Given below is a sequence that might properly address the question of what to teach in the first (and the only) UG couse on strength of materials or solid mechanics.

0. Note: It's a mistake to believe that the contents for such a course can be covered in a linear fashion. Apply the spiral theory of knowledge and revisit certain concepts again and again: e.g., the concepts of stress, strain, fields, BV problems, theoretical structure, etc.

1. Introduction:

I wish that this thought had come to me earlier, so that I could have posted it on April First.  No, I'm unaware of such a program.  Instead, Harvard faculty have just emerged from a multi-year review of curriculum, and reaffirmed the commitment to liberal education, after voting out a president not too long ago.

From Dr. Qizhi Xiao :

We are looking for several new permanent staffs, including software developers with solid background on mechanics and good programming skills. the detailed information about the posts can be found from



http://www.lusas.com/joboffers.html



The following is the information for software developers:



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LUSAS Senior Software Engineer (Ref SSE-W)

2007 Alan T. Waterman Award Winner

Peidong Yang

The National Science Foundation’s Highest Honor

Mathematical Modelling & Computational Methods in Solid Mechanics

26th August - 1st September 2007

University of Glasgow

 The Koiter-Sanders-Budiansky bending strain measure and a nonlinear generalization

 We know from strength of materials that non-uniform stretching of fibers along the cross section of a beam produces bending moments. But does this situation necessarily correspond to a 'bending' deformation? For that matter, what do we exactly mean kinematically when we talk about a bending deformation?

Erastus H. Lee, professor emeritus and a prominent researcher, with fundamental contributions to plasticity, viscoelasticity and wave propagation, died at the age of 90 on May 17, 2006, in Lee, New Hampshire.