Narrow the sub-field within computer science where you would like to focus your research.
Locate recent scholarly articles in your chosen sub-field and study them while taking notes about interesting unanswered questions and topics.
Determine whether you have sufficient experience to proceed. If not, determine where your knowledge is lacking and learn the necessary material either by taking additional classes or through self-study.
Write down your research proposal, focusing on the question that you wish to answer and the experiment or study that you need to conduct.
Once you have a written research proposal, approach a faculty member in the computer science department at a university.
Schedule a meeting with the faculty member and be prepared to discuss your preliminary research, as well as your proposal.
When meeting with a faculty member, discuss the goals of your research and the support and resources that you will expect to receive.
Work together with the faculty member to plan a schedule for the various research milestones that you will need to meet.
Obtain all the necessary permission forms and documentation that you will require if your experiment involves human subjects or specialized equipment.
Begin your research and document every step.
Write up the results of your research as either a research paper, journal article or a presentation at a conference.