All,

I am seeking a student for the summer (May-August) to begin working on the conversion of an existing MATLAB-based code for the Database Assisted Design (DAD) of tall steel buildings under wind loads to C++. Obviously, the only prerequisite is proficiency in both C++ and MATLAB. A background in wind engineering is not needed as you will learn along the way. 

Elsevier is pleased to announce that Professor Howard Baum will be presenting the Mechanics Research Communications Elsevier Distinguished Lecture (sponsored by Elsevier and the New Jersey Institute of Technology Granular Science Laboratory). The lecture will take place in the Guttenberg Information Technologies Center, NJIT, on Monday April 19, 2010, 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Full details are available at

http://www.elsevier.com/framework_products/promis_misc/mrclecture.pdf

Interested applicants should send their materials to Professor Paul W. Leu at pleu [at] pitt.edu.  http://www.pitt.edu/~pleu/Research/index.html 

Graduate Students Openings

When an indenter is pressed into a gel to a fixed depth, the solvent in the gel migrates, and the force on the indenter relaxes. Within the theory of poroelasticity, the force relaxation curves for indenters of several types are obtained in a simple form, enabling indentation to be used with ease as a method for determining the elastic constants and permeability of the gel. The method is demonstrated with a conical indenter on an alginate hydrogel.

Reminder for the announcement for call for papers for the 5th International Conference on Advances in Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics (ICAMEM2010) conference (18-20 December, 2010, Hammamet, Tunisia)

We are very pleased to announce this call for papers for the 5th International Conference on Advances in Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics (ICAMEM2010) which will be held in Hammamet, Tunisia from December 18th to 20th, 2010. The deadline for full paper submission is May 31st, 2010 and the maximum number of pages is limited to 6.

A post doc position and/or a PhD student position are available immediately at Biomimetics Research Group at Composite Vehicle Research Center, Michigan State University, USA.

Strong communication skills (written and oral presentation in English) and research background in at least one or more of the following key areas preferred

1. Experimental Mechanics

2. Composite Materials - Design, characterization or damage mechanics

3. Biomimetic Design - Analytical or Computational experience with interest in experiments

I attach Barenblatt's paper which is difficult to access. The paper includes a milestone idea of the cohesive surface that  allows us to get rid of unphysical singularities in the older formulations of fracture mechanics.