Austin, Texas
June 14, 2009
June 14, 2009
June 17, 2009
2153-5965
Engineering Libraries
32
14.866.1 - 14.866.32
10.18260/1-2--4792
https://peer.asee.org/4792
1812
Sasha Gurke was one of the co-founders of Knovel in 1999, having joined a predecessor company in 1996 as VP Product Development. In this position, Sasha has led the development of Knovel's award-winning interactive e-book library, focusing on product development, functional design, information architecture, search logic and production.
Prior to Knovel, Sasha spent 15 years with Chemical Abstract Service/American Chemical Society in various Product Development and Editorial capacities.
Sasha is a trained Chemist and Process Engineer with years of industrial and lab experience. His major contribution to Knovel’s success was application of this experience in the development of information products for applied scientists and engineers.
Mathcad Enabling of Engineering e-Content on Knovel
Abstract Knovel recently released Mathcad-enabled Roark’s Formulas for Stress and Strain and (Hicks) Handbook of Civil Engineering Calculations. The release of these titles represents a quantum leap from Knovel’s standard interactivity such as tables, to a full scale engineering solution. Desktop 3rd party software (Mathcad© from Parametric Technology Corp.) has been seamlessly integrated with standard engineering content online. Mathcad is a Computer Aided Design platform with calculation, graphing, text formatting and reporting capabilities which can be used to transcribe engineering content, e.g., calculation examples. Challenges encountered during creation of this unique product, product features, expansion plans for the offering and initial customer response are discussed by an engineer who spearheaded the effort.
Brief Overview of Knovel Knovel is an award-winning, Web-based library of e-references (e-books and databases) for applied scientists and engineers.
Knovel adds value to e-books by making them interactive. Interactive book tools include tables, graphs and equations. There are several interactive tools, including:
- Graph Digitizer for digitizing graphs displayed as calibrated raster images stored in Knovel database - Graph Plotter for plotting graphs using X,Y coordinates stored in Knovel database - Equation Plotter for calculating and plotting functions F=Y(X) stored in Knovel database - Phase Diagram Viewer for determining phase composition of binary systems by digitizing diagrams displayed as calibrated raster images stored in Knovel database - Excel Spreadsheet for calculating equations programmed in Excel - Interactive Tables for sorting, filtering, etc. of tabular data stored in Knovel database.
Interactivity improves an engineer’s productivity by enhancing searchability and allowing analysis and manipulation of otherwise static data. Knovel’s interactive productivity tools are proprietary and programmed in Flash. We are currently replacing these with similar Mathematica engine-based tools programmed using Ajax technology.
Starting in 1999, we have digitized over 1800 STM titles from about 50 publishers including industry leaders such as Elsevier, Wiley, McGraw-Hill and Springer. The topics range across 20 subject areas, including chemistry, mechanical engineering, electronics, oil and gas, sustainable development and construction materials. Many titles, e.g., in the chemical industry safety area, are unique to Knovel and cannot be found anywhere else.
Some Knovel titles are multi-volume publications with the total number of pages exceeding 800,000 (this number does not include databases.) The collection is growing at a rate of 35- 40 new titles per month.
Users can browse and simultaneously search all titles via a single interface. Basic and advanced searches are fast and optimized for technical users.
Gurke, S. (2009, June), Mathcad Enabling Of Engineering E Content On Knovel Paper presented at 2009 Annual Conference & Exposition, Austin, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--4792
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