Engineering students featured this week!

Congratulations, Jonathan Becker on winning our CIT Library Blog contest celebrating Engineers Week!
Congratulations to Vicki Cheng and Fei He, runners-up!

Following are their submissions:

Jonathan Becker
Electrical & Computer Engineering

I am an ECE Ph.D. student currently located at the Silicon Valley campus in the west coast. As such, I have yet to physically step foot in any of the Carnegie Mellon libraries. That's not to say that I do not use any of the library services, as part of my Ph.D. research involves finding, reading, and evaluating published conference and peer-reviewed journal papers. For my first Ph.D. project, I am designing an anti-jamming 802.11 antenna beamformer array using genetic algorithms to find optimal antenna phase and attenuation settings. For my second project, I am designing solar antennas that can convert sunlight into usable electric currents. For both projects, I not only need to read books on related subjects, but I need to read as many conference and journal papers as I can possibly find. This way, I can understand what research has already been done in my project areas, so I can implement new technologies to help solve my engineering problems. It also helps me prepare for my quals.

Now, you may ask where the CMU libraries come in all of this? Simple! Since I cannot physically visit any of the libraries in person, I login into the CMU Library’s Virtual Private Network, and I search and download online articles. I've found this to be a great service to my learning out here in the Silicon Valley. Once I'm logged in, I have a cornucopia of conference and peer-reviewed journal articles ready for me to download and read.


Vicki Cheng
Chemical Engineering

"Yesterday Once More"

I was recently reminiscing with my roommate about what it was like to grow up in the 90s, and was struck by how technologically oriented our memories were. What started out as an innocent remark about how Wikipedia was spoiling the students of this generation quickly escalated into a game of “I remember…”, in which each of us tried to outdo the other with recollections of activities from the days of yore, each of which appeared increasingly outlandish by today’s standards.
“I remember when we actually looked things up in BOOK encyclopedias at the library!”
“Yeah? Well, I remember doing research papers by going through PRINT journals and using INDEX CARDS!”
“Oh yeah? Well, I remember having to find books using the CARD CATALOG!”
At that point, both of us collapsed into a pile of hysterical giggles as we realized how far library research had come and gone over our nearly two decades of schooling. As much as we may laugh about how different library protocol was “back in the day”, the need for information has not changed over time. While I’ve found that I, along with several of my peers, are progressively moving towards online and electronic sources for our research needs, the fact remains that the CIT Library, with its wealth of resources, is as important as ever, and it will certainly be interesting to see how this infrastructure will evolve to work with students in this digital age.


Fei He
Information Networking Institute

I didn't notice this activity until I ponder for a programming design problem around E&S library's entrance. The topic reminds me how grateful I should be for the CIT library: if there's a winning prize, it should be awarded first to the CIT library itself.

Coming from a university in China, I came to CMU to study a master degree in computer science. I found myself most comfortably studying in the E&S library, as I would study in classroom in China, the pattern that most Chinese students follow as we normally don't have such a student-friendly library in China (discussion room, printers, network...you name it).

In this 2-year study at CMU, the library is the most frequent place I stayed, even more than classroom as sometimes we have to skip class to finish projects:) I searched and read books on shelf, discussed projects with teammates, and even prepared for job interviews. It serves as a cove rather than a floor, and it is its power of knowledge that leads me to job opportunity and foundations to success in future.

Although this submission might be a little late for the blog, it's the right time for me to say "thank you".

2010 Engineers Week February 14-20

Attention: Engineering Students!
Be a guest blogger for Engineers Week!
Win a prize!
Submit your original ideas for the CIT Library blog:

These may include how the library has helped you, what library resources you have used, how you’ve used the library to help you learn at Carnegie Mellon, what library book you use the most & why...

Your entry should be no more than 250 words.

The winner gets a $50 cash card.
Two runners up will each receive a $25 cash card.

Submit your entry by Monday, Feb. 15.
Engineering & Science Library staff will judge the entries and announce the winners by Friday, Feb 19.

The winning entries will be posted on the blog! Happy Engineers Week!

Submit your entries to Donna Beck, Engineering Librarian- Donna Beck

Carnegie Mellon Digitizes American Journal of Science 1810-1899

Carnegie Mellon has scanned the American Journal of Science from 1810 to 1899. While the American Journal of Science is now primarily concerned with Geology, the back issues of the Journal cover everything from the engineering of the gyroscope to the discovery of dinosaur bones in the continental United States. The collection is set up for both word searches and browsing. Included within the texts are beautiful hand drawn illustrations. The American Journal of Science is found in the A-Z list of databases under the Articles and Databases page of the library homepage. I have included below a particularly entertaining passage concerning the migration of caterpillars, from Vol. 9 of 1825 of the American Journal of Science.

Writing a paper? Help is a click away......

Writing Guidelines for Engineering and Science Students
http://writing.engr.psu.edu/

Penn State University provides a great web resource for all engineering and
science students with the models, exercises, and advice that it gives for
over a half dozen type of documents they will likely encounter in their
schooling and eventual professions.  On the left hand side of the homepage
visitors will find "Student Resources", "Instructor Resources", and links to
the "Contributors", which include "Virginia Tech", "University of Illinois",
and "Georgia Tech".  The "Introduction" on the homepage, offers the
following basics to consider when starting a paper: "Assessing the
Audience", "Selecting the Format", and "Crafting the Style".  Also on the
homepage the site gives links to guidance on "Presentations",
"Correspondence", "Formal Reports", "Proposals", "Instructions", and
"Journal Articles".  The "Design of Presentation Slides", under the
"Presentations" link, demonstrates the use of the assertion-evidence
structure for presentation slides, as opposed to the typical PowerPoint
template, along with many resources on the left hand side of the page that
tout the benefits of that structure. [KMG]

To find this resource and more high-quality online resources in math and
science visit Scout's sister site - AMSER, the Applied Math and Science
Educational Repository at http://amser.org.

Who's who from The Simpsons

Who has time to pleasure read during the semester? Especially the one we just completed, you know--the one that went by so quickly! But, during the long break between semesters, you might have a chance to read a bestseller or two.
The book chosen for this past fall’s Science Libraries Book Discussion is a quick read: What’s Science Ever Done for Us? What The Simpsons Can Teach Us about Physics, Robots, Life, and the Universe by Paul Halpern. The Engineering & Science Library has a copy on our book shelves under this number: Q162 .H3154 2007.

And, even if you don’t read the book, you can try your hand at matching the person (real or fictional) to the quote:
Quotes from the Halpern book.

Trivia: Carnegie Mellon was mentioned by name in an episode of The Simpsons. If you can't find out which one, contact your friendly research librarian!

Do you have a book suggestion for the Engineering & Science Library? Go to our home page: search.library.cmu.edu. Click on “Frequently Asked Questions” and then arrow down under “CAMEO library catalog FAQ” to find the last question, “Can I ask you to buy a book?”

Or simply send any of the Engineering Research Specialists an email with your suggestion.

Happy Holidays and have a safe and happy break!