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Why Not Just Use The Web?

Or

How Library Research Can Contribute To Your Senior Design Project

 

Fundamental Purpose of the EE 407/408/409 Sequence

 

The fundamental purpose of the EE 407/408/409 Senior Design sequence is for a team of students to define a design problem or project, and then identify and evaluate alternative solutions.

The most feasible solution is then to be selected and a detailed assessment of the option is undertaken and should include design details and the ordering of any parts necessary for the implementation of the solution (or the implementation of a prototype). The design solution is then built, tested, modified, retested, and completely documented.

Throughout the sequence, many common design considerations must be explored, including costs, compliance to relevant standards and specifications, and legal, ethical and safety concerns.

 

How The Library Can Help

 

Clearly, the primary focus of the Senior Design sequence is not library research. Instead, the primary focus entails the actual design and building of a solution to a problem.

However, each phase in the EE Senior Design sequence requires a written report. Traditional and electronic library resources may be useful in helping with the following elements that need to be addressed in the written reports:

 

• Problem Definition
  • Problem definition may be the result of the mutual interests of the team members. It may also be aided through the process of becoming familiar with the professional and trade literature associated with a particular subject-area. This literature can be quickly accessed with library resources.
• Problem Clarification and Explanation
  • It is not unusual to find in previous Senior Design Projects comments made by professors asking for a clarification of statements, or even supporting references for statements. Professional and trade literature, quickly obtained via library resources, can provide such supporting documentation.
  • Perhaps even more importantly, literature may be able to tell you what doesn't work and in this way, clarify the nature of a design problem. Dean Kamen, the energetic and eccentric inventor of the self-balancing Segway Human Transporter, reports that the initial idea behind the Segway was the development of a wheelchair that could negotiate steps and curbs. Kamen and his engineers began by brainstorming, but this did not lead to any satisfactory solution, so Kamen searched the literature on wheelchairs. He eventually located many patents from what he calls the "Golden Age of Gizmology" -- the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, "when really smart, creative people invented mechanical adding machines, or printing presses or jukeboxes -- things that today we easily do with software" [see Max Alexander, September 2003, "Wow, Isn't That Cool!" Smithsonian, pp. 95-96].

    Realizing that he and his engineers were unlikely to do better, Kamen had an insight that the real problem that needed to be tackled was "finding a way to understand human balance." This eventually led to the development of an electronic gyroscope and the iBot -- a motorized wheelchair precursor of the Segway -- which could climb stairs.

• Problem Solutions
  • Brainstorming techniques may be employed to generate alternative solutions, but most design experts also recommend using professional and trade literature that is associated with a particular problem.
  • This literature might include books, journal articles, technical and legal information.
  • Such literature can provide information on the history and development of a problem, together with data and insight into what has been tried and was successful and what has failed and why. This literature can be quickly accessed with library resources.
• Patent Research
  • Patents are legal documents. They need to be checked to determine the extent of workable ideas and protected ideas. They may also be checked during the problem solution stage.
  • Patent-searching -- even basic patent-searching -- at one time was very difficult. Patents had to be searched manually and by means of a unique classification system.
  • Patent-searching now is available through the web and is much easier because keyword searching is a feature. All Senior Design students should try a patent searching in conjunction with their problem definition and solutions brainstorming.
  • However, for future reference, students should keep in mind that a comprehensive, thorough patent search still requires expert searchers who are familiar with the patent classification system. Such experts are usually intellectual property lawyers and patent librarians.
• Standards
  • A number of traditional library resources are available for identifying relevant standards. Many standards organizations also have web sites. However, most organizations charge fees for their standards -- the library may be one way for you to obtain standards at no cost.
• Legal and Ethical Issues
  • Legal databases and resources -- typically housed in libraries -- should be consulted as part of the design process. The professional and trade literature -- available through library resources -- may also discuss both legal and and ethical concerns associated with a problem subject-area.
• Identifying Experts
  • Traditional library resources can help you to identify expert individuals and expert organizations in your problem subject-area. These resources include a unique online encyclopedia of organizations and databases which additionally feature an author's organizational affiliation.

Consider also the words of well-known engineering author, Henry Petroski. In Design Paradigms: Case Histories of Error and Judgment in Engineering (1994) (the call number in the MSOE Library is TA 174 .P 473 1994). Petroski writes that The human activity of engineering design is not a perfect science capable of producing perfect products. Engineering is part art ... . There is no finite checklist of rules or questions that an engineer can apply and answer in order to declare that a design is perfect and absolutely safe ... . And in Invention by Design: How Engineers Get From Thought to Thing (1996) (the call number in the MSOE Library is TA 174 .P4735 1996), Petroski notes that engineering design is the art of compromise, and in case history after case history, he illustrates how social, economic, financial, legal, regulatory, and aesthetic challenges often assume tremendous importance in the success -- or failure -- of design products. Sometimes the importance of these things is even greater than the technical details and innovations associated with the design. Libraries and literature are one tool in the toolbox that can help designers to anticipate, understand, and overcome these challenges.