More important, why should you spend $600 on a triumph of design only to stick it in a sarcophagus?

A rubber case “will absorb some of the energy” of an accident “which would otherwise go into, and potentially damage, the phone, a bit like a car shock absorber,” wrote Sigrid Adriaenssens, Ph.D, an assistant professor at Princeton’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, in an email. She added in a follow-up call that if the case is very thin, “there’s no point having it.”

With plastic cases, “the frame acts more like an exoskeleton from non-impact loads on the outside,” Adriaenssens wrote, citing “a little boy standing on the phone with one foot,” for example. By the same token, a rigid plastic frame won’t absorb shocks as effectively as a rubber one.

So a case, cumbersome as it is, offers some protection. But 27% of iPhone damage claims are the result of liquid damage, according to a surveyby the insurer Squaretrade. Ordinary cases can’t save a phone from drowning.

After all that, should you buy a case? Loot recommends you take a good hard look at yourself and ask: Am I a klutz? If you are, buy one. If not, just pick up some insurance and let your phone go nude. You know it wants to.

James Tarmy reports on arts and culture for Bloomberg Muse, the arts and leisure section of Bloomberg News.

Read more here http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-20/galoshes-on-a-botticelli.html

image: the CEE463 students visiting the European Central Bank Site in Frankfurt, Germany.

Denisa will study the impact of installing adaptive shading devices on the south facing façade of the Friend Center for Engineering, a building that is largely exposed to sunlight and tends to overheat and to experience glare during summer. The aim of this research project is to minimize the energy consumption (energy needed for lighting, heating and cooling) of Friend Center for Engineering by determining the optimal angle configuration of the shading modules for each hour of the day as a function of the position of the sun and to adapt the structural system accordingly. Her research project will analyze the possible net energy savings by comparing the energy needed to operate the modules with the reduced needs in utilities. On the assumption that our premises are confirmed, the installation of such shading modules would constitute not only a way of reducing the energy consumption of Friend Center for Engineering, but could also provide new opportunities for students and faculty by engaging the campus as a laboratory for research and education. 

Welcome Denisa!

Artist(s):  Alex Jordan GS, Sigrid Adriaenssens (fac), and Axel Kilian (fac)

http://lightyears.blogs.cnn.com/2013/05/17/when-art-comes-from-science/

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/07/science/celebrating-the-web-an-atomic-movie-and-a-hurricane-over-saturn.html?ref=science&_r=0

http://gizmodo.com/10-of-the-years-most-beautiful-science-images-508969751?utm_campaign=socialflow_gizmodo_facebook&utm_source=gizmodo_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

Glisic B., Adriaenssens S., Szerzo P. (2013). ‘Structural Analysis and Physical Validation of a Smart Pantograph Mast Concept’. In: Computer Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering. DOI: 10.1111/mice.12013

Check the model out on

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjMAruO2SGA&feature=youtu.be

Richardson J.N.,Adriaenssens S., Coelho R.F., Bouillard P., (2013). ‘ Coupled form finding and grid optimization approach for single layer gridshells’. In: Engineering Structures, 52, pp. 230–239, DOI 10.1016/j.engstruct.2013.02.017

Adriaenssens S.,Liu H., Wahed M., Zhao Q. (2013). ‘Energy and Optimization of a Traditional north-light roof on Plant Building energy Consumption’. In: Energies 2013, 6(4), 1944-1960; doi:10.3390/en6041944

X-bracing systems are widely applied in structural design to limit deflections and guarantee stability. Efficient distribution of bracing over a structure is an important concern and often based on intuition and previous experience. This paper presents a topology optimization procedure for cable bracing of the hanging steel façade of a new museum in the United States. In this procedure the use of a multiobjective Genetic Algorithm allows for flexibility during design modifications and accounts for uncertainty of deflection constraint values. The presented method achieves practical solutions to a series of cost minimizing problems, giving the designer a range of optimal bracing configurations which can be selected in response to the continuously changing structural and architectural requirements throughout the design process.

Richardson J.N., Adriaenssens S., Nordenson G, Labarenne R, Coelho R.F., (2012). ‘Flexible optimum design of a bracing system for facade design using multiobjective Genetic Algorithms.’In: Automation in Construction. DOI 10.1016/j.autcon.2012.12018.