NEEShub Release 4.0

The NEEScomm IT Team announced Release 4.0, a major NEEShub Release.  Release enhancements are related to the Project Warehouse, Project Reviews, Data Status Report Generation, Digital Object Identifiers and Project Warehouse and Project Editor support for Simulation and Hybrid Simulation Experiments. They are described in detail in http://nees.org/announcements/neeshubrelease40

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Web-based statics course

OLI Engineering Statics is a freely available, on-line Statics course coauthored by Anna Dollár and Paul Steif. The course is part of a suite of cognitively informed, web-based introductory level undergraduate courses that were developed at Carnegie Mellon University under the Open Learning Initiative. The initial development of this course was supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Further development of the OLI Engineering Statics course has been supported by the National Science Foundation under grant DUE 0918271.
The OLI Engineering Statics course contains many interactive elements, including: simulations, “walk-throughs” that integrate voice and graphics to explain an example of the procedure or a difficult concept, and, most prominently, computer tutors in which students practice problem solving, with hints and feedback. The course is built around a series of carefully devised learning objectives that are independently assessable.While individual learners can and do use OLI Engineering Statics, it is also increasingly used in Statics courses led by instructors. In different settings it: replaces the textbook, acts as a supplement to the textbook, or functions as the primary instruction in a instructor-led, distance course. When a group of students enter OLI Engineering Statics using an instructor-generated course key, then the instructor has full access to those students’ activities in the course, including graded quizzes, and can leverage that knowledge to improve classroom instruction. Information about the Open Learning Initiative generally may be found here. The Open and Free version of the OLI Engineering Statics may be found here.
Information for instructors who are interested in setting up an academic section of OLI Engineering Statics for their students and blending OLI into their class may be found here.

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OpenSees Days 2012

PEER and NEES will host OpenSees Days 2012 on August 15-16 at the Richmond Field Station, an off-campus facility of the University of California, Berkeley.  Students, researchers, and practitioners are welcome to attend any of the days.

Wednesday, August 15: Getting Started With OpenSees
The annual one-day training workshop on how to use OpenSees will be more hands-on this year. This workshop is intended for beginning users. This workshop will introduce users to the tcl scripting language, and basic modeling and analysis techniques using OpenSees.

Thursday, August 16: OpenSees: Beyond the Basics

Seal of the University of California, Berkeley (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This workshop is intended for intermediate users and those who have attended the Getting Started Workshop. The workshop will focus on structural and geotechnical modeling using OpenSees, and how to extend OpenSees for your own research needs.  The afternoon sessions will be devoted to presentations from industry and research representatives who will discuss how OpenSees has been used and extended to further their work.

**Anyone from industry or academia interested in presenting on August 16th is encouraged to send a short abstract to Frank McKenna before July 1, 2012.**

The event is free, but registration is required because space is limited to the first 100 applicants.  Registration closes on August 10, 2012.

Registration and additional program information can be found the OpenSees Days 2012 website.