Prof. Jaefer Hameed Alwash, Ph.D. delivered a lecture on scientific research methodology in the Department of Electrical Engineering. Dr.Dheya Jasim Kadhim, chairperson of the department, a number of department faculty and postgraduate students attended the lecture.
At the beginning of the lecture, Prof. Alwash tackled the requirements of conducting scientific research. He stressed that the most important requirements are the researcher’s scientific capabilities, to what extent the researcher is devoted to scientific research, to what extent the researcher is interested in the research subject, providing resources and facilitating getting them from the internet, providing soft wares that help in studying practical models to get results faster than when obtained from laboratory models and providing appropriate capacities to manufacture laboratory models. Supplying sufficient amounts of money and capable workshops are required in scientific research. He also added that if the research is for the purpose of higher studies, the student’s interest in the subject is an important factor. If the research is within a research group of faculty, harmony among the members of the group is considered an important factor to conduct scientific research. Then he moved to a second point in his lecture; he talked about the stages of conducting scientific research. He summarized them in choosing the subject and that the researcher must have the required scientific background in the rudiments and fundamentals of the subject. After that search for scientific references and related sources begins; these references and sources should have been published within the last ten years in sedate international scientific journals. Then these references and sources are examined to understand what they have and finally the researcher makes a conclusion about the possible field, in which the research can be used to expand the knowledge horizon, such as making a new method of analysis, suggesting better analytical methods as far as hypotheses are concerned or inventing better practical models. Then the theoretical analysis of the practical model is proceeded and tests are conducted to reinforce the results. At the end of all theoretical analysis and practical and lab results, the researcher writes the research according to the formats followed by higher studies if the research is a higher studies research or according to the formats followed by the scientific journals in which the researcher wants to publish his/her research. The researcher must keep in mind scientific integrity and the necessity of documenting the correct sources.
The lecturer then opened the door for discussion and answered the attendants’ questions. Prof. Alwash’s answers enriched the lecture with his large academic expertise . It is worth mentioning that Prof. Ja’fer Hameed Alwash is a faculty member in the Department of Electrical Engineering and has a Ph.D. in electrical machines from the University of London. He obtained the rank of a full professor in 1996. He was the chairperson of the Department of Electrical Engineering from 1981-1985. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the General Company for the Production of Electric Power for the Central District. He has been a consulting engineer in the Engineering Consultants Office/the University of Baghdad since 1980. He supervised many postgraduate students’ theses and participated in many scientific conferences in the United States, Britain and Belgium. He has many publications and he is a member in local and international scientific organizations.