There are some important resources and guides available from the Library’s web site. Please refer to them.
These are listed below:

Key Web Resources
Engineering Blog
Engineering Instruction Blog
Engineering 102 Library Resources

Key Resources to find background information, properties of materials and international patents

Encyclopedia of Materials: Science and Technology and other electronic reference works and See also Electronic Reference Books for other important encyclopedias
Engineering electronic books from ENGnetBASE and other netBASE collections
Knovel – Engineering and Scientific online reference books
How do I find International Patents?

Engineering for Change provides a forum to connect, collaborate, solve challenges and share knowledge among a growing community of engineers, technologists, social scientists, NGOs, local governments and community advocates, who are dedicated to improving the quality of life all over the world. E4C is bridging technology and humanitarian development. Explore how communities are being transformed using open-source technology to solve real problems.

See: https://www.engineeringforchange.org/home

1 in 4 people in the world live without electricity. This energy poverty is the biggest limitation to improving living conditions. Alternative energy solutions are demonstrating real promise and opportunity for further development.

https://www.engineeringforchange.org/topic/view/energy

How to sterilize medical instruments in off-grid clinics

Scissors, tweezers, scalpels and other medical instruments used for routine treatments must be heated and pressurized to kill microbes before reuse. This presents a real challenge to doctors and nurses at health posts in rural Nicaragua because sterilization takes more than boiling water.

National Service Center for Environmental Publications (NSCEP) provides access to online publications and reports from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Access: National Service Center for Environmental Publications (NSCEP)

Examples of reports on Arsenic in drinking water:

• Desorption of Arsenic from Drinking Water Distribution System Solids
• Drinking Water Standard for Arsenic
• Research Plan for Arsenic in Drinking Water
• Treatment Technologies For Arsenic Removal
• Proven Alternatives for Aboveground Ireatment of Arsenic in Groundwater

See: Arsenic for other online publications and reports.

See also:

• EPA Newsfeeds
• EPA podacasts

EPA provides podcasts and audio files (and transcripts) of useful or engaging information as a way to help the public understand and share information.

Examples include:

• Plug-in to eCycling: Listen to discussions recycling used computers, cell phones, and other electronics.
• Energy Star podcasts: Each podcast is a collection of conversations about energy efficiency. EPA staff talk with a variety of business analysts, technology experts, policymakers, and media.
• Green Power Partnership podcasts: Listen to a variety of topics, including the Green Power Partnership, green power technologies and products, and information on procuring green power.
• Local Climate and Energy podcasts: Each podcast for the Local Climate and Energy Program explores topics related to local government climate change and clean energy efforts.

At Drexel University in Philadelphia, students and faculty advisors are trying to develop sustainable innovations that improve quality of life, push the envelope in terms of what’s already out there and offer innovations that are commercially viable and also acceptable to the public. They’re doing it through a living laboratory called the Drexel Smart House.

See the complete article at: A Smart House at Drexel University in Philadelphia Is a Living Laboratory of Sustainability in the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) blog published by Forbes.

See also:

• Library Resources for Drexel Smart House Project
• Website: Drexel Smart House
• Blog: Drexel Smart House Blog

Urweb is the home of the Cyberpitch(TM) ground breaking innovations
from emerging companies, Universities and Government Laboratories
packaged in an easy to understand rich media format.

See:

Plug and Play Satellites
A modular nanosatellite approach to form simple, but functional spacecraft.
AFRL/RV

Fiber Optics Sensor
A sensor capable of measuring stresses in materials at centimeter intervals while in operation.
This sensor will greatly enhance the ability of engineers and designers to make better bridges, buildings and transportation.

Medical Tube Securing Device
A bite block that greatly reduces skin damage and improves oral hygiene maintenance with long term intubated patients.

Cryogenics Laboratory
The Cryogenics Test Laboratory houses one-of-a kind capabilities for research, development, and application of crosscutting technologies to meet the needs of a wide variety of customers.

Nanotubes
JPL and City of Hope have combined to use NASA made nanotubes as vectors for therapeutics to combat brain tumors.

In partnership with the private sector, state and local governments, national laboratories, and universities, the Building Technologies Program works to improve the efficiency of buildings and the equipment, components, and systems within them. The program supports research and development (R&D) activities and provides tools, guidelines, training, and access to technical and financial resources. The United States has many opportunities for energy and cost savings in its buildings. BTP is leading the way with advanced technologies for new and existing buildings.

For more information:  Building Technologies Program

See also: Building Technologies Program Information Resources and Program Areas

The Building Technologies Program offers a large collection of resources designed to deliver current, relevant information about energy efficiency for residential and commercial buildings. This page provides links to newsletters, publications, Webinars, training opportunities, software tools, and disaster recovery information.

Publications

Find publications on commercial and residential energy efficiency technologies and best practices on the Building Technologies Program’s publications Web page. See also Browse by Topic to find articles on relevant subject areas such as Biomass Program, Fuel Cells Technologies Program, and Vehicle Technologies Programs. etc.

Building E2 Newsletter

Read the Building Technologies Program quarterly online newsletter, Building E2 News, to stay informed about commercial and residential activities, technologies, events, and much more.

The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) is an Institute within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) devoted to merging the physical and biological sciences to develop new technologies that improve health. Their goal is to accelerate the pace of discovery and speed the development of biomedical technologies that prevent illnesses or treat them when they do strike.

It also provides access to e-Advances linking NIBIB supported research to improvements in health.

Research stories  include:

A Nanoengineered Patch for the Damaged Heart
Thanks to bioinspired engineering work of a Johns Hopkins University research team, doctors may one day use a nanoengineered platform to grow and transplant cells to repair damaged heart tissue.

Powered Robotic Legs – Leaping Toward the Future: March 31, 2010
Using robotics technology, Vanderbilt University researchers have constructed and developed a powered lower leg prosthesis that has both brains and brawn.

NIBIB also provides access to web resources such as:

• NIBIB Research
• Biotechnology Resource Centers
• NIH Nanotechnology and Nanoscience Information
• Resources for Researchers

The Billion Gallon Challenge: Advanced biofuels from diverse sources such as grasses and agricultural waste hold the promise of sustainably reducing U.S. oil dependence and global warming emissions. Unfortunately the advanced biofuels industry not been able to meet the demand as set out in the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

The Billion Gallon Challenge is an effort to build the support and policies needed to bring the fledgling advanced biofuels industry to maturity.  It also seeks to ensure that the biofuels market maximizes taxpayer investment and helps to strengthen U.S. energy and environmental security.

Recent studies have concluded that avoiding dangerous climate change will require the United States and other industrialized countries to reduce their global warming emissions approximately 80 percent below 2000 levels by mid-century. This goal is attainable, but only if we act immediately, and on multiple fronts. One major part of the climate solutions equation is a shift to renewable energy resources such as wind, solar, and bioenergy.

See: Smart Bioenergy: Guiding Sustainable Bio-based Energy and Fuels Development

Scirus is a comprehensive science and engineering specific search engine that searches open-access websites as well as peer-reviewed content from publisher sites.  With over 450 million scientific items indexed at last count, it allows researchers to search for not only journal content but also scientists’ homepages, courseware, pre-print server material, patents and institutional repository and website information.

Scirus is also linked from Databases/Article indexes for Engineering or it can be found by searching on our Library’s online catalog in the ‘Title’ field.

To link to Drexel full text from Scirus, first add Drexel University in the Library Partner Links within Scirus Preferences

Searching for Nanotechnology Patents:

Using Advanced Searching,  select ‘Patents’ as  one of the ‘Information Types’ and use ‘Nanotechnlogy’  as keywords.

See: Nanotechnology patents

This Smart Grid development  project is managed by and run from the Virginia Tech Advanced Research Institute in Arlington, VA with assistance from the IEEE Power & Energy Society and EnerNex Corporation. The objective is to design, populate, manage and maintain a public Smart Grid Information Clearinghouse (SGIC) portal. Contents in the SGIC portal will include demonstration projects, use cases, standards, legislation, policy and regulation, lessons learned and best practices, and advanced topics dealing with research and development. The SGIC database will highlight the rapidly evolving opportunity to use electricity in an environmentally responsible way. It is envisioned that the SGIC portal will be the essential gateway that connects the smart grid community to the relevant sources of information that are currently scattered and distributed on the worldwide web.

Access: Smart Grid Information Clearinghouse

See : What is Smart Grid? and other background documents such as What the Smart Grid Means to Americans (for Consumer Advocates)

See also:

• Drexel University Becomes First U.S. Institution to Adopt Viridity Smart Grid Technology
• Research articles on Smart Grid using IEEE Xplore