Oak Ridge Today

ORNL hires more than 60 UT engineering interns

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UT Co-op Students

University of Tennessee engineering students who are taking part in summer internships at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, more than 60 in all, gather at ORNL. (Photo courtesy UT)

 

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KNOXVILLE—For more than seven decades, the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have forged special connections in a number of key areas, perhaps none stronger than the personnel that the two share.

That particular bond was on display recently when members of UT’s Office of Professional Practice office visited the facilities at ORNL, meeting more than 60 engineering students involved in summer internships at the lab.

Todd Reeves, director of the office, addressed the College of Engineering students and shared his thoughts about the importance of the work they are doing for ORNL and on leaving a good impression of themselves and their attitude.

“We talked about how special it is for them to be working in such a high-profile facility, and that it was key for them to do their best every day,” Reeves said. “More than that, we encouraged them to be enthusiastic and positive as they went about their work because it shapes the impression their managers have on them.” [Read more…]

UT College of Engineering also taking part in White House Maker Faire

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KNOXVILLE—Responding to President Barack Obama’s call to empower America’s students and entrepreneurs to invent the future, the College of Engineering at the University of Tennessee is Knoxville is participating in today’s National Day of Making, held in conjunction with the first White House Maker Faire.

Referred to as the “maker movement,” there has been a surge of innovation in recent years as laser tools, 3-D printers, and software previously unavailable outside of laboratory settings have found their way into the hands of average citizens, who are leading the next wave of breakthroughs.

Geared toward inspiring what the White House calls a “renaissance in American manufacturing,” the fair is designed to highlight those Americans who have found new ways to embrace changing technology and techniques shaping modern economies, workforces, and education, with the Day of Making serving to kick off the effort. [Read more…]

Area teachers go ‘back to school’ at ORAU for interactive STEM courses

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ORAU GPS Teacher Workshop

Daryl Sibble (center), graduate student working at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), demonstrates to area teachers how GPS can be incorporated in the classroom and for outdoor lessons. Teachers in photo include Eric Good from William Blount High School (left), Sherilyn Dawson from Concord Christian School and Judy Pearson from Heritage Middle School (back to camera) during last week’s workshop at ORAU’s Center for Science Education. (Photo courtesy ORAU)

 

Teachers participate in GPS workshop

More than 190 elementary, middle school, and high school educators from East Tennessee gathered in ORAU’s Center for Science Education last week to participate in a variety of technology professional development workshops. The free workshops offered educators the chance to enhance their STEM knowledge and curricula through hands-on experiences.

One of last week’s workshops focused on how GPS could be used during an outside exercise. Workshop participants took an excursion outside for a hands-on activity where the first three participants to locate a hidden GPS device using provided coordinates actually won a GPS device.

“I learned a great deal about GPS, because I was a total stranger to GPS before this workshop,” said Arnold “Rocky” Warren from Morgan County Career and Technical Center. “I have some GPS devices in my classroom, but I did not know all the ways I could use them. Now, I feel confident I can instruct my students on how to use them in my physics class.”

The workshops are designed so teachers can take the information back to their students and use it immediately. The Twitter Workshop proved popular as well. [Read more…]

UT camp to spark interest in STEM, showcase public transit systems

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KNOXVILLE—The Center for Transportation Research will give area high school students a behind-the-scenes look at public transit in Knoxville and Atlanta when it hosts its first Transit Camp July 29-31 at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

Open to high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors, the camp is designed to spark interest in STEM—science, technology, engineering, and math—and to showcase focus areas, such as public transit, that might not readily come to mind when engineering and technology are discussed.

“The goal of this camp is to expose area students to the types of transit careers available, as well as becoming more aware of the reach of transit,” according to Tammy Enix from CTR.

Through the camp, the center—part of the College of Engineering at UT—will help students learn about how modern transportation systems rely on everything from designers and graphic artists to planners and maintenance officials. [Read more…]

City recommends budget with no tax increase, Council votes Monday

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Oak Ridge City Council

The Oak Ridge City Council is pictured above during an August 2013 meeting. (File photo)

Note: This story was updated at 7:40 p.m. June 4.

Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson on Monday recommended a budget that does not raise the property tax rate, setting up a potential conflict with school officials, who have requested a 37-cent tax increase to avoid cuts.

The Oak Ridge Board of Education already approved its budget in in two meetings last week. That budget, which was scaled back from an earlier proposal, could include an extra $3.3 million to start implementing a technology initiative known as 1:1 that would provide electronic learning devices to all students over three years, add five technology positions, and give 2 percent pay raises to staff.

But the budget is still subject to the amount appropriated to the schools by the city. Oak Ridge provides a little less than one-third of the school system’s funding.

While the schools have approved a budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1, the city has not. The Oak Ridge City Council will consider the municipal budget in two separate meetings this month, one on June 9 and the second on June 16. The city budget also includes a 2 percent pay raise for employees.

It’s not clear that Oak Ridge City Council members will agree to raise taxes to accommodate the school system’s request. In his budget presentation to Council on Monday, Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson said Council members have endorsed keeping the tax rate unchanged for the seventh year in a row.

[Read more…]

Bredesen Center graduates first class with help from ORNL, UT

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Bredesen Center

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Director Thom Mason (seated, at left) and former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen sign certificates for the Bredesen Center’s first two graduates, Vincent Kandagor and Scott Curran (standing, from left) while center Director Lee Riedinger (at right) watches. (Submitted photo)

 

KNOXVILLE—Two students were the first to earn a new doctoral degree this month from the Energy Science and Engineering program founded by former Gov. Phil Bredesen in partnership with the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The General Assembly approved the program in a special session on education in January 2010. The first class enrolled in the Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education in fall 2011, and it is now one of UT’s fastest-growing graduate programs.

Scott Curran and Vincent Kandagor earned their doctorates in energy science and engineering at UT’s graduate hooding on Thursday, May 8.

“We’re awfully proud of Scott and Vincent,” said Bredesen Center Director Lee Riedinger. “They both transferred into our program once we’d started and were able to really shine, to really do some positive things.” [Read more…]

Urban design leader named newest UT-ORNL Governor’s Chair

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Phil Enquist

Phil Enquist

KNOXVILLE—Philip Enquist, partner in charge of urban design and planning and leader of the City Design Practice at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, has been named the 16th University of Tennessee-Oak Ridge National Laboratory Governor’s Chair. Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill is one of the world’s leading urban planning, architecture, and engineering firms, a press release said.

Enquist and a select research team will serve as Governor’s Chair for High Performance Energy Practices in Urban Environments and will be affiliated with and administer projects through the UT College of Architecture and Design.

The Governor’s Chair team will be a research partnership among many designers at the firm who specialize in sustainable urbanism and high-performance buildings. Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill’s City Design Practice is the world’s most highly awarded urban planning group.

The contract between ORNL, UT, and the design firm is pending, the press release said. [Read more…]

Alumnus of NASA program administered by ORAU wins presidential award

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Josh Alwood and PECASE Award

Joshua Alwood in the Bone and Signaling Lab at NASA’s Ames Research Center. (Image Credit: NASA Ames/Dominic Hart)

Top presidential honor recognizes research initiated during fellowship, continued at NASA’s Ames Research Center 

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Joshua S. Alwood, a former participant in the NASA Postdoctoral Program, was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) at a ceremony in April. PECASE is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government for science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers. Alwood received the award in recognition of advances in space bioscience he achieved at NASA’s Ames Research Center.

The NASA Postdoctoral Program contributes to national priorities for scientific exploration, confirms NASA’s leadership in fundamental research, and complements the efforts of NASA’s partners in the national science community. Oak Ridge Associated Universities has administered NPP for NASA since 2005. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge Schools seeks to become top STEM district in country

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Bruce Borchers Introduces Discovery Education

Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers introduces Discovery Education to members of the PTA Council on Thursday, April 10. (Photos by Sara Wise)

Superintendent: ‘It’s a big deal nationally’

Oak Ridge Schools is attempting to become the premier district in the nation for science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM, education. Superintendent Bruce Borchers has a $3.4 million plan to make that happen using Microsoft Surface tablets and Discovery Education. The money will be spent over a five-year period.

Borchers calls the needed changes a “digital transformation” that will, he hopes, bring a tablet to every student in the school system. This is especially important in Oak Ridge, a district with a free and reduced lunch rate of more than 50 percent. The digital transformation would allow every student in the district to have the same educational opportunities, regardless of income.

The first of three steps toward transformation is to create a technological infrastructure capable of handling all the tablets. Those improvements have a $1 million price tag that the Oak Ridge Board of Education and the city have already approved. Borchers hopes for the upgrades to be completed before students return to school in the fall. The upgrades are projected to last until at least 2022. [Read more…]

STEM standards training for informal educators, tutors, community members

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Oak Ridge Schools is partnering with Oak Ridge Associated Universities, the Children’s Museum, and American Museum of Science and Energy to do a STEM standards training for informal educators, tutors, and community members from 6-8 p.m. Monday, April 21, at the Children’s Museum.

“This training will be beneficial to those who are interested in learning more about helping students advance their skills in science, technology, engineering, and math and have been wondering what the Common Core and Science Standards are as well as how they can be applied to informal and after-school education programs,” a press release said. “The training will be led by Oak Ridge Schools’ staff.”

Light refreshments and childcare will be provided. You can register at www.orau.us/informaledworkshop.

ORAU Annual Report highlights impact of early career researchers on U.S. scientific mission

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Jason Hayward

Jason Hayward, who has a doctorate in nuclear engineering from the University of Michigan, holds a high-resolution instrument, which is part of his research to benefit facilities like Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Spallation Neutron Source. (Photo credit: University of Tennessee)

With U.S. falling behind China and India in numbers of STEM graduates, strengthening U.S. scientific talent is critical, according to report

Jason Hayward is applying his nuclear engineering research expertise to develop the next generation of high-resolution instruments for facilities like Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Spallation Neutron Source.

Hayward, who has a doctorate in nuclear engineering from the University of Michigan, hopes his work will eventually help curtail the spread of nuclear weapons and assist in identifying viable alternative energy sources. Hayward is an assistant professor of nuclear engineering at the University of Tennessee, a joint faculty member with ORNL’s Nuclear Security and Isotope Technology Division, a U.S. Department of Energy research award recipient, and a participant in the Higher Education Research Experiences Program.

He and many other early career researchers are participating in fellowships and internships managed by Oak Ridge Associated Universities with DOE and other federal agencies, and they are the main focus of ORAU’s “2013 Annual Report,” which has just been released. [Read more…]

ORHS Wildbots going to world championships after regional robotics win

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Secret City Wildbots FIRST Robotics Team

Oak Ridge High School’s “Wildbot” #4265 was among the winners at the Smoky Mountains Regional Robotics Challenge held this past weekend, and the team will now go to St. Louis for the World Championship. (Photo by D. Ray Smith)

By Mike Wehrenberg

The Smoky Mountains Regional High School Robotics Competition had an extremely successful event this past weekend, and Oak Ridge High School was one of the three regional winners. Collierville High School outside Memphis won the Rookie All Star award.

Both of these Tennessee high schools will receive an invitation to the world championships at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, where the Rams football team plays. About 50,000 people will be in attendance at the end of April for that competition.

This was our fourth year of competition at the Knoxville Convention Center in a game called Aerial Assist. Thirty-five teams from Tennessee competed, along with 14 teams from the surrounding states of Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. It was a fantastic, “graciously professional,” and exciting event, with all the teams representing themselves, their STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) programs, and their ability to set and achieve goals in an powerful and emotional way.

Other Tennessee news of note: [Read more…]