This has reference to (only) the *last paragraph* in Prof. Harry Lewis' recent post, found at: node/1423#comment-2880.

The reason I write the present post is because I always seem to have had a view of inventing, learning, or teaching mathematics that is remarkably at odds with what Prof. Lewis' last paragraph *seems* to imply.

Postdoctoral positions are available in the Micro and Nano Mechanics group led by Prof. Wei Cai in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Stanford University.  [Link]

You are cordially invited to submit an abstract to the symposium on “Emerging Methods To Understand Mechanical Behavior” at 2008 TMS annual meeting, New Orleans, LA, March 9-13, 2008.  

In a piezoelectric material an applied uniform strain can induce an electric polarization (or vice-versa). Crystallographic considerations restrict this technologically important property to non-centrosymmetric systems. It can be shown both mathematically and physically, that a non-uniform strain can potentially break the inversion symmetry and induce polarization even in non-piezoelectric dielectrics.

We invite you to participate in the upcoming Workshop on Materials Characterization for Nanoscale Reliability, to take place 14-16 August, 2007 at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado. Details are posted at http://www.boulder.nist.gov/div853/Nanoscale_Reliability_workshop/index….

Given below is a sequence that might properly address the question of what to teach in the first (and the only) UG couse on strength of materials or solid mechanics.

0. Note: It's a mistake to believe that the contents for such a course can be covered in a linear fashion. Apply the spiral theory of knowledge and revisit certain concepts again and again: e.g., the concepts of stress, strain, fields, BV problems, theoretical structure, etc.

1. Introduction:

I wish that this thought had come to me earlier, so that I could have posted it on April First.  No, I'm unaware of such a program.  Instead, Harvard faculty have just emerged from a multi-year review of curriculum, and reaffirmed the commitment to liberal education, after voting out a president not too long ago.

From Dr. Qizhi Xiao :

We are looking for several new permanent staffs, including software developers with solid background on mechanics and good programming skills. the detailed information about the posts can be found from



http://www.lusas.com/joboffers.html



The following is the information for software developers:



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