Congratulations to this year’s winners of the Science & Engineering Library’s Award for Best Use of the Literature  at the Jacobs School of Engineering Research Expo.    Each won a $75 giftcard for the UCSD Bookstore, and their posters (along with others from the Expo) will be on display in the S&E Library through the Spring Quarter. Each is shown below receiving his prize from Mary Linn Bergstrom, Head of the S&E Library.

Calvin James Gardner (“Smell-o-Vision: Remotely On-Off Switchable Odor-Releasing Capsules”)

Wei Gao  (“High Efficient Microrockets and Their Biomedical Applications”)

Rauno Cavallaro (“Non Linear Aeroelastic Analysis of Joined Wing Configurations“)

Thanks to an award from the Simons Foundation, Cornell University Library will take a major step toward building a permanent governance model for arXiv, the free scientific repository that has revolutionized the way scientists share information.
The Simons Foundation, based in New York City, has provided a $60,000 planning grant to support the development of a governance model that will guide the online repository’s transition from interim to long-term governance.
“This is a critical step in the transition to a self-sustaining funding model,” said Oya Rieger, Associate University Librarian for Digital Scholarship Services. “Ensuring the future of arXiv through a stable, transparent and collaborative governance structure is one of the Library’s primary goals, and the Simons Foundation helping us make great strides toward that goal.” The Library recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of arXiv, with an event featuring the repository’s founder, Paul Ginsparg, and meetings about its governance model, support structure and organization of its advisory board. In 2001, Ginsparg joined the Cornell faculty, bringing the arXiv with him.
more : Oct 25 2011 press release

Starting Spring Quarter, check out, return and pick up all S&E books, including Reserves and Interlibrary Loans, at the Geisel Main Lobby Circulation Desk. The S&E Reference Desk remains open, with librarians to assist you in person and online. More information.

US 1,773,980, Television System, patented on August 26, 1930, by Philo T. Farnsworth. He came up with the idea while still in high school, and had a working model by the age of 21. In later years, he battled a patent interference case with RCA and after much legal wrangling, won. Sadly, he ended his life in isolation and depression, but remained one of television’s first critics. When his son was asked what his father’s attitude was toward his invention, he replied, “I suppose you could say that he felt he had created kind of a monster, a way for people to waste a lot of their lives.” Brief biography of Farnsworth at Time 100.

US 1,678,456 “Resonance Ring for Stringed Musical Instruments,” patented by George Altermatt, of Kalamazoo, MI and assigned to Gibson, Inc., 1928.
(Clicking the link above takes you to the Google Patents site for this patent — A good example of mis-spellings introduced by Google’s poor quality control in scanning the patent documents from the US Patent Office.)