Tracking the engineering pulse – and doing so easily

Or: What’s your Google Scholar Alert?

​In this article I want to encourage a habit in you. The habit of staying up to date with the latest in your specific field.
But first, I wanted to take the time to share with you that this is now the second year of this newsletter. The last issue was issue 52 so this one marks the start of the second year – volume II if you will. I did not plan to publish once a week, but, after publishing the first edition, a colleague, Andrew Waterson, said “I hope to see you doing this once a week from now on.” He tells me he does not recall saying this, but that it sounds like something he would say. Regardless, the effect was that I was motivated to keep on writing. So thanks go to Andrew.
I still have more content to come and I hope that past (future) content has helped (will help) you in some way to become a better engineer.
And that brings me back to the focus for this article: how to keep your finger on the pulse of your engineering discipline to stay up to date – or even ahead of the curve.
Obviously, I would suggest you keep reading my newsletter. You can also join the Global Engineer Group to see other posts, and share questions, thoughts and ideas with others. This is a relatively new group, and members are approved so the quality of others there can be maintained into the future. In addition, you can follow The Global Engineer page to be reminded of past articles and other posts.
But that’s general – what about staying up to date with advances in your specific area of engineering?
This is where Google Scholar is one of the greatest developments in the past decades. I recall when it started back in 2004. At the time, when I was doing my PhD, I would not have used it – it simply did not have the coverage needed nor did it have the search functions in the established databases. However, today, it has almost everything and excellent search functions.
Add the alert function and it is even better – you get the occasional (depending upon the specificity of your search term) email letting you know about recent publications on your topic of interest.
My current alert is just one phrase “engineering cognition” – that’s because this is my current area of interest.
You would obviously choose one that aligns with your industry – or the industry you want to get into so you know what skills you need to demonstrate as you make the transition.
As you read the articles you are alerted to, you will come across ideas you can put to use and better understand your industry. You will also have excellent professional development activities to report if you are a registered professional engineer who needs to do this.
Try Google Scholar now. See what the latest papers on your area teach you.
You might need to have a few goes – sometimes the phrases used by authors are not the like the one you would use.
Once you have a search phrase that gives you articles you like, hit the “Create Alert” link. That way you get automated updates. You don’t even need to go to Google Scholar to get the information anymore. You just sit back and wait for it to come to you in your inbox. To be read when suits you.
But you want to make it even easier? Then combine it with ChatGPT (or other AI).
Type this into your AI system of choice:
I would like to know about recent advances in [your area of interest]. Review articles that are available on Google Scholar that have the phrase [the search phrase you found that worked] in them. Then, give me a summary of the major topics covered and the associated findings.
This will be an even easier read. And it will still give you links so you can read in more detail anything that is of more interest to you. But it will only happen when you choose to do it – the email updates are good because you get the reminder.
None of the above is a replacement for structured professional development courses that are curated and delivered by experts (assuming they keep themselves up to date), but it will still keep you better informed than others.
And stop you slipping behind!