CHATTANOOGA ENGINEERS CLUB
www.chattanooga.net/engineer/CEC
www.chattanooga.net/engineer/CEC
NEXT MEETING:___________________________________________
Friday, December 13 - 6 p.m.
Clarion Hotel, Downtown
Friday, December 13 - 6 p.m.
Clarion Hotel, Downtown
Event: Christmas Party
Our Engineers Club Christmas Party will be held at the Clarion Hotel in downtown Chattanooga this Friday, December 13, 2002 beginning at 6 p.m. A joyous multitude of members from the Engineers Club and other technical societies will be there for a fun-filled evening of dinner, fellowship and special entertainment by humorist, musician and songwriter, Dalton Roberts. There will also be lots of door prizes.
Our Engineers Club Christmas Party will be held at the Clarion Hotel in downtown Chattanooga this Friday, December 13, 2002 beginning at 6 p.m. A joyous multitude of members from the Engineers Club and other technical societies will be there for a fun-filled evening of dinner, fellowship and special entertainment by humorist, musician and songwriter, Dalton Roberts. There will also be lots of door prizes.
The Clarion Hotel provides parking for $3 for the event in their secure
parking lot in back of the building. Someone will be near the hotel entrance to
show you the way. (The adjacent multi-story Republic Parking building is more
expensive).
If you hate to go home after the party, the Clarion is offering us to spend
the night for a special rate of $69 (plus tax).
If you have any questions about the party, please call or email Tiffany
Gibby 751-3168, tjgibby@tva.gov or Brad
Baucom at 648-3582, baucombe@epb.net. We look forward to
seeing you there.
Our next meeting will be held on Monday January 6, at our usual place, the
Cellar Restaurant (please see "Future Meetings" below)
OUR PREVIOUS MEETING - December
9_________________________________
Our thanks to Judy Driggans for this
presentation summary.
Dr. Michael A. Kuliasha, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), gave an update on technologies being deployed to improve homeland security. If you assume America is successful in the war against terrorism, then how would you define success? Sensors now need more speed, sensitivity, and specificity in identifying explosives, chemicals, biological threats, and nuclear materials. Too many false positive readings have caused some airports to begin checking baggage by hand. The newer and more sensitive scanners cost about three times more, but they are fast and more accurately identify hidden potential problems in baggage. National security will cost a lot, but who will benefit from these advances in technologies and deploying these new advances? America will, says Dr. Kuliasha. As new technologies begin to be used by the FBI and other federal agencies, the equipment being replaced is being refurbished at ORNL and donated to first responders throughout the country. A biochip is being developed to rapidly identify bacteria, viruses, and toxins that may soon make it's way into your doctor's office providing fast and accurate blood test results during your visit. Cell towers located near the population could be used as a "Sensor Net" to detect, identify, and report terrorists threats. This same type of system could be used to improve our environment. The ability to inspect, seal, and track container freight would help to secure commerce. Because the ratio of pixels of information to human pupils has exploded, they are using a web crawler named Mercury to locate databases and a computer program called VIPAR to read and categorize the information. For example, if the information in 30,000 periodicals world-wide needed to be considered, a researcher need not waste time reading articles covering similar material. VIPAR groups them so that the researcher could consider a report from each category. He covered more than could be summarized in a single paragraph including the detection of anything in our water system that could be dangerous through monitoring the fluorescence of algae in the water. Algae dies within 9 seconds if something harmful is introduced into the water. This algae death can be detected almost immediately.
Our thanks to Judy Driggans for this
presentation summary. Dr. Michael A. Kuliasha, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), gave an update on technologies being deployed to improve homeland security. If you assume America is successful in the war against terrorism, then how would you define success? Sensors now need more speed, sensitivity, and specificity in identifying explosives, chemicals, biological threats, and nuclear materials. Too many false positive readings have caused some airports to begin checking baggage by hand. The newer and more sensitive scanners cost about three times more, but they are fast and more accurately identify hidden potential problems in baggage. National security will cost a lot, but who will benefit from these advances in technologies and deploying these new advances? America will, says Dr. Kuliasha. As new technologies begin to be used by the FBI and other federal agencies, the equipment being replaced is being refurbished at ORNL and donated to first responders throughout the country. A biochip is being developed to rapidly identify bacteria, viruses, and toxins that may soon make it's way into your doctor's office providing fast and accurate blood test results during your visit. Cell towers located near the population could be used as a "Sensor Net" to detect, identify, and report terrorists threats. This same type of system could be used to improve our environment. The ability to inspect, seal, and track container freight would help to secure commerce. Because the ratio of pixels of information to human pupils has exploded, they are using a web crawler named Mercury to locate databases and a computer program called VIPAR to read and categorize the information. For example, if the information in 30,000 periodicals world-wide needed to be considered, a researcher need not waste time reading articles covering similar material. VIPAR groups them so that the researcher could consider a report from each category. He covered more than could be summarized in a single paragraph including the detection of anything in our water system that could be dangerous through monitoring the fluorescence of algae in the water. Algae dies within 9 seconds if something harmful is introduced into the water. This algae death can be detected almost immediately.
More information can be found at these sites:
Coverage of the presentation by Chattanoogan editor Christina Siebold: http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_30030.asp
Instruments and Controls for the national security market: http://www2.ic.ornl.gov/security.htm
National Security Commercialization Cluster: http://www.ornl.gov/tted/NationalSecurity.htm
One company's way of measuring the fluorescence of the chlorophyll in algae: http://www.optisci.com/afm.htm
National Security Commercialization Cluster: http://www.ornl.gov/tted/NationalSecurity.htm
One company's way of measuring the fluorescence of the chlorophyll in algae: http://www.optisci.com/afm.htm
Regarding our program of December 2: For your reference, the September
issue of National Geographic includes another excellent review of the global
water issue.
FUTURE MONDAY MEETINGS _____________________________________
Our next meeting is January 6
January 6: NASA's Space Program - What's on the agenda for
2003 and beyond? - Brad Carson, Marshal SFC.
January 13: - Broadcasting Goes Digital and HDTV - Louis
Lee, Channel 12 News
January 27: MetroNet - Chattanooga raises the speed limit
on data communications
February: Nanotechnology - What is it and what are its
potential uses?
WHERE WE MEET _______________________________________________
Unless we note otherwise, all of our presentation meetings are held at the Cellar Restaurant in the Tallan Building, Union Square Downtown Chattanooga from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. Our meeting room and luncheon service are open by 11:30 a.m. Lunch buffet is $10.00 per person (inclusive). No reservation is required. Free parking is available in the Days Inn Motel (on Carter St. and MLK Blvd,) courtesy of the Days Inn management. When you park there, be sure to place a note on your dashboard indicating you are attending the Engineers Club meeting.
QUESTIONS, SUGGESTIONS ?
___________________________________________
If you have any questions or suggestions about program items please call Brad Baucom at 648-3582 or e-mail him at bradbaucom@comcast.net. You can find references to other Chattanooga Engineers Club members at our web site: www.chattanooga.net/engineer/CEC
If you have any questions or suggestions about program items please call Brad Baucom at 648-3582 or e-mail him at bradbaucom@comcast.net. You can find references to other Chattanooga Engineers Club members at our web site: www.chattanooga.net/engineer/CEC