For scholars — especially scholars who like to wear pajamas — the Internet has been a godsend. It allows instant communication with colleagues around the globe, and makes tracking down published research a matter of seconds. But perhaps the greatest boon is the sheer quantity of readily accessible knowledge. Millions of journal articles are available [...]

For a company whose business is rocket science Lockheed Martin has been paying unusual attention to plumbing of late.  The aerospace giant has kept its engineers occupied for the past 12 months poring over designs for what amounts to a very long fiberglass pipe.  It is, of course, no ordinary pipe but an integral part [...]

Quantum computers are a sort of holy grail of information science.  Their inherent computational advantage comes from their fundamental computational unit, the quantum bit (“qubit”).  Unlike a digital bit in a classical computer, which can take the form of either 0 or 1, a qubit can be both zero and one simultaneously, throwing open the [...]

We investigate the electrical current and flow between two sets of n sources and n sinks in complex networks.  We derive analytical formulas for the average current and flow as a function of n.  We show that for small n, increasing n improves the total transport in the network, while for large n bottlenecks begin [...]

The Humanitarian Technology Challenge (HTC) is a partnership between IEEE and the United Nations Foundation designed to bring together technical professionals and humanitarians to develop technological solutions for pressing challenges facing humanity.  The program is offering a unique opportunity for those experienced in systems engineering to work directly with prominent humanitarian volunteers to address these [...]

Sponsored by the IEEE Communications Society, IEEE SECON 2009 will provide a unique forum to exchange ideas, discuss best practices, raise awareness, and share experiences among researchers and practitioners in the field of sensor, mesh, and ad hoc networks and systems.  IEEE SECON 2009, to be held 22-26 June 2009 in Rome, Italy, welcome papers [...]

The 2009 International Conference on Signal Processing and Multimedia Applications (SIGMAP 2009), scheduled for 7-10 July 2009 in Milan, Italy, aims to bring together researchers, engineers, and practitioners interested in information systems and applications in signal processing.  Papers presenting new research in the topics of multimedia communications, multimedia signal processing, and multimedia systems and applications [...]

A new crop of supercomputers is breaking down the petaflop speed barrier, pushing high-performance computing into a new realm that could change science more profoundly than at any time since Galileo, leading researchers say.  When the Top 500 list of the world’s fastest supercomputers was announced at the international supercomputing conference in Austin on Monday, [...]

Demand is booming for environmentally friendly construction.  But it’s booming so fast that there aren’t enough skilled professionals to do the work.  Green building demands a range of specialized knowledge that most builders don’t have — everything from where to obtain recycled materials to how to orient a building to maximize natural heating and cooling.  [...]

Getting a flat tire is never convenient.  In a war zone, it can be deadly.  While Humvees have been loaded with extra armor to protect troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, the tires remain vulnerable to attacks by improvised explosive devices.  But an ingenious honeycomb design by a Wisconsin engineering company may be the key to [...]