In This Issue
Expanding Frontiers of Engineering
December 1, 2002 Volume 32 Issue 4
Articles In This Issue
  • Sunday, December 1, 2002
    AuthorKim J. Vincente

    Most designers of technological systems do not pay enough attention to human needs and capabilities.

    Many people find technology frustrating and difficult to use in everyday life. In the vast majority of cases, the problem is not that they are technological "dummies" but that the ...

  • Sunday, December 1, 2002
    AuthorBruce Kane

    The end limit of Moore’s Law scaling is the threshold of the quantum realm.

    The field of solid-state quantum computing is in its infancy. Coherent operations on single qubits (the simplest type of quantum logical operation) have only recently been demonstrated (Nakamura et al., 1999; Vion ...

  • Sunday, December 1, 2002
    AuthorMarvin L. Adams

    Fission power has the potential to provide a large fraction of the world’s energy for centuries to come.

    Increases in world population and per-capita energy demand in the next few centuries are expected to cause a substantial rise in world energy use. The World Energy Council predicts a ...

  • Sunday, December 1, 2002
    AuthorPeter S. Hastings

    A resurgence of the nuclear industry will require overcoming major challenges.

    Electricity demand is outpacing supply growth, and experts have calculated that the United States will need new baseload power generation (including nuclear power generation) by 2010 (NEI, 2002a). As part of the ...

  • Sunday, December 1, 2002
    AuthorDavid Lee Davidson

    Computational fluid dynamics has enormous potential for industry in the twenty-first century.

    Continuum mechanics, one of our most successful physical theories, is readily applicable to the process industries. In continuum mechanics, the existence of molecules is ignored, and matter is treated ...

  • Sunday, December 1, 2002
    AuthorGeorge Bugliarello

    Every year the NAE Frontiers of Engineering Symposium brings together young engineers working on cutting-edge technologies in many different fields. Papers delivered at the eighth symposium this year at the Beckman Center of the National Academies in Irvine, California, dealt with four themes: ...

  • Sunday, December 1, 2002
    AuthorJames P. Blanchard

    Radioisotopes are being used in numerous commercial applications, and many more are on the horizon.

    Most people are well aware that nuclear power can be used to produce electricity, but few are aware that it can be used to provide power in many other situations. Radioisotopes have been used for ...