Editorial

The Research from an Academic Viewpoint

“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” Confucius

A man/woman of knowledge senses the limitations of oneself with respect to the mysterious
universe. There is always a risk in doing research at the cutting edge but this is the proven way to
improve the conditions of life through systematic innovations by involving the young generation in
intellectual tasks rather than into routine work. Here the multidisciplinary research plays a major
role where one has to make a distinction between quality (exemplary research) and quantity
(number of papers).

The students initially do not have clear intentions to participate in research activities. Their
interest can be captured by the instructors who are responsible for both the delivery of systematic
knowledge and the good guidance to open problems. An important ingredient, called inspiration, is
involved in the transition from teaching to research. The creativity could not be fostered without a
good balance between the accumulation of systematic knowledge, experimental work, and problem
solving. The humans have physical boundaries to remember, summarize, and interpret new
information. The young scholars have wide spectra of abilities and limitations. There are two
important teaching thresholds. Below the lower one, all the students perform well. Above the upper
one, only exceptional individuals can follow the contents. In between the said thresholds, there is a
performance distribution of assessment results. The magic of teaching is to set the thresholds
according to the international standards, to deliver the basics in a way that the majority of students
can reach the lower threshold, to practice with numerous examples to motivate them to approach
the upper threshold, and to involve all of them in stimulating research projects. Also, the tolerance
and sense of humor must always be a part of both teaching and research.

The students face several challenges in conducting research due to a certain gap between
academia and industry. The common understanding is that the research should always follow to
immediate results that can be used in practice. Here one can mention the famous quote that
intellectuals do not solve problems, they create them. There is fundamental science, applied
science, and engineering. An excellent academic study can wait for decades before a practical
implementation is found due to technological constraints. On the contrary, technological advances
obtained from steady development require analytical approaches from various scientific fields to
make the best use of the hardware potential. The new century poses challenges in both cases. Thus,
the efficient research management and planned collaboration between research teams is a must.

The research teams are often constrained within financial, technological, and organizational
borders that motivate them to find innovative solutions with the use of information and
communication technologies (ICT). This follows to the intensive development of “soft”
technologies, where software solutions for many difficult problems can be found. The
implementations of intelligent technologies based on fuzzy logic, neural networks, soft computing,
etc., become common approaches for the design of complex ICT systems. Fault-tolerant,
reconfigurable, and evolvable devices are emerging as a result of the synergy between different
technical fields in the extreme effort to create artificial intelligence (AI).

Finally, the success in research must be achieved with good intentions. The pursuit of truth
and knowledge usually follows a difficult path and easy ways can seldom be found. The
satisfaction from creating something new is a wonderful thing and it is worth the time spent in
studies.

Dobri A. Batovski

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