April 1, 2013
The speaker will be Travis Griffin, Program Director University of Tennessee College of Engineering Diversity Programs. The title of his presentation will be “High School Introduction to Engineering Systems (HITES)”
Griffin received his bachelor’s degree in software engineering from Mississippi State University in 2004 and his master’s degree in higher education from USM in 2005.
Griffin is an active member, leader and advisor within the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) and National Association of Multicultural Engineering Program Advocates and has received numerous recognitions and honors including the NSBE Alumni Extension (AE) National Leadership 2006 award and the Region 3 NSBE AE Dedication 2006 award.
For more than three decades, over 900 minority students have graduated from the UT Knoxville College of Engineering, due in large part to the diversity programs’ efforts in recruiting, retaining and graduating African-American, Hispanic and Native American engineering students. Since 1978, UT Knoxville has consistently ranked among the top 50 universities and colleges in the nation for graduation rates of African-American engineering students.
April 8, 2013
Lee McGetrick, Director, Carbon Fiber Technology Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, will be the speaker. The presentation title will be “Overview ORNL’s Carbon Fiber R&D and the Carbon Fiber Technology Facility”
Lee McGetrick is director of the new $35 million Carbon Fiber Technology Facility in the Horizon Center Business Park in Oak Ridge. The facility is a pilot project to develop ways of making carbon fiber inexpensively using research from Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Carbon
fiber has many potential uses but it now costs $100 or more to make a pound of carbon fiber. The long-term goal is to trim production costs of carbon fiber to $10 or less a pound.
April 15
Josh Francois, Outreach Director with TN-SCORE will speak on “TN Score Program”
Tennessee Solar Conversion and Storage using Outreach, Research
and Education (TN-SCORE) is Tennessee’s first NSF RII Track 1 Research Infrastructure award. It will provide a unique opportunity to develop the platform for enhanced research capacity and greater competitiveness within all Tennessee’s diverse academic institutions.
April 22
Dr. David Irick, University of Tennessee Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering “EcoCar 2 Competition”
David Irick is an expert on alternative fuel vehicles, hybrid vehicles, engines and emissions. He has led UT student teams in national alt-fuel vehicle contests.
April 29
The speaker for the Technical Society of Knoxville meeting on April 29, 2013 makes a living on rainwater. Denis A. Rochat, President, Rainwater Resources | Perfect Water, will speak on the topic ” Rainwater Harvesting Technology and Applications” (PDH).
Denis Rochat, President/CEO Rainwater Resources™, entered the water treatment business in 1983. In 1988 he opted to move his business to Knoxville where he
had grown up. He has owned and operated Perfect Water™, a water treatment business in Knoxville since 1997. In 2010 he became interested in the process of harvesting rainwater. Today Denis employs 13 men and women and his businesses have clients throughout East Tennessee.
Denis is a Certified Water Specialist V with extended studies in reverse osmosis, ozone, de-ionization, microbiological and ultra-filtration.
Rain falls on the just and the unjust. Rainwater generally contains few minerals and this low mineral content makes rainwater ideal for collection ….., according to “Rainwater Harvesting Policies,” a 2008 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency handbook,