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Past Meetings & AcknowledgmentsJuly 2009 Meetings: "State of North Carolina Energy Initiatives-Ensuring a Sustainable Energy Future" Reid Conway Program Manager, State Energy Office-Western Region, NC Department of Administration conducted a Power Point presentation for approximately 50 attendees. He described specific ways to increase utilization, conservation, and production of energy yet reduce the impact on the environment. Initiatives included: Mr. Conway used photographs and personal observations to describe how these initiatives may impact statewide energy utilization and individual homeowners, businesses, and institutions as well. The section wishes to thank Reid Conway for an informative presentation. June 2009 Meetings: "Smart Grid" - What is all the buzz about? Amanda Sahlstrom and Biren Patel, design engineers for the Transmission and Distribution division of Burns & McDonnell gave a very informative presentation about the "Smart Grid". It is hard to get very far without hearing people talk about smart grid or green energy or carbon footprints. The pressure for utilities to adopt smart grid technologies and reduce carbon emissions is growing by the day, but what exactly is a smart grid? The smart grid is the convergence of information and operational technology applied to the electric grid, allowing sustainable options to customers and improved security, reliability, and efficiency to utilities. The smart grid will bring a plethora of benefits to customers, utilities, and the environment. Customers will see lower relative electricity costs, and the ability to control appliances dynamically and while away from the home. A benefit to customers and utilities alike is increased reliability; by taking preventative action, utilities can isolate faulty equipment before it becomes a catastrophic problem and can reconfigure the grid to avoid potential overload situations. Because demand can be controlled, fewer new generating units will need to be constructed or utilized, leading to fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Control of demand and grid configuration will allow more green energy, distributed throughout the grid, to be connected to the grid and used as efficiently as possible.Electric grids are becoming smarter by the day as new technologies are being implemented all across the country. Before all the benefits of the smart grid can be realized, more smart devices will need to be rolled out both on the customer side and the utility side. The advantages of a smart grid for customers, utilities, and the environment are numerous and are beginning to be seen-even without a fully implemented version of the smart grid. For more info see www.burnsmcd.com/smartgrid The section would like to thank Amanda and Biren for the presentation and also the firm of Burns & McDonnell's for their support. May 2009 Meetings: UNCA Senior Final Project Presentations DISCOVERING NANOTECHNOLOGY April 2009 Meetings: "Smoke and Mirrors: Is Geoengineering a Solution to Global Warming?
" by Alan Robock, Ph.D. Rutgers University's "Electronics in Today's Railroads" Brian Sykes, Chief Engineer for the Communications and Signaling (C&S) division of Norfolk Southern Railroad gave a very interesting presentation about the use of electronic applications in railroads today. Norfolk Southern is leading the way to modernize railroads and they are already a very "green" transportation method for heavy freight. Mr. Sykes discussed advances in communications, tracking, and government mandates for positive trail control in the near future. Brian showed us that trains are an important component of our transportation infrastructure by helping to reducing the number of trucks on the highways. WCU Senior Project Final Presentations The projects are: The quality presentation were informative and interesting. March 2009 Meeting: "Egypt’s Toshka Project creates a New Valley for the River Nile". Dr Wafeek S. Wahby presented a very interesting overview of the massive Toshka Project currently underway in southern Egypt to connect Nasser's Lake to a natural depression, located westward in Toshka, with a 300 km (185 miles) concrete open channel, then eventually direct the lake's surplus water up North towards the Mediterranean Sea. Nasser's Lake is the world's third largest lake, and the largest man-made freshwater lake in the world, located upstream of Aswan High Dam in Egypt. The Toshka depression is located southwest of Aswan near the Egyptian-Sudanese borders. February 2009 Meeting: Joint Society Engineers Week Banquet: ENGINEERING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE The program included three interesting presentations: Michael Shore, MCE, MS, PE with FLS Energy Brian L. Cook, CHMM, LCDR, USPHS with the National Park Service Keynote Speaker:Jerry A. Cannon, PE with TranSystems We would like to thank these speakers for a very interesting evening. Also thank FLS Energy for sponsoring the Engineers Week Banquet and Jesse Jacobson for organizing the event. UNCA Preliminary Design "TRACKING SOLAR STEAM GENERATOR" This was the second design review for the UNCA Mechatronics students senior project. The project has been changed to a solar powered steam generator. The previous two teams have been merged into one. The project scope is to build a solar powered steam generator that will drive a small turbine connected to an electrical generator supplied by the school. The steam generator must fit inside a three foot cube. Students presented on the heliostat, boiler, controls and structure. Their design is to use two parabolic mirrors to focus sunlight. The mirrors will rotate on a single axis to track the sunlight. The presentation was interesting and we look forward to the final presentation and demonstration of the project April. January 2009 Meeting: "DTV Transmission and TV Station Tour" Doug Durkee, Director of Broadcast Operations of WYFF in Greenville, gave a very interesting presentation about WYFF's transition to digital broadcasting. Many people don't realize, but they have been broadcasting a digital signal since 2002. Doug's presentation included lots of technical information about the transmitter accompanied by plenty of pictures of the transmitter site. The talk and Q & A session was followed by a tour of the station including the control rooms and studio. In the news studio we met chief meteorologist John Cessarich who generously spent time showing us the weather displays, radar, and regaling us with stories of how he became interested in the weather and about chasing storms. The section wishes to thank Doug Durkee and John Cessarich for spending an evening with us. December 2008 Meeting: "WCU Senior Project Proposals" Thirteen presentations from individuals to teams of four students. We broke up into two rooms with half of the presentations in each room. Very interesting material. It will be exciting to see how they all turn out in the spring. The presentations were:
November 2008 Meeting: "UNCA Senior Project Proposals" Two teams each presented their proposal for producing 60 Hz. power using photo voltaic cells without using an inverter. It was an interesting presentation. Two of the engineering experts had difference in approach and this resulted in a lively discussion. It will be exciting to see how this turns out. Come back in the spring to see. ECE 301 Linear Systems student presentations on Development of a 1/2 car suspension system." Three student teams presented the suspension system for a 1/2 car model using Simulinkk and MSC 2D to limit the vehicles vertical acceleration and pitch displacement. It was interesting to see the different approaches that the teams used. Everyone got something out of the presentations. October 2008 Meeting: "da Vince Surgical System" Sam Wheeler covered a brief history of robotic surgery and then presented the current system. Mr. Wheeler is responsible for the training of the doctors on how to use the equipment in surgery that they already know how to do. the equipment includes high definition stereo vision system and articulating joints that exceed the human hand's capability. There is also a software program that eliminates shaking from the doctor. It also scales the moves from something that is comfortable for the doctor to the scale of the equipment. Surgery is performed through small holes instead of a major cut, resulting is quicker recovery. September 2008 Meeting: "Sustainable Transportation" Dave Erb's presentation describe different types of hybrid vehicles. He then covered different fuel sources with thought provoking ideas. A good discussion followed. August 2008 Meeting: "BMW Plant tour and visit to the Zentrum Museum" An interesting tour of the BMW manufacturing plant in Greenville, SC. They produce four different models for BMW and anyone of the models can be next in the assembly line. Materials are delivered in order of assembly for each car. Watching the dance of the robots that assemble the frames was fun. The Zentrum Museum has a history of BMW vehicles build over the years. A very nice place to wait for our tour time. August 2008 Meeting: "Asheville Tourist Ball Game" A social evening at the ball park. We watched the Tourist get off to a good start with a run in the first inning, unfortunately Delmarva scored in the fourth and sixth to win 2 to 1. A good time was had by all. AcknowledgmentsWe would like to express our appreciation to the following for there support to our section. These individuals and companies have generously shared their knowledge, expertise and time to provide our members with educational and enjoyable presentations and or tours of their facilities.
Reid Conway - "State of North Carolina Energy Initiatives-Ensuring a Sustainable Energy Future"
Amanda Sahlstrom and Biren Patel - Burns & McDonnell - "Smart Grid" – What is all the buzz about?
Dr. James Ryan - Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering of North Carolina - "DISCOVERING NANOTECHNOLOGY"
Dr, Joe Fahmy - University of North Carolina Asheville - Senior student project presentations
Dr. Robert Adams - Western Carolina University - Senior student project presentations
Brian Sykes - Norfolk Southern Railroad - "Electronics in Today's Railroads"
Alan Robock, Ph.D. - "Smoke and Mirrors: Is Geoengineering a Solution to Global Warming?"
Dr Wafeek S. Wahby - "Egypt’s Toshka Project creates a New Valley for the River Nile" |