Reviewer Eric Ayars is an associate professor of physics at California State University, Chico, and had this to say about the text's readability:

By far, the book's best feature is the delightfully clear and understandable explanations of the more complicated aspects of computational physics. The authors' explanation of the fast Fourier transform (FFT), for example, quickly and easily explains its function, why it requires that the number of samples be a power of two, and why it's so much faster than the discrete Fourier transform. Although I've been teaching computational physics for years, their explanation is so clear that it made me realize that I hadn't yet fully grasped the technique's elegance.

Professor Ayars commented about the fact that the text is designed around the use of Matlab®, however, he says,

In my opinion, the text's biggest weakness is that it's written around Matlab, which is an expensive and proprietary software package. However, the authors rarely do anything that requires Matlab, so it's possible to work around this issue...The book's best qualities don't depend on the Matlab examples, and libraries exist for other languages that allow the same functionality as Matlab. It's an excellent book, and well deserving of serious consideration for any computational physics course.

Read the full article by visiting Jones & Bartlett Learning.

This collection of AutoCAD^® 2011 texts provides new and seasoned users with simple step-by-step procedures on how to create, modify, annotate, and add dimension to any engineering drawing. These invaluable resources are designed for novice users of AutoCAD 2011, as they do not require the reader to have previous CAD experience.

“What makes these resources stand out from the competition is the inclusion of both English and metric units in all the examples, exercises, projects and descriptions,” said Tim Anderson, Sr. Acquisitions Editor with Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Every new copy is accompanied by a DVD that contains all of the book's figures in color and a trial version of AutoCAD^® 2011, which allows the user to set up all the drawing lessons and projects from the books.

Three new AutoCAD 2011 Resources from Jones & Bartlett Learning:

• AutoCAD^® 2011 Essentials (9780763797980), MSRP: $49.95
• AutoCAD^® 2011 Essentials, Comprehensive Edition (9780763798000),
  MSRP: $59.95
• AutoCAD^® 2011 3D Modeling Essentials (9780763797966) , MSRP: $49.95

The Essence of Materials is the ideal text for your introductory materials science course.All of our titles are designed to introduce the necessary theory, but also provide your students with examples and applications from industry. Also, most of our titles are accompanied by software and student & instructor resources to help illustrate and enhance the content.

Qualified instructors are encouraged to request review copies at the show, or as always directly from our site www.jblearning.com.  As an added incentive for attending we are offering 20% off the list price on all our featured titles!  But in case you are unable to attend, just use coupon code ASEE2010 at checkout when purchasing dircetly from our site.  Enjoy the conference and we hope to see you there!

The topic of "Surface Modeling" is rather broad and somewhat ambiguous. In this three part series we will explore a number of the options and usefulness of the Surface Modeling methodology using Pro/ENGINEER. A short list of the topics covered in this first part are: * Curve from File - IBL (What is in IBL file anyway?) Download Surf-01.ibl * Curve edit / Sparse Curve * Part Accuracy * Model Volume * Copy/Paste "Special" * Boundary Blend * 3D Sketching * Surf Intersect * Shade Quality * Silhouette Edge Display.

For a more comprehensive look into Pro/ENGINEER® including the functionality, technical configuration, and installation, check out Jones & Bartlett Learning's recently published Pro/ENGINEER® Wildfire® 4.0 Essentials.

NASA image from May 10, 2010BP Chief Executive, Anthony Hayward, promised the public via a British newspaper, "We will fix it. I guarantee it. The only question is I do not know when."

He then went on to imply that the leak (210,000 gallons/day) is really not all that environmentally devastating when put into context of the mere size of the Gulf,

"The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean," he said. "The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume."

The Butterfly Effect comes to mind after hearing Hayward's naive statement.  If the fluttering wings of one butterfly can significantly change world weather patterns potentially resulting in a tornado on the opposite side of the earth, then what effect will millions of gallons of oil have on the world and it's ecosystems?  This is one enormous buttlerfly.

The LA Times article followed Hayward's quote by stating that BP has so far spent $450 million to remedy their spill.  Sounds like a lot of money, but when you put it into context (as Hayward urges the public to do), that's only about 3.21% of BP's 2009 replacement cost profit.

The Shreveport Times has published this easy-to-read and undeniable list of facts regarding the oil spill:

Why It's so Bad:

By the Numbers:

Scheduled to be completed in 2015, Portland will be home to the Oregon Sustainability Center, the first "living" building. The high-rise office building will be located in downtown and will produce 100% of its own energy.  It will reuse its water resources and the roof will be covered with solar panels that will make 40% of its energy.  Efficient heating and cooling systems will make up the remaining 60% with the caveat that the residents must be willing to endure cooler winters and warmer summers while indoors.

On the heels of the green building movement, what other trends can we expect to see in 2010?  Below is a list from the Earth Advantage Institute:

1. The smart grid and connected home.  The development of custom and web-based display panels that show real-time home energy use, and even real-time energy use broken out by individual appliance, will go a long way towards helping change homeowners' energy behavior and drive energy conservation.

2. Energy labeling for homes and office buildings.  Not only can this make a building-to-buidling or home-to-home comparison easier, but a publicly available score on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) could galvanize owners to make needed energy improvements while adding value to their building.

3. Building information modeling (BIM) software.  The continued evolution of CAD software for building design has produced new add-on tools with increasingly accurate algorithms for energy modeling as well as embedded energy properties for many materials and features.

4. Buy-in to green buildings by the financial community.  Lenders and insurers have come to see green homes and buildings as better for their bottom line and are working to get new reduced-rate loan products, insurance packages, and metrics into place.

5. "Rightsizing" of homes.  A larger home no longer translates to greater equity.  Given that the forecast for home valuation remains conservative, that energy prices are expected to rise over time, and the Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates mid-year, homeowners will likely feel more comfortable building smaller homes and smaller add-ons.

6. Eco-districts.  Cities are encouraged to create greener communities where residents have access to all most services and supplies within walking and biking distance (Portland is on point with this one).  These areas will also incorporate green spaces and green certified buildings.

7. Water conservation.  Because indoor and outdoor residential water use accounts for more than half of the publicly supplied water in the US, the EPA finalized the WaterSense specification for new homes in December 2009, which reduces water use by about 20% less water compared to a conventional new home.

8. Carbon calculation.  With buildings contributing half the carbon emissions in the environment, the progressive elements in the building industry are looking at ways to document, measure, and reduce greenhouse gas creation in building materials and processes.

9. Net zero buildings.  A net zero building is a building that generates more engery than it uses over the course of a year, as a result of relatively small size, extreme efficiencies and onsite renewable enery sources such as wind, solar or geo-exchange systems.  The Oregon Sustainability Center is an example of a net zero building.

10. Sustainable building education.  The continued demand, especially in progressive cities, will supply new learning opportunities, not just for designers and builders but for the entire chain of professionals involved in the building industry, from real estate to finance and insurance.

I read an interesting article by ConnectPress Editor Lauren Brown, in which she discussed how 3D modeling of CFD assisted in the redesign of Yale's School of Medicine lab building to be more energy efficient.

Using CFdesign’s (3D modeling software) simulation capabilities, the team was able to see that the placement of things like the fume hood, diffuser inlets and exhaust grilles affected the airflow and contamination removal. In the end, with the help of CFdesign, the design team proved that a new layout that required less airflow actually cleaned the room of contaminants quicker and easier, reduced drafts and resulted in a more energy efficient design.

Jones and Bartlett is excited to offer an array of texts and resources that reflect today's engineering and building trends. Ideal for a fluid mechanics course, the just published Applied and Computational Fluid Mechanics, by Scott Post, PhD, provides an introdution to CFD.  Also applicable is our collection of CAD resources, specifically relevant to this article is the recently published Autodesk® Revit® Architecture 2010 in Practice.