Wikipedia English version and several other sites are going dark intentionally on Wednesday January 18, 2012 for 24 hours to protest the anti-piracy bills before Congress (see news item at http://www.npr.org/2012/01/16/145319211/in-protest-of-anti-piracy-bill-wikipedia-to-go-dark). The Engineering Library would like to remind everybody, that thanks to our significant subscriptions and acquisitions, you can still research and find the information you need. Our library resources that encompass numerous books, journals, databases, encyclopedias, handbooks, directories, etc. are alive and well! At the library, the lights are always on!
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MIT and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) have announced a new online toolkit for materials science research. The Materials Project, formerly called the Materials Genome project, currently contains information on 18,933 compounds and performs real time materials properties computations using LBNL's supercomputing clusters.
Users can freely perform a quick materials search or create a log in to use the toolkit's advanced features. Advanced features include:
Users can freely perform a quick materials search or create a log in to use the toolkit's advanced features. Advanced features include:
- Materials Explorer - For advanced searching by chemistry, composition, or property.
- Phase Diagram App - To compute phase diagrams for systems with 2-4 components.
- Lithium Ion Battery Explorer - Explore Li-ion battery materials by various criteria.
- Reactions Calculator - Calculate the enthalpy of various reactions. Experimental results shown where available.
- Structure Predictor - Generates potential new compounds using experimental and mined data.
The exhibition on display on the first floor of the Engineering Library in Friend Center examines a number of Khan's major tall buildings systems in concrete and steel. Featured works include the John Hancock Center, the Willis Tower (formerly known as Sears Tower) and the Brunswick Building, all in Chicago, Illinois, as well as One and Two Shell Plaza in Houston, Texas.
Through models, photographs, panels that illustrate the relationship between forces and form, Khan's personal notebooks and the accompanying books, one experiences the process of engineering design.
The models presented in this exhibit were made by students enrolled in a new class taught in Fall 2010, CEE 463: A Social and Multi-Dimensional Exploration of Structures. By focusing on Khan's works, the students made engineering analyses of his designs and examined the social context in which he worked.
Exhibition Co-Curators: Sigrid Adriaenssens and Maria E. Moreyra Garlock
Despite difficult weather conditions, the Engineering Library is open and warm today, December 27th until 9:00 PM.
The Data.gov Mash-a-thon took place in Washington, D.C. at the end of August 2010. The event was designed to inspire developers to find new ways of using Data.gov's free public data to create mash-ups. One of the most interesting mash-ups developed was the Energy Data Mash-up which created a regional map of 7 U.S. cities using energy information from Data.gov. the Energy Data Mash-up is available at http://en.openei.org/apps/mashathon2010/ and offers an interesting comparison of census, utility usage, and smartgrid information in cities with populations around five hundred thousand.
Participants in the Mash-a-thon include Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Professor Jim Hendler and his students who have already created more the 40 different Mash-ups using Data.gov information. A list of these Mash-ups is available at http://data-gov.tw.rpi.edu/wiki/Demos and is useful not just for the mash-ups, but also in seeing what information and technology was used to put the mash-ups together.
More information about linked data and mash-ups, including tutorials can be found at http://linkeddata.org/
Participants in the Mash-a-thon include Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Professor Jim Hendler and his students who have already created more the 40 different Mash-ups using Data.gov information. A list of these Mash-ups is available at http://data-gov.tw.rpi.edu/wiki/Demos and is useful not just for the mash-ups, but also in seeing what information and technology was used to put the mash-ups together.
More information about linked data and mash-ups, including tutorials can be found at http://linkeddata.org/
The Institute of Physics (IOP) has a new platform for IOP journals called IOPScience. The new platform offers more searching and refining capability as well as content customization through a personal account. Here is IOP's list of new functionality and content:
- Speed up your research: find relevant content quickly with enhanced search filtering
- Save time: re-run previous searches, tagging your favorite articles
- Keep up to date: receive RSS feeds and email alerts when new content is published
- Access more content: view articles plus preprints and news
- Interact and share: embrace social bookmarking to share articles
- Discover related research: explore relevant articles based on subject classification codes
- Make it personal: customize your alerts, save articles of interest, and view newly published articles within your subject areas
Along with the new platform, IOP has also developed two new free iPhone apps. Physicsworld.com newsflash gives you access to the latest news from physicsworld.com on your iPhone or iPod Touch. IOPscience express allows you to search and download up to 20 IOP journal articles per month on your iPhone or iPod touch. Both are available in the App Store on your device, but you can read more at http://iopscience.iop.org/page/version
Starting March 16th, IOP's Electronic Journals website and links will be redirected to IOPScience. Members of the Princeton University community should have no trouble accessing Princeton's electronic subscriptions to IOP Journals through IOPScience. Please contact me (wdressel@princeton.edu) your subject librarian if you have any problems with the transition.
Despite weather conditions, the Engineering Library is open today, February 26th, 2010, but is providing limited service. A librarian is available to answer questions via the Meebo chat widget on this page, or via email here. The library will close at its usual Friday time of 9:00 pm.
December 9, 2009 -- Energy efficiency technologies that exist today or that are likely to be developed in the near future could save considerable money as well as energy, says a new report from the National Research Council. Fully adopting these technologies could lower projected U.S. energy use 17 percent to 20 percent by 2020, and 25 percent to 31 percent by 2030.
Source: WhatsNew@NationalAcademies.org
Both the United States and Canada launched new data web portals this month.
Data.gov is the United States' new data website offering a limited number of datasets in a broad range of categories including: Energy and Utilities, Science and Technology, and Transportation among others. Two searchable catalogs are provided, a raw data catalog and a tools catalog with links to data mining tools. A video tutorial is available at http://www.data.gov/howtouse. You can also make recommendations for datasets that are not already included. To read the Whitehouse press release visit http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Democratizing-Data/
In Canada, the National Research Council launched the new Gateway to Scientific Data which provides access to Canadian scientific, technical and medical data sets as well as information for scientists on best practices for managing data. The Scientific Data Sets cover a wide range of subjects including Aerospace, Biochemistry, Environment, Geosciences, Physics, and Thermodynamics among others. To learn more or search the data sets visit http://cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/services/cisti/gateway-scientific-data.html
From today’s Chronicle of Higher Education:
News Analysis: Green Era Should Propagate Smarter Buildings
