Please help - looking for recent info on mass drivers.

If you want more info on current EM launch research, the best place to
start is with papers from the Electromagnetic Launch Technology
Symposia, which are published in the IEEE Transactions on Magnetics.
The most recent is IEEE Trans Mag Vol. 41, No. 1. Your university
probably subscribes to IEEE Xplore, so you can read the papers online.

The problems with gathering information by reading conference papers is
that 1. A lot of work is classified or proprietary and 2. People
usually don't publish negative results. I'm working on a contestants'
guide for the Lifeboat Foundation EM Launch contest (
http://lifeboat.com/ex/grant1 ) that will contain fairly comprehensive
background information, composed of some inside information, but mainly
inferred from following the field for some time. I'm aiming to finish
the guide sometime in January, if you can wait.

-Phil