Design News articles from March 2008

Design News archives from March 2008

CES Wows Attendees.(2008 International Consumer Electronics Show )
March 17, 2008... By Charles J. Murray, Senior Technical Editor, Electronics TI, GM, BMW and Intel show off new technology for TVs and cars The 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show (http://rbi.ims.ca/5704-523 ) kicked off in Las Vegas in early...

The Case of the Corten Conduit.
March 17, 2008... By Kenneth Russell, Professor Emeritus, MIT, Cambridge, MA Steel is strong, ductile and cheap, which makes it great stuff. Unfortunately, in moist air, ordinary steel rusts and just keeps on rusting. A chromium addition of at least 12...

Engineering Education: the Nature of the Crisis.(Survey)
March 17, 2008... By John Dodge, Editor-in-Chief Our 'Crisis in Engineering Education' package in this issue and at designnews.com (http://rbi.ims.ca/5407-508 ) was born out of a torrent of comments to a post by Chuck Murray in his Electronics News and...

Best of the Engineering Marketplace.
March 17, 2008... Compiled by Elizabeth M. Taurasi and Sasha Brown-Worsham V-Infinity's V78XX-500 Elizabeth M. Taurasi, Sasha Brown-Worsham Highly efficient dc switching regulator Designed to be pin compatible with L78xx linear regulators, the...

Small Schools, Big Results.
March 17, 2008... By Charles J. Murray, Senior Technical Editor, Electronics Harvey Mudd, Olin College and Rose-Hulman Institute offer a successful alternative to the big university model While spending a sabbatical at Harvey Mudd College...

Hands-On Learning.(Editorial)
March 17, 2008... By Doug Smock, Contributing Editor, Materials and fastening Plastics engineering programs offer opportunities to learn theory and then practice on real processing equipment Mechanical engineering, chemical engineering or some type of...

Teaching the New Engineering Skills.
March 17, 2008... By Joseph Ogando, Senior Editor, Motion Control Engineering students will need to go beyond the fundamentals and focus on the cultural and business skills that the workplace now demands If you're reading Design News , you probably have...

Survey Says: U.S. Engineering Education is Pretty Good Your Education?(Survey)
March 17, 2008... By Judd Aschenbrand, Group Research Director, Reed Business Information Students, recent graduates content with decision to pursue an engineering education Methodology: Design News conducted a study in January 2008, to better...

The Worst System -Except for All the Others.(Interview)
March 17, 2008... By John Dodge, Editor-in-Chief An expert and frequent speaker on engineering education, Geoffrey C. Orsak, Ph.D., is dean of the engineering school at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, TX. DN Editor-in-Chief John Dodge...

MIT's 'Learning by Doing' Imperative.(dialogue with Thomas L. Magnanti)(Interview)
March 17, 2008... By John Dodge, Editor-in-Chief Thomas L. Magnanti, Ph.D., was dean of MIT's engineering school for eight and half years until last July and is currently one of 14 Institute Professors, the school's most prestigious. He is an expert in...

Movies Get Framed.(Brief article)
March 17, 2008... By Terry Costlow, Contributing Editor Digital photo frames are becoming simplified home entertainment systems. Sagem Communications' 8-inch AgfaPhoto AF5080W offers high-speed WiFi connectivity so consumers can access online photo websites...

Catching Russian Energy Thieves.(Brief article)
March 17, 2008... By Terry Costlow, Contributing Editor Electronic technologies are helping reduce energy costs by tracking energy thieves. Moscow Incotex Co. Ltd. is implementing automated meter management systems throughout Russia and the Ukraine,...

VW Adds Network, More Electronic Functions.(Brief article)
March 17, 2008... By Terry Costlow, Contributing Editor The huge role of microcontrollers in new cars continues to grow. Volkswagen's 2009 Golf platform will extend its networking capabilities, implementing a communications gateway with six CAN interfaces...

Videos Becoming Moving Pictures.(Brief article)
March 17, 2008... By Terry Costlow, Contributing Editor Moving videos around is becoming easier with editing tools that shorten the time needed to quickly prepare videos for transfer to portable media players. Lazer PC multimedia acceleration cards from...

Where'd That Go?(Brief article)
March 17, 2008... By Terry Costlow, Contributing Editor In today's world, one of the things that's more sought after than portability is a way to find mobile products. Trolley Scan (Pty) Ltd. developed what it calls RFID-radar, which measures a signal's...

Gadget Cares for Your Best Friend.(Brief article)
March 17, 2008... Staff The Automated Doggy Door feeds your dog, replenishes his water and lets him out into the backyard. Markus Lutz and his team of students at Colorado State University created this complex system that reads your dog's collar and opens...

Mitsubishi Debuts Concept-RA Diesel Car.(Brief article)
March 17, 2008... By Rob Spiegel, Contributing Editor Mitsubishi Motors North America of Detroit released the Concept-RA, a coupe that matches high performance with environmental sensitivity. The Concept-RA is powered by a high-output, low-emissions 2.2-l ,...

Kenworth Develops Liquefied Natural Gas Truck.(Brief article)
March 17, 2008... By Rob Spiegel, Contributing Editor Kenworth Truck Co. of Kirkland, WA added a new truck to its line of environmentally friendly vehicles. The Kenworth T800 LNG runs on liquefied natural gas (LNG). Kenworth is using LNG technology developed...

Alcoa Shoots for 75 Percent Aluminum Can Recycling.(Brief article)
March 17, 2008... By Rob Spiegel, Contributing Editor Alcoa of Pittsburgh, PA set a goal to raise the beverage can recycling rate in North America from its current 52 percent to 75 percent by 2015. The U.S. produces more than 1.5 million metric tons of...

Mechatronics Engineers Know How to Balance.
March 17, 2008... By Kevin Craig Whatever athletic activity you participate in, balance is an essential element to success. Throwing a baseball, riding a horse, hitting a golf ball, blocking and tackling in football, running a 100-m dash or even just...

Green Plug Strives toward Universal Power Adapter.
March 17, 2008... By Dean Takahashi, Contributing Editor Company is working to come up with a universal adapter that is compatible with USB, but is more efficient when it comes to charging devices Frank Paniagua has 42 different power adapters in his...

Autonomous Vehicle Could Reach Roads Soon.
March 17, 2008... By Charles J. Murray, Senior Technical Editor, Electronics Sensors, computers enable vehicle to brake, steer and avoid obstacles by itself Automotive engineers at the recent 2008 Consumer Electronics Show (CES)...

Chinese Molds Are 'Far behind' Global Standards.(Report)
March 17, 2008... By Doug Smock, Contributing Editor, Materials and Fastening State ownership is called a deficient system to produce adequate numbers of qualified professionals to make sophisticated tooling There is one big caveat if you want to take a...

Microfabrica Produces Tiny Actuated Tools.(Microfabrica Inc.)
March 17, 2008... By Joseph Ogando, Senior Editor, Motion Control The company's EFAB additive fabrication technology can turn out tools for the business end of minimally invasive surgical devices The growing popularity of minimally invasive surgical...

Dassault Launches SIMULIA SLM.(Simulation Lifecycle Management)(Dassault Systemes of America)
March 17, 2008... By Beth Stackpole, Contributing Editor, Design Tools New suite aimed at bringing simulation into mainstream product development processes Following up on the groundwork it laid in an announcement last July, SIMULIA, the Dassault...

Too Hot or Too Cold May Be Just Right*.(integrated circuits)
March 17, 2008... By James Bryant Q. Are absolute maximum and minimum temperatures as absolute as voltage or current ratings? A. No! While integrated circuit manufacturers cannot guarantee devices used outside their temperature ratings, ICs do not...

Improving the Control of Diesel Engines.
March 17, 2008... By Randy Frank, Contributing Editor Electronics' technology advances diesel performance and addresses shortcomings In most respects, the challenges for diesel engines are quite different than either spark ignition (SI) engines or the...

Improving Hybrid Vehicle Performance with Technology.
March 17, 2008... By Randy Frank, Contributing Editor New electronic products target high voltage and high power In most instances, new products that improve hybrid or diesel powertrain designs are quite different from those for spark ignition (SI)...

Automotive: Hybrids vs. Clean Diesels.
March 17, 2008... By Randy Frank, Contributing Editor Car companies give consumers more powertrain options With gasoline prices above $3/gal in the U.S., automotive buyers looking for the best fuel economy have the options of a hybrid or diesel...

Fostering Design Software Ideas.(Company Porfile)(Autodesk Location Services)
March 17, 2008... By Douglas Look, Senior Strategic Designer, Autodesk Labs Autodesk labs online development forum lets engineers and users discuss and collaborate on the technology Autodesk Labs is home to new technologies and ideas-in-progress from...

Tactile Switches Offer Smaller Size, Longer Life.(C and K Components Inc.)
March 17, 2008... By Charles J. Murray, Senior Technical Editor, Electronics Targeted at applications in automotive, consumer electronics Today's tactile switches are being called on to do more than ever before. Automakers, consumer electronics...

Present Useful Visual Data.('Visualizing Data)
March 17, 2008... By Jon Titus, Contributing Editor Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet creates pretty good charts and graphs. But when I need to plot data on a map or superimpose three x axes on a graph, Excel runs out of gas. In these instances, it makes no...

At Toy Fair, Robots Rule.(Innovation First (Mason, Ohio) introduced robots HEXBUG Crab and HEXBUG Inchworm)
March 17, 2008... By Joseph Ogando, Senior Editor, Motion Control Robotic toys offer design lessons for engineers seeking to strike a favorable balance between cost and performance Pity the poor toy engineer. Toys, especially the electronic ones, grow...