Research Guides: MCEN 4045/4085: Mechanical Engineering Senior Design Project (Riffell): Social Innovation

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Research a Population or Problem

In designing for social innovation, you may need to learn more about the population you are creating your design for, or the problem you are solving. This page includes research strategies for social innovation.

Search Terms

Figuring out what keywords to search with is an important part of the research process. The population or issue you are researching may have several different terms by which it is referred, for example:

adaptive technology / assistive technology
climate change / global warming
poor / economically disadvantaged / poverty / needy

Below are databases, lists of databases, or journals where you can search for information about the population or problem you are researching. Some databases include a "controlled vocabulary" or "thesaurus" where you can look up the term scholars use to describe that topic.

Developing Countries

Anthropology Plus (EBSCO) Indexes journal articles, essays, reports, commentaries, and edited works in the fields of cultural, biological, and linguistic anthropology as well as ethnology, archaeology, folklore, and material culture from the late 19th century to the present.
PAIS Index (ProQuest) Covers global public policy and social issues.
AidData Detailed information about development projects from bilateral and multilateral aid agencies and development banks.
ELDIS Information service providing free access to relevant, up-to-date, and diverse research on international development issues.

Under-Served Populations

Social Sciences Full Text (EBSCO) Scholarly articles in the fields of addition studies, anthropology, criminology, economics, family studies, gerontology, ethnic studies, political science, psychology, social work, and urban studies. Includes the following collections: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson), Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective: 1907-1984 (H.W. Wilson)
Academic Search Ultimate (EBSCO) Multidisciplinary index to thousands of peer-reviewed scholarly journals. Also includes video content from the Associated Press. 
Ethnic Diversity Source (EBSCO) Collection of Scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers, and primary sources, supporting Ethnic Studies.
Women's Studies International (EBSCO) Includes latest scholarship in feminist research.

Adaptive Technology

Assistive Technology: The Official Journal of RESNA An applied, scientific publication in the multi-disciplinary field of technology for people with disabilities
Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology Forum for the dissemination and exchange of ideas amongst global health practitioners and researchers to encourage a better understanding of all aspects of disability and to promote rehabilitation science, practice and policy aspects of the rehabilitation process

Sustainability & the Environment

GreenFILE (EBSCO) Interdisciplinary resources on human impact to environment.
Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management (ProQuest) Good starting point for any scholarly research from an environmental approach.
Gale in Context: Environmental Studies The Global Reference on the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources focuses on the physical, social, and economic aspects of environmental issues.
ENVIROnetBASE Practical starting point for finding background research on environment-related topics.