How to choose a research discipline in Computer Science?

Question

I got my bachelor's degree in CS five years ago and after that I've been working as software engineer building Voice Over IP (VOIP) or Video Surveillance System. But now for some personal reason I feel that I would like go back to get a PhD degree.

But now, the problem is, I am not quite sure which branch of Computer Science I should choose.

As most of my working experience is related to multimedia, perhaps professors who study that would be more willing to accept my application. However, I am not quite sure if multimedia is still popular research domain in North America. And if there are not too much works left in this domain, what are other possible choices.

I am also interested in programming languages, but I don't know if programming languages could be considered a research area.

Another important question is, after I have decided in which domain I would like to study. How can I find most influential research results in this area to get an overview of it? In other words, since there must be plenty of papers in a domain, how can I know which I should read.

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BTW: If you happened to be a PhD student in Computer Science, what kind of skills or personality do you think your professors prefer? (This last question might be too subjective, so please ignore it if you feel it's ridiculous)

Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

I believe trying to figure out which is more popular is not necessarily the best approach. Just look for something that you find interesting and exciting and do that. You will spend a lot of time reading about that field, so your interest in it should be the deciding factor.
I wouldn't even worry whether or not you have prior experience with that area, as it would be the ultimate opportunity to learn something totally new.

Why does it have to be popular? As long as you can find a professor that is involved in the kind of research you are interested in, that should be enough.

Also, if it's not such a popular area, or a "younger" one, it will be easier for you to come up with new ideas than it would be for something that receives a lot of attention already.

I think both multimedia and programming languages are still big research areas and you can find a lot of universities that will be involved in that. I know for sure there is "Digital Media" research being done at my university (GWU).

As far as finding papers to read, that's a lot of work to do (really, a lot of a graduate degree is reading papers on the topic you're researching). I would suggest using the common databases (ACM & IEEE digital libraries, CiteSeer etc.) and also looking for the big conferences (maybe even attending one) and journals and checking out the work that gets submitted there.

Your last question is a bit open-ended, but I believe that professors want to see students that are "curious" and excited to read and do work in that specific area of study.

I should end by saying I am not a PhD student, I am a Master's student that has been involved in research for about two-three years. I'm sure PhD students can add to what I've said and will perhaps disagree with a few points.