Guide
Research tips for students working with me at Cornell.
Materials for newcomers
- 📰 Systems Engineering at Cornell: Ezra Systems Seminar Series and SE / Duffield events
- Academic progress & new graduate resources at Cornell
- Graduate School policies & Code of Legislation @ Cornell
- Research integrity and Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR)
- Intellectual property (Center for Technology Licensing)
- Code of Academic Integrity (copyright and plagiarism)
- 🌬 Maximization of your research impacts
- 🛡️ Cyber security: Auto warnings of account/password breach/leakages at haveibeenpwned.com
Philosophy reading list
- 📚 Laozi. (~500 BC). 🆓 道德经 (Tao Te Ching, public domain). Why: A short classic on restraint, systems thinking, and leading without forcing—useful when research complexity tempts over-control.
- 📚 Plato. (~380 BC). 🆓 Republic (理想国, public domain). Cornell University Library. Why: It begins with a deceptively simple question—what is justice?—and trains you to test definitions, examine assumptions, and argue with clarity.
- 📚 Ludwig Wittgenstein. (1921). 🆓 Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (TLP, 逻辑哲学论, public domain). Cornell University Library. Why: A rigorous lesson in the limits of language and logic—how far formal systems can say, and where they must fall silent.
- 📚 Bertrand Russell. (1948). 🆓 Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits (人类的知识, public domain). Cornell University Library. Why: A clear map of what we can know, how we justify it, and where certainty ends—handy for framing research claims honestly.
World leading tech & innovation news
- 🎅 Choose based on your interests
- 📚 Academia: EurekAlert’s Technology, Math, and Earth Science news (subject pages update hourly; bookmark in your browser, or email via blogtrottr)
- 🤖 Data analytics: Towards Data Science and Machine Learning (Bookable on the websites)
- 🧠 AI news & policy: MIT Technology Review, The Batch (DeepLearning.AI), and TechCrunch AI
- 🖥 General IT: Hacker News (RSS feed; Bookable via blogtrottr or your browser)
Data analysis tools
- 📈 Linear & statistical models
- 🤖 IBM SPSS (often available via Cornell IT software)
- 🐃 GNU PSPP (free version of IBM SPSS)
- ⛏️ Data mining & machine learning
Vector charting tools (🆓 free)
- 📈 Veusz
- 🎨 MS Powerpoint + PDF print (e.g., flow charts)
- 🐍 Python
- 📦 Dia
- 📝 MS Word
- 🙅 Disable auto image compression in MS Word
- 🎨 MS Powerpoint for wrapping the sub-figures up
- 📝 LaTeX
Standard citation managers
- 🧩 EndNote
- Access at Cornell: see Cornell Library — Citation Management (site licenses for CALS & Human Ecology; otherwise trial/purchase via EndNote). LibGuide
- Tutorials, FAQs & videos
- For “Find Full Text,” add Cornell’s OpenURL in preferences:
http://resolver.library.cornell.edu/net/openurl/ - Cite While You Write works with MS Word; pick the journal style (APA, IEEE, Elsevier, ACS/MDPI, etc.) in EndNote
- For an organization/government document, use the short name as Author (corporate) and full name as Publisher in a Report-type reference. E.g.,
- NIBS. (2015). National Building Information Modeling Standard. Version 3, Washington, DC, USA: National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS). Retrieved from https://www.nationalbimstandard.org/ (accessed on 1 Jan 2020).
- Prefer Report-type entries for webpages and online documents when a formal bibliographic style fits better than a bare “Web Page”
- Article number (ASCE and some Elsevier journals) can go in the Pages field
- Set a DOI (or URL) on every reference entry
- 🧩 LaTeX
- 💽 BibTeX for thesis, books, and as a citebase
- 💇 A clean BibTeX
.bibfor each article - Note the formatting control macros, e.g.,
{},--,$$ - Set a DOI (or URL) to every reference entry
Acknowledgement
This Guide is adapted from the research tips of Dr. Fan (Frank) Xue, Associate Professor at the University of Hong Kong. I thank him for sharing this structure and resources with the research community.