Internet Resource Guide

Internet Resource Guide

For Senior Undergraduate Electrical Engineer

By Nanjia Wang

5/22/2013

1

Table of Contents

1.

Introduction and Front Matte

1.1. What is in this guide 2

1.2. Who this guide is for 2

1.3. What this Guide Assumes 2

1.4. Organization 2

1.5. Tips for using this guide 2

2.

Academic Resources

2.2. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Xplore 4

2.3. Journal of Electrical Engineering 5

2.4.IEEE Transaction on Plasma Science 6

2.5.Statistical Abstract of the United States 7

3.

Career & Continue Studying

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What is in this Guide

The primary purpose of this guide is to provide helpful online resources and useful tips for senior electrical engineering students at Penn State. The resources in this guide include journals, online books, periodical index, career resource and other useful website. Most of the resources provided in this guide is free or can be accessed by log in with Penn State id. Students may find it useful in both academia and career.

Who is This Guide For

This guide is primary for senior undergraduate electrical engineering students at Penn State. However, graduate students who just admitted by Penn State may also find this very helpful since it provides introduction about authoritative website in the field of professional electrical engineering. Junior student who need to choose a specific branch of electrical engineering and focus their study can get advice by reading this guide. A student who has already graduated can also seek help for finding job or applying for graduate school.

What This Guide Assumes

This guide assumes that users are familiar with the field of electrical engineering and have taken basic electrical engineering course. The contents of this guide require users have a good foundation of the major so that they can have a better understanding about topics.

Organization

This guide is organized by the services that user required. The first section focuses on academic pursuits. It provides information about the journals, books and other useful material which can help users to solve course related problem or find valuable article to support their research. The second section is focus on student’s future life after graduation. In this guide, user can find useful tips to find a job or apply a graduate school.

Tips for using this Guide

 The section “Why This Resource” give us a summary of the content, so read it first to figure out whether the information is useful or not.

 There are tips after each resource. Read those tips and you will use those resources more effectively.

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The Electrical Engineering Handbook

Why This Resource:

 It provides basic electrical engineering topics as well as specific fields within electrical engineering.

 It is a very useful supplement to the coursework of electrical engineering undergraduate students.

 Free access online

Overview: For most of undergraduate students, coursework are relatively more

important than research. It is impossible for a student to gain achievement in advanced research without a good foundation of the basic knowledge in electrical engineering. The book not only provide a complete reference to answer the academic questions but also have the knowledge about real-world engineering issue that related to industry and government. There are more than 100 chapters in this book that include almost all course related subject that a student can see in college. The book does not only provide answers the problem but also give a good illustration and analysis to the system that we encounter so that we can have a better understanding.

Tips:

 The web resource is not free, but user can apply a Free Trial which can be found on the up-right corner of the homepage.

 The navigation table on the left makes it very easy to locate the information you need.

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Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Xplore

Why This Resource:

 Providing access to more than 3-million full-text documents from world’s most highly cited publications.

 Approximately 25,000 latest documents update each month

 Easy to search and read with Advanced Search that have very detail search options

Overview: The IEEE Xplore digital library is an authoritative resource for research and access to scientific and technical contest published by the IEEE which is the world’s largest professional association for the advancement of technology. User can use search bar at the top of homepage to search all IEEE content which is very efficient because you can much more categories in Advanced Search which can help user sort out the articles that closest to user’s requirement. User can also choose to generally browse the website to read some Journals, Magazines, Book and even latest Conference Proceeding to keep him or her updating with what is currently going on in the field of electrical engineering. This website is very helpful for the senior student who is doing all types of research with valuable documents from over 160 journals, 3800 technical standards, 1000 eBooks and other resources. There are more than 300 courses that can give us help with major course.

Tips:

 The website is not free for everyone, but as a Penn State student, we can log in using our Penn State id to get access to all documents.

 Below the general searching bar, there are different types of search option so that we can search with keywords, author’s name or some other ways.(See Below)

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Journal of Electrical Engineering

Why This Resource:

 Includes topics about electromagnetic fields, power electronics, and devices and systems among many other.

 User can request hard copies of the journal.

Overview: The Journal of Electrical Engineering provides valuable information about industrial and home uses of electricity to electrical engineer and electrical engineering major student. User can search archived journal articles and sample the new books dealing with major field. One important note is that the hard copy of journal is not free. For our senior student, it is not a site for searching documents or technical information. This site can be used to search for latest topics in electrical engineering industry to help make decision when choosing the direction for our own research. For user is not going to do the research, he or she can look for the latest presented articles to see if there is any topic interesting. To know about latest research can help user to find out which branch of major he or she want to choose to learn. It is also a famous journal that we can publish our own articles. It will do a lot help for the student who want to get a master degree/ PhD or the student who want to be success in academic world.

Tips:

 The abstract of all articles can be found under the Archive tab on the left.

 In order to post an article, we need to be a member first, and this is free.

 Although hard copy is expensive, you can always read e-version which is free, you need to find the very tiny link to get access to .pdf file.

Sample Article

Ezzat, M., Winding Function Analysis Technique as an Efficient Method for

Electromagnetic Inductance Calculation, Journal of Electrical Engineering, 2012 Volume 4 Number 4

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IEEE Transaction on Plasma Science

Link: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=27

Why This Resource:

 The online journal is free for everyone

 The article in this journal is related to electromagnetic course that is needed to fit major requirement.

 The articles in this journal focus on the application of theories in plasma science which is close to industry.

Overview: IEEE Transaction on Plasma Science is the journal about plasma science and engineering include: plasma dynamics, controlled thermonuclear fusion, laser-plasma interactions and a lot of relative applied engineering. Instead of propose new theories or prove a latest theory by research, the content of the journal provides a lot of new designs of equipment and application of theories in real industry. For the user who wants to make invention in field of electromagnetic can find a lot of useful information from this site. Read these articles can also make user have a better understanding of electromagnetic since a lot of students completely lost themselves when studying that course.

Tips:

 User can create his or her own online project file. When find some articles may valuable with cellphone, user can save the articles to online project file which means no need to search them again on PC or laptop. The link is tiny blue file symbol with an arrow below article name.

 If users want to create an citation for an article, they do not need to do it by themselves, they can check the box before article name an find the link Download Citations so than website can create citation automatically.

Sample Article

Gregorio, J., Leroy, O., Leprince, P., Design of a Microwave Microplasma Source at Atmospheric Pressure, IEEE Transaction on Plasma Science, June 2009, Volume 37, Number 6

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Statistical Abstract of the United States

Why This Resource:

 Contain real data that user may need for researching or looking for the trend or the field.

 The data is updated very frequently.

Overview: The Statistical Abstract of the United States is a research tool that includes publications contains all the statistics on political, social, and economic organization in the nation. User can find information about electrical engineering under “Electricity” link of the “Energy & Utilities” tab. Those data include peak load, capability, capacity margin and other information about electricity net and energy load which is very useful for the electrical engineering student who wants to focus on electrical power branch. User who needs to decide the type of job they want to apply may also use the data to analysis the current situation of the field.

Tips:

 User can find additional statistical detail in source that cited by publications.

 If User wants to use data to do calculation, he or she may need to download Excel version instead of PDF version.

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Engineering Career Resources Employer Relations

Why This Resource:

 Useful instruction on how to write resume and cover letter.

 Excellent place to network and meet hundreds employers in the engineering field.

 Meet advisor to get a one-on-one guidance.

Overview: Engineering Career Resources Employer Relation is the website that most Penn State student find helpful. All employers on this website are looking for engineer, so it saves a lot of time for searching company and sorting position. It also posts the detail information about on-campus recruitment. Another amazing advantage of this website is bidirectional searching. Once you upload your resume, you can search for company and position and apply with simple steps. In the meantime, employers are also searching for you. You may get an interview surprisingly even you have not applied for it.

Tips:

 Before submit your resume, make sure to schedule an advisor, they can help you to improve you job package. This is totally free.

 The application process is very easy, so put some time to learn about the company and position that you are looking for. A cover letter will let you have a bigger chance to get interview.

 The max file size that you can upload is 200KB, so when you are working on your resume, make sure do not use to many frame which would make file size exceed 200KB.

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U.S. News &World Report

Link: http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/electrical-engineering-rankings

Why This Resource:

 The evaluation of the engineering school is in detail contain tuition fee, ranking and all other useful information.

Overview: This resource was chosen not just for engineering student to read news for every day. The most valuable information in this site is the ranking of electrical

engineering graduate school. In this site we can see the tuition fee, number of student and score that given by experts. Student who wants to apply for graduate school can use this as a reference.

Tips:

 There are a lot more information in U.S. News Engineering School Compass which is very well organized with important tips. User need to sign up as a member of the website to get access to it.