Ask HN: How can SWEs get started with Computer Science research?

As most of the programmers in my region I got started with programming/computer science only after my graduation. And along the years I've come to love it very much and want to further this interest by adding a bit of research emphasis and not just stick with industry driven technology. I don't have a clear path with respect to research (and don't know what I'm expecting going through this route) but I want to get started. I understand that there are quiet a few ways to do it -- OSS contributions etc. HN, but is there anyway I could do this? Should I just randomly pick some papers and grok!