system using native mobile application framework which is Flutter framework. Therefore, users with any Android mobile phone can use this application. As this application created, it will offers users to practice a healthy life in a very convenience manner because the availability of tracking calories intakes using food recognition as well as weight management based on user information. The result from the accuracy test shows that the total accuracy is 99.2 % while the total of lost is less than 1%. Thus, the probability to get the accurate result while user using the application is high. All of the process will involve cloud database, Tensorflow, and many others software that are essential for this development.