http://www.mech-eng.leeds.ac.uk/is/home.htm

The Intelligent Systems Group at the University of Leeds draws from "expertise in solid mechanics and mechatronics to carry out multi-disciplinary R&D." The group's research focuses on materials, structural optimization, dynamic systems, automotive applications, control systems and mobile robotics. This website describes the organization's current research activities as well as future plans. The group's theoretical and practical research activities include, for example, dynamic material properties and processing, which they apply to studies of impact crashworthiness of composite race-car structures and impact biomechanics such as in spinal burst fracture. The group also houses the Leeds/Ricardo Automotive Driveline research program. A bibliography of publications is posted here, but the full articles are available only to staff and students who can access the University of Leeds Publications Database. The research section, however, provides a nice overview of the various projects. [VF]

http://www.ii.ist.i.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~sumi/pervasive04/

The Second International Conference on Pervasive Computing was held in April 2004 in Vienna, Austria. This website highlights a Workshop on Memory and Sharing Experiences from Pervasive 2004. The purpose of this workshop was "to exchange research results and to foster ideas in the emerging field of ubiquitous experience recording technologies with the goal of effective experience sharing." The infrastructure is used to "record experiences of people working and playing in the real world" and has applications in multimedia memory aids, context recognition, life-pattern modeling, and the storytelling of life. The full program, proceedings and a summary discussion are posted on this website. Topics covered at the workshop included methods and devices, storage and databases, experience and interaction corpora, applications, privacy, and other issues. The website also links to information on a special issue of the Personal and Ubiquitous Computing Journal, as well as other related online resources and projects. [VF]

http://www.smps.us/

Electrical design engineer Lazar Rozenblat was once told in college that "an engineer does not have to remember everything, but should know where to find the information he/she needs." Following that advice, Rozenblat has put together this "one-stop informational resource on Power Electronics /SMPS design." The website provides links to engineering reference information and design resources and is "being constantly updated." The About section describes his selection process and invites others to submit their websites to the page. The links are organized by topic areas, such as SMPS design, standards, tools, and magnetics, and links are then listed under sub-topics within those areas. The EE Reference section provides some links to tutorials, general engineering reference, and career resources. [VF]

http://www.edvec.ed.ac.uk/

The Edinburgh Virtual Environment Centre (EdVEC) "is committed to pursue and publish research of the highest international standard." Its work focuses on the capture, modelling and representation of 3D real-world objects and domains. The organization also offers virtual environments to support teaching and research within the University and collaborate with industry to promote technology transfer. The website seems to be a work in progress, but a number of publications are already posted. Also several of the center's animation and commercial projects are described in the Projects section, along with a few demonstrations of these and other projects. The Services section describes some of what the organization offers in terms of 3D-data capture, scanning, and analysis services. [VF]

http://www.bridges.org/

Bridges.org is "an international non-profit organisation that promotes the effective use of Information and communications technology (ICT) in the developing world to reduce poverty and improve people's lives." The focus of its work involves ICT-related policy analysis, but organization "also promote best practice in ground-level technology implementation through research and evaluations." It provides information and resources, support grassroots projects and other efforts, and advise decision-makers and the public on key issues. As members of the technology community, the organization brings "an entrepreneurial attitude" and an understanding of technology as well as its commitment to work with governments and the private sector to achieve the goal of "spanning the international digital divide." The website provides an overview of the "digital divide" and describes the organization's approach to addressing these issues. Policy reports, case studies and evaluation guidelines are posted on this website. The organization's current work includes a comparison study of open source and proprietary software, which is also described here. [VF]

http://www.ists.dartmouth.edu/ISTS/research_programs.htm

The Institute for Security Technology Studies (ISTS) at Dartmouth College "is dedicated to pursuing research that addresses critical national needs for security technology and policy in cyber and emergency response environments." Its interdisciplinary research draws from science, engineering, social science and policy perspectives to investigate critical security problems using existing technology and ideas, as well as by developing new technologies. A wealth of publications including journal articles, conference papers, and technical reports are available to download from the Library section. Also posted are descriptions and links to websites for the Institutes projects within the Cyber Security & Trust Research Center (CSTR Center), the Emergency Readiness & Response Research Center (ER3 Center), Cyber Security Exercise Development Center (CSED Center), and other Special Projects. Visitors interested in getting an overview of the organization's work can read the featured publications or check out news items, such as a project to develop "a mathematical technique to tell the difference between a 'real' image and one that's been fiddled with." [VF]

http://sun-valley.stanford.edu/~tbretl/research.html

This is the website for a Stanford PhD candidate, Timothy Wolfe Bretl, who is "currently working on the design of motion strategies for autonomous mobile robots." His work is providing insights into fundamental design principles, which he hopes can be used "to create useful autonomous systems that can perform difficult, dangerous, or tedious tasks." One area of his work involves Autonomous Rock-Climbing Robots, which could one day be used for "search-and-rescue in mountainous terrain or broken urban environments." Also highlighted here is his work on Dynamic Movement and Cooperative Mobile Robotics. Photos, diagrams and 3D models help to display and explain these research projects. More information can be found on his Publications page, where a few articles and reports are available to download. [VF]

http://cbd.bu.edu/

The Center for BioDynamics (CBD) brings together the College of Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences at Boston University to foster "advance training and research at the interfaces among dynamical systems, biology and engineering." The CBD's work provides insights into the functioning of physiological systems and examines ways to improve clinical devices and techniques. The center also hosts work in research and development on dynamical systems techniques for various other applications. The Ongoing Research section describes major findings from recent research activities (2003-2004) and numerous other articles from 1999 to 2004 are posted in the Publications section. [VF]