Monthly Archives: October 2012

–November 5, 2012 The speaker for the Technical Society of Knoxville meeting on November 5, 2012 will be Keith G. Stump from the Knoxville, Knox County, KUB Geographic Information System (KGIS). He will speak on “Navigating KGIS Maps”.
–November 12, 2012 Veterans day . The Technical Society will not meet
–November 19, 2012 Jennifer Evans of the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce will speak. Her title will be “Building our future workforce.”
–November 26, 2012 Suzanne Fisher, Senior Project Manager, Tennessee Valley Authority will speak. Her title will be “Ecological Indicators of Acidification.”
More detail on the programs:
–November 5, 2012
The speaker for the Technical Society of Knoxville meeting on November 5, 2012 will be Keith G. Stump from the Knoxville, Knox County, KUB Geographic Information System (KGIS). He will speak on “Navigating KGIS Maps”.
The KGIS organization, now almost 25 years old, is in the midst of another significant upgrade to its technology and interactive mapping website products. This presentation will include an overview of the newly introduced KGIS Maps website, including a demonstration of many of its features.
Keith Stump, GISP, is the Executive Director / Geographic Information Officer (GIO) of the Knoxville, Knox County, Knoxville Utilities Board GIS Office (KGIS), where he has been responsible for coordinating the joint sharing and management of geographic information over the past 13 years.
–November 12, 2012 Veterans day . The Technical Society will not meet
–November 19, 2012 Jennifer Evans of the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce will speak. Her title will be “Building our future workforce.”
She will speak about what our

region needs in terms of an educated workforce, what our pipeline looks like, and what volunteers can do to help.
Jennifer spent

her undergraduate studies at Vanderbilt University and Cambridge University. She worked in Washington D.C. and Hong Kong before returning to Tennessee to attend law school.
Jennifer received her JD from the University of Tennessee and her law license in 2007. At that time, Jennifer was hired by the Knoxville Chamber to develop and implement a workforce development strategy for the greater Knoxville region. She is currently Vice President of Public Policy & Education at the Knoxville Chamber.
Jennifer works with business and industry, local workforce agencies, multiple K-12 education systems, the post-secondary community and state and local elected officials. She understands exactly how critical workforce development is to all of our futures. Jennifer shares

this message daily and continues to find ways to partner in the effort to reform how we are preparing our workforce.
–November 26, 2012 Suzanne Fisher, Senior Project Manager, Tennessee Valley Authority will speak. Her title will be “Ecological Indicators of Acidification.”
This presentation will focus on the development of ecosystem models used to predict potential damage to sensitive ecological indicators. The critical loads concept is defined as the amount of acidic deposition an ecosystem can receive before harmful effects occur. We will explore the

data, methodology and environmental influences used in developing these ecosystem models.
Suzanne started her career at TVA in 1999, working on forest health monitoring projects trying to understand impacts of acid rain to sensitive resources. Most recently she served as project manager in Technology Innovation’s Environmental Technology, working with the Electric Power Research Institute on innovative water quality solutions (including the first national interstate water quality trading program) and ecosystem modeling for land management decisions.

October 1, 2012 Sidney B. Garland II, PE, BCEE and Lynn Sims, Restoration Services, Inc., will be the speakers for the Technical Society of Knoxville meeting on October 1, 2012 . The title of their presentation will be “Watershed Management as a Basis for Environmental Restoration” (PDH)

In Oak Ridge, Tennessee the Department of Energy and its predecessor agencies have had a mission over the past fifty years of uranium enrichment, weapons production, and energy research. As a result of this mission a legacy of hundreds of contaminated sites remains on the Oak Ridge Reservation.

The remediation strategy for these sites is based on watershed management.

October 8, 2012 Columbus Day. The Technical Society will not meet.

October 15, 2012 Isaac A. Jeldes will speak. His title will be “The Mechanical Stability of Concave Slopes”.(PDH)

He is a Civil engineer whose passion is geotechnical engineering. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate at The University of Tennessee at Knoxville. His Research has been primarily focused on slope stability studies on mine spoil materials by the geo-mechanical characterization of soils with a wide range of particle sizes and through the evaluation and development of techniques for simple and effective analysis of mine reclaimed slope stability. Research areas of interest are: Numerical modeling (FEM, DEM), Soil Dynamics, Foundation and Retaining walls, Soil Exploration.

He previously was a Geotechnical Consultant at R&V Ingenieros Asociados Ltda
and did a Professional Internship at Avellaneda Construction Ltda.
He graduated from the University of Santiago of Chile.

October 22, 2012 The speaker for the Technical Society of Knoxville will be Dr. Bruce A. Tschantz, P.E. Professor Emeritus – Civil and Environmental Engineering UTK.
The title for his talk is “How Fast Can You Swim?- The Lowdown on Low Head Dams” (PDH)

Bruce has approximately 40 years as Engineering Consultant and Expert Witness to several local, regional, and national engineering firms, industries, city/state/federal agencies, citizens groups, private individuals, and attorneys in the areas of: urban drainage; flooding; rehabilitation, design and failure of dams; hydraulic and hydrologic engineering; sediment transport; land erosion; basement and crawl space water problems; and drowning deaths at low-head dams, culverts, etc.
Of particular relevance to the topic he spent three years as Dam Safety Consultant and Advisor to Executive Office of the President, Office of Science and Technology Policy, Washington, D. C. and one year as Chief of Federal Dam Safety Program (on leave from university), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA.), Washington, D. C.

Bruce thinks the topic will be interesting to people who like water sports – particularly kayaking- and he suggests that anyone with such interests should be invited to attend.

October 29, 2012

The speaker for the Technical Society of Knoxville meeting on October 29, 2012 will be Don Barger – Regional Director – Southeast Regional Office of the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA). He will speak about the National Park system responsibilities in Tennessee.

Before joining NPCA, Don worked as a community organizer for Save Our Cumberland Mountains and directed the Citizens Mining Project for the Environmental Policy Institute/Friends of the Earth. He holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Tennessee.

Don Barger founded NPCA’s Southeast Regional Office in 1992. His work in the region since that time has resulted in a groundswell of public attention to the issue of air pollution at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Don shepherded a joint petition by NPCA and the City of Middlesboro, KY that resulted in protection of the Fern Lake watershed adjacent to Cumberland Gap NHP. In another watershed nearby, Don was instrumental in stopping a proposal for a water supply dam upstream of the Obed Wild and Scenic River, forcing local utility districts into regional planning, and creating an ongoing Eastern Steams program that has set important precedents at the Buffalo National River and elsewhere.

Don was recognized by the National Park Service for his role in assuring the renovation of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta. In addition,

he was commended on the Congressional Record by Senator Max Cleland (D-GA) for his efforts to preserve two-thirds of the remaining private land to the Cumberland Island National Seashore.