DailyPost 710
THE FUTURE OF RESEARCH
In a transformative era, if the status quoist’s of present system of research feel that they would come unscathed, then they are in for a surprise. Research for research sake has been the mantra for long, it should change sooner than later. It survives in its own ecosystem, might be created for the same purpose; of “meritorious” research scholars, guides who fulfil the guide criteria, a prescribed time, a prescribed format known as methodology, the committee to validate original findings & the research gets over. There is no development attached to the research.
Academics completely devoid of the practice / industry is going to be short lived. The paper ending in academic journal cannot be the end of research. The rest goes in the name of promotions & career prospects. Research should be based on requirements, a requirement which is clear connect to a need. If a research is done only on the topics of research, its irrelevance will be out in the open. While it leads to somebody prefixing his name with Dr., in reality the research findings does not enlighten anybody.
Academia & industry are not two separate entities, both fulfill the same need for a successful product in a linear progression. This connect would the most successful connect, otherwise the back end research academia has no meaning. Research has to deliver, it is not a curriculum based degree, it is out of your urge to find some thing new / worthwhile. Something new should be utilitarian. With AI products like Diffbot hitting the market, in all likelihood Diffbot Knowledge Graph can deliver a more relevant dissertation in a jiffy.
The ability / attitude to research would be the real killer. Demis Hassabis, the CEO of Google DeepMind synthesizes academic research with product creation. This is the future of research. Every company needs an academic backend & every research institution needs to have a company front end. The prototypes museum has no value, you might not find even tourists to visit it. The doctoral thesis supporting nothing else but a prefix will soon become an oddity. In the Machine Learning / Artificial Intelligence Age, machines itself would write off such irrelevant researches.
ACADEMIC RESEARCH AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT IS ONE LIFE CYCLE.
Sanjay Sahay