Information Technology Division
George C. Gordon Library

ME 2300: Introduction to Engineering Design

Prof. Ault

Key Subscription Sources

Free Patent Search Tools

While gathering general information and facts...

Off campus?

WPI Only Access resources with proxy.

Research Guide Contents

Background Information

How Things Work: The Nuts & Bolts

Materials Selection

Creativity and Invention

IDEO: did a redesign of the Shopping Cart for Nightline. See BusinessWeek article on IDEO for more on the IDEO Way, and books in the library too.

List two questions you need to answer before you can build your project:

  1. ________________________________________________________
  2. ________________________________________________________

List two local organizations or people you could interview or observe before you build your project:

  1. ________________________________________________________
  2. ________________________________________________________

Creative Juices Flowing...

Collect, compare, conduct evaluations. Visualize, sketch the experience of the user, analyze the flow with sticky notes, observe users in action, shadow users, shoot for the moon, predict the future, empathize, role play, consider all scenarios (come up with at least 5), and analyze human social network involved.

Information Choices: What Sources To Use

Use different types of information to get broad coverage of your topic.

Research Challenge
Review the 5 items below. What type of sources are the they - Newspapers, trade or popular magazines, books, scholarly/academic research journals? Who's the intended audience for each source?

  1. Intelligent manufacturing and environmental sustainability. Robotics & Computer-Integrated Manufacturing December 2007, Volume 23, Issue 6, p704-711

  2. ______________________________________________
    ______________________________________________
  3. Household robotics: autonomous devices for vacuuming and lawn mowing Control System Magazine, IEEE Volume 27, Issue 2, April 2007 Page(s):20 - 96

  4. ______________________________________________
    ______________________________________________
  5. Fully Automatic System for Monitoring Blood Pressure from a Toilet-Seat Using the Volume-Oscillometric Method in Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2005. IEEE-EMBS 2005. 27th Annual International Conference 2005 Page(s):3939 - 3941.

  6. ______________________________________________
    ______________________________________________
  7. Handbook for Assistive Technology.San Diego, Calif.: Singular Pub. Group, c1992.

  8. ______________________________________________
    ______________________________________________

Find Books and Technical Handbooks

Library Catalog for items @ WPI or WorldCat to search beyond our library. See also: Technical Handbooks

Research Challenge
Search for a book in our library or WorldCat that may assist you with your project:
TITLE: ________________________________________________________
CALL NUMBER: __________________________________________________

NOT FINDING ANYTHING? Try a broader search! Try also: Amazon | Google Books

Evaluate...

Evaluating Web Resources Checklist (PDF)

According to a study at Stanford, nearly half of all web site evaluators (46.1%) used visual cues, to assess a site's credibility. Move beyond what a site looks like...

Find Articles

Within Engineering Village and other library database searches, look for FullTextFinder FullTextFinder link for retrieval options.

Free tip: check out Google Scholar, a web search of scholarly and professional sources, but use Proxy if off campus to gain access to any subscription content that may appear in search results.

Research Challenge
Search one of the above databases for an article on your product. What can this article tell you about designing a new product of this type? Scan the results and list 1-2 issues or concerns you may want to address.
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
What journal or magazine is this article from? Is it available in full text? Or just an abstract? If only an abstract is found, find the full text, using the library's Journals, Magazines, & Newspapers search.

Only Finding a Citation? Getting the Full Text

Filter and Follow Up...

Find Patents

How About These Apples: Patent Searching Basics for beginners to get a general understanding of the types of patents and how to search for them.

Three Sources for Free Patent Searching:

Search and review others patents to understand:

Trouble viewing patent images? Download Alterniff viewer or type patent number into pat2pdf.org site to get a PDF version. Freepatentsonline allows you to view full text and images in PDF format, but has many advertisements and requires free registration.

Classification:

Try USPTO patent classifications to expand your patent search. For example:

Using freepatents is nice because class codes are hyperlinked, within the USPTO site click on the almost invisible "P" on the far left next to the code description to browse similar

Research Challenge
Search the USPTO patent database for a patent related to your design project:

Scan the results, review the drawings of a few by clicking the IMAGES link. Enter patent number into pat2pdf.org, or Freepatentsonline if you cannot view the images.
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

More time? Find 2 companies and list their web site who have products similar to yours: ___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

Competing Products, Market Analysis, and Opportunity Assessment

Companies, Products, and Parts

Search by company or product name to learn more about how their product is selling; are there recalls, problems or issues? Start with LexisNexis Academic or EBSCOhost Business Source Premier for company information within articles and news stories

Manufacturers, Parts, Products, and Materials Catalogs

Many firms sells the parts and supplies you will need to build your product. Explore the following for parts, or visit local hardware stores:

Market

Search by industry or product keywords. Be creative with synonyms and try product name(s) to learn more about how specific products are selling. Any recalls, problems or issues? What do current consumers think about the product? What preferences are desired? Any surveys or product reviews?

Experts: track down trade associations, scholars/researchers and industry professionals. Search the web: Trade association web sites & search tips

Market Size and Trends: obtain statistical data from government sources on fedstats.gov or Statisical Abstract of the United States. Also, track down trade associations or non-governmental sources on number of people or households that would need this product. Would this product be purchased by an individual or an organization? A web search on your product or target audience combined with terms such as sales, units sold, even the word statistics may lead you to data. Or a search in a company database might find other companies that could purchase similar products, Hoovers is a great place to search for companies.

Regulations and Standards

Give Credit! Cite Your Sources

Try Refworks: a bibliographic database & citation management tool. Create a database of your references then output them into many formats, including MLA, ASME, and other styles. More...

Questions?

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Last modified: Mar 12, 2008, 09:31 EDT
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