Oak Ridge Today

Curran at ORNL receives SAE Foundation industry leadership award

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Scott Curran and SAE Leadership Award

Stefan Pischinger Young Industry Leadership Award winner Scott Curran, center, is congratulated by SAE Foundation Board Chairman Mazen Hammoud of Ford Motor Company and Patrick Hupperich, FEV North America Inc. president and CEO. (Photo: SAE Foundation)

 

Scott Curran, a researcher at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has received the Society for Automotive Engineers Foundation’s 2015 Stefan Pischinger Young Industry Leadership Award.

The award, given this week at this year’s SAE Foundation Annual Celebration in Detroit, highlights early career individuals who demonstrate leadership potential and promote STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics)-based researched in their respective fields. The SAE Foundation is the charitable branch of the SAE International professional society.

A recipient of three engineering degrees from the University of Tennessee, Curran has been an active member of the SAE since his college days and has been involved in DOE’s Advanced Vehicle Technical Competition as both a student and an advisor. [Read more…]

Hardin Valley Academy’s Feldman receives 2015 UT-Battelle Scholarship

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

UT-Battelle Scholarship 2015

ORNL Director Thom Mason, left, congratulates UT-Battelle scholarship recipient Samuel Feldman. (Photo: Jason Richards)

 

By Chris Samoray

High school senior Samuel Feldman of Hardin Valley Academy in Knoxville has earned the 2015 UT-Battelle Scholarship to attend the University of Tennessee.

The scholarship, given to a graduating senior planning to study a science field at UT, is renewable for four years and is worth a total of $20,000. The scholarship is awarded annually to a student who has a parent who works at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Samuel’s parents are Matthew and Laura Feldman of Knoxville. His father, Matthew, works in ORNL’s Reactor and Nuclear Systems Division. Sam’s grandparents are Mary and Jim Luttrell of Oak Ridge and Nancy and the late Melvin Feldman, who retired from ORNL, also of Oak Ridge. [Read more…]

DOE offers expanded public bus tours of federal sites in Oak Ridge

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

DOE Public Bus Tour

Public bus tours of the U.S. Department of Energy’s facilities in Oak Ridge are now offered nine months of the year. (File photo courtesy DOE/Lynn Freeny)

 

The U.S. Department of Energy’s public bus tour of federal sites in Oak Ridge is now offered to visitors nine months out of the year, versus only summer months as in the past.

This popular tour of the 33,000-acre DOE Oak Ridge Reservation offers visitors a first-hand look at all of the DOE’s Oak Ridge facilities and provides historical commentary on the transformation of the Oak Ridge Reservation during the past 70-plus years.

The reservation-wide tour is a popular attraction for tourists visiting the area.  Since its inception in 1996, the DOE public tour program has attracted approximately 35,000 visitors from all 50 states. The three-hour DOE tour allows visitors to see the DOE Oak Ridge Reservation and learn about its rich history and how Oak Ridge became a secret city of 75,000 people with a mission to end World War II. [Read more…]

Regional firms receive ORNL’s 2015 Small Business Impact Awards

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

ORNL Small Business Impact Awards

ORNL Small Business Impact Award winners, pictured, left to right: Jeremy Shoop, City-State LLC; T.J. Kocak and Roger Claiborne, Pellissippi Investors LLC; Cindy and Michael Hollander, Innovative Design Inc.; Vicki Dyer and Wendi Arnold, Scientific Sales Inc.; Elizabeth Vacanti, ORNL; Beau Scherer, Scientific Sales Inc.; Barry Stephenson, Materials and Chemistry Laboratory Inc. (MCLinc); Gabe Beck, City State LLC; Debbie Pohanka, Scientific Sales Inc.; and Brittany Voigt, Innovative Design LLC. (Photo courtesy ORNL)

 

Oak Ridge National Laboratory recognized local and regional companies with annual Small Business Impact Awards on March 27 at the weekly meeting of the East Tennessee Economic Council in Oak Ridge.

The companies were honored in categories emphasizing their specific capabilities.

The Above and Beyond Award went to the small business Pellissippi Investors LLC. The company is the landlord for ORNL’s National Transportation Resource Centers I and II, which house several highly advanced research laboratories. Pellissippi Investors was instrumental in ensuring that tenant improvements to the facilities were executed properly despite demanding research schedules and tight budgets.

The Innovator Award was given to Materials and Chemistry Laboratory, or MCLinc. This commercial applied research firm is a small business located in Oak Ridge. MCLinc developed a unique method used for the analysis of filters from the cooling system at the Spallation Neutron Source, despite a challenging analytical scenario. [Read more…]

Education Foundation grants support robotics, Lego learning projects

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Jefferson Middle School Master Builders

Two members of the Jefferson Middle School Master Builders team are preparing their robot to solve missions at a FIRST Lego League mission table. (Photo by Yvonne Dalschen)

 

At Linden Elementary School, Lisa Buckner’s third-graders are building robots and Lego floats representing continents in a months-long project aimed at engaging them in learning, problem solving, and creative and critical thinking.

The 38 members of Oak Ridge High School’s Secret City Robotics team are solving real-world problems as they build and program a 120-pound robot to enter FIRST Robotics Competitions as an extra-curricular activity.

Teachers view robots and Lego sets as tools giving Oak Ridge students opportunities to collaborate, design, build, and solve problems as they learn engineering, science, and technology skills, both inside and outside the classroom.

The Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation supported these activities with $18,700 in grants last year to teachers at the Oak Ridge High School, Jefferson and Robertsville middle schools, and Linden Elementary School. The grants included a UT-Battelle donation of $10,000 directed to FIRST Robotics Competition, FIRST Tech Challenge, and FIRST Lego League teams, all extra-curricular programs at the high school and middle schools. [Read more…]

UT-Battelle extends American Centrifuge agreement for uranium enrichment

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

American Centrifuge Technology Manufacturing Center

The American Centrifuge Technology Manufacturing Center in south Oak Ridge is pictured above. (Photo courtesy USEC/Centrus Energy Corp.)

UT-Battelle, the contractor that operates Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has added another six months to an agreement being used to develop new uranium-enrichment technology through operations in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Piketon, Ohio.

The six-month extension was announced Friday by Centrus Energy Corporation, formerly known as USEC. UT-Battelle has exercised its option to extend the American Centrifuge Technology Demonstration and Operations Agreement, or ACTDO Agreement, by six months from March 31 to September 30, 2015, Centrus said.

ORNL had previously exercised an option to extend the agreement through March 31, 2015.

The six-month extension allows the continued demonstration and operation of the only uranium enrichment technology in the United States, Centrus said in a press release. [Read more…]

Avisco, a DOE contractor, to wind down operations after 30 years

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Avisco Inc. Logo

Avisco, a long-term U.S. Department of Energy contractor based in Oak Ridge, has announced a plan to phase out of their existing contracts and eventually close the company after 30 years of operations.

In a Tuesday press release, company owner Avis A. Phillips said she decided it was time to wind down Avisco after long discussions with her family.

“I have thoroughly enjoyed all the years we’ve worked with a terrific group of clients and a wonderful team of employees,” Phillips said. “It’s the association with our great staff that makes this decision particularly difficult. I can never thank them enough.” [Read more…]

3-D printed Shelby Cobra highlights ORNL R&D at Detroit Auto Show

Posted at
By 4 Comments

Shelby Cobra 3D Print at ORNL

This Shelby Cobra sports car, 3D-printed at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, will be on display this week at the Detroit Auto Show Technology Showcase. (Photo courtesy ORNL)

 

With a 3-D printed twist on an automotive icon, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory is showcasing additive manufacturing research at the 2015 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

ORNL’s newest 3-D printed vehicle pays homage to the classic Shelby Cobra in celebration of the racing car’s 50th anniversary. The 3-D printed Shelby will be on display January 12-15 as part of the show’s inaugural Technology Showcase.

Researchers printed the Shelby car at DOE’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at ORNL using the Big Area Additive Manufacturing, or BAAM, machine, which can manufacture strong, lightweight composite parts in sizes greater than one cubic meter. The approximately 1,400-pound vehicle contains 500 pounds of printed parts made of 20 percent carbon fiber. [Read more…]

UT-Battelle donates $100,000 to Children’s Hospital expansion

Posted at
By 1 Comment

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Sign

UT-Battelle has donated $100,000 to the capital campaign for the proposed expansion of East Tennessee Children’s Hospital in Knoxville.

The announcement was made during groundbreaking ceremonies for the expanded facility, a press release said. The planned expansion includes:

  • 250,000 square feet of new space;
  • a new neonatal intensive care unit with private rooms;
  • a new inpatient/outpatient-surgery center;
  • a family lounge and resource center overlooking a rooftop garden;
  • 60,000 square feet of renovated space to include a chapel, laboratory, and a neonatal abstinence syndrome care unit and resource center; and
  • a specialty clinic for diabetes, cleft palate, cystic fibrosis, and healthy ways weight management program.

[Read more…]

Safety forum on Wednesday to focus on worker accident

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Oak Ridge Business Safety Partnership

Forum to feature ORNL Excess Property Sales event and how complacency had near-fatal impact

The Oak Ridge Business Safety Partnership is having a community safety forum from 8 to 10 a.m. Wednesday, December 3, at the American Museum of Science and Energy. The safety forum, free of charge and open to the public, will explore an accident in which a worker was seriously injured that occurred earlier in 2014 during a routine transfer of excess equipment from UT-Battelle to the public.

Jimmy Stone, UT-Battelle’s Facilities and Operations Director, will make a presentation about the accident, focusing specifically on what could have been done to have prevented it from occurring, a press release said. [Read more…]

ORNL staff help students prepare for FIRST LEGO League competition

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

ORNL First Lego League 2014

Brian Peters, right, a design engineer for nuclear systems with US ITER at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, works with Jessey Yang, left, and Victoria “Tori” Mullins during a FIRST LEGO League practice session at the National Transportation Research Center. (Photo courtesy ORNL/UT-Battelle)

 

About 30 students ages nine through 14 are gearing up for the 2014-15 FIRST LEGO League competition with weekly training sessions at the National Transportation Research Center in West Knoxville. NTRC is part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and ORNL operating contractor UT-Battelle co-sponsors the LEGO League tournament.

“This year’s theme is ‘World Class Learning Unleashed,’” said Claus Daniel, an ORNL researcher who’s coaching one of three teams meeting at the NTRC. “Part of what the students are doing is defining a question, research, how people learn about the question nowadays and then original ideas to improve the learning process.” [Read more…]

Los Alamos National Lab director to give talk at UT on Oct. 1

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Charles McMillan

Charles McMillan

Charles F. McMillan, nuclear physicist and director of Los Alamos National Laboratory, will give the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy’s annual Distinguished Global Security Lecture on October 1 at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

McMillan will speak on “The Timeline of Technology” at 5:30 p.m. in the Toyota Auditorium at the Baker Center, 1640 Cumberland Avenue. The event is free and open to the public.

McMillan’s lecture will look at how innovations from the previous century are being used to solve today’s national and global security, energy, and environmental issues. Then he’ll pose a question to policy makers: “Are we prepared for the policy needed in the 22nd century with the scientific and technical expertise we have today?” [Read more…]