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According to IEEE, “For many engineers, work is the thing you do to fill up the time between college and retirement.” But it doesn’t have to be that way. In case you missed it, the February 2009 issue of IEEE Spectrum featured a special report on engineering dream jobs. The issue profiles 10 engineers who are doing exactly what they want to do and loving it. To read about the toy makers, effects wizards, solar-powered plane builders, and more in this issue, visit
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/tocresult.jsp?isYear=2009&isnumber=4768849&Submit32=Go+To+Issue

While you’re at it you might also want to visit the IEEE careers sight at http://careers.ieee.org/

IBISWorld, a Princeton subscription database for Industry Market Research, has developed a recession update supplement to its industry reports. These updates are available for all 700 industries in the database and “provide a briefing on today’s rapidly changing economy and the short-term implications for an industry.”

To view the recession update for an industry, first go to IBISWorld. Select the “Industry Market Research” database from the drop down menu or click the button. Then either search or navigate to a particular industry. Once you have selected an industry, click the orange Recession Update link from the Table of Contents menu on the left.

The Recession Update provides information on the immediate impact on the industry, headwind, tailwind, structural changes, future of the industry, and forcasts.

The following link, for example, provides a Recession Update for the Bar, Nightclub and Drinking Establishment industry. http://www.ibisworld.com/industry/RecessionUpdate.aspx?indid=1685

Techstreet launches BuildingBlocks utility for industry standards - 11 Dec 2008

The Scientific business of Thomson Reuters has announced that Techstreet (about), a source for online access to industry codes and standards, has launched a new utility called Techstreet Subscriptions BuildingBlocks. The feature allows engineers to pre-purchase documents for the first time from publishers such as the American Society for Testing and Materials, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, American Petroleum Institute, British Standards Institution and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

BuildingBlocks lets Techstreet subscription customers buy standards in advance, in increments of 25, 50, 75 or 100 documents from selected publishers without naming specific titles. Users can immediately download required codes or standards on demand once their BuildingBlocks account is activated.

Techstreet Subscriptions is a Thomson Reuters web-based workflow tool that enables access to a controlled set of industry standards in electronic format. The Web 2.0 interface is projected to be fast and intuitive, with an advanced search and browse functionality, favourites lists, automatic updates, e-mail alerts, real-time usage reports, an announcement board and other administrative features.

Construction Software Advice is an Internet resource designed to help contractors, architects and engineers research and select software. The site provides information for software selection and implementation, as well as detailed software product profiles and reviews. Using Software Advice, engineering and construction companies can gain access to:

A sophisticated search capability that recommends products based on a buyers’ construction industry/trade, company size and specific functional requirements;
Detailed profiles of each software product, including screen shots, key differentiators and detailed feature lists;
Comparisons of recommended construction project management software systems, estimating systems and job costing programs, based on the software functionality and technological underpinnings; and,
A wealth of articles, white papers and evaluation tools.

“New vertical search site for the global photonics community - 16 Sep 2008

Vertical search services and technologies provider Convera Corporation, US, has announced the launch of search.optics.org, a vertical search site for the global photonics industry, in conjunction with IOP Publishing. Wholly owned by the Institute of Physics, IOP Publishing is an international leader in scientific publishing and electronic dissemination of information and news in the field of physics.

Each of the thousands of websites included in the search.optics.org database has been personally selected by the editors of optics.org and Optics & Laser Europe magazine, both produced by IOP Publishing. The search.optics.org database includes the sites of leading photonics companies, key optics organisations and research centers, as well as other information sources such as journals, magazines, and news-based websites.”

Source: Knowledgespeak Newsletter

EnergyCurrent expands site with new feature and improved search function - 05 Aug 2008

EnergyCurrent.com, a publisher of upstream energy business news focused on offshore petroleum and emerging and alternative energy resources, has enabled a new feature, allowing registered users to comment on all of the site’s articles.

The comments feature allows readers to interact with the stories, adding their views and opinions to up-to-date news articles on the energy industry. EnergyCurrent has also added an improved search function, making it even easier for readers to find the stories that interest them the most.

EnergyCurrent.com is projected as a one-stop resource for news on the rapidly growing upstream energy business segments of offshore oil and gas and emerging and alternative energy resources. Coverage focuses on global offshore exploration and production of oil and gas, field development and construction, the global LNG industry and renewable energy resources such as wind energy, wave energy, solar power, and bio-fuels. The site is free to read online and offers a free daily email digest recapping the previous day’s stories. Source: Knowledgespeak News

The following report is available from BCC Research for instant online purchase: — but alas, beyond the budgetary limits of academic libraries.

Carbon Capture & Storage Technologies

The global market for carbon capture technologies increased from $80.2 billion in 2006 to $88.7 billion in 2007. It should reach $236.3 billion by 2012, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.8%.

The report covers:

Descriptions of various carbon capture and storage technologies including pre-combustion, oxy-fuel combustion and post-combustion applications.

The current global market status for carbon capture technologies, with trends and forecasts for growth over the next 5 years.

Examination of more than 100 carbon capture and storage research projects taking place in the U.S., Europe, Canada and Australia.

Click here for a complete table of contents. Chapters are listed with prices which range from $94 (appendix, 5-pp.) to $4850 (technologies chapter, 388 pp.)

June 2008 • Report ID: EGY037B • 387 pp. • 140 tbls.

More about the report.

Jay Harman has made a long-term study of fluid flows: The biology and physics of vortexes reveal promise of efficiencies in energy and natural systems. Pax Scientific, the company he founded, now has 5 spin-off companies, one being PaxIT absorbed with designing quieter more efficient computer fans.

The article also cites examples of the slowness with which promising inventions get adopted — even in the computer or information technology industries. Read the article in the New York Times from June 8th.

FierceBioresearcher is a free weekly newsletter that provides alerts of very interesting research that is going on in the PHARMA industry. There are usually links to articles and reports. Occasionally there are conference notices, and announcements of industry reports, e.g.: “The BioWorld Diabetes Report 2008: Developments and Opportunities in Drugs and Devices”.

“FierceBioResearcher gives you the must-know scientific breakthroughs, tools, techniques and news about the biotech research industry. Critical areas covered include drug discovery and development, preclinical research, nanotechnology, genomic research, bioinformatics, and stem cell research. Sign up today to receive your “insiders only” weekly briefing for free.”

Topics Covered — from their website:

Drug Discovery Preclinical Research Pharmacology Genomics Proteomics Cell Biology Molecular Biology Tissue Culture Cell Culture GCP / GLP / GMP Lab Equipment

GlobalSpec a search engine, information resource, and epublishing company for the engineering, industrial, and technical communities, announced that it has expanded its relationship with the IEEE, a professional association for the advancement of technology. Visitors to the IEEE Xplore website, a digital library providing full text access to quality technical literature in electrical engineering, computer science, and electronics, will now have access to more than one million application notes available on GlobalSpec. Application notes—content created by companies to explain, illustrate, and promote technologies or products—are searchable by keyword, and will be displayed separately from IEEE Xplore search results. This full library of application notes is powered by The Engineering Web, a vertical search engine indexed by GlobalSpec.

Source: EContent Magazine [EContent.Xtra@emediapro.com] Nov. 27th