Chattanooga Engineers Club

P.O. Box 4031

Chattanooga, TN 37405

www.ChattanoogaEngineersClub.org

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Next Meeting - April 23 - "Using Students to Design Improved Assistive Technology" - Cecelia M. Wigal, Ph.D., P.E., UC Foundation Associate Professor, NSF Scholars Program Director, College of Engineering and Computer Science, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

The Tennessee Department of Education has provided independent Grant support to both the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) and Tennessee Technological University (TTU) to design, prototype, test, evaluate and disseminate products, procedures, and services that apply adaptive and assistive technologies to children with special needs and their families and service providers. A major emphasis of the UTC Technology Designed to Benefit (TDB) program is the completion of 8 to 10 small projects a year by freshman students. They create special stands for communication devices and structures for improving switch use. The outcome is freshman students who experience the design process, aid someone’s ability to be independent, and learn how engineering can benefit our society.

Lunch will be available for $11 beginning at 11:30 am, and will be from the outstanding Cellar Buffet. Location: Tallan Cellar Restaurant, 200 West ML King Blvd, Chattanooga, TN 37402.

Note: Parking is no longer available at the Days Inn Hotel due to extensive on-going renovations at the Inn. Use on street meters or park in the rear of the Tallan Building or in one of the commercial lots nearby.

Professional Development units (PDUs) are available for most technical programs at CEC meetings.

FUTURE MEETINGS

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April 30 - Field trip to the UT SimCenter for a tour of the facility and a presentation from Dr. Henry McDonald on the research capabilities and activities of the SimCenter which houses one of the fastest parallel computing systems in the Southeast.

May 14, Michael J. Landguth, A.A.E., President and CEO, Chattanooga Metropolian Airport Authority, will speak on airport growth and it's impact on the community.

PREVIOUS WEEK PROGRAM

April 16 - The UTC Moon Buggy Team presented a description of their entry in the NASA Moonbuggy Competition, and the Moonbuggy was demonstrated in Miller Park. This UTC senior mechanical engineering capstone project was undertaken by a relatively small team comprised of seniors John Barker, John Beverly, Cory Richardson, Tommy Gray, Curtis McCullough and junior Netty Halcomb under the direction of Dr. Ron Goulet. The team spent about 800 hours refining the design and placed well in the competition in Huntsville, despite the rain and a broken wheel. The link below will lead you to a website which provides photographic progress of the poject and the competition.

home.bellsouth.net/p/s/community.dll?ep=16&groupid=345382&ck

Also note the link to the Steel Bridge project. Within a few days there will be a site to view the progress of the Minibaja project. (Some browsers may require copy and paste in the address bar.)

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ITEMS OF INTEREST

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CEC Executive Officers and Committee Chair Meeting Thursday, April 19, 6:30pm at Big River Grille.

Kirk Neubauer of Worley Parsons is establishing a study group for the Electrical Engineering PE Exam in April 2007. The group will meet to go over problems and refresh concepts in EE. To join the group contact Kirk Neubauer, Electrical Engineer, E.I.T., Worley Parsons, Phone: (423) 757-8036 (x.136) Email: kirk.neubauer@worleyparsons.com

Chattanooga engineering societies are discussing a possible joint dinner reception June 15 to meet Rear Admiral Raymond K. Alexander, Civil Engineer Corps, Deputy Chief of Civil Engineers and Deputy Commander for Contingency Engineering. More info will follow soon.

Fire Eye Productions, Inc. has made available many video recordings of events in our community by creating the Local Webcast Network. Several Chattanooga Engineers Club programs are included; you may be on there too! Go to www.localwebcastnetwork.com, click the free registration, enter your name, email address, and password, and then activate using the confirmation email. We are inviting them to return soon, so more Chattanoogans can see our great programs.

Speaking Opportunities! Volunteers needed to address speaker requests from elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, and youth groups to visit classrooms, assemblies, and group meetings. High school student groups may schedule tours of CSTCC to visit mechanical, electrical, civil, chemical technology classes and other locations of the campus. Contact Jackie Rutledge at (423)697-2698 or lulu.copeland@chattanoogastate.edu.

QUESTIONS, SUGGESTIONS? If you have any questions or suggestions about program items please contact Ron Bailey at 423-425-5536 or by email at Ronald-Bailey@utc.edu. You can find membership application forms, references to future programs, historical data, and other info at www.ChattanoogaEngineersClub.org. To receive future meeting announcements by email, join the Cha. Technology Organization mailing list at mail.chattanooga.net/mailman/listinfo/chatech.