INTERNET RESOURCE GUIDE
For Mechanical Engineering majors
JULY 14, 2015
HILMI IBRAHIM
ENGL 202C
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Table of Contents
I.
Preface ................................................................................................................................ 2
A. Contents and Scope ............................................................................................... 3
B. Intended Audience ................................................................................................ 3
C. Assumptions about the reader ............................................................................. 3
D. Organization .......................................................................................................... 4
E. Tips and Tricks ..................................................................................................... 4
II.
Resources ........................................................................................................................... 5
A. General Website .................................................................................................... 6
1. Penn State Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering.................... 6
B. Homework Help .................................................................................................... 7
1. Khan Academy .................................................................................................. 7
2. MathWorks: MATLAB Central ......................................................................... 8
3. Chegg ................................................................................................................ 9
C. Periodical Literature .......................................................................................... 10
1. American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME): Digital Collection ...... 10
D. Professional Journal ........................................................................................... 11
1. Hindawi Journal of Engineering .................................................................... 11
2
Preface
This section will help you understand the purpose of this guide and how to use it effectively. The
preface will explain what is in this guide, who it is intended for, what is expected of you to know
in order to use this guide efficiently, how it is organized, and some tips and trick for reading this
guide.
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Contents and Scope
This guide contains resources that will be helpful for undergraduates in the field of mechanical
engineering. It includes relevant websites, a professional journal, and a periodical literature
index. Some of the resources intend to help students explain and review class materials and
homework. Others are professional and academic works related to the mechanical engineering
field. Each resource will have a brief explanation of its relevance to you as a mechanical
engineering student. Tips also will be included to make your use of the resources more efficient.
Intended Audience
This guide is intended for students majoring or thinking of majoring in mechanical engineering
at The Pennsylvania State University. It helps students who are looking for study aids,
specifically additional class materials and homework guide. This guide is generally designed to
help freshman and sophomore students; however senior students also can benefit from it. Also,
this guide is suitable for those who are looking for information related to mechanical
engineering, either for research purposes, case studies, class lectures, reports or experiments.
Assumptions about the Reader
This guide is created with the assumption that the reader has an interest in mechanical
engineering. It especially helps if the reader has knowledge of high school materials in fields
related to mechanical engineering such as mathematics, chemistry and physics. A college level
understanding of the materials is not required since the resources will cover them from basic preengineering materials such as physics, chemistry, calculus, and engineering design to high level
graduate materials such as heat transfer-conduction, solid mechanics, and quantum mechanics.
This guide also assumes that the reader has enrolled or intends to enroll at Penn State and is
taking classes related to the major. Most of the materials will help to understand most of the
classes for the major. Also, this guide assumes that the reader has at least a basic level of
computer skills.
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Organization
The content of this guide is arranged to move from elementary material to more complicated
material. It contains some basic engineering material that is enough for helping new students in
the major to learn effectively. Resources are organized according to their usefulness especially
for pre-engineering classes that will be taken mostly by freshmen and sophomores. They are also
arranged based on level of importance in developing basic engineering knowledge. In each
resource, an explanation about the complexity of the website and what it offers is provided.
It begins with general websites and homework help since these are the resources used frequently
by students, especially for pre-engineering classes. Electronic databases and professional
journals are placed in later sections. Both of these sections might not be helpful for students in
earlier years of school but will help upperclassmen as research tools for finding information for
writing professional documents.
Tips and Tricks
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Go to the table of contents to look for sections that might interest you. If you are using an
electronic version of this guide, hold the Ctrl button while clicking on a section you want
to look at. It will bring you directly to the page of the section
Make sure to read the abstract first before clicking on the link for the resource you chose.
Understand the abstract thoroughly so that you are not wasting time clicking on resources
that are not related to your interest.
Each abstract comes with tips on how to navigate the website. Make sure to read those
for efficiency since some of the websites are confusing and tricky to use.
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Resources
This section contains information that this guide presents. It is separated into four subsections:
General Website, Homework Helps, Periodical Literature and Professional Journal. Each of the
subsections contains one or more resources with a brief explanation and tips on how to use it.
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General Website
Penn State Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering
Link: http://www.mne.psu.edu/
Undergraduate section: http://www.mne.psu.edu/Undergraduate/
Abstract:
This is the home page of the Penn State department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering. It
contains news and information for undergraduates, graduates, alumni, research and anyone who
has interest in the Mechanical and Nuclear department at Penn State. The “Undergraduates” tab
will guide students who intended to major in Mechanical and/or Nuclear Engineering. It helps
from applying to Penn State and a major to finding a job for graduating students. It helps mostly
in admission and administration problems that might be encountered by students who enrolled or
plan to enroll in the mechanical and/or nuclear engineering major.
Tips:
 In the “Undergraduates” tab, the left section of the page provides links to different topics.
There are a lot more links related under each of the topic. For example, in the “Study
abroad” section, there are videos of students who have finished the program with links to
the related Universities partnered in this program.
 In the “Curriculum” section, there are links to recommended academic plan for single or
concurrent majors. Use this as a guide to plan and schedule your classes.
 In the “Contact us” section, there are information of professor-in-charged for
Undergraduate Program. Since freshman and sophomore students mostly will not have an
assigned adviser, any question regarding the admission and administration can be asked
through them.
 There are also other tabs that might be useful such as “News & Events”, “Research” and
“Alumni”.
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Homework Help
Khan Academy
Link: https://www.khanacademy.org
Abstract:
Khan Academy is a website that offers practice exercises, instructional videos and personalized
learning dashboard. Its content mostly acts as additional material to that learnt in class. It
provides tutoring on various subject such as mathematics, science, economics, history, and
computer programming. Khan Academy also has partnered with institution like NASA, the
Museum of Modern Art, The California Academy of Sciences, and MIT to offer specialized
content. Even though this website is not specific to mechanical engineering, a lot of the materials
will be helpful for pre-engineering classes including calculus, matrices and physics. Some useful
examples that can be found on this websites include how to draw free body diagrams and how to
solve differentiation and integration problems used a lot in higher-level major classes. These free
videos are taught by experienced teachers. In the videos, the teachers will do practice problems
for students to follow along.
Tips:
 You do not need to register as a member to access the videos. However, you can organize
your learning dashboard if you are registered. For example, keeping track of your videos
and practice problems will be easier.
 Use the search bar at the top of the website to search for topics. Do not post a question in
this box, just a keyword would be sufficient. For example, you might type in “indefinite
integral”
 Another way to search for a topic of interest is by using the “Subject” tab also at the top
of the page. It will show variety of subjects like Math, history etc. Once you have clicked
on a topic, it will lead you to various subtopics. Each subtopic page contains videos and
practices of different titles related to the subtopic. For example, under the “linear
algebra” topic, you will find a few subtopics like “Vectors and Spaces” and “Matrix
Transformation.” Under “Vector and Spaces,” contains videos and practice problems of
specific titles such as “Unit vectors” and “Multiplying a vector by a scalar.”
 Each title is labeled with a particular symbol. A play button symbol represents a video
while a star symbol represents a practice problem.
 If you open a video and want to switch to another video, no need to go back to previous
page. Use the tab on the left of the page. It will list all the videos under the same topic as
the current video you are watching.
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MathWorks: MATLAB Central
MathWorks link: http://www.mathworks.com
MATLAB Central link: http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/
Abstract:
MATLAB Central is a website developed by MathWorks that discusses every topic related to the
software MATLAB. MathWorks is the leading developer of mathematical computing software.
It was founded in 1984 and has over 3000 employees globally. MATLAB is a software that
allows matrix manipulation, implementation of algorithm, plotting of function or data, creating
user interface and interfacing with other programs or software such as C++, Java and Phyton.
This software will be used frequently in engineering field and this website will be useful for the
MATLAB class, Mechanical Vibration class, Fluid Flow class, Heat Transfer class and many
other Mechanical and Nuclear major classes. This website contains discussions, answers to
coding problems, files and link exchanges, news and blogs related to MATLAB. For example,
students can find how to use “for loop function” which is then useful in analyzing the Fourier
transform for vibration analysis.
Tips:
 On the MathWorks home page, click the “Community” tab. It will go directly to the
MATLAB Central page.
 Any question related to MATLAB can be found under the “MATLAB answers” section.
At the top right corner on this page, there is a search box for searching specific problems.
 On the right of the page, there are options for refining and narrowing your search results.
For example, users can choose to get answers from MathWorks support or from the
community (other user).
 If any question has not been asked, registered users can post a new one under the “Ask a
question” tab.
 Instructions on how to participate and use “MATLAB answers” can be found under the
“help” tab. It teaches in detail how to search, ask, and answer a question.
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Chegg
Link: http://www.chegg.com
Abstract:
Chegg is a website that specializes in textbook rentals, homework help, online tutoring,
scholarships listing, and internship matching. Its content covers many topics of discussion
ranging from basic microeconomics to advanced graduate calculus. For students, it helps solving
homework and textbook’s problem. It also engages students to ask, answer and discuss topics of
interest. Also, students can rent or buy textbooks from this website for a cheaper price than at
most college bookstores. Chegg also buys used textbooks from students. Students can also apply
an internship and a scholarship through Chegg. It will match students with a respective
internship or scholarship that suits the students’ qualification. Chegg also offers its own monthly
$1000 scholarship. In general, Chegg is like a student hub for education development.
Tips:
 On the homepage, you can use the search box to find anything; books, questions, tutor
and textbook solutions. Alternatively, you can use the tab above the search box for a
specific search.
 Textbook solutions can only be accessed if you are registered and paid for membership.
Getting a membership is really recommended since most of the textbooks you will be
using in class will not have a complete solution.
 However, access to problems under the “ask a study question” tab is completely free.
You will find most of your class problems like mechanics, dynamics and physics have
been solved in this section.
 Type in book’s title or its ISBN to see its availability for renting, buying or finding its
problems’ solutions.
 Chegg offers monthly scholarship which, sometimes is very easy to apply. For example,
for July 2015, students can apply by simply submitting story of their most memorable
travel and a lucky student will be chosen based on just uniqueness. You are strongly
recommended to apply it.
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Periodical Literature
American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME): Digital Collection
Link: http://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/
Abstract:
The ASME Digital Collection is a repository of current and archival literature consisting of
ASME’s Transaction Journal from 1960 to the present, ASME’s Conference Proceedings from
2002 to the present, and ASME’s Press eBooks selected from 1993 to the present. ASME is a
professional membership organization founded in 1880 for more than 127,000 mechanical
engineers worldwide. They also conduct the world’s largest technical publishing operations.
Many materials found here are useful for supporting research with credible sources. It contains a
broad field of mechanical engineering topics such as jet engines, applied mechanics and
turbomachinery. Some of the materials however, have to be purchased but in a very reasonable
price.
Tips:
 Use tabs at the top of the page to find specific sources like journals, conference
proceeding, eBooks or Library
 Use the search box at top right corner of the page to find specific materials. The
“Advanced search” link besides the search box can be used to find even more detailed
materials or finding two different materials (Such as journals and eBooks)
simultaneously.
 Some of the materials have to be paid to get accessed, so make sure you read the abstract
of every tittle of interest before deciding to purchase the file.
 By becoming a member of ASME, most materials can be purchased at a discounted price.
However, since undergraduate students will not use this type of materials very often, you
do not need to buy the membership.
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Professional Journal
Hindawi Journal of Engineering
Link: http://www.hindawi.com/journals/je
Abstract:
This is a peer-reviewed and open access professional engineering journal that publishes original
research as well as reviewed articles in various field of engineering. It is very selective and has
an acceptance rate of 10%. There are 600 reviewers all around the world contributing to
reviewing and editing articles. It is also published according to the journal’s publication ethics.
These articles are very specific and detailed, for example one article is “Study of RF Signal
Attenuation on Human Heart”.
The specificity of the articles in this journal might be hard for a freshman or sophomore to
understand the content. They are written by professional, mostly Ph.D.’s in engineering.
However, this journal should benefit seniors looking for information in specific topics and
problems.
Tips:
 Use the search box at the top right corner of the page to find any topic of interest.
 There is a menu box on the left of the page. Use it to go to section that you want to look
at.
 If you click the “table of contents” link, you will see the articles are sorted by year. There
are 173 articles and the most recent publish is placed on the top of the page.
 Each of the article comes with an abstract. Read it to find out whether it is what you are
looking for.