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For more information, visit Resources.

1.  How to Create Your Personal Web Page

1. To create a personal webpage at http://www.eng.buffalo.edu/~UBITname, you first need a SENS account. Apply here.
2. Then follow steps here.

You need to know how to use FTP and code HTML. For FTP file transfers, use FileZilla. For HTML coding, you can use any text editor, for example, Notepad++.

2.  How to Use LaTeX

LaTeX is a powerful and useful typesetting tool for any writing. LaTeX is especially helpful for academic writings. My CV is also created by LaTeX.

I strongly encourage any graduate student in engineering, especially operations research, to learn how to use LaTeX. To begin your learning, you can simply google 'LaTeX', or start with my guide.

3.  How to Search Journal Papers

Of course, there are many ways to do this. Here is how I do it.

1. Go to Google Scholar, and search with the article title. Sometimes it is helpful to add 'University at Buffalo' to Library Links in Google Scholar Preferences. If UB has a subscription directly through the journal publisher, you will likely be able to access the article in the publisher's website. However, sometimes, UB has a subscription to non-publisher services; try Step 2.
2. Go to UB Libraries, search by the journal name in the 'E-Journals' search box. For older papers, UB may not have subscriptions; try Step 3.
3. Just google the article. You may find a working draft version of the article.
4. See if UB Libraries has a hard copy of the article.
5. If anything does not work, go to ILLiad to request a copy of the article from non-UB sources. ILLiad is an interlibrary loan service. After several days, you will likely receive a scanned PDF of the article.
6. You may send a polite email to the author requesting a copy. The author may send you a working draft version.

If you are off-campus, you need an extra step to try Step 1: First connect with UB VPN. For all other steps, you don't need VPN.

4.  How to Subscribe to Journal RSS Feeds

What is RSS? By subscribing RSS feeds, you can save your time to visit every website. Most, not all, of academic journals service RSS feeds. For example, visit Operations Research and find RSS Feeds.

1. Choose a RSS reader. I recommend Google Reader.
2. Collect RSS feed addresses from journals of your interest. This list would be useful.
3. Subscribe those RSS feeds.

Ron Gray's blog has a friendly introduction for how to use Google Reader with screenshots.