Engineering

Road inspection and surveying at a speed of 130 km/h

2012-05-15T09:57:3212:00:00

“Based on preparatory work by Technical University Dresden and imaging solutions from STEMMER IMAGING different measuring mechanisms are on their way on German roads to help to analyse road conditions much faster and more accurate than ever before. The imaging components used for these tasks have proven themselves in industrial applications with comparable tasks for some time now.” Access the pdf from http://www.stemmer-imaging.co.uk/en/applications/application.Street-Inspection

The Engineering Library ZOME Competition!

2012-05-14T14:21:5312:00:00

It is time once again to enter the annual Zome Competition sponsored by Fletcher Construction with $2000 in cash prizes. Rules are available from the Front Desk of the Library. Please read them very carefully.

Teams are to comprise of 2-4 people; practice packs will be available at the Library desk from Monday 21st May and you will be able to practise from the 21st May through Inter-semester Break until the week of 11th July. You will need to build your model in one 4 hour session when the Library is open during that week (11th -20th July).

The judging panel will include the Dean and the prizes will be given out by the General Manager of Fletchers, so there will be quite a lot of publicity for the successful winners.

Good for your CV!

Only 20 teams may enter and you need to register early – registration opens on Monday 21st May, 8.30am at the Engineering Library Front Desk. Last year all team places were taken in the first 10 minutes after registration opened!

Goodluck!

Assistance for young researchers and academics

2012-05-14T09:59:0912:00:00

Biggerbrains, a website from the publisher Elsevier aims to assist: “It’s when existing ideas come together in new ways. Creating an IQ big bang. Giving strength to your ideas and power to your career. Getting you funded, published and networked with the stars in your field. Providing the tipping point you need to get you noticed by your peers, and the world. Welcome to Biggerbrains. Where the ‘DNA of success’ is contributed by the big minds in the research community.” Try it out at http://www.biggerbrains.com/

New protocol enables wireless and secure biometric acquisition with web services

2012-05-10T08:13:5612:00:00

“Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed and published a new protocol for communicating with biometric sensors over wired and wireless networks—using some of the same technologies that underpin the web. The new protocol, called WS-Biometric Devices (WS-BD), allows desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones to access sensors that capture biometric data such as fingerprints, iris images and face images using web services. Web services themselves are not new; for example, video-on-demand services use web services to stream videos to mobile devices and televisions. The WS-Biometric Devices protocol will greatly simplify setting up and maintaining secure biometric systems for verifying identity because such biometric systems will be easier to assemble with interoperable components compared to current biometrics systems that generally have proprietary device-specific drivers and cables. WS-BD enables interoperability by adding a device-independent web-services layer in the communication protocol between biometric devices and systems.” Read more and access the protocol at http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-05/nios-npe050312.php

The Hottest Research of 2011

2012-05-09T08:30:5012:00:00

“Once again, ScienceWatch takes its annual look back at the hottest of recent research. Listed in the adjoining table are the researchers who, according to citations tracked during 2011, recorded the highest numbers of Hot Papers published over the preceding two years. Also listed are the papers published during 2011 (excluding reviews) that were most cited by year’s end.” Read about it at http://sciencewatch.com/newsletter/2012/201203/hottest_research_2012/

Team Mobile Eye is in the finals of the 2012 Microsoft Imagine Cup

2012-05-08T09:38:0712:00:00

“MobileEye brings the richness of visual information to blind people using commodity camera phones. The solution provides the ability to take guided pictures of your surroundings and “hear” the phone describe it to you. MobileEye uses a mixture of human intelligence (using crowd-sourcing technology) and artificial intelligence to provide vital information about what is being ‘seen’. The solution enables people to complete tasks that were not possible before and helps them be more independent.” Read more about them and their project at http://mobileeye.org/index.html

Public sector saves £28 million through open access publication

2012-05-07T12:54:0512:00:00

“Open Access to published scholarly research offers significant benefits to the UK, according to two reports released today by the UK Open Access Implementation Group. The UK public sector already saves £28.6 million by using OA [1]. The reports make it clear that both the public sector and the voluntary sector would see further direct and indirect benefits from increased access to UK higher education research publications. … The UK public sector spends £135 million a year, made up of subscriptions and time spent trying to find articles, accessing the journal papers it needs to perform effectively. Each extra 5% of journal papers accessed via open access on the web would save the public purse £1.7 million, even if no subscription fees were to be saved. [3] … Professor Martin Hall, vice-chancellor at the University of Salford and chair of the OAIG, says, “These findings mark a turning point in the quiet revolution of open access. There are many good reasons for making research available on an open access basis, and the reports are clear that one reason is because open access makes economic sense. The UK Open Access Implementation Group is committed to helping the public, private and academic sectors benefit from UK research and I am proud that these reports further that cause.”” Read more at http://open-access.org.uk/news

The Science of Speed

2012-05-07T08:39:1512:00:00

A unique partnership between the National Science Foundation (NSF) and NASCAR is the basis for this fun and informative website. The site features twelve episodes created as part of "The Science of Speed," hosted by Diandra Leslie-Pelecky. Each episode features a NASCAR car in a variety of racing and testing situations, and some special guests turn up, such as Jeff Gordon and Michael McDowell. The topics covered here include car safety, drag & drafting, grip, sound, and friction. Each clip is accompanied by racing footage and expert commentary that makes each encounter lively and compelling. This is a great way to pique the interest of those persons who might find certain aspects of physics and related fields a bit inaccessible.

Visitors shouldn't miss the "Firesuits" episode as it explores the world of these very important safety devices. [KMG] From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2010. http://scout.wisc.edu/ Read more at http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/sos/

IET.tv videos now indexed by Inspec

2012-05-03T12:32:4712:00:00

Inspec started indexing videos hosted on IET.tv . There are about 2,000 indexed to date. You can retrieve a list by searching “iet-tv” in “All fields”. http://tv.theiet.org/

Self-sculpting sand

2012-05-03T08:17:5112:00:00

“New algorithms could enable heaps of ‘smart sand’ that can assume any shape, allowing spontaneous formation of new tools or duplication of broken mechanical parts.
Imagine that you have a big box of sand in which you bury a tiny model of a footstool. A few seconds later, you reach into the box and pull out a full-size footstool: The sand has assembled itself into a large-scale replica of the model. That may sound like a scene from a Harry Potter novel, but it’s the vision animating a research project at the Distributed Robotics Laboratory (DRL) at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. At the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in May — the world’s premier robotics conference — DRL researchers will present a paper describing algorithms that could enable such “smart sand.” They also describe experiments in which they tested the algorithms on somewhat larger particles — cubes about 10 millimeters to an edge, with rudimentary microprocessors inside and very unusual magnets on four of their sides.” Read more at http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/smart-robotic-sand-0402.html