Recently added articles from ASEE Prism:
AN ENGINEERING FIX FOR HEALTH CARE
Oct 01, 2008; ... FROM THE PUBLISHER IN THIS HISTORIC ELECTION YEAR, there are key issues voters want addressed. One such concern is health care - both the rapidly rising costs and the fact that millions of Americans are without health insur- ance. Everyone agrees reform is needed, but there has been ...
E-MAIL
Oct 01, 2008; ... FROM THE READERS CEO ENGINEERS I READ WITH great interest the article on the proliferation of degreed engineers amongst the leadership of our top corporations "Route to the Top," March 2008). I was pleased to see that, as many of us have long believed, there is some evidence to ...
Dog On It
Oct 01, 2008; ... ELECTRONIC VOTING Avi Rubin, a computer scientist at Johns Hopkins University, has long been a vocal critic of electronic voting systems. Too many ofthem,heclaims,are susceptible to hacking and fraud. Three years ago, he and 10 other computer scientists from schools around the country ...
Supertough
Oct 01, 2008; ... MATERIALS SCIENCE Engineers at Columbia University have proven that graphene is the strongest material ever measured - about 200 times stronger than structural steel. Composed of a layer of graphite atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice, graphene forms the basis of graphite fibers in ...
Growth Spurt
Oct 01, 2008; ... FUNDRAISING Attention, alumni! If it seems your alma mater's been calling more often lately, it's probably not your imagination. A recent survey of large, public doctoral universities conducted by the Chronicle of Higher Education found that the 10 biggest schools have increased their ...
9.84
Oct 01, 2008; ... FACTOID The depth, measured in feet, of the Olympic swimming pool in Beijing's "water cube" - three feet deeper than ...
Beauty and the Geek
Oct 01, 2008; ... WOMEN IN ENGINEERING They're cool, young and lovely. They're also skilled engineers. Welcome to the world of the Nerd Girls - a college club, website, and, soon, a TV reality show. Hollywood filmmakers Paola di Florio and Karen Johnson are preparing the series for ieee.tv, hoping to ...
Finding What Works
Oct 01, 2008; ... EDUCATION A new book sponsored jointly by ASEE and the Association for Institutional Research (AIR) pres- ents some of the latest thinking on how assessment can be used to improve engineering educa- tion. Assessment in Engineering Programs: Evolving Best Practices provides practical ...
Why Waste It?
Oct 01, 2008; ... ALTERNATIVE ENERGY CANADA - Remember the movie Back to the Future, when eccentric scientist Doc Brown rummages through the trash to find a banana peel, which he drops into the fuel tank of his futuristic car? The Quebec-based company Enerkem may turn that celluloid fantasy into reality ...
On Message
Oct 01, 2008; ... THE PROFESSION "Engineers Make a World of Difference." If a recent National Academy of Engineering report is followed, you'll be seeing that slogan a lot. It was the most popular of four messages that tested well in a survey of 3,600 youngsters and adults for a study entitled, Changing ...
High Seas, Fast Voyage
Oct 01, 2008; ... ALTERNATIVE ENERGY Waves usually slow boats down. Not so the Suntory Mermaid II, a 31-foot, 3-ton catamaran built by engineers at Japan's Tokai University. The bigger the waves, the faster this boat goes. That's because it's wave-powered. Designed by engineering professor Yutaka Terao, ...
Now You See It . . .
Oct 01, 2008; ... OPTICAL ENGINEERING Every time boy wizard Harry Potter dons his invisibility cloak and, well, turns invisible, who among us doesn't secretly wish to have one, too? We may not have long to wait. "An optical cloaking device is almost in reach," says Harley Johnson, professor of mechanical ...
The Lotus Effect
Oct 01, 2008; ... BIOMIMICRY Prism has already reported on the oleophobic or oil resistant - properties of the lotus plant. But this natural wonder is also superhydrophobic, supremely efficient at repelling water. Which means it's self-cleaning, because as water droplets form on its leaves and roll off, ...
Girls=Boys
Oct 01, 2008; ... MATHEMATICS SKILLS When it comes to crunching numbers, boys outperform girls, right? Nope. A new study proves that long-accepted stereotype wrong. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin reviewed standardized math test results from between 2005 and 2007 in 10 states, involving more ...
Packing Heat
Oct 01, 2008; ... MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Tailpipe exhaust is a visible reminder that almost 60 percent of the energy created by gasoline engines is wasted. A typical car and its accessories use only around 25 percent of the power produced under the hood. But a new material used by researchers at Ohio ...
Stowaway Pests
Oct 01, 2008; ... MARINE ENGINEERING The zebra mussel, a fast-breeding bivalve na- tive to Eastern Europe, has caused havoc in the U.S. since 1 988, when it was first discovered in Michigan's Lake St. Clair, between Great Lakes Erie and Huron. It's since spread to other wa- terways, including the ...
Window Treatment
Oct 01, 2008; ... ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING A window filters sunlight into homes and offices and soon it may help pow- er them. It would act as a new type of "solar concentrator," which takes light collected from a large area, like a window, and concentrates it. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of ...
Deep Down, Down Under
Oct 01, 2008; ... GEOTHERMAL ENERGY AUSTRALIA- Could small-town South Australia offer some help for high oil prices and climate change? Innamincka, a tiny arid township (Pop. 1 8), has long languished in desert obscurity. Until now. Its residents are set to receive free geothermal electrical power early ...
GOODBYE 'SCARY,' HELLO DISCOVERY
Oct 01, 2008; ... A Smith College professor adopts a coaching style, letting students find answers and master concepts. Glenn Ellis's classes are like a treasure hunt. He supplies the map and a few clues, and then steps back to watch his students find the hidden gold. "The whole curriculum is designed ...
FOUNDING SOCIETIES
Oct 01, 2008; ... By going separate ways, engineers' groups missed a chance to give the profession a single, strong voice. FIVE OF THE FACETS of the hexagonal seal of the United Engineering Foundation contain the abbreviations of engineering societies ASCE, AIME, ASME, IEEE, and AIChE. sixth bears the ...