The Dibner Library is pleased to announce the addition of Synthesis Digital Library of Computer Science and Engineering to its collection of electronic resources.  The collection consists of over 30 subject series in many areas of engineering, primarily related to electrical engineering, computer science, and bioengineering.

Each series consists of electronic books that synthesize an important research or development topic, authored by an expert contributor to the field.  The e-books (or “lectures” as they are called)  range from 50-275 pages and are available in PDF format.  They provide students and researchers a convenient way to get a better understanding of an area of interest.

The range of content level in Synthesis is intended to be fairly broad, from state-of-the-art research overviews to presentations appropriate for undergraduates or professionals seeking a review.  To find out more about the collection, read this detailed review.

Quantum Nanoelectronics: An introduction to electronic nanotechnology and quantum computing, is the first textbook to handle profitable new directions for nanotechnology, such as nanoelectronic aspects of ink-printed thin film solar cells and convenient hydrogen storage.

From the publisher:

The march of Moore’s Law takes electronics to the molecular level, and indeed molecules are likely to be incorporated in future hybrid computer chips. This self-contained text guides students as well as professionals to the new possibilities presenting a treatment of Quantum Computing, a promising new approach which is based on Quantum Mechanics. This essential new title also covers topics which connect to alternative energy technology, for example solar cell design, photocatalytic conversion of water to hydrogen, and high performance batteries.

The author, Edward L. Wolf, is Professor of Physics at NYU-Poly. Professor Wolf’s experience ranges from teaching undergraduate courses to conducting industrial research. In 2007, Professor Wolf was honored with Polytechnic’s ”Jacobs Excellence in Education Award.” He is also a Fellow of the American Physical Society and has authored over 100 refereed publications. The second edition of his successful textbook Nanophysics and Nanotechnology has been published recently.

Now until June 1st, take the opportunity to try out: Synthesis Digital Computer Science and Engineering Collection - a new electronic collection covering 30 engineering areas, primarily related to electrical engineering, computer science, and bioengineering.  It contains relatively brief introductions (50-250 pages) to complex topics written at an advanced undergraduate level.  These introductions (called “lectures”) provide students and researchers with an excellent opportunity to learn about a new topic or get up to speed quickly in a new research area.

To access the collection, go to www.morganclaypool.com from a computer on campus (off campus access is not yet available).  You can browse by series to find a topic that you are interested in or search for specific terms.

The range of content level in Synthesis is intended to be fairly broad, from state-of-the-art research overviews to presentations appropriate for undergraduates or professionals seeking a review.  During the trial period you are free to view, print and download whatever you would like without restriction.

To find out more about the collection, read this detailed review.

If Synthesis is a resource you would like the library to subscribe to, let us know by leaving a comment.

What do you get when you combine a smart phone, a tiny projector, and a camera?  Seamless access to information that makes the iphone seem quaint.

There is no simple way to describe what the “Sixth Sense” is.  The Sixth Sense website states it’s “a wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world around us with digital information and lets us use natural hand gestures to interact with that information.”  In other words, it’s a cool gadget that brings to life the gesture-based interfaces of Minority Report.

To really appreciate the amazing capabilities of this technology, you must watch the video below.  If you have the time, watch the whole video for an explanation by Pattie Maes. If not, go to minute 3:00, where Pranav Mistry—the MIT student who developed the Sixth Sense—shows how it works.

IEEE publishes loads of high quality literature in electrical engineering, computer science, and electronics.  An easy way to keep up to date with the latest research is to review IEEE”s Top 100 Documents page.  You can scan the citations and abstracts of the top 100 documents accessed last month.

Another great way to stay current is to view the most recently added material at the Content Updates page.  Or better yet, sign up for Email Alerts or take advantage of their RSS Feeds and have new content notifications come to you!

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) “the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society,” recently introduced a new search capability to its digital library.  This new technology enables users not only to explore existing data but also to discover unexpected information that goes beyond simple query results and helps to foster more research.

The new guided navigation allows users to refine search results by keyword, people, publications, or conferences by selecting from links along the left side of the search results. Additionally, users can discover related journals, magazines, interest groups, or meetings by clicking the tabs along the top of search results.

You can access the ACM Digital Library via our web site.  It contains full text of ACM magazines, journals, and proceedings, with a six-year online archive and a bibliographical reference database going back to 1985 for most ACM publications.

Learn more about this new search technology on ACM’s information page.

You can now access Books24×7, a leading  provider of business, technical and engineering content, via Dibner Library.  Books24×7 contains thousands of digitized “best-in-class” books, book summaries, research reports and best practices.

Search for content in fields such as networks & protocols, software engineering, web development, and multimedia. You can also use the Browse Topics tree (pictured above rightside)  to drill down the list of topics and subtopics to find lists of titles.

Books24×7 has many useful features such as saving titles to folders and sharing bookmarks with others.  For a quick overview, look for the “Take the Virtual Tour” button on Books24×7 homepage.

IEEE has approved six new publications to be released in 2009. The list of new journal titles offers an exciting array of information on emerging and multidisciplinary technical topics:

• IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development
• IEEE Transactions on Computational Intelligence and AI in Games
• IEEE Embedded Systems Letters
• IEEE Journal of Optical Communications and Networking
• IEEE Photonics Journal
• IEEE Solid State Circuits Magazine

More news from IEEE is available in their newsletter: What’s New at IEEE in Libraries.

Log in to IEEE to get full text access to technical literature in electrical engineering, computer science, and electronics.

An interesting article appeared in yesterday’s New York Times describing how the growth of computer data centers is placing engineers, especially those focusing on energy efficiency, in the spotlight.  There is no letup in demand as the surging use of server computers continues to rise.

“…people with the skills to design, build and run a data center that does not endanger the power grid are suddenly in demand. Their status is growing, as are their salaries” climbing more than 20 percent in the last two years into six figures for experienced engineers.”

Good news for all you future engineers!

If you need quick, online access to engineering reference books, check out Referex. Available through Engineering Village, Referex is a specialized database that gives you access to premium e-books that provide engineering students and professionals with the answers and information they require. It is fully searchable and instantly delivers full-text content of hundreds of e-book titles in the following collections:

• Chemical, Petrochemical and Process Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering and Materials
• Electronics and Electrical Engineering
• Civil and Environmental Engineering

Each collection includes:

• Handbooks of engineering fundamentals
• Situational reference
• Titles focused on technique and practice
• How to guides
• Highly specialized professional information

To use this expansive collection of e-books, simply click Referex and log in using your last name and student ID number. You can search all the collections at once or select an individual collection to search or browse.