Engineering 195 - Entrepreneurship Science & Engineering

Spring 2008

 

 

Prepared by:

Julia Gelfand, Engineering Librarian, Science Library 228

jgelfand@uci.edu ; (949) 824-4971

and

Susan Jones, Acting Business Librarian, Langson Library 141

sajones@uci.edu ; (949) 824-3509

 

As you complete assignments for this course, you will become familiar with a range of information products and resources.  This handout will introduce you to some appropriate research strategies and resources to assist you in conducting research on entrepreneurship and developing new products and provide some hints to expedite and make more efficient the research process.  You have three major assignments and you will be conducting research both independently and sharing information with classmates as part of a group project. 

  1. Individual Project:  content about guest speakers and weekly topics
  2. Final Group Project - creating a business plan
  3. Group presentation of Final Group Project

 

Much of the research you need to do for this course will require access to Library Resources.  In order to work from off-campus, please make sure that you have followed directions for Connecting from off-campus - make sure that your computer has been configured to acknowledge you as an authenticated UCI student - the recommended way to connect is noted and explained using the:

  1. Virtual Private Network (VPN) or WebVPN as the recommended practice

If you have difficulty, contact NACS at (949)824-2222 (open 24/7).  Please note that for some resources there are limited access ports - if you can not get in try again in a few minutes.

 

Background:  Selected Course Textbooks and recommended readings and classroom lectures

Resources:  Books about entrepreneurship and innovation are found in the Langson Library (LL) in call number ranges HB  615, HC 79 on the 4th floor and in the Science Library (SL) TA 190s on the 5th floor or you can browse  Antpac for UCI holdings by keyword (results or output in most recent publication order first) or by LC call number range -  recommended Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCHS) include:

                        Entrepreneurship

                        New business enterprises

                        Technology transfer

                        Venture capital

                        Or under the specific topic

 

UCI Library Homepage - use this website as a source of departure for access to library resources

            Subject Pages - the Business Subject Page and the Engineering Subject Guides for each department linked from this website or you can go directly to ones for:

Biomedical Engineering,

Civil & Environmental Engineering,

Computer & Electrical Engineering,

Chemical Engineering,

Materials Science,

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering - 

Each of these will direct you to the indexing and abstracting sources and appropriate reference tools in the area.  Specialized resources will be noted below.

UCI Office of Technology Alliances (OTA)

 

Assignment I - Finding information about Guest Speakers and their topic of influence, industry sector, and weekly reading etc.  These resources will be helpful:

  1. Biographical information and sources - the Marquis Who's Who series gives a good snapshot
  2. Newspaper Sources - reviewing business sections of local and regional newspapers will be helpful - consult the Subject Guide for News & Newspapers, and consider searching multiple (particularly business and trade newspapers) databases such as Factiva, and LexisNexis Academic (under News) and also the Orange County Business Journal
  3. Corporate directories often give background on corporate executives, founders and lead people in the organization – Consult Orange County Business Directory, 2008 at the LL Ref Desk  F868.O6 O6644 2008 and other sources are noted below under Competitive Intelligence for Company and Business Information

 

Background Information for Assignment II

Patents - What Is a Patent? A patent for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor, issued by the Patent and Trademark Office. The term of a new patent is 20 years from the date on which the application for the patent was filed in the United States or, in special cases, from the date an earlier related application was filed, subject to the payment of maintenance fees. US patent grants are effective only within the US, US territories, and US possessions.  There are basically four kinds of patents:  Utility (what most patents are); Design (ornamental appearance of an article of commerce only; Plant (botanical life); and Reissue (to revise substantial errors in original patent).   To be distinguished from other copyright, intellectual property, and trademark law.

 

UCI is not a Patent Depository (in California there are 3 such collections located at Sunnyvale Public Library, Los Angeles Public Library and San Diego Public Library) WHY SEARCH PATENTS?  According to information that describes the USPTO:

If you are an inventor, you should be aware of relevant prior art in your technology. If you are an entrepreneur, you should monitor your competitors' new products, and where they are patented. If you are involved in applied research, you need to review new and pending patents in your discipline.

Databases that cover patent application submissions and licensed patents for United States coverage:

U. S. Patent and Trademark Office  - (http://www.uspto.gov/) - Official source for U.S. patents and trademarks in full text from 1976 (full page images available since 1790) with links to the Library of Congress for copyright information. Definitions, application forms and instructions, handbooks, notices, and patent attorney directory are just a few of the products provided. Includes design patents and reissued patents as well as patents currently in application process (coverage starts March 2001). Full-text searching is available and it is suggested that you follow the example for entering your search.  Sometimes the illustrative images are not available without downloading a special client.  Conduct patent search here.

Google Patents - recommend that you use the Advanced Patent Search and consult the Patent Search Help available

Freepatentsonline –Full-text and images of U.S. patents beginning with patent number 4,000.000 (1974) and no client is needed to see images or illustrations.

LexisNexis Academic Universe - Under "Legal Research" is a Patent Research section for searching of Patents (1971 to date), by individual category of Design Patents, Plant Patents or Utility Patents. Can also search by keyword, assignee, inventor, patent number, classification, and lawyer.

Examples of Crazy Patents

For more global coverage, please review the previous link which will refer you to a list of sources from Japan, Europe, etc. or

Scirus which indexes over 13 million patents from the U.S., European and Japanese Patent Offices and WIPO

 

Some tips for successful patent searching:

 

Preparation for the Final Projects: Part of this assignment is for you to develop a Business Plan and there are several different parts in creating this product:

 

A.    Doing Research & Finding Information - you will likely use the Langson Library (LL) resources but there will also be resources for you to consult at the Science Library (SL).  ANTPAC is the online catalog for UCI and MELVYL includes ANTPAC and also covers all 9 other UC campuses. 

 

Reference Tools (LL= Langson Library Reference - 1st floor; SL = Science Library Reference - 2nd floor)

Venture Capital

  1. Pratt's Guide to Venture Capital - LL Ref HG 65 G83
  2. Venture Capital Yearbook  - LL Ref HG 4027.7 V467
  3. National Venture Capital Association Yearbook - LL Ref HG 4961 N382

4.     Additional venture capital resources on electronic databases are listed on the Business Subject Guide

 

Demographics - Population

  1. American FactFinder - online resource highlight census data - remember that the last US Census was conducted in 2000
  2. RDS Tablebase - particularly strong for demographic profiling and constituent's activities
  3. Dun & Bradstreet MPA (Market Profile Analysis).  Consumer and business demographic reports for Los Angeles-Long Beach et al, CA.  Combines industry and demographic statistics on the Los Angeles/Long Beach and Anaheim/Santa Ana (Orange County) Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA), for counties, neighborhoods and census tracts.  LL REF HC 107 C22 O7 - 6 vols.
  4. Additional demographic and psychographics resources are listed on the Business Subject Guide

 

General Resources

  1. Foundation Directory Online Professional - major directory of nonprofits and foundations that support a range of activities
  2. Associations Unlimited - most comprehensive directory of professional societies and associations in US and globally

 

Article Databases - Indexing & Abstracting Tools - there are several sources that identify journal and newspaper articles that will be appropriate - much of the content indexed is available full-text either re-keyed or in pdf format or via links to UCI eLinks (golden icon) to the original content.  These can be found directly from the Library Homepage under "Find Online Resources."  You should enter the title of the database on the right-hand Search Box and pull-down the category tab and set it to "Article Databases."  Then click on the appropriate title that appears. Access is also available by entering the title in Antpac (use last pull-down menu & select “Online/Internet Resources”) or by clicking on any of the following active links:

 

  1. Business Source Premier – find articles from trade and industry publications as well as academic journals.
  2. Compendex - major indexing source for all engineering coverage - strong historical coverage - remember to set the dates you want covered
  3. Factiva - Full-text news covering business world from media and "non-scholarly" publications.
  4. Faulkner's Advisory for IT Studies - contains a significant amount of data about different aspects of the IT industry.
  5. INSPEC - covers computer science, electrical engineering, math and physics and related subject disciplines - technical database with eLinks to a great deal of full-text - there are two choices - the current and most recent database from 1969-2005 via Ovid and the older, historical archive covering 1898-1968.  Choose accordingly.
  6. Web of Science - an academic, scholarly database of articles covering the sciences, social sciences and arts/humanities.  You can selectively search just the Science Citation Index which goes back to 1900 but make those refinements by clicking on “Current Limits” after you enter your search.  Many eLinks to fulltext content in our collection.  Also, provides "forward searching" to more recent citations from publication year when available or noted.  References are increasingly active links.
  7. PubMed - if you are looking at innovations in the biomedical arena this database covers the clinical and administrative medical literature.  Make sure that you combine your terms by capitalizing all boolian operators of AND, OR, NOT.  There are many more ways to limit your search now to increase the relevant output.
  8. LexisNexis Academic - News Section for media, newspaper and wire services; Business section for access to trade and industry publications - use the "Guided Search Function" and the pull-down menus - remember to reset the dates of coverage as the default is 6 months.
  9. Knovel - a very new database that supports Engineering, Chemistry, Materials Science and Life Sciences and includes 786 reference sources in those fields.  Allows one to compute, calculate, distribute and study topics in those fields.
  10.  Plunket Research – Current market research and trends analysis in a broad spectrum of industries including health, biotech and telecommunications are on the left toolbar and clicking on Market Trends will take you to the newest update of data in that sector; also contains statistics for the industry, a glossary of its vocabulary, company profiles and contacts, and industry associations and organizations.

 

B.    Business Plans - there are some resources in the Langson Library Reference collection (do not circulate); other resources are in the circulating collection - selected recommended sources include these noted on the Business Subject Page

Competitive Intelligence for Company and Industry Information - to determine market size, volume and demand in marketplace for proposed innovation you may want to consult these resources and others listed on the Management Subject Guide under "Company & Industry"

  1. Gartner (you will have to register your UCI NetID to gain access to this resource even if you are on campus or entering using WebVPN)
  2. Standard & Poor's (S&P) Net Advantage -
  3. MarketResearch.com Academic-
  4. Business Insights -
  5. Forrester - another database in which you will have to re-enter your UCI NetID
  6. Datamonitor Business Information Center-
  7. Global Market Information Database (GMID) - new interface of Euromonitor
  8. Energy Central - a database that includes a lot of business & industry data about energy consumption, distribution and new products

 

Recommended Websites on Entrepreneurship in Engineering:

  1. National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship - http://www.publicforuminstitute.org/nde/
  2. Stanford Technology Ventures Program - http://stvp.stanford.edu
  3. MIT Entrepreneurship Program in Technology - http://entrepreneurship.mit.edu/
  4. Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization - CEO - http://www.c-e-o.org/
  5. Princeton’s Engineering Entrepreneurship program and annual conference - http://www.princetonen.org/

 

C.    Preparing your presentation:  For assistance in preparing presentations you may find the following resources helpful in preparing a Powerpoint presentation that can capture your ideas with some visual elements including images, graphs, photographs, etc.  For some background in creating an appropriate presentation, consider the needs of your audience and play to that group.

 

Mastering Powerpoint 2000 - Science Library Bar  T385 .M8863 1999 

 

And tutorials at:

http://www.hostos.cuny.edu/library/HHCL_New_Web/Teach_Learn_tutor_ppoint.htm

 

http://www.cew.wisc.edu/accessibility/tutorials/pptscratch-text.htm

 

Sources for images include:  Google Image Search and other search interfaces; make sure that you credit source even if in public domain and available for download and copying!

 

D.   HINTS for ease & success:

 

  1. Read assignments carefully
  2. When working in groups, take responsibility for specific areas and make sure that you do that and share information widely with team-mates
  3. Don't procrastinate
  4. Consider using outlines - for the project and for individual contributions - so that you can determine what information is still needed
  5. Cite sources consistently - make sure that you know where you found information - record the sources as you find them
  6. When searching the Internet via a search engine, evaluate information carefully - consider domain - .edu, .com, .gov, .org, etc.
  7. Consider the elements of your audience when you select information and materials to determine level of relevancy - think about the:
  8. For additional information, consider scheduling an appointment for a Reference Consultation at the Langson Library or use Ask-a-Librarian  for remote reference assistance.

 

More Contacts and Additional Information:

Contact the Engineering Librarian or Business Librarian for a Research Consultation - When sending eMail, please put ENGR 195 in the subject line.