General Engineering Introduction/Research

Research has a very different context in engineering than what is learned in K-12.

Most students write papers by cutting and pasting various things they find on the internet. They educate themselves along the way. Students write rough drafts and then polish the English. If no paper is asked for, then students use the word "research" to refer to self education ... and rejoice they don't have to write a paper.

The above is not engineering.

Engineers research the competition, they research patents. Engineers research knowledge in a specific way that is similar to a paper, but different in form. Engineers don't research because they don't know something. Engineer's research to exhaust the known world to find where the cliff looking into the unknown is located. Don't attempt research without negotiating this with your instructor or client. They may say "no" because hey don't want your brain seduced by the past. Maybe they are more interested in your "empty mind or golden ignorance."

If you are planning to research, expect to this process on your individual pages, team pages and create a tutorial. New projects may require a lot of research. Ignorance does not.

Step 1. The procedure is that one team member starts the process and establishes an outline of what is to be searched for (scope).

Step 2. Every member of the team begins collecting links and organizes them by the same outline. Each individual member searches until they are reading/listening/watching the same information at different web sites. Blogs are searched last.

Step 3. All team member information is then pooled. If the team members expanded the scope, then step 2 may need to be repeated. If team members did not find the same links, then individual member searches were not exhaustive enough.

Step 4. Next links are categorized, and a tutorial through the body of knowledge is created. This turns into a wikiversity tutorial page.