Note: This story was updated at 3:40 p.m.
U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry will make a major computing announcement in Oak Ridge on Tuesday, the Department of Energy said Friday.
DOE did not provide any additional information about the nature of the announcement in a press release on Friday morning.
Perry will be at Oak Ridge National Laboratory on Tuesday morning for a keynote speech at the InnovationXLab Advanced Manufacturing Summit. ORNL is a DOE lab.
[Read more…]U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Tennessee Governor Bill Lee will be among the featured speakers at a manufacturing summit in Oak Ridge next week.
The InnovationXLab Advanced Manufacturing Summit will be at Oak Ridge National Laboratory on Tuesday, May 7, and Wednesday, May 8. There will be optional laboratory tours and an optional reception on Monday, May 6.
Perry will give a keynote speech on Tuesday morning. ORNL is a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory.
Besides Perry and Lee, other featured speakers will be Jeff Lyash, president and chief executive officer of the Tennessee Valley Authority; Deborah Wince-Smith, president and CEO of the U.S. Council on Competitiveness; Lisa Su, president and CEO of AMD; and Doug Woods, president of The Association for Manufacturing Technology.
[Read more…]The videos are in, and it is now time to vote in Anderson County’s “Dream it. Do it.” middle school competition.
The program is in its fourth year, and it includes six schools from Anderson County and Oak Ridge school systems.
“Dream it. Do it.” is sponsored by the Anderson County Chamber of Commerce, Anderson County and Oak Ridge schools, and Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC. The competition is designed to bring student awareness of job opportunities in advanced manufacturing, a press release said.
Using GoPro cameras provided by CNS, six teams of eighth-graders were paired with area industries to create videos about the companies, the press release said. These videos are now posted online for public voting.
[Read more…]Registration for the Tennessee Valley Corridor National Summit in Oak Ridge this month has been extended through today (Friday, May 18).
The TVC Summit is scheduled from Tuesday, May 29, to Thursday, May 31, at the New Hope Center at the Y-12 National Security Complex.
Organizers said the Summit will include five main sessions focused on clean energy, cyber and national security, advanced manufacturing, and education. The Summit will also celebrate the 75th anniversary of the City of Oak Ridge, the 85th anniversary of Tennessee Valley Authority, and 50th anniversary of NASA’s Apollo 8 Mission.
There will be more than 50 speakers, panelists, and presenters, ranging from university and community college presidents to entrepreneurs to top leaders of the region’s federal contractors. More than 400 community, academic, and government leaders from the five-state region are expected to participate, organizers said. [Read more…]
The Tennessee Valley Corridor National Summit in Oak Ridge in May will feature presentations on advanced manufacturing, clean energy and a nuclear renaissance, and national security and cyber security.
The 2018 TVC National Summit is scheduled from May 29-31 at the New Hope Center at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge. It will be hosted by Oak Ridge Mayor Warren Gooch in cooperation with U.S. Representative Chuck Fleischmann.
Agenda topics include: [Read more…]
U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander, center, a Tennessee Republican, is pictured above with Energy Secretary Rick Perry, left, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility in Hardin Valley on Monday, May 22, 2017. Also pictured is former ORNL Director Thom Mason. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
An appropriations bill approved by a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday rejects the Trump administration’s proposal to cut $919 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science in the fiscal year that starts October 1.
Instead of cutting, the Senate bill would actually increase funding for the Office of Science, boosting it to $5.55 billion in fiscal year 2018. That would be again a record funding level in a regular appropriations bill, according to U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican who often advocates for the federal sites in Oak Ridge and chairs the Senate subcommittee.
Like the Senate this week, the House Appropriations Committee last week also rejected President Donald Trump’s request to cut DOE’s Office of Science.
Unlike the Senate bill, though, the House bill would keep funding flat at $5.39 billion, the same as in the current fiscal year. That level of funding was also a record in a regular appropriations bill, Alexander said in May.
The Office of Science is the nation’s largest supporter of research in the physical sciences.
The president’s budget request, submitted to Congress on May 23, would cut Office of Science funding by about 17 percent, dropping it to $4.47 billion.
Keeping Office of Science funding flat, or even increasing it, could be important to several of the federal sites in Oak Ridge. Oak Ridge National Laboratory is an Office of Science lab, and the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, or OSTI, is an Office of Science unit. [Read more…]
Oak Ridge National Laboratory and HTS International are exploring collaborations in advanced manufacturing research such as conformal cooling. These specially placed coolant lines allow parts to cool faster, which increases productivity for molding and casting manufacturers. (Image by ORNL)
HTS International Corporation and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have signed an agreement to explore potential collaborations in advanced manufacturing research.
The memorandum of understanding follows HTS’s recent decision to locate its headquarters and production operations in a Knox County business park adjacent to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at ORNL (in Hardin Valley). The lab’s expertise and unique facilities in materials science, metallurgy, and advanced manufacturing attracted the attention of HTS’s leadership during a 2015 visit to Tennessee.
“Our researchers push the boundaries of what’s possible with materials and advanced manufacturing techniques, and we value partners such as HTS,” said Thomas Zacharia, deputy for science and technology at ORNL. “Industrial partners help to ensure we’re tackling the right problems, and our results help them to improve production capabilities and American competitiveness.”
HTS supplies specialty products to the injection molding and die casting industries, using its proprietary metal fusion technology to produce large-scale steel production components with conformal cooling. These specially placed coolant lines allow parts to cool faster, which increases productivity for molding and casting manufacturers. [Read more…]
A new course, Automotive Maintenance and Light Repair, started this fall at Oak Ridge High School as part of Oak Ridge Schools’ College, Career and Technical Education (CCTE) program. (Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge)
Submitted by Sarah Self/City of Oak Ridge
Students at Oak Ridge High School now have an opportunity to learn the skills they need to begin yet another high-demand, high-wage occupation after graduating.
The newest course, Automotive Maintenance and Light Repair, started with the 2016 fall semester as part of Oak Ridge Schools’ College, Career, and Technical Education, or CCTE, program. The class currently has 14 students enrolled for a fall and spring session.
Upon completing two full years of the class, each student will have worked with engine systems, transmissions, suspensions, steering, brakes, electrical, and HVAC. Students earn a full year’s worth of credit hours in one semester. The credits are recognized by the Tennessee College of Applied Technology (TCAT) as part of a dual enrollment program and will count toward further certifications with TCAT. Students can also obtain some Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) certifications while still in high school. [Read more…]
Greg LeMond, three-time Tour de France champion, celebrated the opening of LeMond Composites, a new company he co-founded, during a ceremony on Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 12, 2016, at Horizon Center in west Oak Ridge. The company is expected to make composite bicycles and carbon fiber, and invest $125 million and create 242 new jobs. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
A new company co-founded by Greg LeMond, a three-time Tour de France champion, will make composite bicycles and carbon fiber for other products in Oak Ridge, and the business, called LeMond Composites, will invest $125 million and create 242 new jobs, officials said during a Wednesday afternoon ceremony.
Among the officials celebrating the opening on Wednesday were LeMond, and Tennessee Economic and Community Development Commissioner Randy Boyd.
Carbon fiber has advantageous properties, but cost has been a barrier to using it, said Connie Jackson, chief executive officer of LeMond Composites. She said the manufacturing process has been changed to reduce production cost.
“We have overcome a significant part of the cost barrier,” Jackson said.
Carbon fiber is light, stiff, and strong, making it the perfect material for advanced composites in a variety of applications. It can be used to improve efficiency, save energy, and build or repair vehicles and planes, wind turbines and containers, and bridges and tunnels. [Read more…]
Oak Ridge Schools has received three competitive grant awards from the Carl Perkins Reserve funds. The first award in the amount of $50,000 is designated for the continuation of a large competitive grant that was won to increase the offerings at Oak Ridge High School in advanced manufacturing, a pathway that includes welding, robotics, and new courses in mechatronics engineering and machining technologies.
The second award is for $10,000, and it will continue the schools system’s efforts in assisting students by paying for industry certification vouchers in nursing, Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Cloud, and AutoCAD concept-to-production toolsets, a press release said. [Read more…]
The Anderson County Chamber of Commerce and Anderson County Schools have partnered on a pilot program that is designed to raise student awareness of job opportunities in advanced manufacturing.
The partnership was announced by Anderson County Chamber of Commerce President Rick Meredith.
“Dream It. Do It. Tennessee is a competition that brings middle school students together with area industries to create videos that tell the stories of those industries,” Meredith said in a press release. “When they’re done, you can view the videos online and vote for your favorites.”
The program, “Dream It. Do it. Tennessee” was co-founded by the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the University of Tennessee Center for Industrial Services, the press release said. It’s the result of an ongoing need to fill the hundreds of job vacancies that go unfilled each year in advanced manufacturing, and to encourage a new generation of young people into the exciting and lucrative world of manufacturing in Tennessee. [Read more…]
Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Explore ORNL conference has been rescheduled until September 23-24 to coincide with a larger industrial outreach event at ORNL this fall. Explore ORNL was originally scheduled for July 14-15.
The September event will feature capabilities in building technologies, vehicle technologies, and advanced manufacturing, and will highlight new opportunities for small businesses to gain access to national laboratories, including ORNL.
Information about the September industry event will be released in the coming weeks.
