by Paolo Cignoni, Nico Pietroni, Luigi Malomo and Roberto Scopigno

Mesh joinery is an innovative method to produce illustrative shape approximations suitable for fabrication. Mesh joinery is capable of producing complex fabricable structures in an efficient and visually pleasing manner. We represent an input geometry as a set of planar pieces arranged to compose a rigid structure by exploiting an efficient slit mechanism. Since slices are planar, a standard 2D cutting system is sufficient to fabricate them.

by Andrea Cristofaro and Tor Arne Johansen

In unmanned aerial vehicles, it is vital to be able to detect and accommodate ice adhesion on wings, control surfaces and airspeed sensors, since ice accretion modifies the shape of the aircraft and alters its measurements, thus changing the aerodynamic forces and reducing manoeuvring capability.

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for civil applications – largely surveillance and monitoring - has increased markedly in recent years. UAVs are very often suited for harsh conditions that are unsafe for humans, such as those typically encountered in Arctic operations. Reliable, appropriate, and efficient UAV operations are needed in such conditions.

by Christian Bauckhage, Markus Ketterl and Ulrich Nütten

LEARNMINER is an interactive social eLearning platform that integrates advanced analytics and linked data processing to assist users in structuring course material. Tools for analyzing crowd behaviour allow instructors to identify overly simple or difficult material and provide means for planning deadlines or tests. LEARNMINER allows for mobile access and provides interactive visualization of learning material and progress.

by Chengchen Hu and Yuming Jiang

Mobile applications, web services and social media generate huge data traffic from many sources. This is described as ‘big network data’ with the ‘4V-characteristics’ - that is, variety, velocity, volume and veracity. Analysis on such big network data can discover problems, reveal opportunities and provide advice for the service and network providers for fine-grained traffic engineering with close to real-time adjustment or application acceleration [1].

by Stephan Paredes, Brian Burg, Patrick Ruch, Ingmar Meijer and Bruno Michel

An earlier article in ERCIM News described a system for cooling integrated circuits with re-usable hot water. The result is a sharp increase in energy efficiency and a sharp reduction in the carbon footprint of data centers. The same technique is being applied to photovoltaic electrical energy production, again with a huge gain in system efficiency due to the parallel recovery of waste heat. In hot climates heat from datacenters as well as solar systems is converted into cooling by means of adsorption heat pumps.

The German VAVID project develops improved techniques for data compression as well as new methods of data analysis, data management and interactive data visualization.