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The Chattanooga Engineers Club had been organizing and sponsoring teams of middle school students for several years to compete in the annual First Lego League competitions. Ed Chapin has taken an active roll in encouraging local students in math and science. Ed says these competitions give students a place to put what they are learning in school to work in a fun and competitive way. They do some research, use math and science skills, and they gain experience working and presenting as a team. Ed will bring some parts the students use to develop their team’s robotic design and he will tell us how we can become more involved in our local schools with these teams.

The 2005 Challenge Ocean Odyssey is this year's project. They will choose an ocean activity they do or resource they use and trace its impact on our oceans’ health, biodiversity, and productivity. Details about the project this year can be found at http://www.firstlegoleague.org/

The teams are forming and registering. They typically meet 3 to 6 hours per week. Interested in encouraging them in some way? Ed will suggest a few ways we as sponsors can become more visible to create more local excitement and interest in the success of these students.

Invocation: Jim Couch

Menu: A buffet lunch for $11 will be available for attendees beginning at 11:30 a.m. Lunch will include a salad, pork roast with apples, green beans, corn, a roll, and banana pudding. Reservations are not required, and guests are welcome. For more information, call Judy Driggans at 751-7616 or Brad Baucom at 751-4696.

Parking: Free parking (for those who leave a notice on their dash indicating they are with the Chattanooga Engineers Club) is available for attendees at the Days Inn on Carter Street. There is also a parking garage behind the Tallan Building.

Previous meetings___________________________________________

FRIDAY, September 9, 2005: “Network Sniffing for Fun and Profit - Tools and Examples” Mike Harrison, GeekLabs

Mike Harrison demonstrated several network sniffing programs as some of us surfed the Internet on his wireless network. He told us which tools are better for diagnosing networking problems, finding infected computers, debugging client/server problems, and detecting (and hopefully fixing) security issues.

This was a joint meeting of the Chattanooga Engineers Club and the Chattanooga Chapter of the IEEE Computer Society with 42 members and guests in attendance.
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Monday, Sept. 12, 2005: "Today's New Technology in the Trucking Industry, Marty Fletcher, U.S. Xpress, Inc.

Marty Fletcher told us that U.S.Xpress have the latest safety and fuel efficient features . In an effort to comply with EPA regulations they have been required to burn more low sulfur diesel fuel. By January 2007, their trucks will include particulate filters. By 2010, the requirements to reduce NOx emissions are so stringent that the truck exhaust will need to be cleaner than the intake of ambient air in some of the areas where they drive. Fuel efficiency is important to U.S.Xpress. An increase in fuel efficiency of 1/10 mile per gallon is now worth almost $3 million per year.

Marty passed around the electronic parts he described and one of them was a roll stability module. He described a test of a similar device on a tractor trailer rig on a frozen lake in Alaska. He could barely stand on the lake, because it was so slippery. The safety system they tested brought the moving truck to a complete stop without jack knifing on the ice. The other features he described and showed us were audible warnings when the following distance isn’t safe, a camera that shows the driver at least four lanes on his right side, and cruise control that automatically adjusts to the speed of the vehicle ahead. After the meeting we saw the inside of a new U.S.Xpress truck. They have no clutch, only gas and brake pedals. The transmission is still manual, but the gear shifting is automatically controlled to improve fuel efficiency. Hopefully, some day they can depend on cameras more and remove the side mirrors from trucks to save 3 percent fuel.

FUTURE MEETINGS ________________________________________________________
(noon in the Tallan Cellar Restaurant at 2 Union Square, unless another location is indicated)

Monday, September 26: “21st Century Nuclear Power Plant” Dan Ingersoll, ORNL

Monday, October 3:

Monday, October 10, 11:00 am - noon, "Digitizing IPIX Photography for Security Systems" Vistascape Security Systems
Joint Meeting with the Chattanooga Chapter of the IEEE Computer Society
Location: UTC University Center, Chickamauga Room, Lunch will be Pizza for $5

Monday, October 17: "Too Much Data and Not Enough Information" Paul Wolff, WolffWare, Ltd., Norris, TN

Monday, October 24:

Monday, October 31: "Total Production Maintenance" Jack Mooney, ArvinMeritor, Site Manager in Loudon, TN

QUESTIONS, SUGGESTIONS? _________________________________________________

If you have any questions or suggestions about program items please contact Judy Driggans at 423-751-7616 or by email at jdriggans@comcast.net. You can find references to other Chattanooga Engineers Club members at our web site: www.ChattanoogaEngineersClub.org.