Many colleges and universities offer a course in discrete mathematics. Students taking these courses are from many disciplines, one of the largest being computer science. As a part of the Mathematics Across the Curriculum project at Dartmouth, supported by the National Science Foundation,1 we proposed to create a discrete mathematics...

Since the first part of the twentieth century, cybernetics and systems research have been developed as scientific disciplines. Investigations, launched in the area of cybernetics, previously dealt with control and information processing. In a more narrow sense, they consisted in the consideration of analogies of the control and the...

The Williams, Using Information Technology, 9th edition utilizes a practical, applied approach to technology. This text is user-focused and has been highly updated including topics, pictures and examples. The Williams text contains less theory and more application to engage students who might be more familiar with technology. Continually...

Programmable logic controllers (PLCs) continue to evolve as new technologies are added to their capabilities. The PLC started out as a replacement for hardwired relay control systems. Gradually, various math and logic manipulation functions were added. Today PLCs are the controller of choice for the vast majority of automated...

When computer software succeeds—when it meets the needs of the people who use it, when it performs flawlessly over a long period of time, when it is easy to modify and even easier to use—it can and does change things for the better. But when software fails—when its users are dissatisfied, when it is error prone, when...

You have read a number of tutorials, blogs, and books on Alfresco. Now you're in the real world, trying to use Alfresco, but you're running into...

Why is astronomy considered a science while astrology is considered only a pseudoscience? In other words, how can we prove that a theory faithfully describes reality, and that this theory can then be used to predict unknown facts? Karl Popper, the well-known philosopher, studied these problems and summarized his conclusions in one...

The first author, Said Elnashaie, and his wife, Shadia Elshishini, moved next door to the second author, Frank Uhlig, and his family in 2000. The two families became good neighbors and friends. Their chats covered the usual topics and occasionally included random teaching, departmental, and...

I hate the term the cloud. I really do. In a surprisingly short period of time, I’ve seen the term twisted out of shape and become a marketing buzzword and applied to every bit of technology one can conjure up. I have no doubt that in a few years, the term the cloud will be relegated to the same giant dustbin for bad technology...

Nevertheless, by the close of the 1980s, many people openly expressed doubt about...

Physical design of integrated circuits remains one of the most interesting and challenging arenas in the field of Electronic Design Automation. The ability to integrate more and more devices on our silicon chips requires the algorithms to continuously scale up. Nowadays we can integrate 2e9 transistors on a single 45nm-technology chip. This...

The chapters in this volume were presented at the July–August 2006 NATO Advanced Study Institute on Imaging for Detection and Identification. The conference was held at the beautiful Il Ciocco resort near Lucca, in the glorious Tuscany region of northern Italy. For the eighth time we gathered at this idyllic spot to explore and...