Engineering 190W (Fall 2024) - Hong Section

This class focuses on your career as an Engineer.  It allows you to focus on communicating the major interests you have and how to jump-start your career in practice in whatever sector you choose or if you pursue graduate education.  It introduces you to:

• the work style of engineers in different settings
• how engineering information is released using specialized content such as patents, standards, papers, proceedings, journal literature, book content, mixed media and related materials
• how written and verbal communication, both technical and casual conducted individually and within groups can determine the outcomes you want for success
• engineering ethics
• the value of sourcing and correctly citing your information, evaluating it carefully, an being informed about misinformation
• thinking about presentation, using images, prompts and addressing different audiences. 
• an accompanying powerpoint slide deck reviews how engineering information is generated and distributed and introduces all the major sources

There are several major new changes in the search & discovery area that launched in July 2021.  They include:

• UC Library Search - the search & retrieval of items in the UCI Library collection in all formats including books, journals, films, databases, audio recordings, scores, articles, etc as well as items found across all ten UC Campus libraries  Filtering using the left side bar will increase your relevancy. 
• UC eLinks" changed to "Get it at UC" - a purple link that turns orange when you hover or click - clicking on this allows you to see if the source or article is available at UCI - it will give you options to read in PDF or HTML or suggest ILL

Structural / logistical / access changes:

• Make sure that all your communication devices have correct VPN and DUO activated on your mobile phone
• Web VPN links changed from https://vpn.uci.edu/ to https://webvpn.uci.edu 
  • make sure you are using VPN setting for FULL
• Registering for DUO (multi-factor or second layer of authentication) - you need to register by following these directions

This instructional session will reflect 3 subtopics all covered in more detail in this guide and in the PowerPoint presentation linked in your Canvas space.  I will cover the following:

1. Research process & strategy - integrating with writing & communication styles - aligning engineering information with business data to support your theses, arguments and conclusions; also focusing on interdisciplinarity
2. Finding different sources - how to navigate them, how to cite them - think of exploring a range of peer-reviewed content, technical specifications & standards, patents, datasets, news & opinions/public information, etc
3. Professional responsibilities & roles - importance of networking, understanding the publishing ecosystem for engineering via professional societies, commercial publishers and government/open sources

When using Online or Internet Resources, consider Search Engines vs. metasites - evaluate resource - be attentive to domain -may include .com, .edu, .org, .gov, .net

Evaluating Information – Applying the CRAAP Test

For Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, Purpose

http://www.csuchico.edu/lins/handouts/eval_websites.pdf

Goal is to establish relevancy.  The evaluation criteria includes these issues:

Scope of coverage

Currency – be able to distinguish currency from timeliness

Relevance – meaningful to what audience; at what level; will you cite it as authoritative?

Authority – stem is author – establishes the source of the information – author/publisher/source/sponsor; organizational affiliations & credentials; contact information

Accuracy – reliability, correctness of content; supported by evidence; is it verifiable; is tone unbiased, objective, impartial & free of emotion; free of errors?

Purpose – are hypotheses and authors’ intentions clear?  Why is content important – to inform, teach, sell, entertain or persuade?  Any political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional or personal biases?

Ease of use – Capturing, copying, citing; design & presentation

Remember when we cite or quote, we are CHOOSING to bring other voices into our paper or scholarly work.  Let's ask, Why we cite:

• to give credit to authors
• to show your work
• to be responsible researcher
• to avoid plagiarism

Think of 5 criteria you use to evaluate information and what questions you ask yourself to determine relevancy or whether your information ned is met?

Evaluating strategies:

• consider that we are on information overload - how to distinguish between accurate information & misinformation
• transition from reading vertically (CRAAP) to laterally - use 4 moves, known as S.I.F.T, with these action items:
  • Stop - open up a browser tab & enter a search term
  • investigate the source(s) - who is the author? what process or methodology was used to produce this information and what systems are in place to catch mistakes and correct them?
  • find better coverage - consult other sources, demonstrating the historical context, disciplinary approaches, are there patterns or perspectives or dominant ideas that emerge, and what voices are missing?
  • trace things back to the original context - is the evidence misquoted or misrepresented; where is the data from & how was it collected and can we make legitimate conclusions from it?  Science and research is about reproducibility.
  • watch this video on lateral reading strategies (3.47) from the Civic Online Reasoning curriculum, co-sponsored by the Stanford History Education Group