ESM 501 Systems Architecture
To start off the new semester, we have just developed a page for the ESM 501 System Architecture class. The subject addresses one of the first stages of system design, analysis and engineering. Emphasis is placed on engineering systems which include technical, economic and social aspects. This blog does often discuss subjects related to systems architecture. See the LIINES Blog Keywords: Axiomatic Design, Axiomatic Design for Large Flexible Systems, Design Methodologies, Enterprise Control, Graph Theory, Life Cycle Properties, Model-Based Systems Engineering, Socio-Techno-Economic Systems, and SysML.
Additionally, a new page has been added to overview our other taught courses.
Good luck to all as we kick off the Fall Semester.
LIINES Website: http://amfarid.scripts.mit.edu
LIINES Research Opportunities
As the Fall 2014 academic semester begins, graduate students begin to shop for classes and thesis research topics. To help guide junior researchers to the research opportunities at the LIINES, we have posted a new research opportunities page.
Good luck to all as we kick off the Fall Semester.
LIINES Website: http://amfarid.scripts.mit.edu
Mendeley @ the LIINES
Reference management is a key competence in any research group or laboratory. Think of a research workflow.
- Get papers
- Get paper reference information
- Read them from anywhere in the world. Take notes.
- Share them with colleagues
- Do the research – referring to papers as required.
- Cite the papers easily in any document preparation system.
- Build the reference list easily and accurately.
- Be ready to change the reference list in subsequent revisions.
- Cost: Endnote required a license for every LIINES researcher at a relatively hefty price tag. Sharing with collaborators was an every harder proposition. Furthermore, yearly upgrade licenses was an even tougher pill to swallow.
- PDF Organization: Managing the filesystem associated with PDF files of all the references is a big challenge. EndNote did not provide a headache-free solution to this. Even worse, an EndNote database could lose links to PDF files making it quite difficult to find again.
- Collaboration & Sharing: The above challenges were compounded when it came to share Endnote Libraries across the LIINES. Endnote sharing through Dropbox across multiple operating systems can get quite hairy!
- Proprietary Platform & Database: When reference databases get large, one increasingly becomes interested in automating tasks for its management. While EndNote does provide plenty of built in automated functionality, the power user ultimately does need to manage records automatically.
- Cost: The Mendeley desktop application is free! This meant that every LIINES researcher could work individually without paying a penny. That said, the associated cost was in the cloud-based monthly data storage plan. While this was a recurring cost, Mendeley’s “Solar System”, “Milky Way”, and “Big Bang” subscription plans were very much priced reasonably. Since Elsevier’s purchase of Mendeley, the cost of new plans has risen; perhaps out of reach for many. Fortunately, with a little computer savvy one could also use other cloud-based storage services like Dropbox or Google Drive to easily store and share reference libraries. Alternatively, many institutions including MIT have recognized the need to provide a uniform platform for their researchers and so have purchased Mendeley Institutional Edition.
- PDF Organization: Probably one of Mendeley’s strongest features is its ability to automatically name and organize PDF files based upon key reference information such as Author Name, Year, and Title. This became a headache free solution.
- Collaboration & Sharing: Another real strength of Mendeley’s is its recognition of Web 2.0 and social media. Mendeley databases are easily shared and synchronized between multiple computers, operating systems, tablets, smart phones, and users in a seamless way. For the LIINES, this meant native support for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, iOS, and Android for dozens of researchers across the world.
- Standard Database: Finally, Mendeley’s database is written in SQL. This meant that for the advanced database programmer, Mendeley offers the potential to develop automated scripts to manage reference data. This particular strength overcomes some of the feature limitations within the Mendeley desktop application itself.
- Integration with LatTeX/BibTex: Mendeley is able to create and maintain an automatically synced BibTeX database file. However, it provides no user control to the highly important Citation Key! In the course of regular use, Mendeley can change these citation keys which will then cause LaTeX citation links to break in your document. Make sure to keep backups of your BibTeX database unless you want to redo all the links!
- PDF File Import: The jury is still out on this one. Mendeley can directly import PDF files. It will scan the PDF for reference information and insert it into the database. For many files of standard format (e.g. IEEE, Elsevier journals), it does this accurately. However, for many others, it creates lots of errors; forcing the researcher to manually correct the information. At the LIINES, we recommend going to established online reference databases (IEEE Xplore, ScienceDirect, Compendex & Google Scholar to download the associated .ris or .bib files instead.
- Batched PDF Import: Many researchers new to reference management have troves of organized pdf files. Others are migrating to Mendeley. Beware that a batch PDF import can create lots of duplicates in the Mendeley database!
- Duplicates Management: Mendeley desktop does provide a “Check for Duplicates” feature but in then requires manual deletion of these duplicates. For large databases, this can be very time consuming.
- Association with Elsevier: Finally, some academics have chosen to boycott Elsevier’s service on ethical grounds. Others distinguish Mendeley from its parent company, and then there is official Mendeley perspective from William Gunn While the LIINES does not participate in this boycott, we recognize its existence out of academic respect and encourage awareness amongst our readership. Ultimately, one must recognize that Mendeley is now a fully commercial product and service. For those that maintain reservations, many highly functional, free and open-source reference management solutions continue to exist.
IEEE Statement on Appropriate use of Bibliometric Indicators
The use of bibliometric analysis has become an increasing part of scientific publishing today. While bibliometric analysis has brought about a degree of quantified objectivity, many have raised concerns about the potential pitfalls of their usage. We refer our LIINES readership to the recent IEEE Statement on the Appropriate use of Bibliometric Indicators. The associated video can be found below.
LIINES Website: http://amfarid.scripts.mit.edu
Congratulations & Welcome to Masdar Institute’s ESM 2014 Incoming Class
As the Fall 2014 academic semester begins, graduate students begin to shop for classes and thesis research topics.
Today, the Engineering Systems and Management Faculty met to present their research topics to the incoming class. If you missed it, get in touch with the ESM Department Head: Prof. Mohammad Omar.
We also presented the LIINES research overview and you can find the powerpoint slides powerpoint slides here. It includes four research themes:
- Smart Power Grids: As a full energy value chain including power generation, power transmission & distribution and building systems.
- Energy Water Nexus: Focusing on points of interconnection including power generation, desalination, water pumping and building systems.
- Electrification of Transportation: Focusing on electric vehicles, buses and trains as a point of interconnection.
- Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems: Automated manufacturing to support sustainable, mass-customized products.
More information on each of these can be found on the LIINES research page. Additionally, we have written several blog posts on each of these topics.
- Smart Power Grids
- Energy-Water Nexus
- Electrification of Transportation
- Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems
Good luck to all as we kick off the Fall Semester.
LIINES Website: http://amfarid.scripts.mit.edu
