Professor Zhong Lin Wang, of Georgia Tech, has just made his new book free online.  Here is the abstract of the book written by the author.  Ever since we demonstrated the first nanogenerators using piezoelectric nanowires for converting mechanical energy into electricity (Wang & Song, Science, 312, 242-246 (2006)), a great interest has been excited worldwide for developing various approaches for energy harvesting. A key idea presented in the 2006 paper is the self-powered nanotechnology, aiming at powering nanodevices/nanosystems using the energy harvested from the environment in which the systems are suppose to operate. We have published a series of papers during a period of 6 years covering the basic theory, mechanism, engineering scale up and potential applications of nanogenerators (see Appendix). To provide a comprehensive and coherent review about the development of nanogenerators, I have organized this book based on our published papers. The readers are encouraged to referring to the original papers for details and citations.

Written by leading experts in the field and featuring fully integrated colour throughout, Isogeometric Analysis provides a groundbreaking solution for the integration of CAD and FEA technologies. Tom Hughes and his researchers, Austin Cottrell and Yuri Bazilevs, present their pioneering isogeometric approach, which aims to integrate the two techniques of CAD and FEA using precise NURBS geometry in the FEA application. This technology offers the potential to revolutionise automobile, ship and airplane design and analysis by allowing models to be designed, tested and adjusted in one integrative stage.

Providing a systematic approach to the topic, the authors begin with a tutorial introducing the foundations of Isogeometric Analysis, before advancing to a comprehensive coverage of the most recent developments in the technique. The authors offer a clear explanation as to how to add isogeometric capabilities to existing finite element computer programs, demonstrating how to implement and use the technology. Detailed programming examples and datasets are included to impart a thorough knowledge and understanding of the material.

Provides examples of different applications, showing the reader how to implement isogeometric models

Addresses readers on both sides of the CAD/FEA divide

Describes Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS) basis functions

For more descriptions, see the attached file.

The Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (HSEAS) seeks applicants for an appointment at the level of tenure-track assistant professor in the field of fluid mechanics. The ideal candidate will have high expertise in fluid mechanics and will also have a demonstrated commitment to significant and innovative applications in engineering.

The position requires a Ph.D. in engineering or a closely related field, the ability to develop a leading research program, and enthusiasm for teaching both graduate and undergraduate courses in engineering. Successful candidates will work with HSEAS faculty to develop a curriculum for our ABET-accredited engineering program.

The Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering at ETH Zurich invites applications for a Professorship in Continuum Mechanics at the Full or Associate Professor level.  Submit applications before 30 September 2008.

After making a list of the great engineering achievements of the 20th century, the National Academy of Engineering, of the United States, has recently described a list of the grand challenges for engineering in the 21st century (of no particular order):

Message from Stephen W. Tsai, of Stanford University.  After well received, successful completion of Composites Design Tutorial-1, we are pleased to announce Composites Design Tutorial-2 starting on April 8, 2008. This tutorial, comprising of twelve weekly 120-minute live sessions, is offered over the Internet using the cutting edge WebEx application with VoIP. The tutorial is offered to the Eastern and Western Worlds at convenient local time followed by active Q&A in English and other three languages for extended period. This allows the participants to access the tutorial contents on demand 24/7, even after the live tutorial sessions.

This cover story in the recent issue of Harvard Magazine is about the work of Mahadevan.  How paint dries?  Why flags flutter?  How leaves fold?  Such questions of everyday objects have led Maha to pose mathematical questions, which often lead to surprisingly satisfying answers.  Many people have watched Maha demonstrate intriguing phenomena in his office.  If you haven't, do not miss this accompanying  short video of his performance.   

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2010 Themes and Discussion Leaders

• December, Mechanics of Energy Storage, Hanqing Jiang
• November, Ultra-high Temperature Resisting Materials and Structures, Qingda Yang
• October, Mechanical behavior of highly packed particulate composites, Henry Tan
• September, Modeling the Mechanics of Cellular Membranes, Alexander Spector
• August, Deformation Mechanisms in Nanotwinned FCC Metals, Yashashree Kulkarni
• July, Mechanics of ionic polymer metal composites, Wei Hong
• June, Geometric nonlinearities in thin elastic objects, Pedro Miguel Reis
• May, Cavitation in Soft Solids, Oscar Lopez-Pamies
• April, Negative Poisson's ratio materials , Katia Bertoldi  
• March, Viscoelasticity of soft tissues , Thao (Vicky) Nguyen
• February, Mechanics of Patterned and Structured Interfaces, Kevin Turner
• January, MEMS-based Instrumentation for Experimental Nanomechanics, Yong Zhu

 2009

• December, Impact Behavior of Materials with Cellular Structures, Henry Tan
• November, Steady Granular Flow, Ken Kamrin
• October,  Peridynamics, Stewart Silling
• September, Elasticity and Failure, Konstantin Volokh
• August, One-Way Wave Equations for Imaging, Multiscale Modeling, and ABCs, Murthy Guddati
• July, Chemotherapeutic Drug Delivery: Understanding of Efflux Kinetics and Diffusion, Ashfaq Adnan
• June, Bimaterial interfaces in nature: attachment of tendon to bone, Guy Genin
• May, Configurational forces in finite elements:  energy-based mesh adaptation, William Klug
• April, Mechanobiology and Molecular Mechanomedicine, Ning Wang
• March, Mechanics and materials issues in nanocapacitors for energy storage, Pradeep Sharma
• February, Finite element methods in quantum mechanics, N. Sukumar
• January, Impetus for cell mechanics, Rohit Khanna

2008

• December 1, Cyber-enabled predictive science-based continuum mechanics for multiscale fracture process discovery, Wing-Kam Liu
• November 1, Mechanical behaviour of rubber-like materials, Erwan Verron
• October 15, Experimental solid mechanics at the nanoscale, Krishnaswamy Ravi-chandar
• October 1, Fluid-structure interactions, an overview of current trends and challenges, Joël Cugnoni
• September 15, Defects in solids--where mechanics meets quantum mechanics, Vikram Gavini
• September 1, Self-healing polymers, Aaron Forster
• August 15, Variational formulations in fracture mechanics, Adrian Lew
• August 1, Regulation and stabilization of cell adhesion by external forces, Muhammad Zaman
• July 15, Plasticity at sub-micron scales, Wei Cai
• July 1, Mechanics in Neuronal Development, Kristian Franze
• June 15,  Kinetics of structural phase transitions, Kaushik Dayal
• June 1, Magnetic resonance imaging in biomechanics, Valentina Taviani
• May 15, Experimental mechanics at the nanoscale, Julia Greer
• May 1, Mechanical behavior of polymer-matrix nanocomposites, L. Roy Xu
• April 15, Fracture of ferroelectrics, Chad Landis
• April 1, Strain measurement in soft tissues, Tammy Haut Donahue
• March 15, Impact of Chip-Package Interaction on Reliability of Copper/Low K Interconnects and Beyond, Rui Huang
• March 1, Measuring Cellular Tractions, Vesna Damljanovic
• February 15, Plasticity and failure in metallic glasses, Yanfei Gao
• February 1, Spider silk and protein mechanics , Sinan Keten
• January 15, Active polymer nanocomposites, Zoubeida Ounaies
• January 1, Role of mechanics in biomimetics, Michelle Oyen

2007

• December, Elastodynamic band gaps and metamaterials, Biswajit Bannerjee
• November, Surface effects on properties of nanostructures, Harold Park
• October, Irreversible thermodynamics of continuous media, Anurag Gupta
• September, Quantum effects in solid mechanics, Harley Johnson
• August, Nanoindentation with focus on soft matter, Virginia Ferguson
• July, Mechanics of hydrogels, Jerry Qi
• June, Cellular mechanotransduction, Patrick Onck
• May, Experimental mechanics of nano building blocks, Xiaodong Li
• April, Analytical modeling of biomolecules, Xi Chen
• March, Mechanics of flexible electronics, Teng Li
• February, Computational mechanics of biomembranes, John E. Dolbow
• January, Biomechanics and non-affine kinematics, Michelle L. Oyen

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via Ken Chong.  On behalf of the Division of Graduate Education (DGE) in the Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR) we call your attention to an opportunity to request support for research and evaluation projects focused on graduate education. This opportunity is embedded in the Research and Evaluation on Education in Science and Engineering (REESE) program managed by the Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL) in EHR. The REESE Program Solicitation (NSF 07-595) can be viewed at: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2007/nsf07595/nsf07595.htm

I am writing to draw your attention to our annual solicitation for applications to Rowland Junior Fellows Program, which may be of interest to your graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.

We have currently eight Rowland Junior Fellows at the Institute. As a look at our website will tell you (http://rowland.harvard.edu), they work on a broad range of topics, from condensed matter physics to plant physiology.

House Passes $600 Million Increase in National Science Foundation Budget July 27, 2007 --The U.S. House of Representatives passed an appropriations bill that would increase funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF) by nearly $600 million or 10 percent to $6.5 billion in fiscal year 2008.  The bill would put NSF on track to double its budget in less than 10 years.

Cambridge University Press and the Journal of Fluid Mechanics are delighted to announce the launch of The Batchelor Prize, sponsored by the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, to be awarded in recognition of outstanding research in fluid mechanics.

The Batchelor Prize is an award initially of US$25,000 to be presented at the International Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mathematics (ICTAM), taking place in Adelaide in August 2008. The recipient of the prize will deliver a lecture at ICTAM and this will also be published in Journal of Fluid Mechanics and be made freely available on the Cambridge Journals website.

Further details and instructions for making nominations are contained in the attached file. The deadline for nominations is 30 September 2007.

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• 30 March 2007. At a suggestion of Henry Tan, an RSS feed for comments is added as a button"comment at a glance" on the right side of iMechanica.
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Lambert Ben Freund (LBF) was born on November 23, 1942, in Johnsburg, Illinois, a tiny rural community of a few hundred people in the northeast corner of the state. This part of the Midwest was opened to European settlement by the Black Hawk War of the 1830s. A small delegation of his ancestors arrived in the area in 1841. The enthusiastic letters they wrote to relatives waiting in Bavaria and the Rhineland resulted in rapid settlement of the area by immigrant families in the mid-1800s. The farm that would become the Freund family farm was deeded to one of the settlers through an 1820 Act of Congress for the sale of public lands by the government. It was subsequently purchased by LBF's great-grandfather who passed on one quarter section (160 acres) to each of four sons, one of whom was LBF's grandfather. The land was then passed on to the only surviving son, Bernard Freund. The third of four children, LBF was raised by his parents, Bernard and Anita Freund, on the family dairy farm. The responsibilities for managing a dairy farm took precedence over social activities and school sports. At the same time, it provided a vigorous outdoor life with exposure to the cycles of nature, the art of breeding livestock and an appreciation for the value of hard work. He attended St. John the Baptist Elementary School and the McHenry Consolidated High School where he demonstrated a talent for mathematics and science.

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At the Annual Dinner of the Applied Mechanics Division last November, in Orlando, Florida, Professor Carl T. Herakovich was presented the 2005 Applied Mechanics Award, in recognition of his distinguished contributions to mechanics of fibrous composite materials, and his distinguished service to the mechanics and engineering science community. The text of his acceptance speech follows.

Thanks Wing, it is indeed a great honor and pleasure to be recognized by the Applied Mechanics community.

I hold the mechanics community in the highest regards and with the utmost respect. I am always so impressed by the intelligence of the people in this community, their honesty and their candor.

And I can really enjoy being around mechanicians in a social setting. Give them a little wine at dinner and it can be quite a party. I really do enjoy the people in this community. I feel very much at home. (Comment briefly on the dinner in Warsaw at the International Congress in August 2004, and the dinner in DC in Sept. 2005.)