Title
Topic
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‘Optics for Engineers’
Associate professor of electrical and computer engineer Charles DiMarzio “provides an accessible introduction to the fundamentals of geometric and physical optics as they relate to practical problems encountered by engineers and researchers” with his textbook “Optics for Engineers,” according to the publisher’s web page. In a new edition, DiMarzio “focuses on topics that are critical to understanding how the basic principles of optics affect design decisions.”
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‘Community Data: Creative Approaches to Empowering People With Information’
Assistant professor of journalism Rahul Bhargava’s book, “Community Data: Creative Approaches to Empowering People With Information,” aims to align data science “with good social outcomes, learning from the practices of newspapers, museums, community groups, artists, and libraries,” according to the book’s Amazon page. Bhargava’s book also “introduces a community-driven framework as a response to the urgent need to realign data theories and methods around justice and empowerment,” while expanding storytellers’ toolkits beyond “the limited vocabulary of surveys, spreadsheets, charts and graphs.”
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‘Essentials of Education Policy: Processes and Possibilities for Educational Leaders’
Essentials of Education PolicyProcesses and Possibilities for Educational Leaders Teaching professor William Ewell has published “Essentials of Education Policy: Processes and Possibilities for Educational Leaders,” which “improves students’ and educational leaders’ understanding of the complex education policy system in the U.S.,” according to the publisher’s webpage. “Through an applied pedagogical approach that connects analytical concepts from public policy and education research to professional practice, the book offers academic content and applications for elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education leaders.” The book’s lessons are “grounded in pillars of policy studies.”
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‘Getting out of South Carolina’s Juvenile Justice System’
Incarcerated juveniles in South Carolina often “receive fewer hours of education than they were getting prior to incarceration, if any. Getting out of South Carolina’s Juvenile Justice System highlights the importance of prevention and community programming, as well as preparation for the return to mainstream society. Through stories from juveniles, parents, judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys, author Kimberly Nolan addresses the issues within the juvenile justice system in South Carolina and offers ideas on how to support young offenders as they navigate both the transition to adulthood and community living.”
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‘Network Coding for Engineers’
According to the publisher’s webpage, “‘Network Coding for Engineers’ introduces the fundamentals of this exciting subject from an engineering perspective. Beginning with the basics, including step-by-step details for implementing network coding and current applications, it also highlights potential uses of network coding in the communications technologies of the future. The result is an innovative and accessible introduction to a subject quickly becoming indispensable.” Find the full list of authors at Wiley.
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‘Practical Business Analytics Using R and Python’
From the publisher: “This book illustrates how data can be useful in solving business problems. It explores various analytics techniques for using data to discover hidden patterns and relationships, predict future outcomes, optimize efficiency and improve the performance of organizations. You’ll learn how to analyze data by applying concepts of statistics, probability theory, and linear algebra. In this new edition, both R and Python are used to demonstrate these analyses. Practical Business Analytics Using R and Python also features new chapters covering databases, SQL, Neural networks, Text Analytics, and Natural Language Processing.”
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Collection chronicles 12 years of ‘Columns That Cut’
Joseph M. Giglio, executive professor of international business and strategy in the D’Amore-McKim School of Business, has published “Columns that Cut: Reflections and Arguments,” which collects 12 years of newspaper columns, covering topics like “major domestic issues, the 2008 financial crisis, trade and globalization, transportation infrastructure, public-private partnerships” and more, according to the book’s description. While each column comes from a particular time and place, the book also serves as “a practical guide for navigating the unpredictable waters of the public and private sectors.”
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Helping managers help you by ‘Creating an Environment for Successful Projects’
“Creating an Environment for Successful Projects,” by Randall Englund, lecturer in Northeastern University’s College of Professional Studies, and Robert J. Graham, aims to make organizations as “project-friendly” as possible. Now in its third edition, “For over twenty years,” according to the publisher’s webpage, this volume “has been a staple for upper managers who want to help projects succeed.” In some ways helping upper managers get out of the way of their own organization, this book helps managers empower their teams “and shows how to develop project management as an organizational practice.”
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An ‘intellectual mixtape’ on hip-hop: ‘That’s the Joint!’
Murray Forman, professor in the College of Arts, Media and Design, has co-edited the third edition of “That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader,” which originally released in 2004. “This intellectual mixtape,” according to the publisher’s webpage, brings together 46 readings across a variety of key topics, including “the history of hip-hop, authenticity debates, gender, the globalization of hip-hop,” and much more. The editors have also included critical introductions to place each piece in context. Forman co-edited the volume with Mark Anthony Neal and Regina N. Bradley.
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Excelling in law school exams may be exercise in ‘Getting to Maybe’
Originally published in 1999, professor of law Jeremy R. Paul’s “Getting to Maybe: How To Excel on Law School Exams” — co-written with Richard Michael Fischl — has been released in a second edition. “What sets it apart from its competitors is its frank recognition that law exams test legal reasoning,” according to the publisher’s copy, “and that legal reasoning cannot be reduced to any simple ‘check the boxes’ template.” Rather than relying on binary right-or-wrong answers, “Getting to Maybe” prepares students to argue their points, “mobilizing persuasive arguments on multiple sides of legal problems.”
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In ever-more digitalized world, we all need a ‘Handbook of Social Computing’
This new handbook, co-edited by Francesca Grippa in Northeastern’s College of Professional Studies, responds “to the increasingly blurred boundaries between humans and technology,” according to the publisher’s webpage. Geared toward practitioners across disciplines, from computer scientists and social network analysts to sociologists, this volume “illustrates the diverse ways in which digital technologies can be used to analyze social behavior, recognize individual and group interaction patterns and improve daily life.”
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The hardest part of your job may be the people you work with (including you)
Odds are that your job is most challenging when working with others — Loredana Padurean, associate teaching professor at Northeastern University, has written “The Job Is Easy, the People Are Not: 10 Smart Skills To Become Better People,” which collects 10 interviews “with professional managers and academic leaders” and 10 skills that Padurean believes could replace “soft” skills. This book provides “practical suggestions about how to develop your own smart skills,” according to the book’s webpage, and might help some readers “realize that you are also one of the people that makes the job harder than it should be!”
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Increasing participation with ‘Conversational Design’
Michael Arnold Mages, assistant professor of art and design in the College of Arts, Media and Design, has published “Conversational Design: Improving Participation and Decision-Making in Public Organizations.” This new book helps public-facing organizations retain participation rates among their stakeholders and promises to “improve co-design and informed decision-making practices” by offering “practical tools and case studies to stimulate participation and foster better conversations.” Aimed at “both practitioners and scholars of design,” “Conversational Design” seeks to bridge the gap between policymakers, designers and “citizen voices.”
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Understanding a tragedy: Miller reviews ‘A Day in the Life of Abed Salama’
Professor of law and international affairs Zinaida Miller reviews Nathan Thrall’s “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy,” for Just Security. The book analyzes the origins of a tragic school bus accident in 2012 — “the accident could be labeled accidental in only a literal and immediate sense: no one intended, planned, or desired it,” Miller writes. “And yet, the conditions that made a rainy day deadly were far from accidental.” “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama” examines the various structural forces that at play that contributed to such an accident.
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Discovering the ‘Fundamentals of IoT Communication Technologies’
Rolando Herrero, program director of telecommunication networks and cyber-physical systems at Northeastern University, “presents a comprehensive resource of the Internet of Things and its networking and protocols, intended for classroom use,” according to the publisher’s webpage. The textbook, titled “Fundamentals of IoT Communication Technologies,” is based on a “popular class” that Herrero teaches, and the book includes examples, slides and “a ‘hands-on’ section where the topics discussed as theoretical content are built as stacks in the context of an IoT network emulator.”
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How the placebo effect masks cognitive training gains
In this book chapter, titled “Expectations and Placebo Effects in the Context of Cognitive Training,” professors of psychology Susanne Jaeggi and Aaron Seitz, with co-authors Jocelyn Parong and C. Shawn Green, discuss the difficulties of quantifying the improvements brought on by cognitive training, as “the curse of specificity” means one form of cognitive training will often not create improvement in other areas. “The very nature of cognitive training interventions,” they write, “makes placebo effects a possible concern.”
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Teaching ophthalmology virtually: Two solutions
Tony Succar, lecturer in the College of Professional Studies, has co-authored a book chapter titled, “Digital Teaching and Learning: The Future of Ophthalmology Education,” which “highlights two digital teaching programs developed by” Succar’s working group, “implemented to act as a countermeasure to the restrictions placed in response to the pandemic,” the authors write. These programs “have proven that face-to-face learning is not required for all aspects of the ophthalmology medical student teaching,” and will continue to be employed post-pandemic. Find the chapter and full list of authors at “Digital Teaching, Learning and Assessment: The Way Forward,” or on Science Direct.
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How Nackey Scripps Loeb became the Republican Party’s ‘Political Godmother’
Associate professor Meg Heckman’s book, “Political Godmother: Nackey Scripps Loeb and the Newspaper That Shook the Republican Party” tells the story of “Newspaper publisher and GOP kingmaker Nackey Scripps Loeb,” according to the publisher’s webpage. Heckman’s examination “reveals Loeb as a force of nature, more than willing to wield her tremendous clout and able to convince the likes of Pat Buchanan to challenge a sitting president.”
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Serrador edits essays collecting latest research in ‘Mastering Project Leadership’
Pedro Serrador, a lecturer in the College of Professional Studies at Northeastern University, has edited “a collection of essays from key researchers in the field of project management who describe what they feel are the most impactful findings from research,” according to the publisher’s webpage. “Mastering Project Leadership: Insights from the Research” collects experts on topics as wide ranging as local stakeholder interactions with project managers to error, bias and how to leverage deadlines effectively.
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A decision-making guide to ‘Sustainability in Business’
“Sustainability in Business,” written by associate teaching professor of finance and director of the Business Sustainability Initiative David H. Myers, “provides an approach to sustainable decision-making rooted in financial and economic literature,” according to the publisher’s webpage. The text supplies a framework for sustainable practices that businesses can adopt while expanding their market reach, innovation and leverage, all while attending to “the different definitions of sustainability and the role those differences” play in business operations.
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For a volatile world, a practical guide to ‘Business Resilience’
As the complexity and volatility of the world increase, associate professor in project management Serhiy Kovela — writing with Islam Choudhury, David Roberts, Sheila Roberts and Jawwad Tanvir — has produced “Business Resilience,” which the publisher’s webpage calls “a practical guide to making organizations more resilient and improving current practices by building on what the organization does well.” The authors provide “new models for resilience and progress,” which focus on building a foundation of resilience into a company while still prioritizing progress.
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How Buddhist architecture has fostered ‘a comprehensive culture that sustains life’
Co-edited by associate professor of architecture Shuishan Yu, with Aibin Yan of East China University, “Buddhist Architecture in East Asia” examines how Buddhism “transformed not only the intellectual and practical lives but also the built environments of East Asia” over two millennia. The editors attempt “to restore a more balanced picture of Buddhist practice and the built environment by incorporating buildings and planning from the overlooked regions and aspects of Buddhism.” The volume prioritizes “in-depth discussions of examples from regions and cultures of religious hybridity [that] … foster a comprehensive culture that sustains life and identity of a place.”
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Exploring the history of woodworking through gender
Deirdre Visser, adjunct professor and visiting curator at Mills College at Northeastern, has published “Joinery, Joists and Gender: A History of Woodworking for the 21st Century.” The publisher’s webpage describes the book as “the first publication of its kind to survey the long and rich histories of women and gender non-conforming persons who work in wood.” After providing a history of women’s contributions — practical and philosophical — to woodworking in Europe and the U.S., the volume continues with “sixteen in-depth profiles of contemporary woodworkers, all of whom identify fine woodworking as their principal vocation.”