Generally in the past, I have used a combination of Google scholar inquiries, textbooks, and the OSU library catalog. Google scholar is useful to start my research broadly and get a general idea of the knowledge I’m trying to gain. Personal class textbooks, like from Thermodynamics, is also useful if what I’m trying to find needs steam tables or is pertinent to the class. Finally, the OSU catalog is helpful to get a book that is very specific to the topic.
When I worked as a research assistant at Yale, I was tasked with digitizing handwritten fossil counts. At times the handwriting was confusing and I had never heard of the species names, so I either asked my supervising professor (but I stopped doing that quickly because she was working on submitting a research paper), or looked it up in a catalog of the fossils. For example, the abbreviation ‘du/pac’ turned out to be Neogloboquadrina-dutertrei-pachyderma, which I put into the fossil count.
In the future, I hope to be a part of a team either researching lab-grown meats, or raising food through hydroponics. While a part of this company, I also want to attain a PE license. Clearly, lifelong learning will be important to my goals, both in pursuing a PE license, and in the constantly evolving areas of lab-grown meats and hydroponics.
I wish to attain a doctorate in engineering one day. I think it will open up new doors to help solve food-related problems in the world. Most likely it will be from OSU.
I will certainly continue my engineering education informally through technical journals and organizations to keep up with current advances and research. When given the opportunity I will gladly attend conferences.