EGR 186: Introduction to Engineering Design

Technology develops at a rapid pace, and professional engineers must know how to keep up with the latest developments. "Keeping up" means investigating how others are coming up with engineering solutions to solve various problems. Your ability to keep up with the latest developments in engineering will help you:

1. Get your own ideas for how to solve problems.
2. Ensure that your ideas for solving a problem have not already been explored by someone else.
3. Ensure that your ideas offer a competitive, marketable solution to a problem. 

You'll be learning how to "keep up" by investigating the latest engineering solutions (not policy solutions) to sustainability problems identified by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:

http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/

These problems include tackling poverty, improving education, promoting gender equality, supplying people with clean water, supplying people with clean energy, etc.

Engineers regularly consult several different types of information sources, as these sources have different qualities and uses. The best sources to consult will depend on your information need. Employers value employees who know which sources to consult for a particular information need, and how to find those sources efficiently.

Engineers share their research findings primarily through journal articles and conference papers, but also through technical reports, patents, standards, websites, trade publications, and dissertations and theses. 

Journal articles and conference papers are especially important because:

• These publications contain research results that establish new facts and move the discipline forward.
• These are original research.
• These publications contain the most current research.
• Information in most journals has undergone a peer-review process to help ensure accuracy and reliability. Some conference papers are also peer-reviewed.