I just came across Himmelblau’s function for testing optimization routines. It has four local minima and one maxima so it provides a good test: I’m pleased to say my implementation of the Nelder-Meade Simplex Algorithm (on my C++ page here) was able to optimize it for each minima (depending on the starting locations of course). […]
Sometimes its useful to re-motivate ourselves. A sobering TIME magazine photo-essay reminds us why we research and try to continually improve the design process: The Worst Bridge Collapses in the Past 100 Years Another collection is here: http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/news-seven-quaking-bridges-collapsed-costing-lives
The University of Nevada at Reno (UNR) is carrying out a large-scale shake-table testing of a four-span bridge, at the UNR Earthquake Engineering Laboratory, on 15 June, 2010 at 10:00 Pacific Time, (18:00 UTC). In itself this is an incredible endevour, but the best thing is that they are webcasting the event live. For details […]
I was delighted to see that the West Point Bridge Designer program has been updated and the competition is still being run. It really makes bridge design fun! The main website is here: West Point Bridge Design Contest. The program is the main point of interst though. For your design, it animates in real time […]