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The article focuses on using composite materials in designing in industries and also discusses challenges for designers and evolving tools. For engineers, designing and analyzing composite structures difficult in comparison with metal parts. Engineering softwares have eased composite design and analysis challenges. Many composites are composed of a resin solution mixed with reinforcing materials. Specialized composite analysts are needed to help find the best material for a particular use. The Digimat software allows designers to find the best composite without the need to change part design.

The article previews several products, including the SwiftComp Micromechanics 3.0 general-purpose micromechanics code from AnalySwift LLC, the VERICUT Composite Paths for Engineering (VCPe) software from CGTech, and the Mitsubishi MW3 entry-level waterjet machine from MC Machinery.

The article provides information on how high performance computers can improve the operational readiness of armed forces. Current approaches to supervision of the structural integrity of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) flight vehicles have successfully avoided catastrophic structural failure due to cracking. However, existing methodologies for assurance of vehicle structural integrity do not permit optimal use of available assets, which impacts combat system availability and readiness. The Cornell Theory Center's Computational Materials Institute is the lead academic institution in a research project that will develop and demonstrate a physics-based approach to predict the state of structural health of individual DoD flight vehicles. The project is contributing to an innovative structural integrity prognosis approach that will sense the state of critical components of individual vehicles and will use intimate knowledge of the vehicle's microstructure and failure mechanisms for prediction of near-term operability on a probabilistic vehicle-by-vehicle basis.

Focuses on micromechanics probe, a motion control system, which explores the nervous system of blowflies. Models constructed by scientist Rob de Ruyter and his colleague for signal processing; Probe on fly's brain.

The article discusses the highlights of the 38th International Conference and Expo on Advanced Ceramics and Composites (ICACC) held in Daytona, Florida on January 26-31, 2014 which attracted more than 1,3030 participants from 42 countries who attended technical sessions and met with vendors.

The author explores flexural test method standards developed for composite materials. He compares several industry standards for flexural testing which include ASTM D 790, International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14125 and British Standard (BSI) 2782 in terms of method of loading, specimen length and support radius. He also explains possible reasons why both radii of loading points and supports tend to have limited influence on flexural testing results.

The article evaluates several software including KeyShot version 3 data rendering software, SwiftComp Micromechanics version 3.0, and Avizo Fire, a 3-D visualization and analysis software developed by Visualization Sciences Group.

The article reports on a trick in which the engineers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore are making a cube from six linked squares. The cubes are more than just a puzzle, however. Similar microstructures may one day deliver disease-fighting medicines directly to afflicted organs. The sides of the cubes are fabricated in much the way integrated circuits are made, through photolithography and thin-film deposition. Because the research team, led by engineer David Gracias, is interested in biomedical applications, the boxes are coated in gold to reduce the likelihood of toxic reactions. They also have discovered that microbeads encapsulated within the cubes can be released through gentle agitation, and that the motion of cubes made of material such as nickel can be controlled by magnetic fields.

This article informs that German engineers and biologists are to join forces as part of a vast research programme. The German Research Foundation has allocated 48 million euros to universities to look into natural technological flow control. A project at the Technical University of Darmstadt will try to translate nature into technical applications, called bionics or biomimetics, such as the use of biological surface structures to reduce the flow resistance of turbine blades. In Dresden, a project on modification of the microstructure and shape of solids through externally applied magnetic fields goes even farther by teaming up engineers, materials scientists, mathematicians, physicists and chemists.

Describes how electrical voltage can be used to induce electrostatic deflection and vibrational resonance in individual carbon nanotubes. Behavior of multi-walled nanotubes; Use of tiny tubes as a nanobalance to weigh sub-micron-scale particles; Carbon nanotubes' electronic and micromechanical properties.