Internet Resource Guide for Prospective
Penn State Mechanical Engineers
By Herschel Pangborn ENGL 202C
Feb. 6, 2013
TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................................................................3 a. WHAT’S INSIDE?......................................................................................................................3 b. WHO IS THE GUIDE FOR?........................................................................................................3 c. WHAT DOES THE GUIDE ASSUME USERS KNOW?...................................................................3 d. HOW IS THE GUIDE ORGANIZED? ...........................................................................................4 e. GENERAL TIPS FOR USING THE GUIDE ....................................................................................4 Section 1. THE FIELD OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING ...................................................................5 a. AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR MECHANICAL ENGINEERS...............................................................5 b. STATISTICAL ABSTRACT OF THE UNITED STATES ....................................................................7 Section 2. MECHANICAL ENGINEERING AT PENN STATE................................................................9 a. PSU DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL AND NUCLEAR ENGINEERING ......................................9 b. GLOBAL ENGINEERING EDUCATION .....................................................................................11 c. ENGINEERING CAREER RESOURCES AND EMPLOYER RELATIONS.........................................12 Section 3. RESEARCH IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING .................................................................14 a. IEEE XPLORE INDEX ...............................................................................................................14 b. JOURNAL OF DYNAMIC SYSTEMS, MEASUREMENT, AND CONTROL ....................................16 c. CATALOG OF THE U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS..........................................................18 Internet Resource Guide | 2 INTRODUCTION a. WHAT’S INSIDE? Included in this guide are descriptions of Internet resources for Penn State students considering majoring in mechanical engineering (ME) who want to learn more about this field and its instruction at Penn State. The guide provides resources that identify the scope and characteristics of mechanical engineering, its curriculum at Penn State, opportunities for professional experiences and to study abroad, and specific areas of ongoing research within the field. b. WHO IS THE GUIDE FOR? At Penn State, engineering majors usually do not declare a specific field (mechanical, civil, electrical, etc.) until just before their junior year. This guide is designed for Penn State freshman and sophomore engineers who have yet to declare, but think they might be interested in mechanical engineering. Following this guide and exploring the resources provided will help Penn State engineers discover whether mechanical engineering is the right field for them, and even identify a few specific topics of technical and professional interest. c. WHAT DOES THE GUIDE ASSUME USERS KNOW? The guide assumes that users are somewhat familiar with the general engineering curriculum at Penn State taken by students in their freshman and sophomore years, and may even have completed some of the courses it contains, such as EDSGN 100, PHYS 211, and MATH 141. It also assumes that readers are interested enough in mechanical engineering to spend significant time exploring the resources provided. While users may have a surface level understanding of a few topics explored by mechanical engineers, they may not have a comprehensive knowledge of the scope of the field. Internet Resource Guide | 3 d. HOW IS THE GUIDE ORGANIZED? The first section of this guide, titled “The Field of Mechanical Engineering” will provide useful resources about both the scope of the field as a whole, and individuals who have made it their career. The second section, titled “Mechanical Engineering at Penn State,” connects readers to the curriculum and research activities of Penn State’s ME Department, as well as to resources available to Penn State engineers to help them identify and achieve study abroad opportunities, internships, co-­‐ops, and jobs. The third section, “Research in Mechanical Engineering,” is designed to help readers discover possible interest areas within the diverse spectrum of sciences and technologies explored by mechanical engineers in both academia and government laboratories. For each of the eight resources, a link and access instructions are provided and followed by a description of the resource and recommendations for its use. Tips for efficient and effective browsing are also provided. e. GENERAL TIPS FOR USING THE GUIDE •
•
•
•
Don’t be afraid to digress from the guide if you come across something in a resource that draws your attention-­‐-­‐the whole purpose of this document is to help you discover your interests! It is very likely that you will come across technical engineering terminology and methodology with which you are unfamiliar. Searching for these in Wikipedia and reading the first few paragraphs of their entries can be a great way to achieve a basic understanding. Read all of the information provided for each resource (access details, description, tips, etc.), otherwise you may not know how to properly authenticate for full access to the website, and also could miss out on critical and valuable information. This guide has been organized in a modular fashion intentionally so that readers who are already familiar with one or more resources in a section may skip them and move on to more useful parts. Take advantage of this trait. For example, if you are already very familiar with the field of mechanical engineering and just want to learn more about studying it specifically at Penn State, feel free to skip to Section 2. Internet Resource Guide | 4 Section 1. THE FIELD OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING This section will provide useful resources about the scope of the mechanical engineering field as a whole, and individuals who have made it their career. a. AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR MECHANICAL ENGINEERS Professional Organization Access: http://www.asme.org/ (no authentication required) Description: The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is the leading organization serving to define, govern, and unify mechanical engineering. Its website serves as a resource to individuals at all levels of expertise, from undergraduates to professors to corporate executives. While not emphasizing highly technical aspects of current work in the field of mechanical engineering, it provides a glimpse into the culture, values, and accomplishments of the community. ASME is critical to the dissemination of knowledge and communication among mechanical engineers, providing information about events and subgroups in the field, as well as opportunities to get involved in the organization’s work. Via the “News and Articles” section of the “Knowledge Base” tab, the website offers a great database of non-­‐technical articles about current work by mechanical engineers across the globe. These articles are very accessible to intermediate-­‐level engineering students seeking to better understand the activities in which a typical mechanical engineer might be involved. These entries can be sorted by industries and disciplines within mechanical engineering (transportation, mechatronics, construction, etc.). Exploring the content in each of these categories provides an excellent way to learn about the scope of topics encompassed by mechanical engineering. Entries can also be sorted by career path (students, teachers, professionals, etc.). Users of this guide should explore the entries under the “students” category, which foreshadow many of the career choices they would encounter as Penn State mechanical engineers and offer advice for landing internships and jobs. Internet Resource Guide | 5 Tips: •
•
•
The “About” section of the home page presents some basic historical information about ASME, as well as its mission statement. Understand that these core values are universally accepted among members of the mechanical engineering profession. While exploring the entries under “New and Events” sorted by various disciplines of mechanical engineering, take note of any that are personally compelling. It will be important to have these in mind later on in the guide so that you can match them with ongoing research within the Penn State Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering in Section 2a, and use them as search terms when exploring more technical journals and papers in Section 3. While reading the entries under “New and Events” when sorted for students, take note of any enrichment opportunities for mechanical engineers that are discussed in which you might be interested, such as study abroads and co-­‐ops. You can use these to guide your exploration of the Global Education and Career Resources websites in Section 2b-­‐c. Internet Resource Guide | 6 b. STATISTICAL ABSTRACT OF THE UNITED STATES Website Access: http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/ (no authentication required) Description: The Statistical Abstract of the United States is an access point for data collected about the economics, politics, and society of the nation. A massive scope of information, from agricultural statistics to wholesale data, is available and categorized alphabetically on the left-­‐
hand menu. University students will find the “Higher Education: Degrees” category particularly interesting. The associated documents break down degrees awarded at a various levels of higher education by gender, race, and (most importantly to the scope of this guide) field. A search bar allows the user to input more specific terms. This resource can be used by readers of this guide to piece together a snapshot of the state of mechanical engineers as professionals within the nation. For example, searching for “mechanical engineering salary” and choosing the second link of the results brings up a PDF document listing the number of civilian workers in a variety of scientific and engineering fields and industries. From this, we can learn that many mechanical engineers work in manufacturing but very few work in information, and that those in computer manufacturing make on average around $10,000 more than those in aerospace manufacturing. Internet Resource Guide | 7 Tips: •
•
•
This is your opportunity to compare the statistical characteristics of mechanical engineers to engineers in other fields. Keep in mind that, even though chemical engineers might have higher salaries than mechanical engineers on average, it doesn’t mean that YOU would too if you chose that field instead. Also remember that enjoying your field of expertise is more important than any monetary discrepancy. While it is an invaluable tool, the search bar can be very sensitive to wording. Following from the example above, changing the word “engineering” to “engineer” completely alters the search results. You may have to experiment with a variety of keywords to find the data in which you are interested. Don’t forget to check the DATE and LOCATION of the information you find. Salaries today are quite different than they were 20 years ago, and statistics from a census taken in California might not apply to Pennsylvania. Internet Resource Guide | 8 Section 2. MECHANICAL ENGINEERING AT PENN STATE This section connects readers to the curriculum and research activities of Penn State’s ME Department, as well as to resources available to Penn State engineers to help them identify and achieve study abroad opportunities, internships, co-­‐ops, and jobs. a. PSU DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL AND NUCLEAR ENGINEERING Website Access: http://www.mne.psu.edu (no authentication required) Description: The homepage of the Penn State Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering (MNE) serves as a hub for both undergraduate and graduate students, connecting them to information about admissions, degree programs, research, student services, and recent news in Penn State mechanical engineering. While much for the information under the “Undergraduate” tab pertains to students who are in the process of applying to Penn State, its “Curriculum” subsection is useful to current students for comparing previous coursework to the classes that are required for the major, and for making decisions about future coursework. This section even includes a flow chart of the classes nominally taken by a mechanical engineering major in every semester. This makes it possible for users of this guide to see where they would stand relative to the curriculum as mechanical engineers, and view the classes that compose the core of the major. Internet Resource Guide | 9 The MNE website is also a portal for learning about the research areas and faculty that compose the department, via the “Research” and “Faculty” tabs across the top of the page. The former breaks down the research conducted within MNE by specialization, which allows users to quickly investigate the presence of their interest areas within the department. A list of the MNE research laboratories is also provided here, often with links to their individual websites. Clicking the name or photo of a faculty member under the “Faculty” tab brings up academic and biographical information, such as research interests, publications, and education, as well as links to personal websites. Readers of this guide should use the “Research” and “Faculty” tabs to learn about the different subfields within mechanical engineering at Penn State, such as thermal sciences, controls, and manufacturing, and to match the topics in which they are most interested to the work of specific faculty members. Tips: •
•
•
•
Even though you don’t have to declare your field as mechanical engineering until just before your junior year, there are some slight differences in the classes required of mechanical engineering freshmen and sophomores when compared to other engineering majors. For example, mechanical engineers may choose to take BIO 141 instead of CHEM 112. The earlier you decide that ME is for you, the greater the chance that you will be able to use these differences to your advantage. Review the MNE curriculum information to identify these differences, and talk to your advisor about them as soon as possible if you decide that ME might be for you. The curriculum section also provides brief description of the content of every mechanical engineering course, lab, and elective, which can be used to study the breadth of subjects covered by Penn State mechanical engineering and ensure that these align with your interests. Remember that the professors who conduct research in topics that you find compelling are likely teaching the foundational technical skills required to conduct that research, and so it might be a good idea to seek them out when scheduling classes. Conducting research at Penn State is not limited exclusively to professors and graduate students. There are opportunities for undergraduates, and even underclassmen, at many of the MNE research labs. If you are interested in getting involved, look for postings and instructions for applying on the individual websites of a lab, or contact the faculty member who directs it. Internet Resource Guide | 10 b. GLOBAL ENGINEERING EDUCATION Website Access: http://www.engr.psu.edu/global/ (no authentication required) Description: The Penn State Global Engineering Education website helps current Penn State engineering students identify and apply to study abroad opportunities, and seek travel grants to cover some of the cost of studying abroad. It also provides international students interested in studying at Penn State with information about exchange programs and admissions. Under the “Penn State Students” tab at the top of the page, readers can explore three types of study abroad programs: Academic, work, and extra-­‐curricular. Clicking the first tab on the left hand side brings up subcategories for different durations of programs, such as semester, summer, and short-­‐term. Under “Semester Study Abroad,” the Program Matrix breaks down opportunities by country and major. Clicking one of the indices of this matrix brings up links to the relevant programs and the semester standing required to pursue them. Similar organizational charts are offered on the pages for other durations of study. Under “Information for Students Traveling Abroad,” readers will find travel tips, as well as details of funding opportunities, such as the international travel grants awarded by the College of Engineering. Readers of this guide should use this website, and especially the Program Matrix discussed above to learn more about study abroad opportunities specifically for Penn State mechanical engineers, and consider whether these align with their interests, both geographically and technically. Study abroad programs prove to be one of the most memorable and shaping experiences of the undergraduate education of many Penn State engineers. Tips: •
Many study abroads can be taken for credit, conducted over the summer, or both. This allows students to obtain a global perspective and still graduate in four years. Internet Resource Guide | 11 c. ENGINEERING CAREER RESOURCES AND EMPLOYER RELATIONS Website Access: http://www.engr.psu.edu/career/ (no authentication required) Description: The website of Engineering Career Resources and Employer Relations is a first stop for Penn State engineering students seeking internship, co-­‐op, and full time employment opportunities.* In addition to information about these professional offerings, the website provides readers with details about upcoming career fairs and networking receptions, including the companies who will be present and the fields of expertise being sought. The third major function of Engineering Career Resources and Employer Relations is to help students prepare for professional experiences and applications by assisting with the creation of resumes and other correspondence, and by providing tips on professional dress, interviewing, and networking. The figurehead service of Engineering Career Resources and Employer Relations, and also the most useful to students considering mechanical engineering, is eCareer-­‐-­‐a searchable database of professional engineering firms seeking Penn State students. Information about registering for eCareer and setting up an account is found under the “Students” tab. Once registered and logged in to this service, engineers can use the advanced search option under the “jobs” tab to look for internship, coop and full time positions by field, position type, class level, industry, and location. Searching exclusively for opportunities open to mechanical engineers allows potential ME students to learn about the types of professional experiences that will be open to them as juniors and seniors in the major, and as alumni seeking full time employment. Required specializations, job responsibilities, and sometimes salaries are available for almost 200 positions in mechanical engineering. * For readers unfamiliar with the distinction between internships and co-­‐ops, the latter often extend for a greater duration and require more technical experience as a prerequisite. Internet Resource Guide | 12 Tips: •
•
Don’t neglect the usefulness of networking as a method of determining whether a particular field could be right for you. Attending a professional event to speak with employees in the field or representatives from companies seeking mechanical engineers is one of the most useful ways to investigate your interests. As with study abroads, many short-­‐term experiences can be taken for credit, conducted over the summer, or both. This allows students to experience the professional world first-­‐hand and still graduate in four years. Internet Resource Guide | 13 Section 3. RESEARCH IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING This section is designed to help readers discover and research possible interest areas within the diverse spectrum of sciences and technologies investigated by mechanical engineers. a. IEEE XPLORE INDEX Periodical Index Access: http://www.ieeexplore.ieee.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu (authenticate with Penn State user name and password when off campus) Description: The IEEE Xplore service provides access to more than 3 million full text documents published in journals, conferences, and other sources, dating from 1893 to the present day. It is the go-­‐to stop for many engineers seeking highly technical information about a particular technology, application, or research project. Search terms can be organized by very useful criteria, such as publication year, author, author affiliation, and topic. Contrasting with the news and articles available on the ASME listings (see Section 1a) these papers often assume a high level of previous knowledge in their area of focus and familiarity with reference literature. The reward for embracing this harder challenge of comprehension to the intermediate engineer is a deeper understanding of both the results obtained by members of the field, and the methods, collaboration, and prior knowledge that facilitate this work. Readers of this guide should use this service to find more information about the mechanical engineering topics to which they were drawn during investigation of the ASME website in Section 1a and the MNE Department website and its associated faculty and research labs in Section 2a. Dozens of papers by Penn State ME faculty members are available through IEEE Xplore. Internet Resource Guide | 14 Tips: •
Don’t expect to understand every part of every paper—many of those you encounter are likely to be incomprehensible to anyone without a PhD in the field. Instead, consider whether the themes and methods expressed in abstracts, introductions, or conclusions instigate a desire to learn more of the technical details. Don’t hesitate to look up unfamiliar terms in Wikipedia. Internet Resource Guide | 15 b. JOURNAL OF DYNAMIC SYSTEMS, MEASUREMENT, AND CONTROL Journal Access: http://asmedl.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/DynamicSys (authenticate with Penn State user name and password when off campus) Description: While no one journal could encompass the entire breadth of mechanical engineering, entries in the Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control are relevant to a significant number of its core topics, including robotics, aerospace systems, fluids, energy, and control theory. Accessed via the ASME Digital Library and the University Libraries databases, full text issues dating from 1971 to the present day can be viewed by Penn State students under the “All Online Issues” heading. The Digital Library includes a search feature, allowing users to look for specific content published in the journal during any calendar year. Like the IEEE Xplore index, this journal allows users to explore their interests within the field of mechanical engineering at a much more technical and in-­‐depth level than the resources provided in Section 1 and Section 2 of this guide. This will allow them to understand whether they are drawn to the field not only by the deliverables of the work conducted, but also by the underlying methodology and specializations required to conduct such work. It is important for readers to understand the focus and limitations of this resource. While a broad range of topics are included, they are always approached from the perspective of either dynamic modeling, measurement, or control theory. For example, a paper focused on the manufacturing of hard drives will likely discuss the control of the hard drive disk and magnetic head mechanisms. Discussions of the geometric tolerances, material properties, and thermal qualities of those hard drives are to be found elsewhere. Just as a person can scan a crowded auditorium for the color blue, this journal considers one aspect of applications sampled from the full palette of mechanical engineering topics. This approach is not unique among journals in the field. For example, the Journal of Fluids Engineering examines topics ranging from jet engines to clothes dryers, but always from the perspective of fluid flow. While this specificity can be limiting in some cases, it can also make it much easier to find papers relating to specific subjects than when using indexes such as IEEE Xplore, because much of the filtering has been conducted before users ever type in the search bar. Internet Resource Guide | 16 Tips: •
•
The tips given for using the IEEE Xplore Index still apply. To restate them succinctly: Search for engineering topics that you have come across previously and are interested in, and try not to be intimidated if you don’t understand much of the content of the journals. The ASME Digital Library provides easy access to a number of other journals with strong ties to mechanical engineering that have been vetted by ASME as both reputable and significant. These are accessible via the “Journals” tab. While the Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control is a great starting place, don’t hesitate to branch out your exploration if other journals catch your eye. Internet Resource Guide | 17 c. CATALOG OF THE U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS Website Access: http://catalog.gpo.gov/ (no authentication required) Description: The Catalog of the U.S. Government Publications is a searchable compendium of over 500,000 federal publications dating as far back as 1976. Many of these are technical documents that relate to mechanical engineering. In fact, the search terms “mechanical engineering” return over 1,200 results, many of which were written by research centers affiliated with NASA on research conducted to support space systems. For many entries, users can find links to full text documents by clicking on an entry and scrolling down to the “Internet Access” row. The contributions of government research to the field of mechanical engineering cannot be overstated. Called spin-­‐offs, many technologies developed by NASA alone have been commercialized in industry and are responsible for millions of dollars of private sales, almost all of which involved some degree of mechanical engineering to design or manufacture. Many national labs also maintain a close relationship with academic institutions, such as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which developed and operates the Mars rovers and is managed by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Given these facts, the monitoring of federal publications is critically important to any mechanical engineer who wishes to maintain an awareness of trends in the field, and can serve as a predictor of the direction in which academia and industry are headed. As with the IEEE Index and Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control, the available documents are technical in nature, however in general they include both much more intelligible descriptions for non-­‐specialists and more background information. This is because the reports generated are distributed not just to those conducting research, but also to project managers, as well as military and political entities responsible for monitoring the nation’s allocation of research funding, who may not have the same prerequisite knowledge. Coincidentally, this makes the documents far less tasking reads for undergraduates seeking to learn about cutting-­‐edge work in mechanical engineering. Internet Resource Guide | 18 Example: To provide an example of the reports available via the Catalog of the U.S. Government Publications, a search for “robot interface” was conducted using the Internet publications catalog. SuDoc D 101.133:3834, titled Human-­‐Robot Interface: Issues in Operator Performance, Interface, Design, and Technologies is one of the results of the search. It can be located directly by selecting “SuDoc Class Number” as the field to search in the Catalog of the U.S. Government Publications interface, and entering “D 101.133:3834.” SuDoc refers to the Superintendant Documents Classification System used by the Federal Depository Library Program. This report is a 2006 product of the Army Research Laboratory, and discusses the challenges of designing interfaces by which human agents interact with robotic systems, such as bomb disposal and emergency search and rescue platforms. This document would be of particular interest to potential mechanical engineers who are interested in the design or control of human assistive or military robotics. Tips: •
•
Under the “advanced” tab, use the search hints provided at the bottom of the screen to get better results for your queries. For example, if you want to search for robots but not mars rovers, use the hint about Boolean operators and type: “Robots NOT Mars.” If you find yourself continually drawn to research attributed to a particular laboratory or facility, it might be worth investigating its internship or co-­‐op opportunities. Many governmental research institutions offer paid programs for undergraduates at all levels. A good starting place to search for availabilities is the Engineering Career Resources and Employer Relations eCareer tool, described in Section 2c. Internet Resource Guide | 19