Design News Blogs

T. Boone Blather

I was one of the early supporters of T. Boone Pickens plan to vastly expand wind energy and natural gas. The urgency in his grass roots compaign to gain support for breaking our oil dependency makes a lot of sense. He’s doing what politicians have failed to do for decades. And I still support the centerpiece of his plan which is to reduce o ... More

About this blog

Your Guide to Going Green

Novamont Works Hard to Make Bioplastics' Case

I have blogged here in the past against the use of bioplastics as a solution to the solid waste problem. They don’t degrade in properly built landfills and they can foul recycling streams. I was at a meeting last Wednesday, however, where the biopolymer producers seem to be improving their case. Stefan Facco of  Novamont ... More

About this blog

Engineering materials is a discussion led by Design News Contributing Materials Editor Doug Smock on important new developments and applications that ... More

A Venerable Laptop is Laid to Rest

Welcome back to the blogosphere, Matt Traum! My HP Pavilion ZV5000 laptop kicked the bucket last week. This poor piece of portable Pentium 4 obsolesce faithfully served me for o ... More

About this blog

This alternative energy and sustainable power blog covers alternative energy and fuel technologies buzzing through the media.

The NHL Looks To Score Superstar Draft Picks Using Haptic-Enabled Testing

Ever give a thought to how the NHL  identifies its next generation of superstars? To be sure, there’s hours upon hours of ice time involved, not to mention, rigorous interviews, medical screening and all the rest of scrutiny that’s given to professional sports candidates. But the NHL Central Scou ... More

About this blog

Where you'll find the latest news and trends in the areas of CAD/CAM software, PLM, innovation, and product development.

Systems Engineering is not Mechatronics

What is the role of a systems engineer? A systems engineer ensures a company’s product is going to function within cost, specification, while satisfying the user, making the trade off decisions between features, solving problems without an obvious source, and of course much more. An exemplary systems engineer has significant education and experience, leadership, ... More

About this blog

In this blog you'll find posts about mechatronics, engineering, and engineering education.  Stefan Wolpert will discuss various aspects of mechatroni ... More

$28 Million Settlement Reached in Death of Woman Killed in Big Dig Collapse

Read more on the Big Dig materials failure and see appalling aftermath photos and diagrams at Design News’ Big Dig coverage page. The family of a woman killed two years ago when the car she was riding in was crushed as a portion of a ceiling collapsed ... More

About this blog

Straight talk about today's headlines and how they affect the engineering community.

Motion Control Market Still Growing

The general motion control market, while certainly not immune from the ups and downs of the global economy, seems poised to hold its own over the next few years. A new study from the ARC Advisory Group forecasts that the worldwide market for general motion control technology will experience a compounded annual growth rate of roughly 6.7 percent over the next ... More

About this blog

Read about the latest developments in motion control, factory automation, machine tools, and robotics.

Chevy Volt, Performance Capabilities Subject to Change

Did I hear that right? A Chevy Volt radio ad this morning concluded with a line like performance capabilities subject to change or may vary. I think it was the former. Should I be surprised given the GM’s rush to get this electric car into production by late 2010? That’s how fluid the battery situation is. The ad touts that you m ... More

About this blog

Best Engineering Colleges 2009

MIT and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology grabbed the top spots in U.S. News & World Report’s annual engineering school rankings, released earlier this month. U.S. News, which publishes the rankings annually, named MIT to the top spot among schools that offer a d ... More

About this blog

The latest news and information on analog/digital control, components/hardware, embedded systems, power/thermal management, and sensors for design ... More

Skyray offers low-cost XRF analyzer

Skyray XRF of Seaford, Del. has introduced a budget-priced compact desktop XRF model with the capability of detecting lead, cadmium and other hazardous substances in finished goods. The EDX-3000 x-ray fluorescence analyzer is priced in the $30,000 range. The product was initially developed for precious me ... More

About this blog

Hi, this is Design News contributing editor, Rob Spiegel. Welcome to my Lead-Free Zone blog. This is your opportunity (and mine) to discuss RoHS and o ... More

Scanning for Fraud

Art and technology have started to come together in an unlikely place–under the gaze of 3D digitizers. The VanDuzen Archives of Dallas has built a growing business around the use of imaging hardware and digital shape sampling software as tools to authenticate and conserve works of art. And in one recent job, the company helped ferret out a forged copy of Picasso’s Tete ... More

About this blog

News about the technologies you turn to when time isn't on your side--everything from rapid prototyping machines and high-speed machining to rapid ... More

Sales of da Vinci Robots Shows More Than Rising Stock

Despite the rise and fall of Intuitive Surgical, Inc.’s stock over the past week, it’s probably safe to say, one thing is for sure: robotic-assisted surgery is on the rise. In case you missed it, last week, Intuitive Surgical, Inc. the maker of the da Vinci Surgical System, a unit of ... More

About this blog

This blog is where biology and mechatronics collide.  Read about Medical Mechatronics, from medical device manufacturing to biomedical engineerin ... More

Cool UBC flash drives

UBC flash drives have become a true fashion accessory. This YouTube video shows a variety of fancy UBC drives, including drives that look like jewelry, hot dogs, hamburgers, doughnuts, even wine bottles. ... More

About this blog

After nearly 20 years as an electrical engineer, I suffered two horrible blows last year - literally and figuratively. First, I was hit by a bus and s ... More

History of the video game

Many video gamsters point to the Odyssey as the first real video game console. Magnavox released the Odyessy in May of 1972, 36 years ago this month. Here’s a video that shows the history of video consoles, beginning with the Odyssey and moving through Atari, Nintendo and Sony. ... More

About this blog

Looking at the top engineering breakthroughs that came during the 60-year history of Design News.

Avnet Tech Games Give Product Ideas a Chance in the Real World

This week Avnet announced the winners from its third annual Avnet Tech Games, an annual competition featuring several multi-disciplinary technology events. The competition, held April 5, presented more than 150 students from colleges and universities in Arizona with several technology challenges. Among the Avnet Tech Games events are "AMD Bui ... More

About this blog

This blog is your resource for news and updates on the latest developments from design engineering competitions across the globe. Be sure to ... More

When to Embark on a New Engineering Position

Should you move from that company of long standing? Are you waiting patiently for the retirement party and that “gold watch”? Last weekend I sat down for coffee with a design engineer from an industrial lighting products company. With him were two of his twenty-something-year-old kids, helping Dad gather tools for a career move. They were as interested in advice for their ... More

About this blog

Negotiating your path to success in engineering’s changing work world.