Robots at the Cope Auditorium

To mark UK Robotics Week next week the Cope Auditorium is opening its doors for an evening of cybernetic discussion under the banner Robots at the movies: The portrayal of robots and androids in contemporary films.

Automata, robots and androids have been a creation and fascination for humans over centuries. From Maria (Metropolis, 1927), R2D2 and C3PO (Star Wars, 1977), WALL-E (2008), The Terminators (1984, 1991, 2003) to Transformers (2007), they have been portrayed as our friends, adversaries, alien to almost human, invaders and enslavers or as our saviours and trusted companions.

These portrayals in the movies have reflected and perhaps influenced our opinion of them. Join us for an amusing evening reviewing our relationship with these technologies as reflected in their portrayal in the movie industry.

The discussion runs from 6pm – 7.30pm next Thursday (28th June) in the Cope and is brought to you by the Centre for Doctoral Training in Embedded Intelligence in support of the UK Robotics Week 2017. The event is free, but booking is necessary – visit the link below to do that.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/robots-at-the-movies-the-portrayal-of-robots-and-androids-in-contemporary-films-tickets-31961461592

World Space Week 2016

wsw16This week is the start of World Space Week, the worldwide annual celebration of the marvels and mysteries of astronautics, astronomy and all things cosmic.

Launched specifically on 4th October by the UN General Assembly to mark the successful launch of Sputnik 1, the first man-made satellite, in 1957, and the signing of the ‘Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies’ on October 10th 1967, World Space Week has been held every year since 1999, and seeks primarily to educate people about the positives of space exploration and encourage better public understanding and support for space programmes.

This year’s theme is “Remote Sensing: Enabling Our Future,” an inward looking theme which celebrates Earth Observation from Space for the betterment of the human race, highlighting a host of classic Earth Observation missions such as the U.S. Landsat mission, the work of intergovernmental groups such as GEOSS Group on Earth Observations and emphasizes applications such as environment and agriculture monitoring, land use mapping and new uses such as location based services.

Fittingly, we have access to the National Geophysical Data Centre database, which provides the latest satellite geophysical data from the Sun to the Earth and Earth’s sea floor and solid earth environment, including Earth observations from space, and the NASA Scientific & Technical Information database, which includes up-to-date information about NASA’s satellite projects. We also hold a large number of books about satellite communications & navigation among our collection, along with a good selection of books about space & space exploration  in general.

To find out more about World Space Week, visit their website here:

http://www.worldspaceweek.org/

Database Trial – Polymer Library

19985223,192x192,r-2We’re re-trialling a database this month that may be of considerable interest to chemists and engineers alike.

The Polymer Library is the world’s largest abstracts database dedicated to plastics, rubber, polymer composites and adhesives. Compiled and written by an expert team, this database sources information from journals, conference proceedings, books and reports to give you a comprehensive look at the information in your field. Find out more about the database and what it can do for you.

To obtain the trial details please login with your University username and password at https://internal.lboro.ac.uk/diss/lb/uniwide/webpages/Trials.html

Access is valid to 6th October 2016.

We welcome feedback – good or bad – on this trial, please contact Steve Corn.

Database Trial: Polymer Library

19985223,192x192,r-2Our second trial this month will likely be of great interest to chemists and engineers.

The Polymer Library is the world’s largest abstracts database dedicated to plastics, rubber, polymer composites and adhesives. Compiled and written by an expert team, this database sources information from journals, conference proceedings, books and reports to give you a comprehensive look at the information in your field. Find out more about the database and what it can do for you.

To obtain the trial details please login with your University username and password at https://internal.lboro.ac.uk/diss/lb/uniwide/webpages/Trials.html

Access is valid to 19th June 2016.

We welcome feedback – good or bad – on this trial, please contact Steve Corn.

Calling All Ergonomics Students!

ergonomicsIf you need to find articles on universal design, assistive technology, cognitive ergonomics, user experience, driver vehicle ergonomics, health and safety, sporting equipment and lots, lots more – try Ergonomics Abstracts.

With nearly 200,000 online records covering more than 25 years of ergonomics research it also includes trade magazines for the latest trends, as well as books chapters and conference proceedings.

You can find Ergonomics Abstracts from the link in the Design School Subject Guidehttp://www.lboro.ac.uk/services/library/subjectguides/design/– or from the Select Databases tab in Library Catalogue Plus http://lcp.lboro.ac.uk/

Or just ask your Academic Librarian – http://www.lboro.ac.uk/services/library/contact/academiclibrarians –  for more information.

Earth Day 2016

earth day 2016As today is International Earth Day, what better time to remind you of the University’s very own Sustainability project and website.

The University is committed to acting in a socially responsible way that maximises its positive impact and minimises its negative impact on society and the communities in which it is based. This is reflected in the University’s strategy Building Excellence which states that “we will embed sustainability and social responsibility into all of our processes, operations and developments” and also “will work closely with local partners to enhance the social, cultural and economic wellbeing of the communities and regions in which we reside”.

Why not visit the Sustainability website to find out more?

Earth Day has been celebrated globally since 1970, with the aim of inspiring and motivating people to action over environmental issues. Every year the campaign tackles a new theme, and this year the theme is Trees For the Earth, a plan to plant 7.8 Billion trees by Earth Day 2020 – one tree for every person on the planet!

To find out more about the campaign – and how to participate – visit the Earth Day website below:

http://www.earthday.org/

British Science Week Resources – Library STEM Subject Guides

531843326_81c9b2cff2_zTo conclude our look at Library resources for British Science Week, we’d like to turn the microscope around and take a look at the bigger picture of available resources, and how to find them.

Finding the right sources of information for any subject can be tricky, given the vast amount of resources there are available to you via our own Library Catalogue Plus database. This is especially true of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Medicine (or STEM) disciplines. With that in mind, our Academic Librarians have created a set of online guides tailored to these subject areas.

You can find the complete A-Z list of all the guides by following this link:

http://www.lboro.ac.uk/services/library/subjectguides/

Each link gives you a concise run-down of everything you need to know about finding information for your subject, including the contact details for the Academic Librarian responsible for the School/Department concerned.

Be sure to visit and bookmark the links for future reference – you’ll certainly find them useful!

Image by Philip Bond, reproduced under CC License from Flickr.

British Science Week Resources – Compendex

Ei comp pngSearching for Engineering information? Why not expand your search and try Compendex?

Compendex is the broadest and most complete engineering literature database available in the world. It provides a truly holistic and global view of peer reviewed and indexed publications with over 17 million records from 73 countries across 190 engineering disciplines. Every record is carefully selected and indexed using the Engineering Index Thesaurus to ensure discovery and retrieval of engineering-specific literature that engineering students and professionals can rely on. By using Ei Compendex, engineers can be confident information is relevant, complete, accurate and of high quality

Useful for the following subject areas; Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Physics and many others, links to Compendex can be found from the relevant Subject Guides and from Library Catalogue Plus.

British Science Week Resources – Reaxys

reaxys

Next up in our look at useful resources for British Science Week is the multi-faceted scientific formula database Reaxys.

Reaxys is a unique web-based chemistry database consisting of deeply excerpted compounds and related factual properties, reaction and synthesis information as well as bibliographic data, navigated and displayed via an actionable interface. Offering a wealth of experimentally validated information, Reaxys brings a fresh look to synthetic chemistry with powerful functionality, combined content and relevant information.

Why not have browse?

http://www.reaxys.com/

British Science Week Resources – Science on BoB

bobAs part of British Science Week we’re to take the opportunity to highlight some of the fantastic science & technology resources you can access at the Library, starting with the very wonderful Box of Broadcasts (or just BoB for short!)

BoB is an off-air recording and media archive service. BoB is available to staff and students of member institutions of the British Universities Film & Video Council that hold an ERA+ license. This TV scheduling service allows you to record TV and radio programmes that are scheduled to be broadcast over the next seven days as well as retrieving programmes from the last seven days from a selected list of recorded channels. Unfortunately, for copyright reasons access to BoB is not available from outside the UK.

Now as BoB, in theory, offers you everything, there’s a veritable gamut of science programmes you can catch up on, including the BBC World Service’s popular weekly science series The Science Hour, which highlights the top science and technology news of the week, as well as Radio 4’s The Infinite Monkey Cage, an irreverent look at the world of science through the eyes of Professor Brian Cox and comedian Robin Ince, and classic archive science television like the ground breaking Horizon. Why not give it a browse and see what you can dig up?
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