2013 Multiphysics Conference Presentations Now Online

By Anthony J. Lockwood

Dear Desktop Engineering Reader:

COMSOL has just released online its collection of user presentations from its 2013 Multiphysics Conferences. It’s something that you can and probably should get immersed in. It’s that good. And you can get it at no charge.

If you’re not in the know,  the COMSOL Conference has established itself as a leading event on multiphysics modeling and simulation. The great thing about attending this conference is that it’s like going to the Apple store on the day a new iPhone is released,  but everyone is a multiphysics practitioner. Every fall, engineers,  researchers, scientists and educators from all over the place descend upon some city to share in-depth technical papers and presentations about how they’re using COMSOL Multiphysics modeling and simulation to solve some sort of issue or to devise a new technology. There’s a vibrant poster area where you can literally have an ad hoc one-on-one session with some dude or dudette on what they’re investigating. In 2013, COMSOL Multiphysics users met in Boston,  Bangalore, and Rotterdam. Pretty much all the technical content from those conferences is what you’ll find at the other end of today’s Check It Out link.

And I mean “all.” The 2013 COMSOL Conference User Presentations Collection is big. It offers more than 700 author-contributed presentations. The presentations are divided into some 20 broad topic areas such as AC/DC electromagnetics; acoustics and vibrations;  batteries, fuel cells and electrochemical processes; computational fluid dynamics (CFD); chemical reaction engineering; heat transfer and phase change; micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) and nanotechnology; optimization and inverse methods; particle tracing; plasma physics; radio frequency (RF) and microwave engineering; and structural mechanics and thermal stresses.

Accessing the presentations is child’s play: On the right of the Collection’s home page is a list of topics. Click on the one you want. A given topic area may have five presentations or 25 or more to choose from. So let’s say you click on the Microfluidics topic area. The first thing you see is a thumbnail description of what “microfluidics” means and a brief run down of the applications discussed in the section. In this example, that’s microfluidic devices and applications for flow meters, droplet focusing and cell separation.

Immediately below that is the list of titles with authors and their affiliations. Thirty-three titles are offered in this category. Click on a title and you get a synopsis of the presentation as well as your reading and downloading options. Most titles are presented with a cool image, enticing you to learn more. Read and download options range from the actual slide presentation to technical papers and from an abstract to a poster, depending upon the presentation. You can also share a link to the presentation on Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn or Twitter.

The full topic list is always available up on the top right as you browse titles. The site also has a search mechanism,  so you can use your own keywords like silicon or Oak Ridge to hone in on something or someone.

A riff about delivery: COMSOL switched from CD- to web-based delivery of its annual collection of user presentations last year. The CD had been a worldwide sensation—hundreds of thousands of them were distributed. And it’s obvious to see why it was such a hit: It was packed with terrific, fascinating, fun and inspiring information. But,  in the end, it was a CD with all its faults, its data limitations and its irritating habit of getting lost in the debris on your desktop.

The web edition of the COMSOL Conference user presentations is as great an advance over the CD format as was the advance from glass to squeeze bottles of ketchup. The 2013 version of the COMSOL Conference User Presentations Collection builds off of last year’s successful start to be even easier to use and enjoy. The depth and breadth of the content you’ll discover in the COMSOL Conference User Presentations Collection is unparalleled and far exceeds that of any CD. You’re going to get engrossed in this information. It’s that much fun. Hit today’s Check it Out link and give it a go.

Thanks, Pal. – Lockwood

Anthony J. Lockwood
Editor at Large
Desktop Engineering

Go to the 2013 COMSOL Conference User Presentations Collection.