A Guide to Electrical Engineering Success
Jackie Elser
English 202C
1
Table of Contents:
1. Preface…………………………………………………………………………………….…. 3
a. Contents ………………………………………………………………………….. 4
b. Audience ……………………………………………………..………………….. 4
c. Assumptions …………………………………………………………...………. 4
d. Organization ……………………………………………………………..……… 4
e. Tips …………………………………………………………………………..………. 5
2. Resources ……………………………………………………………………….…….……. 6
a. Publications ……………………………………….…………………….….……. 7
i. ProQuest ………………………………………………………….……… 7
ii. Journals of Electrical Engineering …………………….………. 8
iii. A Policy Framework for the 21st Century Grid …….…... 9
iv. Science & Technology Statistics from Census ……....….. 10
b. Internet sites ………………………………………………………………..……. 11
i. IEEE Xplorer ……………………………………………….……….……. 11
ii. Defining Control Strategies for MicroGrids ………….……. 12
iii. Web of Knowledge ..……..…………………………………….……. 13
iv. Martindale’s Engineering Center.…..…………………….……. 14
2
Preface
This section of the guide will help you decide if the guide will be helpfully to what
you wish to accomplish. After reading the preface you will know what is in the
guide, how it is organized, and what you should know before reading it.
3
Contents
This guide contains links to websites and articles in topics of electrical
engineering. The articles typically lean towards power systems for electrical
engineering, but many of the resources would be useful to any electrical
engineer. The guide is useful in finding new information on, the problems that
need to be solved by engineers, and resources for helping you to solve problems
in your homework.
Audience
This guide is appropriate for electrical engineering majors. It will be most useful to
the juniors or seniors in electrical engineering, who are looking into focusing on
power systems, since the specific articles I choose dealt with power systems. The
information in the guide will vary and would be useful to anyone from an
undergraduate to a professional level.
Assumptions
The reader should be familiar with electrical engineering, but does not need to be
an expert. For a Penn State student this would be typically after the completion of
EE 210, but some additional experience knowledge of power systems would be
beneficial for understanding the article, since it is written for a professional
engineer. The reader should also have a basic knowledge of the Internet, like how
to access the websites or download PDFs from the websites.
Organization
I have organized the guide so you can easily find your way to the sections that are
most interesting to you. There is a table of contents on page 2 and page numbers
4
on the lower right hand corner of each page, to help you successfully navigate
through this guide.
Tips
Parts of this guide will be more beneficial depending on your skill level in
electrical engineering. The Internet sites will be useful to any skill level in
electrical engineering. The publications will be more useful to: seniors, graduate
students, or professionals.
5
Resources
This section contains helpful websites and publications to help an electrical
engineering student in research for a paper, or for a homework problem. This
section could also help a professional in the field of electrical engineering with
their work.
6
Publications
Index to Periodical Literature
ProQuest
Link to site:
http://search.proquest.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/?accountid=13158
Abstract:
ProQuest is a vast database of knowledge containing articles from 1682 to the
present day. This database is amazing for helping you find historical data for your
research. This source provides articles from many different newspapers including,
the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street
Journal, and many others. ProQuest will search up to 39 databases that it
contains, to find the information that you are looking for. This site is free for all
Penn State students.
Tips:
 Use or to broaden a search
 Use and to narrow a search
7
Professional Journals
Journals of Electrical Engineering
Link to site:
http://www.jee.ro/#
Abstract:
To access the current edition, just click last edition. It is laid out as a magazine and
opens directly to the table of contents, so you can easily find the articles that you
want to read. Once you choose your article, you will be shown an abstract of the
article and will have the option to download the article for free as a PDF file. The
latest edition has 40 well-written articles to choose from, with a variety of
sources. For a fee the website will also give a cd version of volume of the journals
so you can have a hard copy. They also have a section that will give you more
information about new books in electrical engineering that could be beneficial to
your research. The journals range from 2005 to 2013 and are published four times
a year.
Tips:
 There is also an extensive record of archives.
 To choose the article you want, match the number to the left of the title
with the last number in the article 13.2. Section.
8
U.S. Publication
A Policy Framework for the 21st Century Grid: A Progress Report
Publisher: Office of Science and Technology Policy
Link to main site:
http://www.gpo.gov/libraries/
Link to article:
http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/gpo34510/nstc-grid-2013.pdf
Abstract:
The USA government is the largest supplier of publications, so it is important to
know where to access their publications and how to look through them. To find
the article, I searched the main site for power systems, but there are articles for
every field of electrical engineering and many other fields. This article does a good
job in describing how to make a more efficient and secure power grid for the
future, which would help to lower costs and power outages, so it is a very
important topic in electrical engineering. The publications have a broad range
from very old articles to the present day.
Tips:
 Each section has a clear title, so look for what section you want to find out
more about.
 To search http://www.gpo.gov/libraries/ click search near the upper right
hand corner of the page.
9
Statistics
Science & Technology Statistics from Census
Link to main site:
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/
Link to Article:
http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/12statab/science.pdf
Abstract:
This article was found from the main site, by searching for science and
technology. The census gives you a lot of great statistics, which could be used in a
research paper. The census website has statistics about everything that happens
in the USA. The article shows the amount of research and development funding
and where the funding came from, which could be useful in a research paper you
were trying to write. There is also a multitude of other information they give you
that could be relevant to your research. The statistics are usually published on a
yearly basis. The statistics published by the census as far back as 1940 up until
present day.
Tips:
 The census usually provides good figures that can help you easily and
quickly gather information from the article.
10
Websites
Directory of Information Portals
IEEE Xplore
Link to site:
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/home.jsp?reload=true
Abstract:
This website gives a database of articles from IEEE. IEEE is, the Institution of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers. The digital library has over 3 million items
including eBooks, conference publications, magazines, journals, and standards.
This library will be a great place to find trustworthy electrical engineering
information that would be needed. The abstracts of many of the papers are free,
but to view the full paper can be expensive and some of the articles can be found
through the Penn State library for free. However, this is the most extensive
database for electrical engineering articles. The articles from IEEE xplore go from
1872 up to today.
Tips:
 If searching for an exact phrase, you can put “” marks around it.
 The page will also allow you to create your own project, which helps you
keep all of the documents you need to use in one location, and add notes
and tabs to the project.
11
Sample Report
Defining Control Strategies for MicroGrids: Islanded Operation
Link to main site:
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/home.jsp?reload=true
Link to Article:
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnu
mber=1626398
Author: J.A Pecas, C.L. Moreira, and A.G. Madureira
Publisher: IEEE
Abstract:
This is an example of one the many great articles that IEEE has to offer. The
articles like this can be found by, searching the Penn State library eResourses for
power systems. The article explains how Micro Grids or MGs, as they refer to
them, are beneficial to the grid in a normal mode or during an emergency. The
Micro Grid is very useful during an emergency, since it can act alone even if the
power goes down all around it. Micro Grids are currently not widespread, because
it can be hard to create a small grid with its own supply of power, which means
power outages can affect very large areas. Hopefully in the future we will learn to
create MGs more efficiently. This report should help give you a good
understanding of how an electrical engineering report should be laid out.
Tips:
 The figures can be very useful in order to figure out what they are telling
you, if you start to get lost with some of the more technical aspects of the
article.
12
Directory of Information Portals
Web of Knowledge
Link to site:
http://apps.webofknowledge.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/WOS_GeneralSearc
h_input.do?product=WOS&search_mode=GeneralSearch&SID=4B5M2Akf3kKGO4
b@MkO&preferencesSaved
Abstract:
The Web of Knowledge is a vast database, which is great for researching any
scientific topic. The database contains over 23,000 scientific journals, 23,000,000
patents, 110,000 conference proceedings, and 9,000 websites. This source can
help you get more of a scientific background with the physics, chemistry, or
biology of your research. A scientific background is very important for any
engineering research, since science is the backbone of engineering. The Web of
Knowledge is free for all Penn State students. The Web of Knowledge has a broad
range, containing documents from 1900 up to 2013.
Tips:
 Use * in a word to replace an unknown letter or letters.
13
Directory of Information Portals
Martindale’s Engineering Center
Link to site:
http://www.martindalecenter.com/Calculators4.html
Abstract:
This center of engineering has a list of diverse topics that you can look through.
The source has over 4,200 courses, lectures, and handbooks for you to see and
get a very in depth knowledge of almost any engineering subject. The center also
has over 24,000 calculators to help you solve any problem you come across, and
over 1,000 videos to help you further your understanding of any engineering field
you need to research. There are many things from this website that could be
helpful to your research. For example, if you are researching how a computer
works, while you will find many articles on how specific parts of the computer
operate, like the CPU or RAM, there is also a guide telling you how to build your
own computer. This would help give you an understanding on how the parts go
together and which parts interact with each other. This is a good website to help
give you a basis for your research and help you learn a new subject.
Tips:
 This website is a little different from the rest because it does not have a
search bar, but there is an audio engineering section, an electrical
engineering section, a computer engineering section, and semiconductors
etc. section, that would beneficial to an electrical engineer in there
research.
14