hi, good evening. today I would like to share my understanding about the research project and relate it with my final year project.
The topic that I did for my final year project is characterization of carboxymethyl cellulose film from cocoa pod husk for biodegradable packaging. The first thing that I did after I got my title is I try to understand the topic itself. From the general view, I do my research on what is cellulose actually, what is the composition and where can I extract it from. Then I narrow down into the synthesis of carboxymethyl cellulose. I try to find related journals/article related to my topic so that I can extract all the information regarding on how to synthesis CMC from cellulose. Later on, I specify into the production of CMC film from the raw material. I find out the procedures and list down the characterization that I need to do for CMC film. I also find out the conventional plastic characteristic and their impact on the environment.
I meet my supervisor and ask for their opinion and to understand more on my research project. The development of my research objective is related to the problem statement. The construction of my problem statement is basically answering “why the research to be studied” or “the reason why this becomes a problem”. I try to find out the main problem and review past research study related to my topic.
For the methodology, I find it from the other past study and reconfirm it with my supervisor. I try to find more article that would be helpful in constructing my methodology and to enhance my understanding. For the scope of work, I list down all I need to do/ what step I have to do in order to achieve the objectives and try to state out the limitation of my study.
I was influenced by my passion for experimenting with new things. I realize that I lean towards doing lab-work and experiment compared to simulating. That was one of the reasons why I choose to embark on this research. Furthermore, I am interested in the extraction process and for me this title is something new to me.
Zora Neale Hurston said that research is formalized curiosity, it is poking and prying with a purpose.
Thus I bear in mind that I need to keep my interest in my topic and build the curiosity so that I could keep going and do even better in my research. After all, doing research is to gain a piece of new knowledge and find out things that we don’t know. As a conclusion, I’m ending it with another quote from Albert Szent-Gyorgyi,
thank you 😄
