The

American Society of Mechanical Engineers Digital Collection

During my studies as a mechanical engineering student at Northeastern University, I
quickly learned how heavily engineers rely on one another while in the field. I observed
mechanical engineers consulting one another daily at my previous co-op and my
mechanical engineering professors helped to confirm my analysis with their consistent
collaboration. It is evident there is a substantial support network, or discourse community,
within the engineering field that helps the industry thrive day in and day out. The
engineering discourse community uses the American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Digital Collection as a way to extend past the common boundaries of mechanical
engineering and reach many interdisciplinary studies that have the foundation of their
research based on mechanical engineering.

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is a prestigious organization

that consists of thousands of the worlds most renowned mechanical engineers. These
engineers are continuously changing and impacting the material I learn in the classroom
thanks to their tireless research. During an assignment my freshman year, I was tasked to
find an engineering journal article and write a short summary. I quickly typed ASME
journal into Google because I was familiar with ASME through Northeasterns ASME Club.
I clicked on the second link, which was titled The American Society of Mechanical
Engineers Digital Collection, and was astounded at the amount of information that was
quickly at my fingertips. The ASME Digital Collection is the archive for all ASME Journals,
Conference Proceedings, and eBooks dating back to 1960, 2002, and 1993, respectively.
From the first glance at the homepage, it is evident the ASME Digital Collection is a
professional website. The white and blue homepage, mixed with a touch of yellow to

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accentuate the logo, has a simple and well-planned design. On the top of the homepage
there are multiple tabs in the blue toolbar with the following titles, Home, Journal,
Conference Proceedings, eBooks, Topic Collections, Library Service Center, Faculty
Positions, and Help. When hovering over certain tabs, a dropdown menu allows the user
to choose more specific topics within the tab they are interested in. This exemplifies the
well-planned layout of the site and helps the user easily find the information they are
looking for. The homepage also features a slideshow of the most commonly read articles, a
search box in the upper left-hand corner, and a quick link to the newest content. These
features combine to provide a user-friendly webpage and quick access to some of the
greatest discoveries in mechanical engineering over the last half-century.

The ASME Digital Collections research and discoveries span a large variety of

mechanical engineering topics, as well as established interdisciplinary studies that are

commonly incorporated with mechanical engineering. It shares these innovative
discoveries in a multitude of ways, including Journals, Conference Proceedings, and eBooks.
While each serves a different audience, and thus a different writing style, they all share the
same common purpose, to further the progress of science through the sharing of the latest
engineering research. [1] The ASME Digital Collection was established to share this
information with mechanical engineering researchers and students, as well as researchers
and students from other disciplines who may be working on an interdisciplinary project
involving mechanical engineering. With this in mind, the ASME Digital Collection uses
vocabulary that addresses both higher-level mechanical engineering professionals as well
as interdisciplinary professionals that may not comprehend the higher-level technical
language.

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In order to continue my analysis, I clicked on the Journal of Mechanical Design

under the Journal tab on the toolbar and selected an article that seemed interesting, titled
Integrated Decision Making in Electric Vehicle and Charging Station Location Network
Design. It was clear that the writing style, and perhaps the intended audience change with
each section of the article. The sections of the article are as followed: Abstract,
Introduction, Integrated Decision-Making Framework, Case Study, Discussion, and
Conclusion. The Abstract is a description of the problem statement and proposed solution
in laymans terms. Since the main purpose of an abstract is to capture the audience and
give a brief summary and general purpose of the article, it is clear that the Abstract
contains informal language to ensure the readers understand the purpose of the article.
The Introduction contains language very similar to the Abstract, while explaining the
problem statement and the proposed solution in much greater detail. An example of this
informal language is observed in the following excerpt, This paper proposes an integrated
decision-making framework to assess profitability of a cooperative business model using a
multidisciplinary optimization model that combines marketing, engineering, and
operations considerations. [5] The language immediately changes to a technical writing
style as the reader moves from the Introduction to the Integrated Decision-Making
Framework. Over thirty different equations are introduced and explained in high detail,
much of which would be difficult to follow without a mechanical engineering background.
The following quote depicts this language:
We use the simple battery model shown in Fig. 3 where OCV is open circuit
voltage, r is internal resistance, I is current, CF is filtering capacitance,
and U is the output voltage. Based on this model, state of charge (SOC),

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output voltage, and heat flow rate (i.e., thermal losses) are computed as
outputs of the simulation. [5]
The following excerpt demonstrates the assumptions that are made about the readers
knowledge of engineering software. The engineering performance model of a battery EV
(BEV), fEV, in Eq. (8) is built using the AMESIM software. The subsystem models include
analytical expressions from the AMESIM libraries. [5] While a technical background is
required to understand the Integrated Decision-Making Framework section, the authors
revert back to a more informal writing style during the Case Study, Discussion, and
Conclusion. In the Case Study, the authors seem to narrate their assumptions while
executing the experiment. This is clear in the following quote:
We assume that the potential EV market size depends on population size.
Since the population of the targeted 19 cities in SE Michigan makes up 0.85%
of the U.S. population, the potential EV market size of Southeast Michigan
was assumed to be 656 in this study. [5]
The language in the Case Study is clearly very informal because it is the only section of the
article that the word we is used, which is normally viewed as improper when written in
any other section of a scientific article. In the Discussion, the results of the Case Study are
explained and shown graphically, referencing many charts and tables where the data from
the Case Study is gathered. After each of these figures is fully explained, the Conclusion
summarizes the final results of the experiment in four sentences. An excerpt from the
Conclusion explaining the results in an informal language is as followed, The results
clearly depend on the modeling assumptions made; however, these are generally
sufficiently plausible to support the case for a cooperative approach to improve consumer

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adoption of EVs. [5] The change of writing styles within the article proves that the authors
wrote the article with both the mechanical engineering professional and the inexperienced
interdisciplinary professional in mind.

I continued my analysis by selecting the Conference Proceedings tab, and selecting

a link titled ASME 2014 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition.
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers holds thirty annual conferences where
researchers present their research papers to the rest of the field in an attempt to have their
work officially recognized and published. Several volumes of Conference Proceedings are
written during these meetings containing hundreds, and sometimes thousands of accepted
and officially recognized research papers. The research paper 3D Flow Simulations in a
Simplified Right Ventricle is selected from the first volume of this conference. A PDF file
must be downloaded in order to read the paper, immediately giving the paper a more
professional feel than the journal article. The format for this paper remains very consistent
with the journal article, containing an Abstract, Introduction, Methodologies, Results, and
Conclusion. The language throughout the research paper is slightly different than the
journal article however. The following quote is from the Abstract:
The right ventricle (RV) pumps the de-oxygenated blood to the lungs for
oxygen absorption. Characterizing the RV geometry, its motion, and the
ventricular flow is critical in assessing the hearts health to provide
important clinical diagnostic and prognostic information. [6]
The language in the Abstract remains informal and easy to understand, but each section
after the Abstract is written very technically. The authors voice some of their concerns
midway through the Introduction, The current imaging techniques, such as Doppler, 2D

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echocardiography (echo), and Phase-encoded Cardiac Magnetic Resonance (CMR), are

limited in their ability to characterize the three-dimensional flow of blood through the
heart. [6] The technical writing style continues throughout the rest of the paper and
including the Conclusion, which is observed in the following quote, Similar to the LV a
vortex ring was also observed during early diastole in the RV. The vortex ring breaks down
after the peak E-wave and creates small vortical structures inside the RV. [6] This is quite
different than the journal article, but it makes sense because the audience of the paper is
engineering professionals from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. The
assumptions in this paper are much greater than the journal article, which is seen in the
following quote from the Methodologies section, The equations are integrated in time
using an efficient, second-order accurate fractional step methodology with a Jacobian-free,
Newton-Krylov solver for the momentum equations and a GMRES solver enhanced with
multi-grid as a pre-conditioner for the Poisson equation. [6] The same advanced technical
writing can be found in each paper of this conference, which confirms the intended
audience of these papers is not for the general public, but specifically for the professionals
with a high level of expertise on the engineering topic at hand.

While I continued to explore different sections of the ASME Digital Collection, I

decided to click on the eBooks tab. Even though the eBooks cant be read without
purchasing them, one of the main intentions of publishing the eBooks became very clear.
This page states the ASME press was established to publish books and now eBooks beyond
the Societys traditional programs of publications sponsored by ASMEs technical
divisions. [4] This reveals the importance of interdisciplinary work within the American
Society of Mechanical Engineers as more Journals, Conference Proceedings, and eBooks

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continue to be published based on the interdisciplinary research being done by its

members. Analyzing the titles of the authors of research papers and journal articles further
proved this. For example, the authors from the journal article Integrated Decision Making
in Electric Vehicle and Charging Station Location Network Design were from the
Department of Mechanical Engineering and School of Business at University of Michigan.
The authors of the research paper 3D Flow Simulations in a Simplified Right Ventricle
were professionals in two disciplines, Mechanical Engineering and Aerospace Engineering.
By constantly pushing the common boundaries of these fields, these authors will continue
to make progress and pursue discoveries that can change the world.

During my exploration of the ASME Digital Collection, I discovered a hierarchal

community that I did not know existed. As I looked at the authors of the Integrated
Decision Making in Electric Vehicle and Charging Station Location Network Design journal
article, I noticed one author is an ASME Member, while the other is an ASME Fellow. Upon
further research, there are five levels of membership in the American Society of Mechanical
Engineers. The most prestigious level is Honorary Member, followed closely by Fellow,
followed by Member, Student Member, and Affiliate. Honorary Member is a person who
has made distinctive contributions to engineering, science, industry, research, public
service, or other pursuits allied with and beneficial to the engineering profession. [9] No
more than five are selected each year, as this is the highest distinction in the engineering
field one could hold. A Fellow is one who has attained a membership grade of distinction
and shall have been responsible for significant engineering achievements. [10] There are
only three thousand ASME Fellows worldwide, making this distinction another great honor.
A Member is one who has attained a degree for an engineering curriculum, while a Student

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Member is one who is currently enrolled in an engineering curriculum. Lastly, an Affiliate

is someone who is not an engineer, but is somehow affiliated with engineering. One major
difference between each level, aside from the distinction each level brings, is the last three
tiers pay a yearly membership fee. This fee is $149 per year, and provides certain benefits
such as e-Mentoring, internships, networking, magazine subscriptions, and access to over
one hundred volumes of ASME WorkSmart and hundreds of thousands of journal articles
and research papers. Although each level of membership comes with a different
distinction, all members of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers can be
considered the primary community. They are the cogs that tirelessly complete experiment
after experiment, writing research paper after research paper. The secondary community
is all of the Non-Affiliates. These are the people that have zero affiliation with ASME, and
possibly with the field of engineering. Non-Affiliates do not pay membership fees so they
are only able to access a small portion of the ASME Digital Collection. All of the research I
have done using the ASME Digital Collection thus far has been as a Member thanks to
Northeastern Universitys ASME membership, showing how valuable it is to be a member
of the primary discourse community in ASME.

Throughout my analysis of the ASME Digital Collection, my eyes have been opened

to the discourse community that is established around me. I now understand that
mechanical engineers continuously consult and collaborate with one another in the field in
order to keep pushing the common boundaries of mechanical engineering. I learned how
prestigious the American Society of Mechanical Engineers is as an organization, and saw
first hand its level of professionalism while analyzing the ASME Digital Collection webpage.
Knowing this, I am excited to become an ASME Student Member and join my peers and

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their commitment to excellence as they continuously push the boundaries of research in

the pursuit of new scientific discoveries that can change the world as we know it.

Work Cited
1. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers. The ASME Digital Collection.
ASME Digital Collection. 2015. Web. 25 May 2015.
2. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers. ASME Journal Program. ASME
Digital Collection. 2015. Web. 25 May 2015.

3. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers. ASME Conference Publications.
ASME Digital Collection. 2015. Web. 25 May 2015.
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4. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers. ASME Press. ASME Digital
Collection. 2015. Web. 25 May 2015.

5. Kang, Namwoo, Feinberg, Fred, and Papalambros. Integrated Decision Making in

Electric Vehicle and Charging Station Location Network Design. ASME Digital
Collection Journal of Mechanical Design. The American Society of Mechanical
Engineers. 24 Sept 2014. Web. 25 May 2015.

6. Vruddhula, Varun, and Borazjani, Iman. 3D Flow Simulations in a Simplified Right

Ventricle. ASME Digital Collection Conference Proceedings. The American Society of
Mechanical Engineers. 20 August 2014. Web. 25 May 2015.
7. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers. The American Society of
Mechanical Engineers. ASME. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
2015. Web. 25 May 2015.

8. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Membership Levels. ASME. The
American Society of Mechanical Engineers. 2015. Web. 25 May 2015.

9. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Honorary Member. ASME. The

American Society of Mechanical Engineers. 2015. Web. 25 May 2015.
10. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Fellows. ASME. The American
Society of Mechanical Engineers. 2015. Web. 25 May 2015.

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