Monthly Archives: January 2013

Feb. 4  Melissa Lapsa with  ORNL’s Sustainability Initiative was speaker. Ms. Lapsa leads Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL’s) Sustainable Campus Initiative and is Group Leader of the Whole-Building and Community Integration (WBCI) research group for the Building Technologies Research and Integration Center at ORNL.  Currently, she is the Deputy Director of ORNL’s Building Technologies Research and Integration Center.

Feb. 11 Sam Hart with the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce was speaker.
Sam manages the technology mining and matching program, assists companies with technology issues and technology transfers from the University of Tennessee, ORNL, or Y-12. He is a member of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, National Defense Industrial Association, and National Institute for Metalworking Skills.
Feb. 18 – holiday

Several members of the Technical Society toured the new Min Kao engineering building at the University of Tennessee on February 18.

On Feb. 25 – Peter J. Blau with Journal WEAR was the speaker. The title of his presentation was  “Wear and Friction R&D: Lubricating our Economic Growth”
Wear and friction cost our economy hundreds of billions of dollars a year.  Dr.  Blau describes himself as a tribologist but he seemed to be a nice person. He described several areas where friction and wear or removal of materials from surfaces was important and challenging.

David McGinley from the City of Knoxville Stormwater Engineering Group described the current stormwater requirements for new construction. The emphasis has changed and the new rules consider endangered species and reflect better understanding of the pollution that comes from stormwater. There is a much greater emphasis on infiltration of stormwater.

The speaker for the January 14 meeting was ELIZABETH EASON, AIA, LEED AP BD&C, LEED AP Homes.

The current LEED construction emphasizes early teambuilding with the clients, architects, engineers and contractors interacting early in the

project.

January 21 no meeting

Gary Golden spoke on Monday January 28, 2013. Gary Golden has his own energy consulting practice. He was formerly with EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute) Generation and Nuclear Sectors specializing in Steam Turbines, Generators and Auxiliaries.. He was the Technical Manager of Solar Augmented Steam Cycle Projects for retrofitting existing fossil fuel plants with Thermal Solar technology. His engineering background includes designing and testing power plants all over the world. He teaches courses on steam turbines generators and auxiliaries yearly for ASME.

The use of solar power in conjunction with a gas powered plant is very effective. He described several solar collectors using solar heating to generate power.

On December 3, 2012, Lynne Liddington , Director

of the Department of Air Quality Management was the speaker. Her title was “Air Quality in Knox County-An Update”. Currently Knox County is in attainment with the national air quality standards for particulates and sometimes for lead but we are not in attainment for ozone. We are in attainment in 19 mout of 20 monitoring sites. Lynne is disappointed that all sites are treated

equally even though they are not equal. The national standards are health related. Ozone is bad for the young and the elderly and it comes from hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides.

Lynne expects new national ozone standards of 65 ppm and we have done all the reasonable things available and we will not be able to meet the new standards.

Particulates of 2.5 microns are of particular interest because they are respirable. TVA has done a good job in eliminating particulates but we get a lot of our particulates from midwest power plants that have not cleaned up. If proposed new standards are 12 ppm then Knox County will have difficulty in meeting them, The interstate highway with

trucks is a big air pollution contributor and Knox County has very limited options in controlling trucks. Diesel engines will eventually be replaced by something less polluting.

Lead is a health hazard- particularly for children. The monitors are near the polluting sites. The industry response has sometimes been to buy up more land.

The December 10, 2012 speaker was Norm Nelson who serves as the Supported Employment Coordinator for Emory Valley Center in Oak Ridge. He described the organization and the programs it administers. Primarily they support people who have a mental disability (congenital or from an accident) before they are 18 years old and help them find appropriate productive employment. They are involved in many other programs- their website is emoryvalleycenter.com.
Dr. Richard Briggs (Knox Co. Commission) spoke on December 17, 2012. His topic was “Local Government and Attracting High Tech Businesses to Our Community”.

He explained the need for a locality to have a site ready for a new business or industry. The people looking for a place to locate want something that is ready now. It is important for County Commission to have foresight. He described the problems with a new site that is being held up by a very small number of vocal people. He stayed after the meeting and discussed some medical issues.
• December 24 no meeting
• December 31 no meeting