During his tenure at the National Aviation and Space Administration, Craig Collier helped develop the software that would become HyperSizer, a computer-aided program for designing with composite laminates. When he left NASA, his brainchild followed him— sort of—into a project with NASA to commercialize the product with the recent release of HyperSizer v6. Image: Courtesy Of Collier Research Corp. Different composite laminates overlap in this model of a wind-turbine blade. Each color represents a different laminate zone and often depicts one or more overlapping composites. HyperSizer is designed to help bridge the capabilities of CAD software and finite element analysis

Georgia Institute of Technology professor Charles M. Eastman, long considered a research guru for computer-based building design and construction, displays parental pride in his latest brainchild: Georgia Tech’s Digital Building Laboratory. Unlike Eastman’s past efforts, starting some 40 years ago, the fledgling DBL, created in 2009 to help improve building design and construction through the aid of digital tools, is a collaboration among academics and players in the buildings-sector food chain. “This is industry and academia together,” says Eastman, DBL’s director and a professor of both architecture and computing at Georgia Tech, Atlanta. “To me, it is so obvious that

On June 8, the software house of engineering and design firm Arup, London, is releasing MassMotion, an industrial-strength pedestrian-behavior analysis tool developed over five years for internal use. “Previously, it has only been available to us,” says Erin Morrow, the product manager at Oasys Ltd., a firm Arup set up in 1976 to develop, support and market tools built in-house. Mass-Motion has evolved over four version for use in complex, multilevel 3D BIM environments. The tool is designed to address the multi-core, 64-bit processors of modern computers. A multi-threaded architecture controls the actions of hundreds of thousands of virtual “agents”—that

Utilities that allow users to view and control web-connected computers from a range of mobile devices—for example, smart phones and tablets—are some of the most popular applications. Woburn, Mass.-based LogMeIn, which makes the free screen-sharing service join.me, is among the more successful app makers in this category. Photo courtesy LogMeIn Join.me viewer app talks iPhone, iPad and Android. LogMeIn has released a new version of join.me for iPhones and iPads. The company says the free app now features a Voice-over IP (VoIP) option that lets users converse during their screen-sharing sessions. A zoom feature for closer screen inspection is also

It's the Achilles' heel of the iPad. The HandStand makes it easy to hold an iPad at the jobsite or in a meeting. The ergonomics of Apple's tablet are “like a bar of soap,” says Spencer Houser, a product engineer at Houser Works in Portland, Ore. “The HandStand changes that.”The HandStand, an iPad case from Houston-based Hub International LLC, minimizes the chances of dropping an iPad.A semi-hardened rubber iPad case with a handle, the HandStand ergonomically secures the iPad to the user's hand, gripping it with an elastic cuff so that the device doesn't have to be held. A “finger

A wallet-sized sensor that works with a projector and computer to turn any hard, dumb surface into an interactive display is being introduced to the U.S. market. Early adopters say they are thrilled. Photo, top, courtesy of fullcon. Photo, bottom, by Luke Abaffy SMART WALL The U-Pointer can turn any computer image or projection into an interactive display. The size of the image is only limited by the projectors capability. “It's a tremendous opportunity,” says Andrew Berger, vice president of Parsons Corp., Pasadena, Calif. Berger acquired one of the devices, called a U-Pointer, in late May. He put it to

It’s the Achilles’ heel of the iPad.The ergonomics of Apple’s tablet are “like a bar of soap,” says Spencer Houser, a product engineer at Houser Works in Portland, Ore. “The HandStand changes that.” Photo By Luke Abafy The HandStand makes it easy to hold an iPad at the jobsite or in a meeting. The HandStand, an iPad case from Houston-based Hub International LLC, minimizes the chances of dropping an iPad. A semi-hardened rubber iPad case with a handle, the HandStand ergonomically secures the iPad to the user’s hand, gripping it with an elastic cuff so that the device doesn’t have

A wallet-sized sensor that works with a projector and computer to turn any hard, dumb surface into an interactive display is being introduced to the U.S. market. Early adopters say they are thrilled. Photo:Courtesy Of Fullcon The U-Pointer can turn any computer image or projection into an interactive display. The size of the image is only limited by the projector’s capability. “It’s a tremendous opportunity,” says Andrew Berger, vice president of Parsons Corp., Pasadena, Calif. Berger acquired one of the devices, called a U-Pointer, in late May. He put it to work immediately for engineering design reviews. “You can create

To most consumers, advanced meters are the poster child for smart- grid efforts. Workers are installing millions of these digital meters around the United States to improve two-way communication between customers and their electric utilities. Graphic courtesy Electric Power Research Institute A complete smart grid will include sensors, monitors, information technology and intelligent infrastructure, such as transmission lines and poles. Related Links: Mapping Tool for Buried Utilities Generates View From Three Sensors But for transmission and distribution companies, “smart grid” means something else: the addition of “intelligent infrastructure” layers over standard poles and wires. And for these companies, “smart grid”

All search engines are not created equal, claims the developer of Yometa.com, a “visual search engine” that simultaneously searches any term on Yahoo, Bing and Google and then displays the results all at once as pins on a Venn diagram. PHOTO, TOP, COURTESY OF AMBERG TECHNOLOGIES. IMAGE, BOTTOM, COURTESY OF YOMETA.COM SPREAD Hits are color-coded by search engine Yometa's algorithm ranks the top results of each search engine in sets, according to relevance. Results that appear in the Venn overlaps most likely contain the looked-for information. By hovering the mouse over any pin, a bubble pops up to offer information