Chattanooga Engineers Club Newsletter

NEXT MEETING________________________

Monday, March 22 — Noon — “Getting Ready for the Next Generation of Plug-In Vehicles”
Speaker: Ralph Boroughs, TVA Technology Innovations

Mr. Boroughs will discuss TVA programs to prepare for the next wave of plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles. He will outline several projects dealing with charging infrastructure, and show how these fit into TVA’s primary missions around energy, economic development and environmental stewardship.

Mr. Boroughs has a BS in Physics from Furman and an MS in Environmental Engineering from Vanderbilt. He joined TVA in 1974 as an Environmental Engineer. In 1976 he transitioned to an R&D role and has been focused on Electric Transportation issues for about two years.

Monday, March 29 - Field Trip — Westinghouse Electric Company, 401 River Terminal Road — Tour of Welding School & BWR Training Facility

Monday April 5 – Noon – “Energy Storage -Overview, ZnBr Batteries & NRECA Projects”

Speaker: Dale Bradshaw, Senior Program Manager and Consultant to NRECA

Monday April 12 – Noon – “Near Zero Energy Homes - Research at TVA”

Speaker: David Dinse, Project Manager, TVA, Technology Innovations

PREVIOUS MEETING____________________________

“High Speed Rail” - Joe Ferguson, Director of Special Projects, Chattanooga Enterprise Center

Mr. Ferguson described the formation of the Enterprise Center, organized in 2003 by former Mayor Bob Corker to develop new technology projects in the Chattanooga area.

Is there a need for high speed rail in the country? We are the most mobile nation in the world. We have to look out 15-20 years. What are the problems that we will face if we do not incorporate high speed rail? Mr. Ferguson discussed linking the Atlanta and Chattanooga airports to serve 7,000,000 residents. Chattanooga represents a hole in the center of our passenger rail system with no connection to any other city.

Funding for the Chattanooga-Atlanta Maglev system includes $5M, which requires $1.2M matching fund. Additional funding of $21M is available for right of way purchases. A multi-state authority will be set up to manage the project, which will also link Chattanooga with Nashville.

A Transrapid Maglev system was developed by Siemens and ThyssenKrupp in March 2001. Air gap between rail and car is .010”. Speeds up to 310 mph are possible. Maglev rail energy requirements are 1/3 those of car requirements and 1/5 those of airplane requirements.

There are numerous benefits of Maglev transportation: quiet, clean, no moving parts, and low maintenance. Mr. Ferguson showed a film of the very high speed Maglev in Japan that can operate at speeds up to 362 mph. Privately operated trains between Tokyo and Osaka, Japan, operate every 9 minutes. Schedules vary by up to 9 seconds.

CHATTANOOGA ENGINEERS CLUB — CORPORATE SPONSORS______________

We gratefully acknowledge the corporate sponsorships listed below.

2010 — Robbins & Bohr, LLC

2009 — Coca—Cola

2008 — Alstom

2008 — Chattanooga State

EMPLOYMENT SOUGHT

Project engineer seeks career development move to Chattanooga. BS in Mechanical Engineering, MBA. Specialized in: project management, reliability, high speed manufacturing. For more information, please contact Casey T Wilson at CTW84@hotmail or 859-533-0974.

MEETING LOGISTICS_______________________

The Chattanooga Engineer's Club meets at the DOUBLETREE HOTEL, CHATTANOOGA,
407 Chestnut St., Chattanooga, TN 37402. Free parking is available in the gated parking lot on the south side of the Hotel.

For noontime meetings, the gate will be open from 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Plan to arrive at about 11:30 a.m., if you intend to park in the limited space available.

QUESTIONS and SUGGESTIONS______________

If you have any questions, items that would be of interest to the Chattanooga Engineers Club, or suggestions for future programs, please contact Ralph Boroughs by e-mail at rdboroughs@gmail.com or by phone at 423-227-0412. You can find membership application forms, references to future programs, historical data, and other info at: http://www.ChattanoogaEngineersClub.org. To receive future meeting announcements by email, join the Chattanooga Technology Organization mailing list at: http://www.ChattanoogaEngineersClub.org/email.

Looking for details on a local society meeting? Links to local engineering societies are available to you at: http://www.chatc.org/.