One Day CPD(1.0) course on ENDNOTE and MENDELEY Tools for Referencing/Citation

Referencing and citation of the existing knowledge is an important pillar of the academic and professional writing. The uses of referencing and citations range from class assignments to research articles, reports and theses. Considering the importance of referencing in various academic and professional sectors, the Electronic Engineering Department, Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro in collaboration with Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) and Office of Research & Innovation Centre (ORIC) MUET organized one-day CPD course on EndNote and Mendeley Software Tools for Referencing/Citation, held on 1st August 2019. The workshop was conducted by the meticulous trainers Dr. Tayab Din Memon, Chairman Department of Electronic Engineering and Dr. Attiya Baqai, Assistant Professor from Department of Electronic Engineering, MUET, Jamshoro. The course  was attended by the professionals, faculty members, undergraduate and postgraduate students of various engineering disciplines, including Electronics, , Textile and Mechatronics. Number of participants was restricted to provide hands on experience on one to one participant/ computer ratio in parallel lab sessions conducted in Computing lab and Modelling and Simulation lab of Department of Electronics Engineering.

The course started with Recitation from Holy Quran by Engr. Salim Lashari followed by a brief opening ceremony. Dean FEECE, Prof. Dr. Mukhtiar Unar was the chief guest in the opening ceremony. In his speech, Prof. Dr. Mukhtiar Unar discussed the importance of  (Continuing Professional Development) CPD activities and deliberated that PEC has made mandatory for a registered engineer to earn nine credit points in first three years cycle, twelve credit points in the next three years cycle and five credit points per year thereafter for renewal of registration under the PEC Act. He further elaborated that with the help of CPD trainings and activities our faculty members and students can maintain, improve and broaden their knowledge and skills for developing personal qualities required in their professional lives. He enlightened the efforts of Chairman Electronic Engineering Department, Dr.Tayab Din Memon, and faculty members for organizing such beneficial course for the welfare of students with a nominal participation fee. He guided students with the importance of Endnote and Mendeley software tools for referencing by saying that most of the research articles are lacking in correct method of introducing references.

The course started with two parallel sessions (Group A and B). In one session, Dr. Tayab Din Memon first explained the importance of correct referencing and discussed the basic principles of referencing and citation to avoid plagiarism. Dr. Tayab further discussed the features of the Endnote tool and explained the method and techniques of developing the reference from different sources including a social media tweet, journal articles and even TV shows. He further demonstrated the process of library creation and document import in Endnote and demonstrated the process of adding references in any document.

In other session Dr. Attiya Baqai started with Mendeley referencing tool overview and demonstrated its library structure, process of  adding references, documents, finding their details, use of web importer, library management, PDF viewer for performing annotation and highlighting the important points. She further demonstrated the citation plug in using Mendeley in MS Word, joining and creation of groups in order to share references, creating research profiles. She also explained the process of using Mendeley for discovering new research, recommendations and their impact. Both sessions of the course were accompanied by hands on activity and exercise questions from the learned concepts regarding referencing tools and their usage. Following to the Lunch break, In second stage, both groups were swapped for Endnote and Mendeley.

At the end of both sessions, a brief closing ceremony was arranged to award participation certificates. The Chairman of Electronic Engineering Department Dr. Tayab Din Memon in his closing speech, said that he is deeply pleased that large number of students and faculty members participated in this course and was particularly pleased with the presence of Dean FEECE, Prof. Dr. Mukhtiar Unar. He further acknowledged and appreciated the dedication of participants and faculty members for making this course successful.

He thanked Dr. Attiya for her support and exchanging her ideas and knowledge among the students. The ceremony ended with the feedback from the participants and distribution of certificates. The participants highly appreciated the efforts of the organising department and trainers for arranging and delivering such a useful course with CPD points. They also expressed their wish for future workshops to be conducted in the areas of raspberry pi, python, PCB designing, writing research papers and proposals, robotics and artificial intelligence.