A CS Research Topic Generator
or
How To pick A Worthy Topic In 10 Seconds



Computer Science is facing a major roadblock to further research. The problem is most evident with students, but afflicts many researchers as well: people simply have a tough time inventing research topics that sound sufficiently profound and exciting. Many PhD students waste needless years simply coming up with a thesis topic. And researchers often resort to reading documents from government grant agencies so they will know what to work on for the next proposal!

Good news for the CS community: the problem has at last been solved. The table below provides the answer.



To generate a technical phrase, randomly choose one item from each column. For example, selecting synchronized from column 1, secure from column 2, and protocol from column 3 produces:

A synchronized secure protocol


Best of all, two phrases can be combined with simple connectives, making the result suitable for the most demanding use. Possible connectives include:



For example, one could generate a thesis title by selecting a second phrase and a connective:

A synchronized secure protocol for an interactive knowledge-based system


The technique described here for selecting a research topic is far superior to the method currently in use because it can be automated -- a computer program can be written to select a phrase at random whenever one is needed.