Category Archives: Engineering

Boldly Returning From Where No Man Had Gone Before…

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Fifty years ago today John Glenn made a successful return to Earth after his Mercury space capsule Friendship 7 completed three orbits of the Earth.

Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first man into space on April 12 1961, and Alan Shepard the first American into space three weeks afterwards, but Glenn had made history by becoming the first NASA astronaut to achieve and hold orbit. Three more successful Mercury missions followed before NASA switched their attention to a more ambitious goal – landing a man on the Moon. Successive Gemini and Apollo space programs saw the culmination of this goal with the successful lunar landing of Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 mission in July 1969.

The Library possesses a large range of material about space flight and the history of astronautics, including access to NASA’s Scientific & Technical Information (STI) web site among our extensive array of Aeronautical databases. But if you’re more into the historical and social side of manned spaceflight rather than the technical stuff, you can find day-to-day press chronicles of every astronautical feat from the 20th century among our newspaper archives such as The Times Digital Archive and The Daily Mirror Archive. 

Pictured is the launch of John Glenn’s Friendship 7 capsule on February 20th 1962, from the NASA Collection reproduced  under CC License from Flickr.

36 years ago the skies got a whole lot noisier!

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CC licenced photo from Flickr

Concorde: love her or hate her, she certainly turned heads.

In January 1976 Concorde began flying commercial routes. The controversial craft was a product of Anglo-French collaboration. Flying at supersonic speeds, London to New York was possible in 3 hours 20 minutes. In 1985 singer Phil Collins performed at the Live Aid concert in London then flew by Concorde to the US to perform at the Live Aid concert in Philadelphia.  

A string of technical problems and the ill-fated flight from Paris in July 2000 in which 113 people lost their lives, effectively signalled the beginning of the end for Concorde. The iconic craft flew (with passengers) for the last time in October 2003.

To find out more about the Concorde story check out one of our books  or search the newspapers via the Nexis database. For technical information on the craft search the Aerospace database, IANS Aircraft Performance Database or ESDU databases. You will find these and other related databases in the Aeronautical subcategory of the Aero & Auto Engineering category on Library Catalogue Plus. A useful printed resource is Jane’s All the Worlds Aircraft which is shelved at 629.1/JAN

The Queen Elizabeth Engineering Prize

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Image copyright freefotouk, reproduced under CC Licence

A new award, worth £1 million, was launched by Prime Minister David Cameron at London’s Science Museum yesterday, with the primary objective of raising the profile of engineering globally.

The Queen Elizabeth Engineering Prize,  funded by an endowment from a number of engineering companies, will be awarded biannually to an individual or team for making “groundbreaking advances in engineering which has created significant benefit to humanity”. The competition is open to anybody of any nationality.

Mr Cameron – joined at the launch by rival political leaders Nick Clegg and Ed Milliband in a rare show of cross-party unity – hopes the prize will go on to assume the same stature and importance as the Nobel Prizes.

Loughborough University enjoys a proud history of engineering achievement, and this is reflected by the rich selection of engineering resources available from the Library, easily searchable via our Library Catalogue Plus system.

Our Cars Electric?

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 The University has taken a further big step in its quest to help the environment by lowering its road vehicle emissions by investing in two new electrically powered trucks.

These utility vehicles, which were jointly purchased by Facilities Management and imago Services can travel up to 50 miles on a single battery charge, and can carry 500kg and tow up to 2,000kg.

The vehicles will be used by the maintenance and imago Services teams across  campus. Typical jobs will include the collection of waste and recycling, and transporting goods and equipment to the many conferences and events on campus.

The vans, supplied by epower Trucks, use around 4p per mile in electricity - a saving of up to 80% compared to a diesel van. The simplicity of the electric motor means that maintenance requirements – and costs – are also a lot lower than on a diesel vehicle. Even when powered by National Grid electricity, the vehicle reduces CO2 emissions by up to 50%.

If you’re interested in learning more about this kind of technology, the Library has a growing collection of material about electric & hybrid vehicle engineering among our book and journal stock as well as the latest up-to-date information and research among the Aero-Auto engineering databases on Library Catalogue Plus.

 

The New Design School

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Work has just been completed on the University’s new Design School. The building includes innovative teaching and lecture space, workshops, offices, research laboratories, design studios, computer and prototyping suites and areas for display and interaction.  It brings together staff from the Department of Design and Technology, the Ergonomics Safety Research Institute (ESRI) and the Department of Ergonomics, who are now all part of the School.

Spaces have been designed to encourage student interaction across disciplines, courses and interests. Whilst no space is ‘owned’ by a particular student group or researcher they have been designed to accommodate learning or research activities for appropriate fixed periods of time.

Within these spaces will be the latest equipment for projects involving digital designing,  vehicle simulation, environmental chambers and movement simulation and analysis, in addition to the usual workshops, laboratories and studio equipment and resources.

Complementing these new physical resources are a wide range of electronic media in the Library’s own collection, available through our own new system, Library Catalogue Plus. Users can find and access a plethora of databases across the design spectrum, including architecture, ergonomics and civil and automotive engineering specific resources.

Plastic plane to take off?

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CC Licenced image from Flickr

Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner plane is officially delivered to its first customer, All Nippon Airways (ANA) today.

The plane’s fusilage comprises carbon-fibre composites. This makes it much lighter and therefore more fuel-efficient than similar sized aircraft; up to 20% more efficient according to its manufacturer. Aside from these gains, Boeing has improved the in-flight experience for passengers through higher air pressure in the cabin which equates to feeling more refreshed at the destination. In addition, the larger-than-standard cabin windows can be tinted at the touch of a button.

To get a glimpse of the cabin, see the BBC report. To find out more about the 787 take a look at the Aircraft Performance database and the Aerospace Database. You can keep up to date in the latter by creating an email alert or setting up an RSS feed.

Latest journal citation data now available

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With citation counts increasingly being viewed as important for assessing the impact of research in many disciplines, we are pleased to let researchers know that the 2010 journal data has just been made available in Thomson Reuters’ Journal Citation Reports (JCR).

MIMAS stated that “The 2010 Journal Citation Reports® (JCR) has even more regional content than ever before! JCR provides a combination of impact and influence metrics, and millions of cited and citing journal data points that comprise the complete journal citation network of Web of ScienceSM.  The 2010 JCR includes:

 •             More than 10,000 of the world’s most highly cited, peer reviewed journals in 238 disciplines

•             Nearly 2,500 publishers and 84 countries represented

•             Over 1,300 regional journals

•             1,075 journals receiving their first Journal Impact Factor”

Loughborough University staff and students can access JCR via Metalib and if Academic and Reseaerch Staff would like to find out more, then the Library is running a workshop, including JCR, on ‘Measuring and improving your research impact with bibliometrics and friends’ on Tuesday 5th July, 10-12.30 in N004.  To sign up for this session, please contact Staff Development: sd@lboro.ac.uk

Database in Focus: SPIE Digital Library

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The last Library Database in Focus session of the semester takes place next Wednesday 22nd June from 10.00AM until 11.00AM in Library Training Room 1, and the database under the microscope on this occasion is the SPIE Digital Library.

The SPIE Digital Library is the most extensive resource available on optics and photonics, providing unprecedented access to more than 200,000 technical papers from SPIE Journals and Conference Proceedings from 1990 to the present. More than 17,000 new technical papers are added annually.

This session should prove of particular interest to those studying electrical & electronic engineering, mechanical & manufacturing engineering, physics and maths.

To book to attend this session:

Staff – either through Staff Development’s booking system, or turn up on the day.

Students – no need to book, just turn up on the day.

See you there!

The 2011 EU Prize for Contemporary Architecture

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The Neues Museum in Berlin is the winner of the 2011 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture / Mies van der Rohe Award, the European Commission announced this week.

The building is a reconstruction, blending old and new, by the British architect Sir David Chipperfield. The original Neues Museum, designed by Friedrich August Stüler, was built in the mid-19th century. The building was severely damaged in the Second World War and reconstruction began in 2003, with the aim of restoring the site to its former glory.

Launched in 1987, the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture / Mies van der Rohe Award is presented every other year. The Prize is supported by the European Commission in the framework of its Culture Programme and by the Mies van der Rohe Foundation.

The winners were chosen from 343 submitted works in 33 European countries. Six works were shortlisted for the main award. The other finalists were: Bronks Youth Theatre (Brussels, Belgium); MAXXI: Museum of XXI Century Arts (Rome, Italy); Concert House Danish Radio (Copenhagen, Denmark); Acropolis Museum (Athens, Greece) and Rehabilitation Centre Groot Klimmendaal (Arnhem, The Netherlands).

The award ceremony will take place on 20 June at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona.

To find out more about the award and the ceremony why not visit the Europa website here. The library has access to a wide variety of databases concerning the subject of architecture and civil engineering on Metalib. Why not have a browse?

Watt’s happening at the Science Museum?

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On Wednesday 23rd March a new permanent exhibition will open at the Science Museum in London dedicated to the life and work of the engineer James Watt. Launched at a special event the day before by writer and broadcaster Adam Hart-Davies the centrepiece of the exhibition will be the attic workshop of the Scottish inventor which will be opened up to visitors for the first time. When Watt died in 1819 the workshop was locked and remained undisturbed until 1924, when the complete workshop including door, window, skylight and floorboards was transported to the Science Museum together with over 6,500 objects from inside. Although the workshop has been on display, visitors have never been allowed inside until now. Objects inside include the world’s oldest circular saw and Watt’s original 1765 model for the first separate condenser which has been described as “the greatest single improvement to the steam engine ever made”.

Boiler from James Watt beam engine - Loughborough University

Watt beam engine boiler - Loughborough University

The new display is housed alongside his early steam engines which can be viewed in the Museum’s Energy Hall. The University too can boast a James Watt beam engine which stands outside the Students Union. Dated 1850, it was donated to the former College by the London Metropolitan Water Board in 1934 and was re-erected by students.

For more information on the Exhibition visit the Science Museum web page. An interesting background article was also published recently by Adam Hart-Davies in the Daily Telegraph.

For more information on engines and engineering in general don’t forget the databases available via MetaLib such as Compendex and our new service Scopus, both accessible with your Athens username and password.