NASA commissioned the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) to conduct a thorough review of both the technical and the organizational causes of the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia and her crew on February 1, 2003. The accident investigation that followed determined that a large piece of insulating foam from Columbia's external tank (ET) had come off during ascent and struck the leading edge of the left wing, causing critical damage. The damage was undetected during the mission. The Columbia accident was not survivable. After the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) investigation regarding the cause of the accident was completed, further consideration produced the question of whether there were lessons to be learned about how to improve crew survival in the future. This investigation was performed with the belief that a comprehensive, respectful investigation could provide knowledge that can protect future crews in the worldwide community of human space flight. Additionally, in the course of the investigation, several areas of research were identified that could improve our understanding of both nominal space flight and future spacecraft accidents. This report is the first comprehensive, publicly available accident investigation report addressing crew survival for a human spacecraft mishap, and it provides key information for future crew survival investigations. The results of this investigation are intended to add meaning to the sacrifice of the crew's lives by making space flight safer for all future generations.

This book comprises select proceedings of the International Conference on Smart Technologies for Energy, Environment, and Sustainable Development (ICSTEESD 2018). The chapters are broadly divided into three focus areas, viz. energy, environment, and sustainable development, and discusses the relevance and applications of smart technologies in these fields. A wide variety of topics such as renewable energy, energy conservation and management, energy policy and planning, environmental management, marine environment, green building, smart cities, smart transportation are covered in this book. Researchers and professionals from varied engineering backgrounds contribute chapters with an aim to provide economically viable solutions to sustainable development challenges. The book will prove useful for academics, professionals, and policy makers interested in sustainable development.

Smart (intelligent) structures have been the focus of a great deal of recent research interest. In this book, leading researchers report the state of the art and discuss new ideas, results and trends in 43 contributions, covering fundamental research issues, the role of intelligent monitoring in structural identification and damage assessment, the potential of automatic control systems in achieving a desired structural behaviour, and a number of practical issues in the analysis and design of smart structures in mechanical and civil engineering applications. Audience: A multidisciplinary reference for materials scientists and engineers in such areas as mechanical, civil, aeronautical, electrical, control, and computer engineering.

This book presents the latest developments in the field of biomedical engineering and includes practical solutions and strictly scientific considerations. The development of new methods of treatment, advanced diagnostics or personalized rehabilitation requires close cooperation of experts from many fields, including, among others, medicine, biotechnology and finally biomedical engineering. The latter, combining many fields of science, such as computer science, materials science, biomechanics, electronics not only enables the development and production of modern medical equipment, but also participates in the development of new directions and methods of treatment. The presented monograph is a collection of scientific papers on the use of engineering methods in medicine. The topics of the work include both practical solutions and strictly scientific considerations expanding knowledge about the functioning of the human body. We believe that the presented works will have an impact on the development of the field of science, which is biomedical engineering, constituting a contribution to the discussion on the directions of development of cooperation between doctors, physiotherapists and engineers. We would also like to thank all the people who contributed to the creation of this monograph—both the authors of all the works and those involved in technical works.