Oak Ridge Today

ORNL: Car, building are 3D-printed, can power each other

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ORNL 3D-Printed House and Vehicle on Sept. 24, 2015

A 3D-printed vehicle and building that were part of a nine-month research demonstration project were unveiled on Industry Day at ORNL on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2015. The natural gas-powered car and solar-powered building can provide electricity to each other. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

A car and house built using large-scale 3D printers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory can provide power to each other, and they’re part of a project designed to answer “what if” questions that could lead to innovations in building and car construction and energy use, storage, and consumption, researchers and officials said Wednesday.

The 210-square-foot house—it’s a solar-powered building—and the printed utility vehicle—officials affectionately call it a PUV—were printed at ORNL’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility on Hardin Valley Road.

They were unveiled at ORNL on Wednesday during the lab’s first-ever Industry Day. The building and PUV are part of a project called the Additive Manufacturing Integrated Energy, or AMIE, demonstration.

Additive manufacturing is the process used to build something one layer at a time. One of the most well-known examples is the Shelby Cobra car 3-D printed on a large-scale polymer printer at the MDF. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden admired that vehicle—and joked about taking it for a spin—during a trip to East Tennessee in January. [Read more…]

Scholarship Saturday at Roane State campuses in Roane, Oak Ridge

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Tennessee Promise Logo

High school seniors can sign up for the Tennessee Promise and fill out their college application as part of Scholarship Saturday on September 26 at Roane State Community College’s Oak Ridge campus and at the college’s Roane County campus in Harriman.

Each event will last from 9 a.m.-noon, and refreshments will be served.

Students who attend the event at the Oak Ridge campus at 701 Briarcliff Avenue will meet in Room 118 in the Goff Health Sciences and Technology Building. Students are asked to reserve a spot by contacting Jim McDaniel at (865) 354-3000, ext. 2362, or mcdanieljc@roanestate.edu. [Read more…]

Roane State Workforce Development offering photo editing, video production courses

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RSCC Coffey McNally Building Oak Ridge

The Coffey/McNally Building is pictured at the Oak Ridge campus of Roane State Community College. (Photo by Roane State)

 

Roane State Community College Workforce Development is offering photo editing courses, a video production class, and a Web design course in September and October in the Apple Lab at the college’s Oak Ridge campus at 701 Briarcliff Avenue.

To sign up, call (865) 481-2031, email parkers@roanestate.edu, or visit roanestate.edu/workforce. [Read more…]

UT Arboretum Society presents Moonlight Hike on Sept. 26

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University of Tennessee Arboretum Society Logo

The University of Tennessee Arboretum Society is offering a Moonlight Hike on Saturday, September 26. The hike is scheduled from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the UT Arboretum at 901 South Illinois Avenue in Oak Ridge.

“Join us as we walk Arboretum trails by the light of the silvery moon,” a press release said.

The hike will begin at the Visitors Center near the parking lot at 7:30 p.m. The 1.5-mile hike will be led by experienced volunteers.

The full moon is Sunday, September 27. The walk was scheduled a day early so that older schoolchildren could participate on a non-school night. [Read more…]

CNS, Auburn agree to collaborate in areas ranging from computing to tool development

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John Mason of Auburn and Mike Beck of CNS

John Mason, left, Auburn University vice president of research and economic development, and CNS vice president for mission engineering Mike Beck sign a memorandum of understanding that will allow the two entities to collaborate on projects. (Photo submitted by Auburn)

 

Consolidated Nuclear Security, which operates the Y-12 National Security Complex, recently signed an agreement with Auburn University with the goal of creating collaborations in areas ranging from computing to advanced machine tool development, a press release said.

The partnership between the university and CNS, which also manages and operates the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, was created to formalize areas of interest, identify potential collaborative, and cooperative efforts, and establish a framework and boundaries for future discussions, the press release said.

“By combining the talents and resources of Auburn and Y-12, we’re creating a pipeline that flows both ways,” said Mike Beck, CNS vice president for mission engineering. “We look forward to working with some of the university’s brightest students as interns and grads to help us meet our important national security mission, and we are hopeful they can use our real-world manufacturing environment to help develop and prove some of their projects.” [Read more…]

Lawler Scholarship helps student with study abroad; applications accepted

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Daniel Colburn at Cliffs of Dover

Daniel Colburn is pictured above at Cliffs of Dover. (Submitted photo)

 

By Jessica Steed

Daniel Colburn absorbed history and archeology as he studied thermodynamics and circuits during a study abroad program in London this summer.

Colburn, a junior at the University of Tennessee, was awarded a $2,000 Dr. Adrian R. Lawler Exchange Student Scholarship in the fall of 2014, which supported his participation in the five-week UT engineering program in London, his first experience abroad. In the Chancellor’s Honors Program, Colburn is majoring in mechanical engineering, with a minor in business and maintainability and reliability.

“We partnered those academic experiences with some real world experiences outside the classroom,” Colburn said of the London study abroad program. [Read more…]

Researcher honored for helping advance Latinas in tech field

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Andrea Rocha

Andrea Rocha

A researcher whose worked is carried out at the University of Tennessee, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Oak Ridge Associated Universities has been named one of the top researchers in her field by Hispanic Engineer and Information Technology magazine.

Postdoctoral fellow Andrea Rocha is a member of a UT research team. She works on Governor’s Chair for Environmental Biotechnology Terry Hazen’s joint UT-ORNL team, and she was chosen as one of 32 women worldwide to be profiled in the magazine’s “Latinas at Tech Giants” edition, a press release said.

“I wasn’t even aware I was being considered,” Rocha said. “I didn’t know anything about it until I received a letter from the Women of Color STEM Conference that contained a congratulations note, press release on the article, and copy of the magazine which contained my profile.”

Almost as noteworthy, Rocha found out that Astrid Terry—a project manager at the Berkeley Lab at the University of California—had nominated her. [Read more…]

CNS research teams named 2015 R&D 100 Award finalists

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LISe Thermal Neutron Imager Sensor Board

The LISe Thermal Neutron Imager sensor board bears the Y‑12 and UT logos. At the center is the lithium crystal that creates the images. The imager is nominated for a 2015 R&D 100 Award. (Photo by Y-12 National Security Complex)

 

CNS partners with universities on significant technology advances

Two teams of Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC researchers at the Y-12 National Security Complex are finalists in the 2015 R&D 100 Awards program.

The LISe Thermal Neutron Imager, or LTNI, and a sensor named ChIMES, which is short for Chemical Identification by Magneto-Elastic Sensing, were selected as finalists by a panel of 70 independent judges. The winners will be announced November 13 at the conference in Las Vegas.

LTNI (pronounced litany) was developed through a collaboration with three Tennessee universities—the University of Tennessee, Fisk University, and Vanderbilt University. The imager builds upon a lithium crystal that won an R&D 100 Award in 2013. Applications for the imager include research, diagnostics/medical imaging, law enforcement, and national security. [Read more…]

Two UT College of Engineering groups finalists for R&D 100 List

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By University of Tennessee

The University of Tennessee College of Engineering recently got some good news, as R&D Magazine named two research groups to its list of finalists for the R&D 100.

The joint UT-Y12 Lithium Indium Diselenide Thermal Neutron Imager (LTNI) project includes Assistant Professor Eric Lukosi and Y-12 Joint Assistant Professor Ashley Stowe, both of nuclear engineering, while the joint UT-Oak Ridge National Laboratory Universal Grid Monitoring and Analyzing System (UGMAS) includes Governor’s Chair Yilu Liu, Research Assistant Professor Yong Liu, and Lingwei Zhan of electrical engineering and computer science.

A panel of judges and editors selected groups for inclusion as nominees based on the magazine’s determination of the most technologically significant products introduced in the past year. [Read more…]

Commerce secretary to tour UT partner IACMI, ORNL manufacturing facility

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Penny Pritzker

Penny Pritzker

KNOXVILLE—On Thursday, August 27, Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker and Department of Energy Assistant Secretary David Danielson will visit the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation in Knoxville.

The visit is part of a two-day tour of the institutes make up the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation. Governor Bill Haslam, U.S. Representative Chuck Fleischmann, Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero, and Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett will join Pritzker for portions of the day’s activities.

The group will tour the U.S. Department of Energy’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility and National Transportation Research Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The University of Tennessee in Knoxville is a key strategic partner of IACMI and led the proposal efforts with ORNL.

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden announced the new institute in January during a visit to East Tennessee. The White House initiative aims to strengthen the global competitiveness of America’s manufacturing sector and the workforce. The NNMI now has six institutes, and three more are being formed. [Read more…]

Students to test skills, vie for scholarships in UT Pro2Serve Math Contest

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Hundreds of Tennessee high school students will put their mathematics skills to the test and vie for scholarships during this year’s UT Pro2Serve Math Contest, hosted by the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

Registration opens Tuesday, August 25, for the 17th annual contest. The daylong event pits students—public, private, and home-schooled—from across the state in both individual and team competitions.

The contest, to be held Tuesday, October 27, at the Holiday Inn World’s Fair Park downtown, will award $6,000 annual scholarships to UT to the top 10 students in the individual competition. The scholarships are funded by UT and Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek. Other prizes also will be given. [Read more…]

Roane State receives $27K grant for outreach, support for adult students

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Roane State Community College Harriman Campus

The main Roane State Community College campus in Harriman. The college also has a branch campus in Oak Ridge.

Roane State Community College has received a $27,310 Tennessee Higher Education Commission Ready to Reconnect grant to support adult students.

The grant will fund communication tools (email newsletter, texting services, and mailings) that will help adult students better understand their degree options and how to navigate the enrollment process. The grant will also pay for training that will teach faculty how to assess whether adults’ work experience could count toward college credit.

“Increasing outreach to adult students and improving the process for awarding adults college credit for their work experience are two key areas that can lead to more adults completing degrees,” said Diane Ward, Roane State vice president for student learning. “With the Ready to Reconnect grant, we can take major steps forward in these areas and better serve adult learners in our communities.” [Read more…]