Research Guides: ME 263: Introduction To Mechanical Engineering Design, Innovation And Entrepreneurship: Background & Technical Research

Books and Articles

Explore the context of the problem you are trying to solve. Some questions to guide you:

What information is out there generally related to the topic of your problem?
How have others already solved or approached this problem, or similar problems?
What research has been conducted about this problem, or similar problems?
Are there other factors (e.g., local, global, environmental, social, political, cultural that should be considered when thinking about this problem?

Search for Books @ Purdue
Select the "Books & Media" tab. This tool will search descriptive information (title, author, subjects, etc) about ebooks, books, and media owned by Purdue.

Selected Databases for Getting Started with Your Research:

Academic Search Complete
- This link opens in a new window
Academic Search Complete is a general academic index that indexes more than 8,200 magazines and journals from every academic discipline and provides the full-text of more than 4,600.

In addition, Academic Search Complete offers access to more than 75,000 videos from the Associated Press. Videos relevant to the search terms will appear in a carousel in the result list.
Proquest Research Library
This database provides one-stop access to more than 4,000 periodicals from one of the broadest, most inclusive general reference databases ProQuest has to offer. Search from a highly-respected, diversified mix of scholarly journals, trade publications and magazines covering over 150 academic disciplines.
Google Scholar
Searches for scholarly materials such as peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from broad areas of research. It includes a variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web.
Technology Research Database (now ProQuest Technology Collection)
This database is the total technology research solution, combining full text journals with indexing of global literature on technology and applied science, including materials science, aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, condensed matter physics, computer science and electronic engineering. It fully incorporates ProQuest Engineering Collection, ProQuest Advanced Technologies & Aerospace Collection, ProQuest Materials Science Collection along with deep indexing of technology scholarship and research.

Coverage: 1962 - current

Try more databases:

Patents

What is a Patent? (from: Purdue Libraries Patent Guide)

"A patent is a property right granted by a government agency (in the United States, it's the US Patent & Trademark Office) for a novel, useful, and non-obvious invention. Patent protection lasts twenty years from the filing date and allows the inventor or their assignee to exclude other people from making, using, selling, or importing an invention."

Patent literature is a rich source of information for engineering design. Patents searches are often conducted for one of three reasons:

to locate detailed technical information not available elsewhere;
for patentability purposes, to start to determine if an invention is "novel" by assessing whether it is covered by an existing patent;
to determine the "state of the art" in a given area of technology -- get design inspiration!

Purdue Libraries Database:

Derwent Innovations Index
Value-added patent information from Derwent World Patent Index as well as patent citation information from Patents Citation Index®.

Free Patent Search Tools:

Lens
Free, user-friendly, open access resource for world wide patent research. Years of coverage vary by country.
Google Patents
Perform a quick search for patents (not comprehensive - if a patent is located through this search engine it is recommended you search the patent number through the USPTO or Epacenet to ensure you have the most up-to-date version.)
Espacenet
Worldwide patent search provided by the European Patent Office (EPO). Years of coverage dependent on country.

More resources available:

Patents Classification Search Tutorial
(5 min) - Effective patent searching involves more than using keywords. Save time and maximize your success by completing this short module.
Purdue Libraries Patent Guide

Additionally, the Library of Engineering and Science at Purdue University (located in the WALC) is designated a Patent and Trademark Resource Center (PTRC) by the USPTO.

PTRC staff are information experts trained to use search tools to access patent and trademark information. Additionally, on-site,the library has access to PubWest and PubEast, patent examiner-based search systems.