Daily News Briefs

Science journal publisher Elsevier has extended the deadline for submissions to its upcoming issue on machine vision, "Computers in Industry," to be published August 31, 2005. The schedule is as follows: Paper submission, Dec. 1; first review results, Feb. 28; acceptance decision, March 31; final paper, May 1. Guest editors are Melvyn Smith, PhD, and Lyndon Smith, PhD, joint directors of the Machine Vision Laboratory, part of the Centre for Innovative Manufacturing and Machine Vision Systems, Faculty of Computing Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, at the University of the West of England, in Bristol, England. For more information, contact Melvyn Smith at +44(0)117 3443578; e-mail: melvyn.smith@uwe.ac.uk . . . Northrop Grumman Corp. was recently awarded a contract by the Air Force Research Laboratory Directed Energy Directorate, on behalf of the Office of the Secretary of Defense/High Energy Lasers Joint Technology Office, to develop a new capability to bond laser materials. The contract, valued at $552,000 over one year, calls for Synoptics, a unit of the company's Space Technology sector, to develop a new and more efficient bonding process. Northrup Grumman said this process will permit the bonding of different types of laser materials and result in improved performance, thermal management and efficiency and that it will enhance the performance of laser materials now being used in military and commercial systems. Joe Rutherford, Synoptics vice president and general manager, said, "This contract allows us to bring together under one roof the ability to grow, fabricate, coat and bond laser crystal materials together. We will be the only 'one-stop shop' for fusion-bonded laser materials in the US."