Check it Out: COMSOL News PDF

By Anthony J. Lockwood

Dear Desktop Engineering Reader:

First things first: Every so often I do some work for cash with the folks at COMSOL. And I did a tiny bit of work on the latest edition of their annual technical journal, COMSOL News, the subject of toady’s Check It Out.

Now, with all that on the table, I have to tell you that the 2010 edition of COMSOL News is terrific. A bub at COMSOL told me yesterday that 53,000 copies of it have already been downloaded or mailed since the June 2 announcement of its availability. An announcement which, incidentally, quoted a truly intelligent talking head – me, he says modestly.

Kidding aside, these readers are on to something. COMSOL News is a excellent synthesis of technically rich yet engaging reading that lays out for you the potential within multiphysics analysis and how this tool is being used right now out there across all sorts of engineering and scientific disciplines. And “out there” means hands-on product design and development, not far-out research somewhere. Well, there is one piece on how NASA researchers used COMSOL Multiphysics in their search for water on the moon, which is kind of far from here. But you know what I mean.

The 20 articles in COMSOL News were hand-selected from more than 350 user presentations given at the COMSOL Conferences last Fall. They are not gushy marketing pieces. They are written by engineers, physicists, scientists, and researchers in fields as diverse as medical device and automotive design, consumer products, and lighting who wanted to explain how they leverage multiphysics. Real-world topics of interest range from welding to advanced materials to lithium ion batteries and even to loudspeakers.

But what you’re really getting in the 60 pages of COMSOL News is the scoop on the changing face of design and analysis. From one article to the next, you learn how the flexibility and power of multiphysics reveals insights, often unanticipated, into how physical parts behave in the multiple physics world they are designed to function in. It is this deep knowledge of what you are really working with and confronting that fosters innovation. The interplay of complex physics, powerful software, and the agile mind of engineers at work is what makes COMSOL News  a compelling read.

COMSOL News is available immediately as a PDF download free of charge (a hard copy is available too) from the link in today’s Check It Out. You have to register for it, but it’s definitely worth it. After all, COMSOL News comes but once a year. You should not miss it.

Thanks, Pal.—Lockwood

Anthony J. Lockwood
Editor at Large, Desktop Engineering

Check out the COMSOL News PDF.