Rochester Engineering Society Magazine February 2014

www.roceng.org

FEBRUARY 2014

Communications Technologies for Smart Infrastructures and Cognitive Networking Evolution of networking and information processing technology is helping infrastructures become "smart" and ubiquitous connectivity become a reality through radio devices that are able to learn to operate in new wireless environments.

Page 8

Also in this issue:

Wireless Body Area Networks Connecting Your Body to the Cloud | 48

Wireless Body Area Networks Connecting Your Body to the Cloud

- Page 48

The Rochester Engineer Published since 1922 by

ROCHESTER ENGINEERING SOCIETY, INC.

Founded March 18, 1897

Volume 92, Number 8, FEBRUARY 2014 3,500 to 4,000 Monthly Circulation ISSN 0035-7405

RES Mission Statement: The RES will become the lead organization for improving the image and influence of the engineering community in the greater Rochester area by: Demonstrating a comprehensive knowledge of the region’s engineering and technical capabilities; Providing the best clerical support and public relations assistance to our affiliates; Continually communicating the engineering and technical accomplishments to both the engineering and technical community and the public; Providing regular forums and networking opportunities for the exchange of ideas and discussion of issues; and, Providing programs that identify career opportunities to the region’s youth and develop the skills of the practicing engineer.

News items and articles are invited. Materials should be submitted to the executive director at the society’s office, 657 East Avenue, Rochester, New York 14607; Phone number (585) 254-2350, e-mail: res@frontiernet.net.

The web site for the Engineers’ Center is at: www.roceng.org. The deadline is the 10th day of the month prior to the issue. Unless otherwise stated, opinions expressed in this publication are those of contributors, not of the Rochester Engineering Society, Inc. Advertising information may be obtained by contacting the office of the Rochester Engineering Society or going to the website at www.roceng.org.

contents

4 • Scholarship Application

6 • RES Networking Events - February 19 & April 16 7 • Invite us to come and tell you about the RES Tutoring Team Program 8 • Communications Technologies for Smart Infastructures and Cognitive Networking (cover) 10 • The Limited Monopoly - Patent Misuse - A New Defense Against Patent Abuse?

12 • Get to the Point! - Too Many Choices: Phone, Text or Email?

13 • Continuing Education Opportunities 13-15 • Engineers’ Calendar 16 • Professional Firms - Employee News 18-19, 23 • Position Openings 17, 20 • News from Professional Firms 21-22 • 2014 Enginering Symposium in Rochester 24-27 • Campus News 28 • 112th RES Annual Gala

Published every month but July. Yearly subscription is $20.00, single copies are $2.00.

29 • Corporate Sponsorship Opportunities - 112th RES Annual Gala

Go to www.roceng.org to join the Rochester Engineering Society. Click on the individual membership and you can submit your application on-line.

48 • Wireless Body Area Networks - Connecting Your Body to the Cloud (cover)

Board of Directors:

51 • Rochester Engineer Advertising Rates

OFFICERS: President EDWARD HENSEL, PhD, PE Rochester Institute of Technology / Email: echeme@rit.edu First Vice President MARY STEBLEIN, EIT LaBella Associates / mary.steblein@swe.org Second Vice President ADAM CUMMINGS, PE Barton & Loguidice, PC / ACummings@bartonandloguidice.com Treasurer MICHAEL V. TRIASSI Optimation Technology, Inc. / mike.triassi@aol.com Past President LEE M. LOOMIS Email: leeloom@aol.com DIRECTORS: CORNELIUS (NEAL) ILLENBERG PE Alstom Signaling, Inc. / Email: neal.illenberg@transport.alstom.com JON KRIEGEL Retired / jkriegel@rochester.rr.com DOUGLAS DOBSON Optimation Technology, Inc. / douglas.dobson@optimation.us WILLIAM S. ROGERS, LS Harris Corporation / wroger10@harris.com RICHARD E. RICE, PE MJ Engineering / rrice@mjels.com STEVE CONSTANTINIDES Arnold Magnetic Technologies / sconstantinides@arnoldmagnetics.com CARL J. PILLETTERI, PE Passero Associates / cpilletteri@passero.com DIRECTOR to TBD Administrative Director LYNNE M. IRWIN Rochester Engineering Society / e-mail: res@frontiernet.net

50 • RES Individual Membership Application 52-54 • Directory of Professional Services 54 • Directory of Business Services 55 • Affiliated Societies and Corporate Members of the RES

news of the...

• ABCD Association for Bridge Construction and Design...............33-35 • AFE Association for Facilities Engineering...........................................39 • APWA American Public Works Association...........................................45 • ASCE American Society of Civil Engineers............................................32 • ASHRAE American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers....................................................36 • ASPE American Society of Plumbing Engineers....................................44 • EA Electrical Association.......................................................................40 • GVLSA Genesee Valley Land Surveyors Association.............................42

2 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | FEBRUARY 2014

• IEC Independent Entrepreneurs Council...........................................30 • IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.................46-47 • IES Illuminating Engineering Society....................................................37 • INCOSE International Council of Systems Engineering...........................43 • IS&T Society for Imagins Science and Technology.............................31 • MPES Monroe Professional Engineers Society......................................38 • RES Rochester Engineering Society....................................... 3-7, 28-29 • SWE Society of Women Engineers........................................................41

President’s Message Edward Hensel, PhD, PE RES President 2013-14 Engineers are “at our best when we’re invisible.” This is a statement that I regularly make to prospective students and their families when they make visits to our campus. Unlike many other professions, such as medicine and law, there is not extensive representation of the engineering profession in television, movies and other media.

Yet, every person in our society is impacted by the fruits of the engineering professions in every aspect of our daily lives. We have come to take it for granted that the lights will come on when we flip a switch; clean potable water will flow when we open the valve; our vehicles will start when we turn the key (or push the button); and we can communicate with anyone, at any time of the day or night.

However, when any one of these expected services fails to be available our communities immediately experience a sense of loss. The fact that power, water, transportation, communications and even food have become commodities in our society is due in large part to the engineering innovations that have moved “big ideas” into “every day reality.” When these services are readily available, it is a testament to the success of the engineered systems and infrastructure that drive our society.

Technological innovations have long been recognized as shaping society. During the industrial age, mass production shaped society in many ways with a shift towards urbanization and an increase in access to goods and services at an unprecedented level. During the twentieth century the USA went from a society where the vast majority of our population was directly engaged in agriculture to a point at the dawn of the 21st century when a small fraction of our population was engaged in agriculture. In the span of less than 100 years, vast segments of our work force were displaced and simultaneously absorbed into new emerging sectors of the economy. For the past several decades, we have recognized that the manufacturing sector of the US economy is undergoing a fundamental transformation. In last month’s issue of The Rochester Engineer, we learned about exciting advances in Healthcare technology that will shape our future.

We are in the middle of another dramatic shift in our society that is being driven by engineering innovation -- a change that is so pervasive that it is easy to lose sight of. In less than a single generation, our society’s perception of communications has undergone a sea change.

When I was a child, my family shared a “party line” with three other rural families on our telephone network, and we had a single telephone in the dining room of our family home. It was a “long distance call” for me to speak with class mates on the other side of town. Today, our children routinely have their own smart phones and are in communications not only with peers across town, but with friends all around the globe. We not only enjoy total communications

res news - president’s message

access, but we have come to expect it, in a single generation! This ready access to communications technology is already changing our society and will have profound impacts in the future that we can hardly predict.

Rochester is making significant contributions to the advancement of communications technology, and thus is in a position to make a significant impact on our future society. Rochester is a significant contributor to the communications market, with companies like Harris RF, who develops state of the art radio technologies for military and first responder personnel, and L-3 Global Communications Solutions, who provides satellite communications equipment for defense and commercial customers, and service providers including Verizon Wireless, Frontier Communications, Time Warner Cable, Windstream, Earthlink Business and Fibertech Networks.

Communications expenditures in the USA are approximately $600 Billion annually (excluding entertainment), according to the Statistical Abstracts of the U.S. Census Bureau. In this issue of The Rochester Engineer we will learn about ``Communications Technologies for Smart Infrastructure and Cognitive Networking” in our cover article

by Dr. Andres Kwasinski and a feature article on “Wireless Body Area Network - Connecting your Body to the Cloud” by Dr. Gill R. Tsouri, both of Rochester Institute of Technology. These two articles provide thought provoking glimpses into a future when communications becomes simultaneously ubiquitous and invisible.

Today, our society thinks largely of communications as something that we actively engage in -- we make a phone call, send a text message, browse the internet, watch television, et. cetera. Even as we read this article, communications is increasingly becoming something that “just happens” seamlessly and continuously, as opposed to something that “we do.” Communities are all about communication.

The infrastructure of our communities -- our energy, healthcare, transportation, water and food networks -- are increasingly becoming fully integrated with our communications infrastructure.

The Rochester Museum and Science Center sponsors their annual “Science of the Edge” lecture series. Two upcoming events, a lecture entitled "Recent Activities and Discoveries of the Mars Rovers, Opportunity and Curiosity" by Robert Sullivan will be presented on February 19th, 2014, and a lecture “Nanotechnology Landscape: Health, Safety and Nanomedicine Applications" by Dr. Sara Brenner on April 16th, 2014 will be preceded by RES networking events at the RMSC. Please mark these on your calendar and consider joining us.

The March issue of The Rochester Engineer will highlight the contributions of engineers to our community and society. Our regular contributors, affiliate societies, corporate members, academic community and individual members are invited to address this theme as they relate to their practice and view of engineering. If your organization can point to a historical Rochester figure in engineering that has had an impact on our community, please consider submitting an article about their contributions! Please see our call for articles in the digital edition, available on-line at www.roceng.org. If you would like to comment on this article, or any other feature in this issue, please leave a comment in our forum at www.roceng.org, in the member area for the on-line magazine! I look forward to hearing from you.

FEBRUARY 2014 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 3

RES News SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION INFORMATION The Rochester Engineering Society (RES) is an umbrella organization for engineering societies in the Rochester area. The goals of the society are: to advance the art and science of engineering for the general public welfare in Monroe County and the adjoining counties; to foster in practicing and prospective engineers excellence as professionals, as citizens, and as individuals; and, to promote communication and cooperation among all branches of engineering.

Multiple scholarships, sponsored by a variety of organizations and administered through the RES, are awarded annually at a minimum of $1,000 each to recognize outstanding engineering, engineering technology, science or technology students. These are merit-based scholarships. Two organizations, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), require scholarship applicants be student members of their respective organization. Eligibility: Applications must meet the following qualifications: 1. Be an undergraduate student in good standing in an engineering, engineering technology, science or technology curriculum in an ABET accredited program.

2. Have completed two years and/or achieved Junior standing (or equivalent) in the program defined in number 1 above.

3. Have an overall grade point average of 3.0 out of 4.0 (or equivalent) or better.

4. Plan to continue engineering, engineering technology, science or technology studies in an undergraduate ABET accredited program in September, 2014, following presentation of the award.

5. Be a resident of Monroe, Genesee, Livingston, Ontario, Orleans, Wayne, or Wyoming counties of New York or enrolled in an ABET-accredited engineering, engineering technology, science or technology curriculum in a college in those counties. The Rochester Chapter of IEEE allows applicants from Corning and Alfred sub-chapters.

6. Not be a previous recipient of this scholarship.

Application: Applicants must submit all required items postmarked no later than Friday, February 14, 2014. All items must be submitted in one package or envelope. The applicant is responsible for ensuring that all the necessary data are submitted by the deadline in one package and will be immediately disqualified from judging, with no further follow-up, if these instructions are not followed. The applicant should make those persons supplying reference letters aware that timely response is critical. Reference letters may be submitted in individually sealed envelopes within the application package. Mail all items by Friday, February 14, 2014 to: The Rochester Engineering Society, 657 East Avenue, Rochester, New York 14607.

Required Data and Instructions 1. Verification of Interview - Letter from a RES Scholarship Award Committee member stating that the applicant has been interviewed within the last six months. Appointments for interviews may be made by calling the Scholarship Chairperson, Barry Quinn, 585-737-1117. Please email your resume to BarryQuinn@aol.com and include your name, phone number or alternate number, and best day(s) and time(s) to schedule your appointment for an interview. Please bring a copy of your resume to the interview as well.

2. Transcript - Official copy of applicant’s current transcript showing grades for the entire enrollment in current school and prior college or university.

3. Resume - The same resume the applicant would use if applicant were applying for employment. Be sure to include the following information: name, permanent address, school address, college, degree and program, anticipated date of graduation, and any professional society memberships.

4. Applicant’s Letter - A letter written by the applicant addressed to the Scholarship Award Committee of the Rochester Engineering Society. This letter shall not be more than one 4 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | FEBRUARY 2014

typewritten page in length and should discuss the applicant’s feelings and opinions on the following: a. Why applicant is studying engineering and chose his/her particular field. b. Why applicant is applying for the scholarship. c. Applicant’s involvement in professional society activities, a list of extra-curricular activities and the leadership positions held. d. Statement that the scholarship will be used in engineering, engineering technology, science or technology studies in an undergraduate ABET-accredited program in September following the presentation of the award.

5. Reference Letter #1 - Letter from the applicant’s faculty advisor in current school. This letter should indicate the applicant’s standing in the class relative to other students, and type of course loading.

6. Reference Letter #2 - Letter from a current or former employer who is not a relative, OR, a professor of engineering, science or technology in whose class the applicant has been or is presently enrolled. res news - scholarship application

Rochester History Continuing with the historical sampling of the earlier writings on behalf of the Rochester Engineering Society, the years following "The Great War," into and through the “Great Depression,” continued to be a time of reaching out for the maturing Society, both locally and nationally. The meeting minutes describe a series of technical discussions and presentations intended to broaden the technical horizons of the membership (especially the CE's, ME's and EE's). The RES affiliated itself with a number of National technical societies, adopted local Affiliated Societies, frequently held joint meetings with them and continued taking action on a growing list of public matters. Certain issues of standardization, some crucial to public safety, became the responsibility of the RES and its affiliates. Once again war affected the Society, taking away many of its leaders and providing opportunities for others to step forward to fill these vacancies. In an effort to provide even greater perspective on the happenings and concerns of the day, a synopsis featuring selected items from "The Rochester Engineer" has become an integral part of this series. In the pervasive economic downturn of the “Great Depression,” the magazine offered classified advertising for unemployed engineers, technicians and draftsmen and took other steps to try to deal with the crisis.

Still, it continued its effort to shape the function, purpose and infrastructure of the City of Rochester. The Second World War has ended. The “war economy” has changed the face and, no doubt, the future of the community. With a return to peacetime, the Rochester municipal leadership and the industrial community has become immersed in the post-war economy.

June 7, 1955 (Board of Directors Meeting, Hotel Sheraton) RES President John H. Rogers, Supt. of Parts Manufacturing. EKCo Camera Works, convened the final regular monthly board meeting of his tenure. The board approved sixteen applications for regular membership, ten for junior membership and eight resignations.

June 9, 1955 (Annual Meeting, Hotel Sheraton, Attendance – 38) – Reported highlights of the year 1954-

55 included: the delegation of an RES Education Committee representative to each of the nine Rochester City high schools, plus Irondequoit HS, to work with guidance counselors to help advise students who might be considering an engineering education after high school, an increase in the number of sustaining memberships to five, a record number of RES evening meetings (19, attendance – 1903), luncheon meetings (17, attendance 326), two inspection trips (TimesUnion Bldg. and RTC’s COngress and HOpkins telephone exchanges.

The total RES membership at year’s end is 573. Completed ballots were collected, and while the count was taken, the audience heard a presentation, “The $60 Million Commercial Center Project” by public relations consultant W.R. Coates, describing the plans for the Front Street/State Street area, including a 30-story office building, a hotel, more than a dozen other buildings and a 6000 car parking garage.

The new RES officers were presented, including A. Harold Metcalfe, President, Irvin G. McChesney, 1st VP, Elmer G.H. Youngmann, 2nd VP and Donald H. Campbell & Harvey J. Klumb, Directors.

June 29, 1955 (Board of Directors Meeting, RG&E’s Russell Station) – RG&E President (and Past RES President) Alexander M.

Beebee hosted these two transitional RES board meetings at RG&E’s Russell Station on Beach Avenue. The board accepted the resignation of RES 1st VP, Elmer G.H. Youngmann, due to his recent transfer to Buffalo by the NYS Department of Public Works. Accordingly, RES 2nd VP, Donald H. Campbell, moved up to the position of 1st VP. The incoming board will elect a successor for 2nd VP.

June 29, 1955 (Board of Directors Meeting, RG&E’s Russell Station) – The board elected Donald Q. Faragher, of Faragher &

Macomber Architects, to the position of 2nd VP. Various positions of representation by the RES on local and regional boards and councils res news/history

A Sampling from the Archives of the Rochester Engineering Society...1897 - 1955

by Lee M. Loomis

were re-instated for the coming year. Schuyler Baldwin and Ralph McCumber of RG&E welcomed the group and conducted a tour of the new, coal-fired generating plant.

“The Rochester Engineer” (June 1955)

RES Member Edgar D. Seymour, Development Engineer at EKCo Camera Works provided a very descriptive article on soaring and how this relatively new sport of sailplane operation, at altitudes up to 30,000 feet, has a special appeal for engineers. The article closed with an open invitation to the RES membership to visit the Batavia, NY airport, meet the members of the Rochester Soaring Club and enjoy a free ride in a sailplane.

“The Rochester Engineer” (August 1955)

This issue announced that, with the promotion of Elmer Youngmann to the Buffalo office of the NYSDPW, RES member, Bernard Perry was appointed Acting District Engineer. A summary of recent accomplishments in the six-county Rochester Region includes: completion of the NYS Thruway across Genesee, Monroe & Ontario Counties, a bridge and two sections of the Rochester Inner Loop, two sections of the Outer Loop and starting of the eastern Thruway connection from Bushnell’s Basin to Fairport Rd.

“The Rochester Engineer” (September 1955)

Not the first architect to preside over the RES, A. Harold Metcalfe provided, in this issue, a detailed description of the Powers Building, a unique and classic Rochester landmark. Built by Rochester businessman and banker, Daniel Powers, it was completed in 1871. Actually the culmination of four buildings, together with their various additions, its structural characteristics include wrought iron I-beams, fireproof construction materials and cast iron facing. Powers continued to add appurtenances to the structure, including a five-story tower, toward ensuring its position as Rochester’s tallest building, until near the end of the 19th Century.

“The Rochester Engineer” (October 1955) Designated “The Radio Engineers’ Number,” this issue, in support of the Rochester Chapter of the IRE, provides a schedule of the three-day annual conference of radio engineers, held in Syracuse, NY in October 1955. “The Sound System in Rochester’s Memorial Auditorium,” an article by Fred Manley, Acoustics Engineer, Stromberg-Carlson, describes Rochester-designed and manufactured system with the capacity to project clear, undistorted sound in ample volume into even the most remote corner of Rochester’s new Memorial Auditorium. It was designed following a detailed study of similar facilities, around the country, and it included the latest techniques and devices for voice reinforcement, music reproduction and central control equipment. It featured 29 different microphone circuits to provide maximum flexibility in control and communication.

Subsequent articles in this series will describe the RES' continuing outreach to other technical societies as it considered its role in this and the larger community, along with more of the activities of the RES as it moved to be of greater service to its membership, especially those suffering from the current economic crisis, and adopted a greater role in shaping the future of the City and its environs. Noted also, will be the contributions made by RES members in the struggle to meet the challenges coming out of World War II, as well as a hoped-for period of post-war growth and prosperity.

These articles will also feature an impressive array of RES activities in support of post-war re-emergence of Rochester area industry.We welcome your questions and comments on this series.

FEBRUARY 2014 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 5

RES News Join RES and the RMSC

edit r C H 1 PD r (each) d Fo pplie

Richard C. Shultz

Science on the Edge Lecture Series

Wednesday, February 19 6:30 to 9:00 pm

A

Eisenhart Auditorium on the Rochester Museum & Science Center (RMSC) Campus 657 East Avenue Rochester

Robert Sullivan

Recent Activities and Discoveries of the Mars Rovers Opportunity and Curiosity Two rovers are actively exploring the surface of Mars.

The MER Opportunity rover landed 10 years ago for a planned 90-day mission, and has been working hard ever since. The MSL Curiosity rover landed successfully and has been in search of clues about the ancient geologic history of Mars. Explore current activities and the latest discoveries from both rover missions, with implications for the past presence of water on Mars.

Robert Sullivan, Senior Research Associate, Cornell University

Wednesday, April 16 6:30 to 9:00 pm

6:30 - 7:30 pm Networking (Social Hour) 7:30 to 9:00 pm Lecture Pre-register at www.roceng.org This RES Pre-Lecture Social Hour and Networking includes Light Refreshments and a Cash Bar $25 per person (each lecture) Networking plus Lecture (Students are $8 per person for each) DETAILS ARE BEING FINALIZED AT PRESS TIME AND WILL BE POSTED ON THE WEBSITE.

Sara Brenner

Nanotechnology Landscape: Health, Safety, and Nanomedicine Applications

RMSC

Nanomedicine holds promise for truly innovative treatments.

From an economic perspective, nanotechnology applications are projected to impact nearly every known industry as well as create entirely new industrial clusters. The rapid growth and projected acceleration of nanotechnology also creates urgency in understanding, predicting and managing the potential health risks associated with occupational, environmental and consumer exposures to nanomaterials. Explore Dr. Brenner’s research and the impact of nanomaterials worldwide.

Sara Brenner, MD, MPH, SUNY College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering 6 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | FEBRUARY 2014

res news - call for nominations

s

RES News

Invite us to Come and Tell You About the RES Tutoring Team at Dr. Walter Cooper Academy We’ve held four information meetings, out in the community, on the RES Tutoring Team at Dr. Walter Cooper Academy. The Team is beginning to take shape. We now have ten tutors who have begun working with students in this K-6, RCSD school. We have assembled a schedule that matches their availability and the needs of the #10 School students, as defined by their teachers.

Our RES tutors, people who are willing to make room in their busy lives to help young people become proficient readers, are like eagles.

They don’t travel in flocks, rather, you have to find them one or two at a time. That’s what we’re doing by holding monthly Information Meetings to describe the FREE Partnership Tutoring Program, and to prepare potential candidates for the challenges ahead.

During these winter months, we think we have a better idea for spreading the word about tutoring at Dr. Walter Cooper Academy. Let us come to you!

We have a 30-minute Power Point presentation on the FREE Partnerships Program for tutoring K-6 children in the Rochester City School District. We propose that you let us come to your workplace

and do a “Lunch & Learn” presentation for you and your staff. The idea is to bring you up to date on what’s already happening in the City schools, and to open a conversation on what else might be possible, if we can find more people who are willing to take a couple hours from their work day to help a few of Rochester’s children learn to read.

Are you, someone in your company or household, a neighbor, a friend, interested in making a big difference in the lives of some of Rochester’s promising young people? Please consider inviting us to bring you an informative discussion about the need for, scope of and impact from this very effective tutoring program.

We have already begun to schedule these presentations, for the new year, at several local firms. Please consider taking us up on our offer by calling me, or the RES office.

We look forward to receiving your invitation… …Lee Loomis, Past President (2012-13) (585)738-3079 (cell), leeloomis46@gmail.com

Save the Date: Saturday, April 26, 2014

112th RES Annual Gala Rochester Riverside Convention Center 123 East Main Street, Rochester

Please consider being a sponsor at this annual event - it is your support that truly makes this a great event!

Sponsorships are now available.

Details and flyer on page 29 of this issue.

FEBRUARY 2014 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 7

Communications Technologies for Smart Infrastructures and Cognitive Networking

By Andres Kwasinski Evolution of networking and information processing technology is helping infrastructures become "smart" and ubiquitous connectivity become a reality through radio devices that are able to learn to operate in new wireless environments.

In the song "The Miracle" by the famous British rock band Queen there is a verse that says "If every leaf on every tree, could tell a story that would be a miracle". While it would certainly be a miracle for leafs to communicate by themselves, sensors and networking technology have come to a point where they are close to help realize this vision. Over the past decade, there has been a steady development of sensor networks built around architectures formed my many (possibly in the thousands, if needed) very small sensing nodes that work together measuring some useful information while consuming very little power. Since the sensing nodes are distributed over a geographical area, they need to be networked, frequently wirelessly, in order to coordinate operation and to communicate the result from the sensing operation. Sensor networks have been deployed in farms to monitor cattle and also crops, "telling the story" of their irrigation status and other health and growth variables. Sensor networks are also very valuable when used in infrastructures as the components that allow us to know the status for different elements in the infrastructure. In this way, sensor networks could be used to track the vehicular traffic in a city, the condition of bridges, or the energy consumption at different parts of the electric grid.

Yet, over the past decade, the idea of dense wireless sensor networks has grown and interacted with other technologies and ideas in communications technologies. One of these other ideas is Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). The idea of RFID is very simple: attach to an object a tag that allows through radio frequency electromagnetic waves to uniquely identify it. The idea of being able to identify objects is simple but powerful because when combined with the ultra-low power wireless networking and processing technologies found in sensor networks, it opens the door for the internetworking of a myriad of everyday objects. The combined use of sensor networks, RFID and other technologies, such as robotics, is applied today in state-of-the-art automatic warehouses, where robots can find and move around different objects. At the same time, the steady evolution of these technologies has got to the doorstep of the "Internet of Things" (IoT). The paradigm of IoT broadly refers to the idea of enabling everyday objects to communicate and become networked to the Internet. Once connected to the Internet, the objects may act as sensors and/ or be controlled at a distance. A typical application 8 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | FEBRUARY 2014

scenario that is foreseen for the IoT is in a building or a house.

The everyday objects that may be connected to the Internet may be simple light bulbs (in fact, Samsung is in the process of certifying with the Federal Communications Commission a "smart light bulb" that can be networked through Bluetooth), any appliances, the components for the heating and air conditioning system (WiFi-connected thermostat are easy to find on the market today), door locks, garage door openers, and many others. Bigger objects can also communicate with each other. For example, recent wireless communication standards aim at enabling vehicles to communicate with each other (called "vehicle-tovehicle" communications, V2V) and with other roadside objects (called "vehicle-to-infrastructure" communications, V2I), while autonomously forming networks that dynamically evolve with the vehicles' motion. Using V2V and V2I technology, the U.S. Department of Transportation is investigating how vehicles can communicate their position and status in order to prevent accidents. Nevertheless, V2V and V2I technology can also be applied, for example, to increase the traffic capacity of roadways by coordinating the motion of vehicles so they can travel in a platoon, separated by shorter distances and moving at higher speeds that what is possible with no coordination (Fig. 1).

Networking technology forming the IoT is now increasingly applied to make all types of infrastructure "smart". In this way, we are now seeing the development of the smart electrical grid (Fig. 2), intelligent transportation systems, smart cities and ambient intelligence in buildings. The IoT is just one component to realize

Fig. 1 Vehicle-to-vehicle technology enables vehicles to self-organize into wireless networks allowing, for example, for vehicles to coordinate movement and travel in tight, fast platoons. Vehicle-to-infrastructure technology allows vehicles to communicate with the transportation and other infrastructures. cover article

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A L a w s r a a s t t w n s e i s f

A i I I P C

e

smart infrastructures, the second is a computing layer that processes the information received from the different sensors in objects and issues adaptive commands that aim at a more effective, efficient or safe operation of the infrastructure.

Notably, wireless communications also owe their remarkable progress in the past two decades to the use of software computing in the radio devices. Indeed, the rapid evolution of radios from analog to digital technology, and from hardware-based to what is known as "software-defined radios" have enabled for the development of very sophisticated and powerful algorithms which have allowed for the remarkable improvement in wireless devices and network capabilities. Furthermore, for over a decade there has been a large research and development effort to leverage the capabilities inherent to a software-defined radio and equip wireless devices with levels of "intelligence" beyond adaptive digital signal processing algorithms in what is known as "cognitive radios" and "cognitive networking".

In the paradigm of cognitive networking, radio devices run software that allow them to sense the wireless environment, gain awareness of the environment status and learn how to adapt their operation to the dynamic changes in the environment. Important for a future of ubiquitous connectivity, an application area that had been studied for cognitive radios is "Dynamic Spectrum Access", which advocates the use of the cognitive capabilities in the radio devices to be able to find available spectrum bands and make better use of them during communication, even considering the sharing of a spectrum band with another incumbent network (Fig. 3). It is this later idea that has seen the first very simple implementations in the commercial arena with the development of technology to use digital television spectrum bands that are temporarily unused. In the near future, cognitive networking technology will be applied in the first truly fourth generation cellular systems, LTE-Advanced, to improve interference management.

Fig. 2 The Smart Grid as an example of a smart infrastructure.

At RIT's Networking and Information Processing (NetIP) Laboratory, we are investigating the use of cognitive networking as a technology to adapt resource allocation in wireless devices. This work is based on the idea that the wireless network environment seen by a device encompasses multiple layers of protocols and resource adaptation, from the one closest to the end user (the application), to the one closest to the wireless physical transmission, and including routing decisions, security considerations and the sharing of a band of radio spectrum with other network nodes. At the NetIP lab we are also actively investigating smart infrastructures that are designed to operate in a more environmentally sustainable way. One ongoing research project combines smart grid and cellular network technologies to develop a solution where cellular base station are powered a majority of time from renewable sources of energy. Another ongoing project combines the smart grid with intelligent transportation systems to research a network of charging stations for electric vehicles that receive power mostly obtained from renewable energy.

Andres Kwasinski (axkeec@rit.edu) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Engineering at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He is co-Director of the Networking and Information Processing Laboratory, Area Editor for the IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications and an IEEE Senior Member. cover article

Fig. 3 Cognitive radios will help develop ubiquitous seamless connectivity through the implementation of dynamic spectrum access technology.

FEBRUARY 2014 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 9

The Limited Monopoly™ Patent Misuse – A New Defense Against Patent Abuse?

by John Hammond, PE and Robert Gunderman, PE The Property Right – a Review

Regular readers of this column will recall that a patent is a property right1 – the right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention as described in the claim(s) of the patent. Infringement of the patent2 occurs when a third party does one or more of those actions with respect to one of the four classes of patentable subject matter (composition of matter, article of manufacture, apparatus, or method) that is covered by at least one claim in the patent.

In that situation, in order to obtain value from the patent, the patent owner (“patentee”) must proactively assert the patent. The USPTO is not responsible for enforcing patents and pursuing infringers. There is no government “patent police” station where an infringement complaint can be filed and the infringer brought to justice.

Infringement is a civil matter, and is adjudicated in a court of law.

Infringement Defenses

If it comes to that, i.e., an infringement lawsuit is filed, the alleged infringer (the defendant) will certainly assert one or more defenses. (If the defendant lacks at least some basis for defense, the matter will likely be settled out of court, and never reach a judge or jury.) The common defenses3 against an infringement complaint are non-infringement, invalidity, and unenforceability.

In asserting these defenses, the basic arguments typically used are as follows: infringement is not occurring, the patent is invalid because it does not meet the statutory requirements for patentability, and the patent is unenforceable due to inequitable conduct by a party involved in preparation or prosecution of the patent application. Of course, there are many specific aspects in asserting these defenses; a discussion of those is better left to a future column.

The Patent Misuse Defense3

An additional affirmative defense is patent misuse. In arguing patent misuse, the defendant must show that a patentee has broadened the scope or term of the asserted patent in a manner that harms competition. Broadening the scope of a patent would be an act where the patentee asserts the patent to extend beyond what it would otherwise cover. Broadening the term of the patent would include the patentee asserting protection of the patent or demanding some other benefit beyond the expiration date of the patent.

More specifically, the following acts have been found by the courts to be patent misuse by a patentee: 10 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | FEBRUARY 2014

"Our patent system is supposed to provide protection not only to large corporations, but also to small businesses and individual inventors. They deserve the opportunity to benefit economically from their patented inventions."

• Requiring a licensee of a patent to buy other products as a condition of obtaining the license.

• Attempting to collect royalties on a patent license after the patent has expired.

• Demanding that a licensee pay a portion of revenue from the sale of products not covered by the licensed patent, as well as from the sale of those products covered by the patent.

• Filing a patent infringement lawsuit that is objectively baseless, i.e. a suit that could not reasonably be expected to be successful on the merits.

The above list notwithstanding, the opportunity for a defendant to use a patent misuse affirmative defense is limited by statute. According to 35 U.S.C. § 271(d), if a patentee requires a licensee to obtain an additional license on another patented product or purchase another product, it is not patent misuse unless “the patent owner has market power in the relevant market for the patent or patented product on which the license or sale is conditioned.” Additionally, an act by a patentee to sue a third party who makes products that could be used to infringe the patent is also not patent misuse.

If a Court finds that patent misuse has occurred, it can be cured by terminating the action that is held to be misuse. In other words, if the patentee ceases the action held to be misuse, the patent again becomes enforceable. (This is in contrast to a finding of inequitable conduct, in which case the patent is held permanently unenforceable.)

The Patent Abuse Defense?

The recent actions and press coverage of “patent assertion entities” (PAEs), also known pejoratively as “patent trolls,” have caused demands for legislation that expands the definition of patent misuse.

PAEs are business entities that obtain ownership of patents, and then assert them against companies that they allege to be infringing the The Limited Monopoly

o f

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t t e

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patents. A PAE that practices a business model that only involves acquiring a portfolio of patents in a given technology area and “monetizing” it through licensing or patent litigation, rather than manufacturing a product covered by the patents, is also often referred to as a “non-practicing entity” (NPE).

Many of those who are advocating for patent law reform are opposed to the notion that a patentee that owns a patent but does not manufacture any product covered by the patent should be able to derive economic benefit from it. However, there is nothing in the current statutes that requires that a patentee must be engaged in manufacturing the invention claimed in the patent in order to assert the right to exclude others from doing so. Moreover, Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution states that Congress shall have the power… “To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.” It does not say “manufacturers,” or “inventors who manufacture.”

It is important to keep in mind that our patent system is supposed to provide protection not only to large corporations, but also to small businesses and individual inventors. They deserve the opportunity to benefit economically from their patented inventions, regardless of whether or not they have the means to start up and operate a manufacturing plant to produce them. Any attempt to amend the patent statutes to require a patentee to manufacture a product covered by its patent should be viewed with great skepticism.

On the other hand, there is no question that some PAEs have engaged in baseless lawsuits, and that the practice has been growing.

They operate on the premise that because patent litigation is so expensive, even in an infringement lawsuit that is baseless and would likely get dismissed, they can likely extract a royalty payment from a target company that is an acceptable profit to them, while being less than the cost the target company would spend to get to the point of dismissal in court. Additionally, in recent years, the range of target companies has broadened significantly to include not only manufacturers of patented products, but also the end users, such as small and large retailers and service providers. It can reasonably be said that some PAEs engage in a form of patent misuse.

New Laws on the Horizon

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In response to the growing base of those affected, Congress is currently addressing this issue. On December 5, 2013, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 33094, the “Innovation Act.” The Bill has now been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, and has a fair chance of being enacted in at least some form in 2014. Among the reforms contained in H.R. 3309 are the following: • Requiring greater specificity in infringement lawsuits, including an identification of each claim of each patent that is allegedly infringed, and for each claim identified, “an identification of each accused process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter… alleged to infringe the claim,” and for each of these accused “instrumentalities,” “where each element of each claim identified… is found within the accused instrumentality.”

• Greater transparency of ownership of the asserted patent, including the requirement that the plaintiff discloses the names of all parties who have a financial interest in the patent litigation.

• Protection of end users of the alleged infringing product. This provides relief to end users, particularly small businesses being sued in

y

The Limited Monopoly

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addition to the manufacturers of products that they use. The Court may be granted a stay of the action against them until the overall case between the plaintiff and the alleged infringing manufacturer is resolved.

• Delay of the discovery phase of patent litigation. Currently, the discovery phase, in which a defendant must provide thousands of pages of e-mails and other relevant documents, occurs relatively early in the proceedings. Delay of discovery will reduce the early litigation costs, thus motivating defendants to fight rather than simply pay up and settle out of court.

• “Loser pays.” The Court can award “reasonable fees and other expenses incurred by that party in connection with a civil action in which any party asserts a claim for relief arising under any Act of Congress relating to patents.” This may well be the greatest disincentive to file an infringement lawsuit that does not have substantial merit.

A Balancing Act

In the debate over this new round of patent law reform, large corporations have generally been in favor of H.R.3309. Interestingly though, a few large corporations are hedging their bets by forming their own NPEs. For example, Rockstar Consortium Inc., formed in 2011, is owned by numerous companies including Apple, Microsoft, Research in Motion, EMC, Ericsson, and Sony. RCI acquired more than 4000 patents from Nortel in its bankruptcy proceedings, and is now enforcing them. RCI has sued Google, Samsung, HTC, LG Electronics, as well as other companies.

Large corporations that are not playing both sides would much prefer legislation that prevents the “patent trolls” from blocking the manufacturing and sales bridges they want to cross without paying a toll. Although they don’t say so, they would also like to be able to ignore the small startup company with innovative patented technology, and enter a new market without being concerned with any annoying patents. We hope that does not become a consequence of passage of H.R.3309. We shall see in 2014 and beyond.

1. See “The Limited Monopoly™” December 2005.

2. See also “The Limited Monopoly™” April 2008.

3. See also “Patent Misuse, Exploring the Basics,” Gene Quinn, IPWatchdog®, http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2011/11/18/patentmisuse-exploring-the-basics/ 4. See https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/hr3309/text PHOTO CREDIT: “Patent Abuse,” R.D. Gunderman and J.M. Hammond Authors John M. Hammond P.E. (Patent Innovations LLC, www. patent-innovations.com) and Robert D. Gunderman P.E. (Patent Technologies LLC, www.patentechnologies.com) are both registered patent agents and licensed professional engineers. They offer several courses that qualify for PDH credits. More information can be found at www.patenteducation.com.

Copyright 2014 John Hammond and Robert Gunderman, Jr. Note: This short article is intended only to provide cursory background information, and is not intended to be legal advice. No client relationship with the authors is in any way established by this article.

FEBRUARY 2014 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 11

Get to the Point!

Too Many Choices: Phone, Text or Email?

We have several methods of delivering a message. We can phone a person and either leave a message or have an immediate conversation with them. We can send an email message to one or more people to inform, persuade, or request. And now, text messaging is becoming an increasingly used business tool. Each tool has benefits and pitfalls depending on your message and audience.

Use the Phone:

There is a trend today to avoid telephone calls, especially with the younger generations. We believe this comes from two distinct fears: 1. The fear of being tied up in a conversation that is longer than you anticipated.

2. The fear of being put on the spot to answer questions you may not be prepared for.

Phone calls not only build relationships but they allow you to have immediate answers to questions and provide an opportunity for real dialogue with the other person. Be considerate of others' time by asking if this is a good time to speak and offering a timeframe: “I have 5 minutes to talk with you.” Before you dial a number, always prepare to receive voice mail and formulate your message in advance.

Use the phone when 1. your questions may lead to further questions, 2. you are trying to connect and build a relationship, 3. your message will benefit from the natural tone of your voice, or the message may be disturbing or painful to the recipient.

Tips on leaving a voicemail message: • State your name, affiliation and phone number.

• State your reason for calling.

• State any action plan or action required on your message.

Cell phone etiquette: • Don’t take calls in the middle of a business meeting or a conversation with another person. Exceptions are when you receive an urgent call, but excuse yourself first before taking it. Likewise, set your ringer to silent or your phone to just vibrate mode when in a social setting.

• Never talk in intimate settings or places where silence is imperative.

Examples are elevators, libraries, museums, restaurants, cemeteries, theaters, dentist or doctor waiting rooms, places of worship, auditoriums or other enclosed public spaces, such as hospita emergency rooms or buses.

• Don’t talk on a cell phone in a public place. A good rule to keep is the 10 feet rule --- answer calls at least 10 feet away from the next person!

• If you really have to take a call in public, step away to take that call.

You can also set your phone to voicemail when going out in public.

If you really must take the call, answer briefly to say you’re in a public place and that you will return the call as soon as possible.

• Keep business calls within business hours. Just because it’s a cell phone doesn’t mean that you can call anytime.

Use Email:

Email is supposed to make our lives easier but how do we find time to deal with the quantity of messages? The average professional receives 30-50 messages a day. (Depending on your job function, this could be very low.) Too much time is spent sitting at desks, reading and writing 12 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | FEBRUARY 2014

messages. If the message is not clear, concise and complete, it will generate more confusion and possibly more emails!

Email can be very fast and you can send one message to multiple people. It also provides a history or record which can be a benefit (or a risk). A quick email can eliminate the chit-chat of a phone call or faceto-face discussion but it does remove some of the human connection.

You will have to use your words to “warm up” the tone, but keep it professional.

Use email when • you are communicating with several people at once, • your message is complex and your audience may need time to think about it, • attachments of other documents will help explain an idea, or • when it is important to have a record of what transpired.

Use Texts:

There was a time when most business consultants advised not to use text messages within a professional setting. This is changing but be aware of the limitations. The perception is that your receiver will be sure to receive a text message right away, but this is not true if they don’t acknowledge it or if the phone is off.

Use text messaging when • you are communicating with someone who is comfortable with texting, • your message is simple and is easily responded to, • you need to connect with someone immediately, • your audience may not have access to email, or • you don’t have the time or desire for a phone conversation.

Just like cell phones, we need to learn some etiquette about texting with others around. When you are in a meeting, a conversation, or in a group, avoid being distracted by an incoming text message or by initiating a text message. It shows lack of interest, respect and attention for the people you are with. This is true even if you are not participating in the conversation because you are still expected to be attentive and listening. Multitasking is an excuse for being rude.

Although short conventions for spelling words and cryptic ways of structuring sentences is becoming the norm for text messages and Twitter, we discourage it from our professional texting. You are still creating an image of yourself, your organization, and your message and you don’t want to look sloppy, lazy, or confusing. Practice good communication skills even with this technology.

Please email me at LisaM@rgilearning.com with questions or comments for a future article. Online instruction on how to write effective reports and proposals is available at www.rgilearning.com. © 2013, RGI Learning Lisa Moretto is the President of RGI Learning, Inc. For 20 years she has helped engineers improve their oral and written communication skills. Visit www.rgilearning. com or call (866) 744-3032 to learn about RGI’s courses. get to the point

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Go to the RES Web Site for Updated Details On All Meetings - www.roceng.org

Continuing

Education Opportunities

Monday, February 10

Thursday, February 27

1 PDH Credit Pending

Replacement of the Albany Turnpike Bridge over CSXT

American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) 36 Electronically Commutated Motor (ECM) Technology

Rochester Engineering Society (RES)

6

Networking before the Lecture Series 1 PDH Credit Applied For

(Join the RES and the RMSC Richard C. Shultz Science on the Edge Lecture Series) Speaker: Robert Sullivan, Senior Research Associate, Cornell University Place: Rochester Museum & Science Center, Eisenhart Auditorium, 657 East Avenue, Rochester Time: Networking (cash bar and light refreshments from 6:30 to 7:30pm; Presentation 7:30 to 9:00pm Cost: Networking Only - $10; Networking and Lecture - $25 (Students - $8) Reservations: Advance registration required for the lecture.

Pre-register at www.roceng.org.

Clean Agent Fire Suppression Systems

Speaker: Alden Spencer, Tyco Fire Protection Products Place: Valicia’s Ristorante, 2155 Long Pond Road, Rochester Time: 12:00 noon to 1:30 pm Cost: $20 per person (check or cash at door) Reservation: Adam Kramer (585-341-3163), or akramer@ibceng.com by February 17th.

Support Your Affiliate Attend A Meeting

Illuminating Engineering Society (IES)

37

Place: RIT Inn & Conference Center, 5257 West Henrietta Road, West Henrietta Time: Noon to 1:00 pm (Registration opens at 11:30 am) Cost: $25 ($40 with Credits) Reservations: Reservations with your dinner choice (Cheeseburger on Kaiser Roll, Grilled Chicken Sandwich, or Caesar Salad with grilled Chicken) by February 26th to ceckert1@rochester.rr.com , or call the IES office at 585-766-0329. Website: www.ies-rochester.org.

Tuesday, March 11, Thursday, March 13, Tuesday, March 18 Illuminating Engineering Society (IES)

Three IES Courses:“Daylighting” – 3 PDH Credits

37

Presented by Chris Jensen, PE, LEED GA

Wednesday, February 19 1 PDH Credit Pending

Wednesday, March 5

LED Dimming & Control – 1 PDH Credit

“Recent Activities and Discoveries of the Mars Rovers Opportunity and Curiosity”

American Society of Plumbing Engineers (ASPE)

33

1 PDH Credit Speaker: Michael Cooper, PE, Bergmann Associates Place: Classics V Restaurant, 2425 Niagara Falls Blvd., Amherst, NY Time: Cash bar from 5:30 to 6:30; Buffet dinner at 6:30 pm.

Cost: Members $25, Non-members $25; Students $10 Reservations: Kevin Miller, 716-852-3211 or kmiller@bergmannpc.com.

Speaker: Mark Hunt, Wilo USA Place: Mario’s Italian Steak House &Catering, 2740 Monroe Avenue, Rochester Time: 12:00 noon to 1:30 pm Cost: $25 per person (check or cash at door) Reservations: www.rochester.ashraechapters.org.

Wednesday, February 19

Association for Bridge Construction and Design (ABCD)

"Light & Health" - 1.75 PDH Credits Presented by Michael Trippe, LC, MIES

44

"Vision + Color" - 3 PDH Credits

Presented by Joe Dombrowski, PE Place: M/E Engineering, 150 North Chestnut Street, Rochester Time: 5:30 to 8:00 pm Cost: $125 ($150 after 2/25). All three seminars $300 ($350 after 2/25). Includes student manuals.

Reservations: Space is limited and pre-registration is required.

Seminar brochure and registration form can be found on the web site at www.ies-roch.org or by contacting Chuck Eckert at ceckert1@rochester.rr.com , or 585-766-0329.

Engineers’ Calendar continued on next page...

To post continuing education opportunities on this page please contact the Rochester Engineering Society, 585-254-2350, or email: res@frontiernet.net. continuing education

FEBRUARY 2014 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 13

Engineers’ Calendar The engineering societies are encouraged to submit their meeting notices for publication in this section. The deadline for submitting copy is the 10th of the month prior to the month of publication. Please email to: res@frontiernet.net. The meetings offering PDHs are highlighted in blue. Details about the meeting and affiliate (if in this issue) are on the corresponding page listed next to the affiliate name.

Tuesday, February 4

Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Rochester Section Meeting

Wednesday, February 12

Society for Imaging 46 Science and Technology (IST)

Place: Hibachi Sushi Buffet Restaurant, South Town Plaza, Jefferson Road, Henrietta.

Time: 12:00 noon.

Comment: Any member is welcome to attend and to participate, or just to observe. Lunch is $3 for IEEE member. No reservation or RSVP is needed, just show up.

An Introduction to the New Kodak: A Technology Company Focused on Commercial Printing

31

Speaker: Nancy S. Ferris, PhD, Director, Kodak Research Labs, Eastman Kodak Company Place: Room 1275 of the Carlson Center for Imaging Science, RIT Time: 6:00 pm Reservation: Everyone is welcome to attend. Reservations not needed.

Parking is available in the F Lot, just north of the building.

Saturday, February 8

41 Tuesday, February 18 Independent Delta Academy and Delta GEMS Outreach Session Time: 10:00 am to 12:00 pm Entrepreneurs Council (IEC) Society of Women Engineers (SWE)

Place: Monroe Community College Visit the website for details – www.swerochester.org.

Comments: We are looking for volunteers to serve as mentors for this 2-hour program. Contact Rochester SWE at swe.rochester@swe.org to volunteer.

Monday, February 10

Electrical Association (EA)

Annual Electrical Week Luncheon

“Recent Activities and Discoveries of the Mars Rovers Opportunity and Curiosity”

36

Speaker: Mark Hunt, Wilo USA Place: Mario’s Italian Steak House &Catering, 2740 Monroe Avenue, Rochester Time: 12:00 noon to 1:30 pm Cost: $25 per person (check or cash at door) Reservations: www.rochester.ashraechapters.org.

Electrical Association (EA)

14 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | FEBRUARY 2014

(Join the RES and the RMSC Richard C. Shultz Science on the Edge Lecture Series) Speaker: Robert Sullivan, Senior Research Associate, Cornell University Place: Rochester Museum & Science Center, Eisenhart Auditorium, 657 East Avenue, Rochester Time: Networking (cash bar and light refreshments from 6:30 to 7:30pm; Presentation 7:30 to 9:00pm Cost: Networking Only - $10; Networking and Lecture - $25 (Students - $8) Reservations: Advance registration required for the lecture. Pre-register at www.roceng.org.

American Society of Plumbing Engineers (ASPE) 1 PDH Credit Pending

44

40 Clean Agent Fire Suppression Systems

Intro to PLC’s Presentation – Interactive presentation with Vendor Show!

Place: Wishing Well Party House, 1190 Chili Avenue, Gates Time: Tabletop Vendor Show at 4:30 pm; Presentation at 5:00 pm Reservations: Advance registration required, guests always welcome (guests only $15 each) Visit www.earoch.com for details and registration.

6

Networking before the Lecture Series – 1 PDH Credit Applied For

Electronically Commutated Motor (ECM) Technology 1 PDH Credit Pending

Tuesday, February 11

30

Speaker: Lee Drake, OS-Cubed Place: Radisson Hotel, 175 Jefferson Road, Rochester Time: 7:30 to 9:30 am Reservations: Reservations are required. Contact Bob Lewis, 585-385-2087.

40 Wednesday, February 19 Rochester Engineering Society (RES)

Speaker: Matt Hurlbutt, Executive VP & COO, Greater Rochester Enterprise Place: Midvale Country Club Visit www.earoch.com for details and registration.

American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE)

Computing and Competing with Office365

Speaker: Alden Spencer, Tyco Fire Protection Products Place: Valicia’s Ristorante, 2155 Long Pond Road, Rochester Time: 12:00 noon to 1:30 pm Cost: $20 per person (check or cash at door) Reservation: Adam Kramer (585-341-3163), or akramer@ibceng.com by February 17th.

engineers’ calendar

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Wednesday, February 19, continued Association for Facilities Engineering (AFE)

Tour RIT – Golisano Institute for Sustainability

Saturday, March 1, continued 39

Place: GIS Building located on the north west side of the campus.

Parking in Lot T or J is the closest.

Time: Tour at 5:30 pm; Dinner at ~7:00 pm.

Dinner: DelMonicos Italian Steakhouse, 125 Spruce Blvd., Rochester Cost: $25 for members; $30 for non-members.

Reservations: Reservations with dinner choice (Sliced Sirloin, Chicken Riggies with Rigatoni, or Broiled Haddock) by February 14th to Josh Murray, joshm@rl-stone.com, 585-203-1222.

Thursday, February 20

Genesee Valley Land Surveyors Association (GVLSA)

42

Board of Directors Meeting

Place: 40 & 8 Club, 933 University Avenue, Rochester Time: 6:00 pm Details: www.gvlsa.com

International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE)

Electric Vehicle Charging: Infrastructure Standards & Metrology Methods

43

Thursday, February 27

33

Replacement of the Albany Turnpike Bridge over CSXT 1 PDH Credit

Speaker: Michael Cooper, PE, Bergmann Associates Place: Classics V Restaurant, 2425 Niagara Falls Blvd., Amherst, NY Time: Cash bar from 5:30 to 6:30; Buffet dinner at 6:30 pm.

Cost: Members $25, Non-members $25; Students $10 Reservations: Kevin Miller, 716-852-3211 or kmiller@bergmannpc.com.

Saturday, March 1

Association for Bridge Construction and Design (ABCD)

Place: RMSC, 657 East Avenue, Rochester Time: 11:00 am to 1:30 pm or 1:30 to 4:00 pm.

Contact Bill VanAlst at 585-272-7310 or email him at wvanalst@larsen-engineers.com for more information, or to volunteer.

Wednesday, March 5

Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) LED Dimming & Control – 1 PDH Credit

37

Place: RIT Inn & Conference Center, 5257 West Henrietta Road, West Henrietta Time: Noon to 1:00 pm (Registration opens at 11:30 am) Cost: $25 ($40 with Credits) Reservations: Reservations with your dinner choice (Cheeseburger on Kaiser Roll, Grilled Chicken Sandwich, or Caesar Salad with grilled Chicken) by February 26th to ceckert1@rochester.rr.com , or call the IES office at 585-766-0329. Website: www.ies-rochester.org.

Society of Women Engineers (SWE)

Volunteers Needed for Science Saturday

41

If you are available to help with hands-on activity please contact Jodi Carville at jlceee@rit.edu.

SWE website: swe.rochester@swe.org

Thursday, March 13

Genesee Valley Land Surveyors Association (GVLSA) Webinar Re-Broadcast

42

Place: Erdman Anthony Time: Board of Directors at 6:00; Webinar at 6:30 pm Details: www.gvlsa.com

ADDITIONAL MEETINGS ARE POSTED ON THE WEBSITE AT www.roceng.org

Wednesday, March 5 PEAC (formerly PSMA)

Advance People Skills - Four High Impact Moves for Team Leadership

Speaker: John Engel, Owner of Leadership Coaching

34

RIT Hockey and Pregame Party and Student Outreach Program – RIT Tigers vs. Canisius Hockey Game

Pre-game Location: College of Applied Science and Technology Building (#82) on the RIT Campus adjacent to parking lot J. Hockey game in the Ritter Arena.

Time: Pre-game party (pizza, wings, and soft beverages) from 4:15 to 6:00 pm. Faceoff at 7:05 pm.

Cost: Adults $15; RIT Staff/Alumni $10, Students $5. The price includes ticket and pregame party.

Comments: The event is planned as a family event so please bring your spouse/family and potential student(s).

Reservations: Contact Tom Frys at 585-753-7741 or tfrys@monroecounty.gov or Marilyn Bullard, 585-475-2183 or mabite@rit.edu. engineers’ calendar

32

Volunteers Needed for Science Saturday at RMSC

Saturday, March 8

Speaker: Ted Bohn, Argonne National Laboratories Time: Meeting Introduction/Featured Presentation at 6:00 pm; Adjourn and Networking at 7:15 pm Location: There are many sites which will have telephone conference access and will display the presentation.

Details on the website: www.incose/org/flc. The local location is at RIT, Bldg. 82, Room 1150. Contact Clark Hochgraf at cghiee@rit.edu for a reservation. This meeting is open to non-members.

Association for Bridge Construction and Design (ABCD)

American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)

Inn on the Broadway 26 Broadway, Rochester

Time: 7:30 to 9:30 am Cost: The cost is $20 per member and $40 for non-members.

Reservations: Please contact Laurene Hofmann at hofmann65@yahoo.com by February 24th.

For questions contact Laurene at 585-233-3268.

The RES website (www.roceng.org) has a calendar of events for these meetings and many others. Please refer to the website for updated information. If you wish to be listed on the calendar please send the details to res@frontiernet.net.

FEBRUARY 2014 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 15

Professional Firms Employee News Passero Associates Congratulates Peter Wehner

Passero Associates congratulates Associate and Senior Project Architect Peter Wehner, AIA, LEED® AP BD+C on being appointed Chairman of the Irondequoit Planning Board for a second twoyear term. Mr. Wehner, a long-time Irondequoit resident and active member of the community, has also been awarded a seven-year term as a member of the Planning Board.

Mr. Wehner serves as senior project architect for Passero Associates. He has over 26 years of architectural experience in various types of projects including real estate development, general construction, design-build, and new and renovation projects. Mr. Wehner holds a masters of architecture degree and a bachelor of arts degree in design from Clemson University in South Carolina. q

Peter Wehner, AIA

Ravi Engineering Announces Justin Roloson Received his PLS License Ravi Engineering & Land Surveying, P.C. announced that Justin Roloson, L.S, has received his Professional Land Surveying License.

Mr. Roloson, a graduate of SUNY Alfred, has 13 years of diversified experience in boundary, topographic and ALTA surveys, construction stakeout, and the preparation of basemapping using AutoCAD/Civil 3D. Justin has also been instrumental in setting up our Civil 3D standards and developing Ravi’s ability to provide machine control models. q Justin Roloson, PLS

Bud Knapp, AIA Retires from SWBR Architects SWBR Architects principal and architectural department director Bud Knapp, AIA, will retire this month (January) after 22 years of work for the firm.

Knapp has been involved in the corporate management of SWBR, serving on the Board of Directors and several committees as part of the firm’s Bud Knapp, AIA leadership. “Bud has been an integral part of our team over the past 22 years,” said Dave Beinetti, president of SWBR Architects. “His wealth of knowledge and dedication to SWBR have been essential to the firm’s success. We are so proud of all that he has accomplished and wish him the very best in his retirement.”

Upon retirement, Knapp plans to work on his cars, practice photography on a higher level and take on small architectural projects.

“Architecture is what I love,” Knapp said. “I will continue to work on small projects for churches and my friends. It’s very humbling to have spent almost a quarter-century with a 16 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | FEBRUARY 2014

talented team and an outstanding company like SWBR. I am leaving the firm with so many great memories and friends.”

Throughout his career, Knapp designed several high-profile projects, including Roberts Wesleyan College’s Cultural Life Center, First Bible Baptist Church in Greece and Corning’s Country Club Clubhouse. He worked on several independent and care facilities for adults throughout the Rochester region, along with numerous Dorschel Automotive buildings.

Prior to coming to SWBR, Knapp served as President of Architectural, PC, as a partner of Lawson, Knapp & Pulver Architects, and architectural designer and draftsman at Todd & Giroux Architects. Before becoming an architect, Knapp joined the Army completing basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey and attending the School of Military Photography at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey where he became an instructor.

After serving in the Army, he received his bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Arizona and studied automotive engineering at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Mich. He also received his associate of applied science in automotive technology from Morrisville State College. q professional firms employee news

News From Professional

Firms

SWBR Architects Announces Completion of Two Projects SWBR Architects announced the completion of independent senior living community, Rockwood Center. The $5.2 million project included the development of 43,006 square feet of 40 affordable senior apartments with associated resident common areas. It is located at 3833 East Henrietta Road in Henrietta, N.Y. Rockwood Center is part of Episcopal SeniorLife Communities and is adjacent to its existing Brentland Woods Assisted Living Community. It was named after Rockwood Jenkins, a former administrator for The Episcopal Church Home, which is owned by Episcopal SeniorLife Communities. Rockwood Center features 40 apartments in its two-story building, with an elevator. Apartment amenities include full kitchens, including stove, range and refrigerator, central air conditioning, washer and dryer hookups, abundant closet space, walk-in showers and more.

SWBR was responsible for the architectural design services for the project. It was completed in September 2013.

news from professional firms

“This independent senior living community is another great resource for those living in this area looking for an affordable senior living option,” said E. Joseph Gibbons II, project manager and principal of SWBR. “We had a successful grand opening of Rockwood Center and we’re eager to see the impact this will have on the lives of those who reside there.”

SWBR Architects also recently completed a renovation project for the Rochester City School District’s Enrico Fermi School 17, located at 158 Orchard St. in Rochester, N.Y. The firm served as lead architect on the project, which was completed in September. A ribbon cutting to officially open the new building was held in September.

The project consisted of a 39,250-squarefoot, two-story addition to the school and the renovation and modernization of the entire building.

SWBR was responsible for all architectural, structural and interior design for the project.

Renovations included a two-story addition which comprises a gymnasium, cafeteria,

kitchen, classrooms, music rooms, entrance lobby and associated spaces. The design also included demolition of 5,700 square feet of temporary classroom structures.

The project also included renovations of 76,500 square feet of existing space ranging from heating, ventilation and air conditioning, and plumbing and electrical systems to flooring, wall and ceiling finishes, and other specialties.

“We’re proud to serve as lead architect on another education-sector project in our community,” said Steve Rebholz, AIA and a Principal at SWBR Architects. “By completely renovating and modernizing this school, the students will now experience a higher-quality educational environment. The building will also serve the entire Jay-Orchard Street neighborhood by providing access for community programs.”

SWBR also designed major alterations for the school’s library, science rooms, art rooms, family and consumer science room, and the main office. q News from Professional Firms continued on page 20...

FEBRUARY 2014 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 17

Position Openings (continued on page 19)

18 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | FEBRUARY 2014

position openings

Position Openings, continued (continued on page 23)

SuStainable PreServation SPecialiSt The Image Permanence Institute (IPI) at Rochester Institute for Technology (RIT) is seeking a Sustainable Preservation Specialist to join their staff to provide environmental consulting services to cultural institutions on best practices for operating mechanical systems to save energy while maintaining an environment that enhances the preservation of collection materials.

Candidates should have: • A strong working knowledge of mechanical system functions, environmental data analysis and sustainable operation • Willingness to learn from experts in the field of material preservation and collection care Required qualifications: • Minimum of three years’ experience in facility management, mechanical engineering, project management, or mechanical system design and analysis is preferred • Bachelor’s Degree or Certification in a related field or equivalent training and experience is required • Ability to frequently travel both nationally and internationally To view the full job description and application instructions visit: http://careers.rit.edu/staff/ and click on “Search Openings.” Enter 895BR in the keyword search.

Save the Date: Saturday, April 26, 2014

112th RES Annual Gala Rochester Riverside Convention Center 123 East Main Street, Rochester

Please consider being a sponsor at this annual event - it is your support that truly makes this a great event!

Sponsorships are now available.

RIT does not discriminate. RIT is an equal opportunity employer that promotes and values diversity, pluralism, and inclusion. For more information or inquiries, please visit RIT/TitleIX or the U.S. Department of Education at ED.Gov. RIT provides reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities, veterans or wounded warriors where appropriate. If you need reasonable accommodation for any part of the application and hiring process, please contact the Human Resources office at 585-475-2424 or email your request to careers@rit.edu.

Determinations on requests for reasonable accommodation will be made on a case-by-case basis.

position openings | res gala

Details and flyer on page 29 of this issue.

FEBRUARY 2014 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 19

News From Professional

Firms

Costich Engineering Announced the Creation of a Dedicated Landscape Architecture Department The department will be headed by Mr. Chris Centola. Mr. Centola is a licensed landscape architect and LEED AP with more than 25 years of experience. He has provided landscape design for commercial sites, office parks, educational facilities, residential developments, public parks, trails, streetscapes, boardwalks, and athletic facilities. In addition, Mr. Centola is experienced in site selection, master planning and creating award-winning site designs that include site, planting, and grading plans, material selection, and approval and coordination with municipalities and regulatory agencies.

Mr. Centola will be assisted by Ms. Sarah Costich King and Mr. Evan Gefell. Sarah holds a bachelor of landscape architecture from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science & Forestry, is an Associate Member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, and is a LEED Green Associate. She is experienced in visual analysis, site layout and landscape design. Evan received a bachelor of landscape architecture from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science & Forestry, and has worked on urban planning projects, waterfront development, park designs and presentation graphics.

The new Landscape Architecture Department will focus on delivering superior client work in: • Landscape/Planting Design • Natural and Synthetic Turf Athletic Field Planning and Design • Feasibility Studies • Master Planning • Photo Simulations and Visual Analysis • 3D Modeling and Presentation Graphics • Charettes and Meeting Facilitation

These capabilities add to Costich’s current services that include Civil Engineering, Site Planning, and Land Surveying, and, will add value to current capabilities including: • Recreational and Waterfront Facilities • Commercial and Retail Developments • Residential Developments • School and Institutional Developments • Urban Planning • Industrial and Office Park Developments

Submit Your News Releases to Lynne Irwin at res@frontiernet.net by the 10th of the month previous to the issue you want it to be published.

20 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | FEBRUARY 2014

news from professional firms

Announcing the

2014 Engineering Symposium in Rochester Earn up to 7 PDHs Sponsored by

Rochester's Technical and Engineering Societies and RIT

Tuesday, April 8, 2014 Courses available in:

Civil, Electrical, Lighting, Mechanical, HVAC, and Plumbing.

Radisson Hotel Rochester Riverside 120 East Main Street, Rochester

Time: 7:30 am to 6:30 pm $120 Advance Registratin $20 Student Registration $150 AFTER March 25, 2014 and at the Door

Registration WILL BE online at www.roceng.org soon.

See next page for tentative topics and speakers.

The Monroe Chapter of NYSSPE, in accordance with ADA compliance, will make every attempt to provide reasonable accommodations for those requiring additional services to participate in our educational programs. If you should require such services, please contact Lynne Irwin at the Rochester Engineering Society (res@frontiernet.net or 585-254-2350) to request support by March 25, 2014.

2014 engineering symposium

FEBRUARY 2014 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 21

22 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | FEBRUARY 2014

2014 engineering symposium

Position Openings, continued

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FEBRUARY 2014 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 23

Campus News Ringing a Different Tune: Students Engineer Robotic Chimes Class in engineering design tools and principles produces music made by technology

Recording artist John Mayer may not have intended his composition “Gravity” to be played on chimes, but the rendition created by undergraduate engineering students came very close to the original tune.

Armed with a mixed box of parts and equipment—from sensors and gear motors to bamboo sticks and metal piping—teams of students from an engineering design tools course in RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering, were asked to design robotic chimes programmed to play recognizable songs.

The project was more than putting together a few pipes.

Students had to determine acoustical frequencies, build three-dimensional computer-aided design, or CAD, models of the chime structure and test the end product’s mechanical function as well as song quality.

Over the semester, the students were able to learn about, and apply, foundational engineering concepts and techniques, such as moments of inertia and frequency domain analysis, they would use for subsequent undergraduate coursework.

And it was also a chance to make good music.

“We brainstormed song ideas and decided on “Kids” by MGMT because it’s so distinctive,” said Evan Mori, a first-year mechanical engineering student from Latrobe, Pa. Once the song selection was made, there were multiple steps in the design process. Mori and his teammates, Alaysia Gilbert, Brenna Lewis and Collin Cragon, predicted the length of each pipe needed for their song based on a theoretical model of beam vibration, their measurements of pipe diameters, and estimated values for the pipe’s material properties.

“They’d hit the pipes, measure the sound, look at the frequency spectrum, and see how close they got to their original prediction,” said Mario Gomes, assistant professor of mechanical engineering.

Gomes worked with Elizabeth DeBartolo, associate professor of mechanical engineering, to devise the overall project concept for the new class as RIT transitioned from the quarter system to semesters. The class is an opportunity for students to learn the various elements necessary to design and manufacture

a new product prototype. It is a required course for all RIT’s engineering students and involves not only learning the design process, but also about project management and team communications.

“When we re-organized the curriculum for semesters, the mechanical engineering faculty thought it would be good for our students to have a course that combined CAD, machine shop and also, for the first time, an introduction to design, at the freshman level, as we hadn’t had that before,” Gomes explained.

At the start of the class, the goals and constraints for the design problem were given to the students, and the teams began brainstorming structural options and sketching their ideas.

Gomes provided each student team with an identical kit of parts consisting of common electrical conduit, lumber, popsicle sticks, adjustable DC gear motors, and switches.

Gomes and graduate student Konrad Ahlin designed and built, custom electrical test boxes.

Mechanical engineering students put the finishing touches on robotic chime machines they built during the fall semester as part of an Engineering Design Tools course. The students learned about different engineering design principles and techniques while building their musical technology. Photo by M. Cometa

Although each team was given an identical kit of parts and the same goal—to play a recognizable song with at least five different notes—designs varied widely.

Some were elaborate, tall structures with pipes in the center; others were flat, boxed designs with clappers running across the different pipes in sequence.

Mori’s team chose a pulley system to move the clappers along the main structure: “It seemed the most reliable of the process choices, especially for our song.”

Songs included seasonal classics such as “Christmas Bells” to favorites like “The Pink Panther” theme and “Keyboard Cat.”

notes,” said Lucas Jackling, with a laugh. The second-year mechanical engineering student from Fillmore, N.Y. enjoyed the experience of working in teams, and getting a chance to understand the latest technology.

NOTE: This course was taught through a team approach with several mechanical engineering faculty and staff participating with Gomes: Marca Lam, mechanical engineering lecturer, taught the CAD component; Jan Maneti, Rob Kraynik and Dave Hathaway instructed the machine shop lab component on how to safely operate machine tooling and fabricate parts from drawings. q

“Ours was semi-complicated, but we have 10

24 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | FEBRUARY 2014

campus news

s

Santosh Kurinec Addresses Qatar Foundation’s Annual Research Conference RIT engineering professor discusses projected growth and global challenges in the solar photovoltaic industry Santosh Kurinec, professor of electrical and microelectronic engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology, was one of several leading researchers who spoke on global trends in alternative energies at the Qatar National Research Foundation annual conference.

During her talk, “Silicon Photovoltaics: Materials, Manufacturing and Market,” Kurinec discussed RIT’s research and development in this area, specifically about the field of silicon photovoltaics, and detailed current market research about different solar cells and their efficiencies, how manufacturability is improving, and the scale of applications around the world.

Solar energy was the second largest source of new electrical-energy capacity in the United States this past year, according to the U.S. Solar Energy Industries Association. Global developments also reached record capacity as current installed solar photovoltaic capacity produced “as much electricity as 16 coal power plants,” according to the European Photovoltaic Industry Association.

has declined substantially in recent years, it opens up opportunities to make cell structures more advanced by learning from the semiconductor chip industry,” she added.

Santosh Kurinec ( left) was part of a panel discussing next generation energy capabilities at the Qatar National Research Foundation Conference, Nov. 23-25 in Doha, Qatar. She was joined by Christopher Ballif, faculty at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland, and Nouar Tabet, researcher at Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute, to discuss advances in photovoltaics. Photo by Adrian Haddad Photography

At RIT, Kurinec and the facultyresearchers in the microelectronic engineering department, part of the university’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering, are focused on reducing the cost of solar cells by replacing silver, a substance used for contacts in solar cell metallization, with copper. The National Science Foundation’s Industry and University Cooperative Research Center, Silicon Solar Consortium, support these key projects; the latter is based at Georgia Tech and North Carolina State University.

Kurinec and her research team are part of this center.

During the panel discussion, participants asked Kurinec about bottlenecks in getting solar technologies to users, how can investing in solar technologies be encouraged, and what other improvements are on the horizon in solar cell development.

“The challenges in integrating copper are similar, however, with different requirements, to those encountered by the chip industry back in the ’90s when aluminum was degrading the performance due to its relatively lower conductivity and vulnerability to electromigration. Introduction of copper, having higher conductivity and resistant to electro-migration, was enabled through innovative developments of diffusion barriers, deposition and planarization techniques. For solar cells, copper diffusion posed challenges as it degrades minority carrier lifetime in silicon.

Photovoltaic community can learn from the way chip industry developed copper diffusion barriers,” Kurinec explained.

“As the cost of polysilicon, the baseline material used in silicon photovoltaics,

The Qatar Foundation’s annual research conference, which took place this past

“Normally when people work in a research lab, they work in small scales, one cell, few cells, but the scales are incredibly huge,” she said, adding that solar cells are being mass- produced because of innovations in manufacturing processes and increasingly companies, as well as residential customers, are using the technology.

campus news

November, is an international forum to support initiatives in the areas of energy, security, integrated health care, mobility and road safety and human capacity.

Since 2010, the Qatar government has invited international researchers in these areas to share development information and solutions. This year, the conference focused on three challenges: water security, energy security (photovoltaic and energy storage) and cyber security.

Industry leaders, corporate research and development teams and members of academia attend the conference.

It was the first time Kurinec participated in the event. She was part of a threeperson panel on energy and the environment that included professors from universities in Switzerland and the host country.

“Qatar is an oil-rich nation, but they are also putting a lot of effort into renewables,” she said. “And that could be a lesson, if an oil-rich country is spending on renewables, we in the United States can and should do that too and not become complacent with sights on shale revolution. The U.S. needs a balanced energy portfolio, including solar and nuclear, for domestic energy needs, climate control as well as global trade.” q Campus News continued on next page...

FEBRUARY 2014 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 25

Campus News RIT and National Taiwan University of Science and Technology Sign International Partnership Agreement Educational programs will provide degrees in electronic and computer engineering Rochester Institute of Technology entered into an international educational partnership agreement on Dec. 1 with National Taiwan University of Science and Technology to provide an accelerated, five-year program for students to obtain a Bachelor of Science degree from the Taiwanese university and a Master of Science degree from RIT. Under the agreement, students would study for three years in Taiwan, earning a bachelor’s degree in electronic and computer engineering, electrical engineering, or computer science and information engineering. They would follow up with two years in the United States at RIT, receiving a master’s degree in computer engineering from RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering.

“The international BS/MS program provides opportunities for students to gain a broader and international perspective through the expedited degree program,” says Shanchieh Jay Yang, department head of computer engineering in the engineering college.

“Computer engineering at RIT will complement the students’ education in three closely related undergraduate programs at NTUST, in not only handson engineering education but also research experience as part of the computer engineering MS degree requirement. This partnership can further foster research collaboration between NTUST and RIT, enabling interdisciplinary advances in both institutions.”

Shanchieh Jay Yang

The first students in the program are expected to enroll in fall 2014.

RIT has more than 30 international educational agreements that provide student and faculty exchanges, increased educational opportunities and expanded research collaborations. A similar partnership program was initiated recently between RIT’s Saunders College of Business and Beijing Jiaotong University in China. Other agreements have been established with government organizations and agencies around the world, including Rwanda, Libya, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Malaysia, the Dominican Republic, Brazil and Peru, said Diane Ellison, assistant vice president, Part-time and Graduate Enrollment Services at RIT. “The agreements provide opportunities for students and faculty in Rochester to connect and interact with others globally,” she added.

The National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, located in Taipei, is known for its applied research in engineering disciplines, science and the humanities, promotion of entrepreneurship and university-industry cooperation.

“This program is an excellent example of faculty leadership and cross-divisional collaboration leading to international partnerships and opportunities,” says James Myers, RIT’s associate provost of international education and global programs. “Dr. Yang had the vision for the program and led its development through his connections in Taiwan. Offices in Academic Affairs and Enrollment Management have supported his vision and worked closely together to create a very innovative model. Of course, our colleagues in Taiwan have been central to the process and have excellent partners to work with throughout.” q

26 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | FEBRUARY 2014

campus news

s

Students on the Job This summer I worked as a co-op for L-3 Communication Cincinnati Electronics (CE) in Mason, Ohio. I worked as an Avionics Packaging Design Engineer for space communication systems. These systems are integrated in rockets to enable communication and data analysis during launch and flight, as well as satellites to enable communication back to Earth.

At CE I worked with printed wiring boards; designing, modeling and creating drawings for manufacturing build. This job allowed me to work closely with a large field of multi-disciplinary engineers and participate in engineering design review boards to critique designs and maximize the quality and efficiency in the design at the lowest cost possible. One major achievement while at CE was leading the mechanical chassis design of a test fixture for satellite applications. This allowed me to develop a concept, design, and model according to the customer’s specifications, as well as the standards given by the Department of Defense. In this project I worked hand-in hand Megan O’Connell with electrical engineers, software engineers, mechanical engineers and department managers to develop a complex electro-mechanical product. One positive and rewarding experience was being able to sit in on engineering design reviews for ‘big-name’ companies such as NASA and Boeing to pitch our designs. This was an awesome experience because I was participating in the cutting-edge technological design review for new high innovative products.

This co-op was rewarding to my student-working experience because it allowed me to see the full spectrum of a product. It began with the customer developing the concept, designing to meet key specifications, revising the design until it is final and lastly manufacturing the product. Machine Design, system dynamics and heat transfer were key classes which aided my work at CE. Failure analysis is critical for space applications due to the extreme environmental conditions and vibrations which systems go through. These core classes helped me design more efficiently to minimize stress fractures and thermal impacts on the system.

Overall this co-op has been a great experience for my development as an engineer. It was a completely different direction than my previous four co-ops, but I was pleasantly surprised how much I grew and developed from jumping into a different engineering role. This co-op has helped focus me, as I move towards graduation in December. I now can confidently say what I am looking for in an engineering position and the types of positions which will allow me to challenge and apply myself daily. But further, it has allowed me to understand important attributes of a company which will push me and enhance my growth as an engineer in return.

For students looking to enhance their education in a co-op experience, my one suggestion is to try as much as you can. Try design, try manufacturing, try small companies and large corporations. Try everything. So much growth can happen doing roles you dislike, as in positions you like. By doing this, it will help you to fully understand the broad spectrum of engineering options which are available for you!

Megan O’Connell Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Rochester Institute of Technology

students on the job

FEBRUARY 2014 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 27

Save the Date!

Mark Your Calendar for

Saturday, April 26, 2014

112 Annual Gala th

at the Rochester Riverside Convention 123 East Main Street, Rochester

Center

We are pleased to announce that Jennifer Johnson,

Anchor/Reporter, 13WHAM News will again be our Emcee

Be there to honor all the Finalists and congratulate the recipients of the 2013 Engineer of the Year, 2013 Kate Gleason Young Engineer of the Year and 2013 Engineers of Distinction and celebrate the awarding of over $35,000 in Scholarships Enjoy Dining & Entertainment

Eight Beat Measure from RIT Dinner reservations will be posted on the website soon.

Sponsorships Now Available 28 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | FEBRUARY 2014

Rochester Engineering Society

112 ANNUAL GALA th

Saturday - April 26, 2014

 Sponsorship and Advertising Commitments must be reserved no later than Friday, January 24, 2014 to be included in pre-event branding opportunities (invitation). Company Logos in both black & white and color (high quality PDF, TIFF, or JPEG file format) need to be submitted

by February 10th to be included in the "Rochester Engineer" and the dinner program. We encourage sponsorship right up to the event. Call (254-2350) or email (res@fontiernet.net for details.  Advertising Copy for the dinner program must be submitted electronically, in black & white, by February 17, 2014.

Remit to: Rochester Engineering Society 657 East Avenue Rochester, New York 14607 res@frontiernet.net www.roceng.org

Honoring Engineer of the Year Young Engineer of the Year Engineers of Distinction Scholarship Recipients RECEPTION

CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES  Diamond Sponsor - $5,000

Primary Gala Sponsor Exclusive Naming Rights for Reception 10 Gala Tickets with Reserved Seating Company Name on All Printed Materials

and Media Communications Full Page Corporate Profile in Rochester Engineer Magazine Full Page Corporate Profile in Gala Program Book Prominent Recognition on RES Web Site with Link to Company Web Site Corporate Logo Display throughout Gala Recognition during Gala Opening/Closing Remarks One-year Complimentary RES Corporate Membership Opportunity to Distribute Sponsor-supplied Gift with Corporate Name/Logo

 Platinum Sponsor - $2,500

4 Gala Tickets with Reserved Seating Company Name on All Printed Materials and Media Communications Corporate Logo Display on Banner during Gala Recognition during Gala Opening/Closing Remarks Half-Page Corporate Ad in Rochester Engineer Magazine Full-Page Corporate Ad in Gala Program Book Prominent Recognition on RES Web Site with Link to Company Web Site Opportunity to Distribute Sponsor-supplied Gift with Corporate Name/Logo

 Gold Sponsor - $1,500

2 Gala Tickets with Reserved Seating Company Name on All Printed Materials and Media Communications Corporate Logo Display on Banner during Gala Recognition during Gala Opening/Closing Remarks Quarter-Page Corporate Ad in Rochester Engineer Magazine Half-Page Corporate Ad in Gala Program Book Prominent Recognition on RES Web Site with Link to Company Web Site

 Silver Sponsor - $1,000

2 Gala Tickets with Reserved Seating Company Name on All Printed Materials and Media Communications Corporate Logo Display on Banner during Gala Recognition during Gala Opening/Closing Remarks Quarter-Page Corporate Ad in Gala Program Book Prominent Recognition on RES Web Site with Link to Company Web Site

 Bronze Sponsor - $500

Company Name on All Printed Materials and Media Communications Corporate Logo Display on Banner during Gala Recognition during Gala Opening/Closing Remarks Quarter-Page Corporate Ad in Gala Program Book (at 25% Discounted Rate)

ADVERTISEMENT OPPORTUNITIES      

EMCEE

Jennifer Johnson, Anchor/Reporter, 13WHAM News

Back Cover (4” x 7”) Inside Front Cover (4” x 7”) Inside Back Cover (4” x 7”) Full Page (4” x 7”) Half Page (4” x 3 ½”) Quarter Page (4” x 1 ¾”)

$500* $450* $400* $350 $200 $100

*Only one advertisement available on a first response basis.

Name:

ENTERTAINMENT

Title: Company: Address: Eight Beat Measure RIT

City, State, Zip: Phone & Fax: Email: Enclosed is a check payable to the “Rochester Engineering Society”

res news - gala sponsorship

FEBRUARY 2014 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 29

Rochester NY Chapter

Independent Entrepreneurs Council "The Junction of Technology, Manufacturing, & Business Development"

Vision Statement: Chairman/Moderator Ralph Kraft R. Kraft, Inc. 585-621-6946 Program Director Robert Lewis AdviCoach 585-385-2087 Treasurer Richard Blazey Business Metamorphosis LLC 585-520-3539 Web Master Richard Blazey Business Metamorphosis LLC 585-520-3539 Event Planner Rick Rivers The Rivers Organization 585-586-6906 Community Outreach Terry Rogelstad Pfeiffer Vacuum 585-330-9713 Dave Bassett Basset IP Strategies 585-739-9726 Lee Drake OS-Cubed 585-765-2444 Dennis Roote CDE Engineering & Environment PLCC 585-330-6986

To become the preeminent resource for maximizing visibility, viability, and connectivity for the regional community of technology-based independent entrepreneurs and microbusinesses.

Monthly Breakfast Series Radisson Hotel - 175 Jefferson Road, Rochester, NY Time: 3rd Tuesday of each month 7:30 am to 9:30 am Reservations Required Contact Bob Lewis for reservations, 585-385-2087

February 18, 2014: Lee Drake, OS-Cubed Computing and Competing with Office365 - This meeting will

be held at the Radisson Hotel

Lee Drake, a Microsoft Cloud Accelerate Partner will review Microsoft's Office365 and Azure small business offerings. He will discuss how to cost effectively move your small business solution to the cloud.

Speaker Biography: Lee Drake has extensive speaking experience. He's spoken on topics such as computer security, programming best practices, building content managed websites, building online communities, virus and spyware prevention, social media, and a variety of other computer-related topics.

Lee has built a world-wide following of users who rely on him to get up-to-date computer, security, social media and information technology news.

In addition, Lee has participated in a number of discussion panels on wide-ranging business-related topics, including health insurance for small businesses, legislative issues for NYS businesses, workmen's comp, 240/241 reform, and Medicaid/Medicare reform.

He participated in a panel sponsored by then Senator Hillary Clinton on the challenges of providing health care to small businesses.

As a member of the Rochester Professional Consultants Network Lee has spoken on panels ranging from computer solutions for small businesses, building an online presence for your consulting organization, web advertising, and search engine optimization, to the challenges of building a consulting organization.

As 50% owner of Aztek Computer Solutions, Inc., Lee helped build a Rochester Top 100 company. As President and CEO of OS-Cubed, Inc., Lee is well on the way to creating his next Top 100 company

If you are a “technology-based independent entrepreneur” or own (or hope to someday own) a “technology-based microbusiness,” then IEC is for you. Please consider joining us at our monthly luncheon meetings (typically held the first Friday of each month at the Radisson on Jefferson Road near RIT). Contact any one of the members listed to the left for additional information.

30 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | FEBRUARY 2014

iec news

Rochester Chapter

Society for Imaging Science and Technology Website: http://rochesterengineeringsociety.wildeapricot.org/ISandT

Save the Dates: 2014 Meeting Schedule February 12, 2014 - "An Introduction to the New Kodak," by Dr. Nancy Ferris (Kodak Director of Research) March 19, 2014 - Body Composition Through Imaging

by Jon Riek, CTO of Virtualscopics Inc. April 9, 2014 - "Firefly Fluorescence Imaging," by Dr.

Guan We/Dr. Hani Rashid (URMC) May 21, 2014 - Touchscreen Technology by Paul J. Tompkins (Corning) Our meetings are held at 6:00 pm in room 1275 of the Carlson Center for Imaging Science Building on the RIT campus. Everyone is welcome to attend. Parking is available in the F Lot, just north of the building. No meeting reservations are required.

February IS&T Meeting Wednesday, February 12, 2014 An Introduction to the New Kodak: A Technology Company Focused on Commercial Printing presented by Nancy S. Ferris, PhD, Director, Kodak Research Labs, Eastman Kodak Company

Abstract:

Over the past two years, Eastman Kodak Company has experienced several major transitions, including business restructuring under a Chapter 11 process. In 2013, the Company emerged from Chapter 11 as the new Kodak – leveraging a long heritage of strong technologies with a renewed business focus on Commercial Printing. The Kodak businesses are now framed by a range of proprietary Kodak technologies that enable high quality, high-speed digital printing, package printing and functional printing.

An introduction to the new Kodak will include a description of some product offerings from the company along with the technology platforms that are the focus of Kodak’s continued investment to create new applications in new markets.

These technology platforms will include aspects of materials science, deposition science and interfacial systems control.

In combination, these technologies enable the expansion of commercial printing into areas of functional and additive printing which provide new print solutions – beyond graphics - into expanding markets. Several examples of the scientific work which underwrites these technology platforms will be included in the presentation.

Call for Nominations

Nominations are being sought by the Rochester Chapter IS&T Nominating Committee for: President, VP Programs, VP Membership, Recording Secretary, and Treasurer, all of which are one year terms. Councilor candidates will be considered for two year terms. is&t news

Speaker Biography

Dr. Nancy Ferris is currently the Director, Kodak Research Labs and Vice President of the Kodak Technology Center, Eastman Kodak Company. She has over 30 years of experience in technology research and technology leadership.

Currently at the Kodak Research Laboratories, Dr. Ferris oversees the primary, scientific invention investment for Kodak and directs a staff of scientists engaged in research in the fields of materials science, device physics and image science.

As a staff scientist, Dr. Ferris’s work included characterization of complex material interfaces and she is published in this field. For the past 16 years she has held various leadership positions in Analytical Science, Materials Science, Computational Science and Device Physics. Dr Ferris holds a Ph.D. in Physical Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Texas at Austin and completed Executive Leadership Development programs at Smith College and Northwestern University.

Participate in our active IS&T local governing body that has provided dynamic monthly meetings on topics on the frontiers of imaging science for more than fifty years! To discuss the requirements for the positions or to email candidate profiles, please email James M. Gotta at jim.gotta@xerox.com.

FEBRUARY 2014 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 31

Rochester Section

American Society of Civil Engineers www.asce.org

ASCE Board Editorial

by Thomas Zaso, PE, ASCE Rochester Section President

Future Civil Engineers Hard At Work!!!

On December 29th and 30th the Career Guidance “hands-on” booth was set up at the annual Holiday Science and Technology Week event at the Rochester Museum & Science Center. Large crowds at the museum passed by the booth, with young and old alike stopping by to make their own batch of concrete or learn how to design a bridge with the West Point Bridge Builder software. Thanks to RPI student Collin Sowinski and RIT Students Kurt Melvin and Tyler Becker, Ergin Akbas (Iberdrola), Mackenzie Zimmerman (Bergmann Associates), Jim Baker (Foundation Design), Jim Scancarello (Atlantic Testing), Kelly Cholewa (O’Brien & Gere), Carl Buchman (PCANY), Harry Cooke (RIT) and Bill VanAlst (Larsen Engineers) for helping out at the booth and providing guidance to our future civil engineers!

ASCE is also scheduled to be at the Rochester Museum & Science Center on March 1, 2014, with our exhibit, as the feature group for Science Saturday (and in celebration of Engineer’s Week). This is a great opportunity to let the public know what civil engineering is all about.

We hope to highlight local projects as part of the exhibit. We are asking area firms to contribute a posterboard highhting a local project for display during the weekend. We are also looking for volunteers to staff the booth from 11:00 am to 1:30 pm or 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm. Please contact Bill VanAlst at 585-272-7310 or e-mail him at wvanalst@larsen-engineers.com for more information, or to volunteer!

Don't forget to visit the ASCE Rochester website at www.ascerochester.org for the latest Section News and Upcoming Events!!!

Congratulations to Sam Anthony for his advancement to the membership grade of Fellow in ASCE!!!

ASCE Mobile/Tech

ASCE has continued to develop communications to it's members through mobile publication or e-mail of many of their publications. The Civil Engineering Magazine, a monthly, which has received numerous accolades, has an app which you can download to your smart phone or tablet. The magazine looks great on a tablet.

The 2013 Report Card of America's Infrastructure is also available through the app store. This pocket guide reviews many areas of this nation's infrastructure including, condition and capacity, investment and funding, conclusions and solutions, with success stories and videos. A separate section with links to state report cards is also provided.

ASCE's Smartbrief is a daily newsletter with articles on national civil engineering projects, technology updates, business tips, job boards, and smart quotes. You can sign up through www.asce.org.

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ASCE News provides content on the activities of it's members and is intended to promote the interest and participation in Society programs. The digital newspaper provides opportunities to learn what other members are doing to promote the profession.

If you are more of a social application user, My ASCE provides a location in which you can interact with colleagues and groups associated with ASCE, similar to Facebook, but restricted to ASCE members. Login at www.asce.org.

This is a brief column intended to inform the reader on the operation of the ASCE at the state, region and national levels. Topics for discussion are encouraged and your comments are appreciated.

Russell Porter, P.E., M.ASCE, LEED AP (rporter@members.asce.org) Region 1 Governor asce news

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FEBRUARY 2014 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 33

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abcd news

abcd news

FEBRUARY 2014 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 35

Rochester Chapter

American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers Rochester ASHRAE website: www.rochester.ashraechapters.org

President's Message

For those of you that are professional engineers, you know that it is often difficult to get the required professional development hours required to maintain your license.

We are fortunate in Rochester that a group of professional societies, of which ASHRAE is one, have put together the Rochester Engineering Symposium. The Rochester Engineering symposium is being held at the Raddison (120 East Main Street) in Rochester on Tuesday, April 8, 2014. This is an all day event where seven professional development hours are available. It is a great deal and an efficient way to satisfy your professional engineering license requirements. This year’s ASHRAE presentations at the Engineering Symposium are being set up by Michelle Sommerman, so many thanks to her for that.

This month is our annual ASHRAE Valentine’s Dinner Dance. It is being held at the beautiful Colgate Divinity School (1100 South Goodman Street) in Rochester on February 7, 2014. This is a great event and is well attended every year.

Most of the reason for the success of the event is due to the efforts of Jody McGarry. Every year Jody outdoes herself to pull off a perfect evening.

Many thanks to Jody again this year.

Jeff Ellis is still looking for some Rochester Chapter members to help out with the nomination committee.

If you are willing to help out, it is a light time commitment and would make Jeff’s job a lot easier. The basic requirements are to suggest potential board members and then to confirm that they are interested.

After the committee performs this duty, the nominees are voted on by the chapter as a whole. Jeff is also still looking for individuals you know would make a good ASHRAE Rochester Chapter officer. Please let Jeff Ellis know if you have someone in mind.

FEBRUARY NEWSLETTER

Date: Monday, February 10, 2014 Place: Mario's Italian Restaurant, 2740 Monroe Ave · Rochester Time: 12:00 Noon

Joint Meeting with AEE - 1 PDH Credit Pending "Electronically Commutated Motor (ECM) Technology," by Mark Hunt The purpose of this presentation is to make the specifying engineering community aware of the technological advancements being made with regard to water circulation pumps. More precisely the incorporation of Electronically Commutated Motor (ECM) technology, heretofore used exclusively for air based system only here in the United States of America.

Patented by General Electric in 1969, EC Motors have proven to be extremely energy efficient when compared to the standard AC motors typically used in air handling devices and are recognized by the United States Department of Energy with the Energy Star rating.

EC Motor technology connected to water pumping systems was introduced in Europe in 1999 and has since proven to be vastly more efficient when compared to their AC counter parts. Horse power to horse power, the EC Motors realize electrical savings up to 80% resulting in lower operational costs and lower carbon emissions.

By utilizing EC Motors coupled with Permanent Magnet Rotors, variable speed control is achievable while maintaining optimum motor efficiency throughout the turndown range by the complete elimination of “motor slip”.

In essence, turning a asynchronous motor into a synchronous motor, again through the use of Permanent Magnet Rotors.

The course will also outline different control strategies available with the ECM equipped pumps when used in hydronic heating systems, chilled water systems, geothermal systems, domestic hot water re-circulation systems as well as solar heating applications. BMS capabilities such as LON, Bacnet and MODbus are also discussed.

Case studies provided will show empirical data proving the Kilowatt savings as well as return on investment figures for comparison to standard AC motors including AC motors equipped with Variable Frequency Drives.

Current size offerings will also be discussed, along with head and flow capabilities that are currently available among the different manufacturers offering EC Motor equipped pumps and circulators.

A question and answer session will follow to assess whether the course was sufficiently presented and that any clarification that might be required is addressed at that time.

Bio: Mark Hunt entered the PHVAC industry in 1980, working for a large mechanical contractor in Saratoga, New York. He spent 22 years in the field as an installation and service technician and ran his own company from 2002 until 2007. This experience allows him to bring a “hands on” perspective to his training sessions.

He is experienced in the design, installation and service of DWV plumbing systems, domestic water distribution, forced air systems and specialized in water based systems including steam, gravity and forced hot water systems, radiant and snow melt systems, chilled water systems as well as solar and geo-thermal systems.

A strong proponent of energy conservation and energy efficient products, he was an active participant in the New York State EnergySmart program. After completing the required Building Science curriculum, he held certifications from the Building Performance Institute as an Energy Auditor, Heating Specialist and Combustion Analyst.

Mark began his career with Wilo USA in August of 2007 as the Training and Technical Services Associate for the eastern United States, his goal being to introduce the Wilo product line and innovation to the United States. In 2009 he was made the National Training Manager.

Robert J. Wind Jr., PE, 2013-14 Rochester ASHRAE President 36 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | FEBRUARY 2014

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Illuminating Engineering Society - Rochester Chapter P. O. Box 23795, Rochester NY 14692 585-766-0329 www.ies-rochester.org

Three IES Courses IES Lighting Seminars provide comprehensive instruction on lighting.

They are designed by the Illuminating Engineering Society.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm

Wednesday March 5, 2014

LED Dimming & Control

Daylighting

Challenges, Responses, Techniques and Associated Costs

Thursday, March 13, 2014

LED solid-state lighting (SSL) provides benefits over existing light sources, such as long life and energy savings. But the technology behind SSL comes with new challenges and new methods of control.

Presented by Chris Jensen P.E., LEED GA

5:30 pm to 7:15 pm

Light & Health

Presented by Michael Trippe, LC, MIES

Tuesday, March 18, 2014 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm

Vision + Color

Presented by Joe Dombrowski, PE

Open to anyone interested.

These seminars are designed for individuals who work in the lighting field on a daily basis and need a refresher course or need to learn the essential elements of good lighting.

Participants eligible for:

Each seminar qualifies for PDH’s / IES CEU’s / AIA LUs with HSW or USGBC credits: Daylighting 3.0, Light & Health 1.75, Vision + Color 3.0 [7.75 credits for all three seminars].

Classes held at: M/E Engineering 150 North Chestnut St., Rochester NY 14604 Each Seminar $125 [$150 after 2/25]

All Three Seminars $300 [$350 after 2/25] Includes Student Manuals

Space is Limited - Pre Registration Required Seminar Brochure and Registration Form can be found on our web site www.ies-roch.org or by contacting Chuck Eckert at ceckert1@rochester.rr.com or 585-766-0329 ies news

March Meeting

This one hour program will cover several of the techniques and technologies that are utilized to dim and control LED sources.

Dimming Methods: Mains Dimming (Leading Edge & Trailing Edge), 0-10V Dimming, and Intelligent Architectural Lighting Systems (DMX, Ethernet, and DALI).

$25 [$40 with Credits] Payment required at the door.

Cash, check or credit card 1.0 PDH or IES CEU credits approved RIT Inn & Conference Center 5257 West Henrietta Rd West Henrietta NY 14586 Luncheon Choices: Cheeseburger on Kaiser Roll with Potato Crisps Grilled Chicken Sandwich on Kaiser Roll with Potato Crisps Caesar Salad with Grilled Chicken House-made Asiago Crisps and Classic Caesar Dressing 12:00 Noon—1:00 pm [registration opens at 11:30 am] Please reserve by 2/26 Space is limited email to ceckert1@rochester.rr.com or call the IES office 585-766-0329.

Be sure to include your menu selection.

FEBRUARY 2014 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 37

Monroe Professional Engineers Society

A Chapter of the New York State Society of Professional Engineers 657 East Avenue, Rochester, New York 14607 Dedicated to Professionalism in Engineering in the Interest of Public Safety and Welfare www.monroepe.org

2013-14 Officers: President Dan Curry, PE, President-elect Joe Dombrowski, PE, Treasurer Neal Illenberg, PE, Membership Chair Timothy M. Webber, PE

2014 Engineering Symposium - Up to 7 PDHs April 8, 2014 - Monroe Chapter & Others Location: Radisson Hotel, Main St., Rochester, NY Time: 7:30 am to 6:30 pm Register at www.roceng.org (when finalized) More details coming!

Most of you reading this article are likely already professional engineers, but are you prepared to answer a question from a young engineer when asked; “why should I pursue a professional engineer license.” Whether a recent college grad or a seasoned engineer, the P.E. after your name is a crucial advantage that opens doors and gives you a leg up on others for the rest of your professional career. For students, choosing to start on the path to licensure is one of the most important decisions they will ever make.

The licensure process demands an extra measure of competence and dedication and is the mark of a professional. While not all engineers find it mandatory to obtain their license for a chosen career, the P.E. initials after their names can provide many advantages such as the following:  Licensed professional engineers are regarded as being more dedicated, with enhanced leadership and management skills.  Licensed engineers achieve an enhanced status in the eyes of the public.  Licensure is an indicator of dedication to integrity, hard work, creativity, and competence.  Only licensed engineers may prepare, sign and seal, and submit engineering plans and drawings.  Many Federal, State, and Municipal agencies require that certain governmental engineering positions be filled only by licensed professional engineers.

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 For those considering a career in education, many states are starting to require those individuals teaching engineering to be licensed.  Engineers in the military must have the credentials to stay with the service in the face of downsizing or to make the transition to the private sector.  P.E.’s are respected by the public and are seen in the same light as licensed professionals in other fields.

P.E.’s are also held in high esteem by their peers within the engineering community, who see the PE as part of an elite group.  Employers are impressed with engineers who have their P.E. license. Licensure not only enhances your stature, it shows commitment to the profession and demonstrates heightened leadership and management skills.  P.E.’s can be in responsible charge of a firm in private practice or serve as a fully qualified expert witness.  options and it may protect you during industry downsizing or outsourcing.  Studies have shown that most P.E.’s earn higher pay throughout their business careers.

If you are asked “why should I try to obtain my P.E. license,” feel free to share some of the above points taken from the NSPE website or just refer them directly to http://www.nspe.org/Licensure/WhyGetLicensed/ index.html for more information. As always please feel free to contact me or any other MPES board member should you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Dan Curry, P.E., President – MPES dan.curry@optimation.us

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Rochester Chapter No. 21

Association for Facilities Engineering February 2014 Meeting Notice

2013/14 BOARD OF DIRECTORS PRESIDENT Dan Friday Bay View Family YMCA (585) 341-3225 danf@rochesterymca.org VICE PRESIDENT Josh Murray R L Stone Co. Inc. (585) 203-1222 joshm@rl-stone.com

Date/Time: Wednesday, February 19, 2014 – 5:30 p.m.

Tour: RIT - Golisano Institute for Sustainability

SECRETARY Matthew Knights UltraFab (585) 924-2186 ext. 221 mknights@ultrafab.com TREASURER Frank St. George J.T. Mauro Co. (585) 210-4491 fstgeorge@jtmauro.com ASSISTANT TREASURER Craig Avalone CHA Companies (585) 232-5610 CAvalone@chacompanies.com IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT Jeff Bidell CHA Companies (585) 232-5610 x307 jbidell@chacompanies.com DELEGATE DIRECTORS Joseph R. Graves – RMSC Fred Schreiner – Buckpitt and Co. Mark Ramsdell – Haley & Aldrich CHAPTER HISTORIAN Joe Dioguardi – MicroMod

The Golisano Institute for Sustainability (GIS) is a multidisciplinary academic unit of the Rochester Institute of Technology. The mission of GIS is to undertake world-class education and research missions in sustainability.

We will tour this unique building to see design aspects exemplifying sustainability.

Directions:

The GIS building is located on the north west side of the campus. Parking in Lot T or J is the closest.

Dinner:

DelMonicos Italian Steakhouse 125 White Spruce Blvd Located off East Henrietta Road, Across from MCC and the County Jail

CHAIRMAN, EDUCATION COMMITTEE Thomas Coburn The Gleason Works (585) 461-8073 tcoburn@gleason.com

Dinner Selections are:  Sliced Sirloin with garlic mashed potatoes  Chicken Riggies with Rigatoni pasta, bell peppers  Haddock – (Broiled)

CHAIRMAN, COMMUNICATION COMMITTEE Bryan D. Stalk Crosby-Brownlie, Inc. (585) 325-1290 bstalk@crosbybrownlie.com

Cost:

CHAIRMAN, MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE Kurt Finkbeiner (585) 671-7771 kfinkbeiner@rochester.rr.com

afe news

Members - $25

Non Member - $30

Please RSVP by February 14th to: Josh Murray joshm@rl-stone.com (585) 203-1222 FEBRUARY 2014 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 39

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Rochester Section

Society of Women Engineers c/o RES at the RMSC, 657 East Avenue, Rochester, NY 14607 www.swerochester.org ASPIRE • ADVANCE • ACHIEVE

2013-2014 Executive Board ROCHESTER SECTION President Carol Richardson carite@rit.edu Vice President Jodi Carville, RIT jlceee@rit.edu Secretary Dr. Marca Lam RIT marca.lam@swe.org Treasurer Jacqueline Tyson Xerox Corporation jacqueline.tyson@swe.org Council of Representatives Mary Barker Steblein LaBella Associates D.P.C. mary.steblein@swe.org Membership Chair Dr. Cheryl Hanzlik RIT cahanzlik@gmail.com Awards/Scholarship Chair Jeanne Christman RIT jxciee@rit.edu Newsletter Editor Susand Aurand Xerox Corporation susan.aurand@swe.org Feel free to contact any of us with questions, comments, or concerns. Email can be directed to swe.rochester@swe.org

SWE Scholarship “Dough Raiser” Help support the SWE Scholarship fund while enjoying a delicious meal at Uno’s Chicago Grill on Wednesday, February 5th. Just bring a copy of this voucher with you and give to your server when you pay your bill. A portion of your bill will be donated to our scholarship fund. Good for lunch or dinner, takeout or eat in at the Webster and Henrietta Uno’s on February 5th only.

Thank you to all of our donors on ROC-the-DAY! SWE raised over $1000 towards our scholarship fund during this one-day event. If you were not able to contribute in December, and would like to, we will gladly accept donations of any size at the address at the top of this page.

February 8, 2014 – Delta Academy and Delta GEMS Outreach Session

SWE will be facilitating an interactive engineering session for girls ages 11-18 who participate in the Delta Academy and Delta GEMS (Growing and Empowering Myself Successfully) programs run by Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. These programs expose participants to educational, leadership, and community service opportunities. We are currently looking for volunteers for this 2-hour program. Please contact Rochester SWE at swe.rochester@swe.org to volunteer. The program will be held at Monroe Community College (MCC building 10-158) on Saturday, February 8th from 10:00 to 12:00 pm.

March 8, 2014 – Science Saturday at RMSC

SWE will be presenting a hands-on activity to patrons of the RMSC on Saturday March 8th as part of their Science Saturday program. If you are available to help with our activity for an hour or two, please contact Jodi Carville at jlceee@rit.edu.

March 28-30, 2014 – SWE Region E Conference

The Region E conference will be held at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA, March 28-30, 2014. Registration is due by March 14. For more information, go to http://www.sweregioneconference.org.



The Society of Women Engineers inspires women to achieve full potential in careers as engineers and leaders; expands the image of the engineering profession as a positive force in the quality of life; and demonstrates the value of diversity.

swe news

SWE members participated in a panel discussion on Life Balance issues with the University of Rochester SWE Student Section on December 8th.

If you are interested in becoming involved on a committee, please contact Carol Richardson at carite@rit. edu. Visit http://societyofwomenengineers.swe.org/index.php/membership for more information about joining SWE. Visit us online at www.swerochester.org and Like our SWE Rochester page on Facebook.

FEBRUARY 2014 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 41

Genesee Valley Land Surveyors Association Website: www.gvlsa.com

Year 2014 Officers President John F. Gillen, LS Vice President Roy B. Garfinkel, LS Secretary Robert J. Avery, LS Treasurer Michael A. Venturo, LS

Board of Directors

February 2014

2012-2014 David J. LaRue, LS Gregory D. Bell, LS 2013-2015 Michael C. Bodardus, LS Jared R. Ransom, LS 2014-2016 Clifford J. Rigerman, LS Joseph J. Hefner, LS

Robert B. Hatch, LS, ex officio

Year 2014 Meeting Dates

February 20, 2014

March 13, 2014 Webinar re-broadcast at Erdman Anthony @ 6:30 Board of Directors at 6:00 pm A light meal will be served.

April 17, 2014

Board of Directors Meeting 6:00 pm

Board of Directors Meeting @ 6:00 pm General Membership Meeting @ 7:00 pm Program not yet determined.

May 15, 2014 Joint Meeting at NFLSA Program not yet determined.

June 19, 2014 Board of Directors Meeting @ 6:00 pm 40 & 8 Club, 933 East Avenue, Rochester

June 2014 Date to be determined, 5th Annual Sporting Clays Event at Rochester Brooks Club.

July 11, 2014 NFLSA/GVLSA Golf Tournament

40 & 8 Club 933 East Avenue, Rochester No general Membership Meeting Scheduled

March 13, 2014 Webinar re-broadcast at Erdman Anthony at 6:30 pm Board of Directors at 6:00 pm A light meal will be served.

Professional Affiliations • • •

New York State Association of Professional Land Surveyors, Inc. National Society of Professional Surveyors Rochester Engineering Society

42 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | FEBRUARY 2014

Please check out the newly designed website: www.gvlsa.com

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Finger Lakes Chapter

International Council on Systems Engineering www.incose/org/flc

Upcoming Chapter Meeting Events Thursday, February 20, 2014

Date: Presenter:

Ted Bohn, Argonne National Laboratories

Topic:

"Electric Vehicle Charging: Infrastructure Standards & Metrology Methods

Abstract:

The success of electric vehicles depends not only on finding better battery technology but also on having a standardized charging infrastructure in place that ensures interoperability across all vehicles. This talk will describe some of the interesting challenges that have been solved so far and some that still remain in the development of AC and DC fast charging of electric vehicles. Learn about the variety of use cases for charging including Smart Grid control and reverse power flow, as well as the challenges of measuring tens of kilowatts of power with revenue class accuracy for less than $50.

Please check the FLC website (Events Tab) for current status on future presentations, or for past recordings (which began at the April 2013 meeting): http://www.incose.org/flc/EVENTS/ Meeting Agenda:

6:00 pm Meeting Introduction / Featured Presentation

7:15 pm (Approx. Time) Adjourn and Networking

Locations:

The following sites will participate in the meeting. All sites will have telephone conference access and will display the presentation (please contact Rick Zinni for any general questions at rzinni@gmail.com): 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

Corning Inc. Lockheed Martin SI Cornell University Syracuse University

RIT, Rochester, NY

Moog Inc. Xerox Binghamton University Rome, NY SRC, N. Syracuse, NY Lockheed Martin SI

Amy MacDougall at MacDougalAG@corning.com, Corning, NY Wesley Hewett at wahewett@gmail.com, Owego, NY Dr. Peter Jackson at pj16@cornell.edu, Rhodes Hall 267, Ithaca, NY Dr. Young Moon at ybmoon@syr.edu, 220 Link Hall Clark Hochgraf at cghiee@rit.edu, Rochester, NY, Bldg. 82, Room 1150 Geoff Bright at gbright@moog.com Charles Rizzolo at charles.rizzolo@xerox.com Cheryl Monachino at cmonachi@binghamton.edu Bruce Rubin at bruceieeerubin@yahoo.com Kevin Devaney at devaney@srcinc.com, 6225 Running Ridge Road, N Syracuse, NY 13212 Stephen C. Felter, PhD at stephen.felter@lmco.com, LMCO

The program is open to members and non-members and is free to all attendees!

incose news

FEBRUARY 2014 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 43

Rochester, NY Chapter

American Society of Plumbing Engineers www.aspe.org President ALAN SMITH, P.E. IBC Engineering, PC 3445 Winton Place Suite 219 Rochester, NY 14623 585-292-1590 Vice President Technical ADAM KRAMER IBC Engineering, PC 3445 Winton Place Suite 219 Rochester, NY 14623 585-292-1590 Vice President Legislative JENNIFER WENGENDER, P.E. Clark Patterson Lee 205 St Paul Blvd Rochester, NY 14604 585-454-7600 Vice President Membership DOUG MEIER Twin”D” Associates 1577 Ridge Road West Suite 116B Rochester, NY 14615 585-581-2170 Treasurer TERRY BROWN, CPD M/E Engineering, PC 150 North Chestnut Street Rochester, NY 14604 585-288-5590 Administrative Secretary ED YELIN, PE, CPD Erdman Anthony and Associates 146 Culver Road, Suite 200 Rochester, NY 14620 585-427-8888 Education Chairman ROBERT J. WIND JR., PE IBC Engineering, PC 3445 Winton Place, Suite 219 Rochester, NY 14623 585-292-1590 Newsletter Editor DAVID MYERS LaBella Associates, PC 300 State Street Suite 201 Rochester, NY 14614 585-454-6110 Affiliate Liaison ADAM FRENZEL Empire State Associates.

181 Bay Village Drive Rochester, NY 14609 585-602-0271

President’s Message The February meeting will be a joint meeting with SFPE (Society of Fire Protection Engineers).

2014 marks the 50th Anniversary for ASPE. There will be additional correspondence from Society this year addressing special events, sales on publications and new items available from the ASPE Store.

The 2014 Convention and Exposition will celebrate ASPE’s 50th Anniversary. The Convention will be held in Chicago from September 23rd through the 24th. Registration for the Convention is not yet available, but please check the website (www.aspe.org) for more information.

Alan Smith, PE

Rochester Chapter President

Meeting Notice - Save the Date Topic:

Clean Agent Fire Suppression Systems

Speaker:

Alden Spencer, Tyco Fire Protection Products

Date:

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Time:

12:00 noon – 1:30 p.m.

Place:

Valicia’s Ristorante, 2155 Long Pond Rd., Rochester 14606 (just north of Route 31, Gates)

Credits:

PDH Approval Pending (call or e-mail for confirmation after February 14th)

Cost:

$20.00 (member or guest), check or cash at door.

RSVP:

To Adam Kramer (585-341-3163), or akramer@ibceng.com by February 17th.

Future meetings: March 19th (Wed.), April 16th (Wed.)

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(Chapters are not authorized to speak for the Society)

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Genesee Valley Branch

American Public Works Association www.APWA.net

Geoffrey Benway, PE Genesee Valley Branch President 2013 Annual Awards Banquet

The Genesee Valley Branch is pleased to announce our 2013 award winners!

These projects and individuals were chosen by the Awards Committee headed

by Peter Vars, President of BME Associates. My thanks to Peter and his committee for an outstanding effort in choosing from the many applications submitted for our consideration.

The 2013 winners are…..

Public Works Leader of the Year • Dave Harder, Town of Arcadia Highway Superintendent Douglas Zefting Memorial Award • Henry Herdzik, P.E., Monroe County Department of Transportation • Tim McElligott, P.E., Ontario County Highway Engineer • Robery Kiley, Monroe County Soil and Water Conservation District Richard Mack Memorial Award • Russ Guelli, Sealand Construction Citation for Exemplary Service Award • Ted Fafinski, Town of Farmington Supervisor

Membership in APWA continues to stay strong with 28,530 members throughout the USA and Canada. If you are not one of the chosen few, now is an ideal time to join. First time members can join for just $87. Membership includes unlimited free Click, Listen and Learn presentations, access to the vast InfoNow network, and discounts on a vast library of manuals, books, and reference materials.

Join us!

Advocacy

Charles Walter Nichols Award • Kevin Blackburn, Monroe County Dept. of Environmental Services Professional Manager of the Year Award • Melvin Rose, Monroe County Dept. of Environmental Services Projects of the Year Award Small Cites/Rural Communities • Fairport S.E. Promenade, Village of Fairport • RS&E Hike/Bike Bridge, Town of Perinton Environmental • Lexington Avenue Tunnel, Monroe Co. DES Structures • Griswold Road Bridge, Genesee County • Midtown Plaza, City of Rochester Transportation • I-590 Diverging Diamond, NYSDOT • East Ridge Road, Monroe Co. DOT

National News

The APWA Government Affairs Committee has petitioned the EPA to urge them to withdraw the recent interpretation extending the applicability of the Reduction in Lead in Drinking Water Act to fire hydrants.

Education

Upcoming educational opportunities include the North American Snow Conference in Cincinnati, OH, May 4 – 7, 1014 and the NY Chapter Annual Conference in Syracuse, NY, April 3 – 4, 2014.

Congratulations to all of our award winners for the excellence in Public Works! apwa news

FEBRUARY 2014 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 45

Rochester Section

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The new Rochester section web site is at: http://rochester.ieee.org (always check the web PDF edition for late changes and additions)

Jacob Z. Schanker, P.E., Newsletter Chair E-mail: j.schanker@ieee.org

Rochester Section Meeting Tuesday, February 4th at Noon

The next monthly Rochester Section business meeting is on Tuesday, February 4, at 12:00 pm, at the Hibachi Sushi Buffet Restaurant in South Town Plaza on Jefferson Road (Route 252) just west of West Henrietta Rd. (Route 15). Any IEEE member is invited to attend. Lunch is only $3 for IEEE members. No reservation or RSVP is needed, just show up.

The 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Rochester Section

As I was preparing this month’s newsletter in early January, I was doing it from La Jolla, CA. This, in itself, is unremarkable since our technology allows us to work anywhere, do anything, quite transparent to our physical location. The fact is I was doing the same thing from England, twenty years ago. Since I was spending almost half-time in England then, I prepared many newsletters from there. And, interestingly, the technology I used did the job, albeit not as easily as today. Email was the tool, then and now. The connectivity in 1994 was an external modem, various cables and adapters to connect to the UK telephone system (yes, wires), and a laptop computer running Windows 3.1 or DOS. In 2014, the laptop I use (which is about five years old) runs Windows 7 and the connectivity is by wireless LAN to a cable modem/router to somewhere by some means that eventually winds up in Rochester on a laptop or desktop or smart phone. The fact that I’ve played a small part in some of this technology doesn’t make it any less amazing to me.

Now, back to La Jolla. As I walk down the streets I’ve found numerous places where the mason who did the concrete sidewalk signed his work with his name and date. And I’ve found that the date in several places is 1914. These sidewalks are pristine; the signatures are completely readable, as though they were done last week. But, these sidewalks have been trod for 100 years. The people who made them are gone.

One hundred years is at once a very long time and an eye-blink in time. What trace of the engineers who formed the Rochester Section of the (then) AIEE remains? What remain are their legacy and the foundation on which subsequent progress was made. And, what remains is the Rochester Section of the IEEE – a legacy of 100 years of volunteers passing the leadership from one person to the next, while serving the profession and the community.

In coming months, I hope to examine more closely some aspects of our shared Rochester engineering heritage. Stay tuned.

46 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | FEBRUARY 2014

From the Section Chair

The January Excom meeting marked the beginning of the 100th anniversary of the Rochester IEEE Section. This is truly a remarkable achievement. Our membership has now grown to 1065 individuals. As we transition into the New Year, I would like to thank the former Section Chair, Bill Fowlkes, for all of his efforts over the last few years in managing the Section’s activities. It is his groundwork that has set the stage for the historical year ahead. Please check out the website that he created that archives pictures from several Rochester IEEE events in the last year. https:// ieeerochester.shutterfly.com. I’ve included one of many pictures located at his site. This one is from the Award and Recognition Dinner in December and highlights Jeremy Warner from the University of Rochester, an IEEE Power and Energy Society Scholarship Plus Initiative award recipient, with Wendi Heinzelman (IEEE faculty advisor), and Bill Fowlkes. Winners of this award receive up to three years of financial support and gain career experience through internships and co-op work.

Congratulations to Madeline and Alicia Loui as the winners of the commemorative Rochester Section IEEE Centennial logo contest! What a terrific way to launch this historical year for the section! Please stay tuned for several activities that are in the planning stages to celebrate this remarkable achievement in the Section's history. The annual Joint Chapter Meeting, which brings together individuals from all engineering disciplines, will be held this April.

As always, I hope to see you at one of our upcoming activities from our Chapters and Groups.

Best, Greg

ieee news

Get More, Get Involved

The Section Executive Committee is looking for a few additional volunteers. If you are interested in helping with either of these positions please contact one of the section officers. You can find the names of your officers and their email addresses on the section website, http://rochester.ieee.org. Look under the “About” tab.

Young Professionals Affinity Group (formerly GOLD) This worldwide affinity group is committed to helping young professionals evaluate their career goals, polish their professional image, and create the building blocks of a lifelong and diverse professional network.

Our section is looking to establish a local Young Professionals Affinity Group.

See this link for more information: https://www. facebook.com/ieeemgagold.

Section Membership Development Officer – The Section MD Officer is responsible for all membership development related activities and events in the section and has the duty to distribute all IEEE information, programs, and materials to the members and to be a spokesperson for the many benefits of IEEE. This position is a great way to become more active in the section and to meet and network with individuals from all engineering disciplines.

IEEE Rochester Section Scholarships Available

The Rochester Section of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) awards two $1500 college scholarships annually to student members of the IEEE who meet the following qualifications: 1. Is an undergraduate student in good standing in an engineering, engineering technology, science or technology curriculum in an ABET accredited program.

2. Has completed two years and/or achieved Junior standing (or equivalent) in the program defined in number 1 above.

3. Has an overall grade point average of at least 3.0 out of 4.0 (or equivalent).

4. Plans to continue engineering, engineering technology, science or technology studies in an undergraduate ABET accredited program in September following presentation of the award.

5. Is a resident of Allegany, Monroe, Genesee, Livingston, Ontario, Orleans, Steuben, Wayne, or Wyoming Counties of New York or is enrolled in a college in one those counties.

Please contact the chair of the IEEE Scholarship committee, Jeanne Christman at jxciee@rit.edu with questions. The scholarship application can be found at www.roceng.org.

Congratulations to our Latest Senior Member Jorge Diaz-Herrera, a member of the Computer Society, was elevated to Senior Member at the November 23, 2013 Admissions and Advancements meeting in New Brunswick, NJ.

Free E-book on Technical Presentations for IEEE Members In February, IEEE-USA E-Books will offer “Technical Presentations - Book 3: Style – Dynamic Delivery Techniques,”

by Nita K. Patel.

“A personal introduction, captivating opening, interesting body and compelling conclusion comprise the four major parts of a successful presentation,” Patel writes. “But once you have an organized and well-written presentation, it’s time to shift your focus to delivery by incorporating eye contact, varied voice and fluid body language.”

This e-book will be available free to members in February.

To purchase IEEE members-only products, and to receive the member discount on eligible products, members must log in with their IEEE Web account. ieee news

FEBRUARY 2014 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 47

Wireless Body Area Network Connecting Your Body to the Cloud

By Gill R. Tsouri, RIT

Our healthcare system experiences a substantial increase in the number of patients requiring continuous attention.

Elderly populations requiring frequent assessment of physiological state and patients suffering from chronic illnesses are increasing in proportion to the overall population. It is widely accepted that our current models and practices for administrating healthcare services cannot sustain these trends and that fundamental changes are required in order to continue to provide efficient and affordable healthcare services to our communities. More specifically, the prevailing practices of measuring physiological parameters of patients on-site by medical personnel forces patients to arrive frequently at healthcare facilities and requires substantial manpower for taking such measurements, thereby increasing facilities costs and reducing affordability of treatment. In addition, since continuous monitoring of physiology by medical personnel is impractical, the ability to respond immediately to changes in physiological state is limited to patient judgment, ability and initiative. Electronic means of gathering data, including advanced communication and signal processing solutions, are recognized as fundamental enablers to meet these challenges in healthcare and to maintain our country’s competitive technological edge.

Recent technological advances in the miniaturization and power efficiency of electrical components allows for the design and use of technology to automatically and continuously monitor patients in healthcare facilities, workplaces and residential areas.

In recent years, considerable attention was given by academia and industry to the use of Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) for monitoring physiological parameters of patients. WBANs employ sensor-nodes placed on the body for sensing physiological data and relaying them to a remote location for triage and record keeping. A typical WBAN comprises compact sensor-nodes placed on the body in a star-topology with a powerful Access Point (AP) at its center.

The AP coordinates network activity, aggregates data from the sensor-nodes and acts as an internet gateway for relaying data to a remote location or a cloud-based service. Sensed data include motion and gait, cardiac activity, temperature, respiration and heart rates. Your Smartphone could potentially act as an AP in the future.

Last year, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has allocated a wireless frequency band dedicated to commercial 48 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | FEBRUARY 2014

WBAN technologies, and the IEEE has standardized WBANs under the new IEEE 802.15.6 standard. These recent developments foster new commercial opportunities in remote healthcare and companies are moving into this emerging market. Examples include: Qulacomm, General Electric, Phillips, Imec and Welch-Allyn.

A WBAN is an attractive monitoring solution as it allows the elimination of wires and supports patient mobility. However, designing a reliable WBAN is challenging. The sensornodes are required to be compact, non-obtrusive and lowmaintenance. These requirements impose strict constraints on sensor-node resources such as computation power, memory space and battery life. In addition, WBAN communication links are required to operate in mobile scenarios under channel fading conditions and in the presence of sporadic body shadowing. On top of that, the use of a wireless channel exposes communications to eavesdropping and hacking that could compromise patient safety and privacy. Using traditional encryption algorithms to secure a wireless link imposes high overheads on computation, data rates and power consumption.

Wireless Body Area Network Power-efficient routing in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) used to monitor the environment received much attention in the past. However, porting routing solutions from WSNs to WBANs is problematic due the different network architectures and operating conditions. In WSNs hundreds to thousands of sensor-nodes cover large areas and offer considerable degree of redundancy. The task of monitoring the environment using WSNs does not have to involve all feature article

sensor-nodes all the time. This setting brings about routing solutions that rely on dynamic network configurations involving many hops from sensor-node to destination.

WBANs cover an area limited to the human body and offer no redundancy. Data must be collected reliably from all nodes placed on the body to an on-body Access Point (AP) or off-body AP, while addressing unique signal propagation conditions not present in WSNs such as body shadowing and mobility of sensors. It is improbable for a low-powered sensor-node to meet a reliable link budget power requirement in the presense of body shadowing unless the signal happens to reflect off the surrounding environment.

Work at RITs CommLab explored the use of the Creeping Wave (CW) phenomenon around the human body for establishing reliable communication links. A CW is the tendency of electromagnetic waves to wrap around obstacles in their path. Relaying CWs around the body allows for reliable link-budgets while substantially conserving transmission power. The use of a dominant CW signal path is an alternative to serendipitous reflections from walls and ceiling. Specifically for the 2.4GHz frequency band, a two hop CW relaying scheme allows for reliable communication links between any two points on front and sides of the body.

One can further augment on-body communications using a specialized antenna design. Past work succeeded in enhancing the CW effect by directing the radiation pattern in parallel to the body surface. Relaying of CWs combined with a CW antenna creates a truly personal WBAN that is low-powered and hardly interferes with neighboring patients’ WBANs. Once CW signals are made to “hug the body” efficiently, reflections from the surrounding environment and resulting fading are dramatically reduced making the on-body communication links more reliable.

Harvesting energy can augment and potentially replace a rechargeable battery. Energy may be harvested from motion, light, airflow and body heat. When possible, it is attractive to utilize body heat as it is available from any body part regardless of patient’s activity level or ambient light. Typically, a thermoelectric device is placed on the skin and utilizes the temperature difference between the skin and the ambient air to generate electricity. The upper limit on power extraction from body heat is a function of body output and the efficiency of the energy harvesting circuit. As the temperature gradient changes randomly over time and placement, the harvested energy over time follows a stochastic behavior.

This means that dynamic routing solutions are required based on instantaneous energy availability. Recent work in CommLab resulted in dynamic routing protocols tailored to the stochastic nature of energy harvested from body heat, ambient light and motion.

Traditional methods of securing data rely on security by complexity using public-key or symmetric encryption.

Prominent examples are the Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) algorithm and the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) coupled with the Diffie-Hellman key agreement algorithm. While these algorithms provide excellent security strength they were designed for systems with abundant memory, computation, and energy resources and thus are a problematic solution for resource-constrained systems such as WBANs. Wireless Physical Layer Security (WPLS) is an alternative approach investigated for securing wireless transmission based on information-theoretic security. In WPLS the randomness, reciprocity and spatial selectivity of the wireless channel are used for securing communications and/or extracting symmetric encryption keys. Recent work in CommLab resulted in algorithms untiring the randomness of WBAN channels to secure data from eavesdropping with minimal overheads on system resources.

The maturing field of WBAN technology along with the newly formed IEEE 802.15.6 standard and dedicated FCC frequency band enable the integration of our physiology with the Internet and cloud-based services. The question is are we ready for it?

Cardiac monitoring sensor-node developed

by RIT students working in CommLab Considerable attention was given to energy harvesting in mobile applications in general and in WBANs in particular. feature article

Gill R. Tsouri received the BSc, MSc, and PhD degrees in electrical and computer engineering from Ben-Gurion University, Israel, in 2000, 2004, and 2008, respectively.

In 2008, he joined the Rochester Institute of Technology, New York, where he established the Communications Research Laboratory (CommLab). His current research interests include wireless body area networks, biomedical signal processing and wireless physical layer security.

FEBRUARY 2014 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 49

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Directory of Professional Services, continued

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Affiliated Societies of the Rochester Engineering Society American Consulting Engineering Companies of New York President, David J. Meyer, 585-218-0730 Email: dmeyer@pathfinderengineers.com

Association For Facilities Engineering, Rochester Chapter President, Dan Friday, 585-341-3225 Email: danf@rochesterymca.org

International Council on Systems Engineering, Finger Lakes Chapter President, Jack Riley Email: jackri2139@hotmail.com

American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Rochester Section Chairman, Vincenzo G. Marcello, 585-422-0043.

Email:Vincenzo.Marcello@SDMS.usa.xerox.com

Construction Specifications Institute, Rochester Chapter President, Craig Mile, 585-454-6377 Email: cm@ArchStetics.com

Monroe Professional Engineers Society President, Timothy M. Webber, PE Email: twebber@monroepe.org

American Public Works Association Monroe County/Genesee Valley Branch Past-Chairman, Geoff Benway Email: benway@penfield.org

Electrical Association Executive Director, Kirstie Steves 585-538-6350, fax 538-6166, Email: kirstie@eawny.com President, Joe Lengen, Horizon Solutions

American Society of Civil Engineers, Rochester Section President, Wendel Armstrong, (585) 334-1310, Email: WArmstrong@FisherAssoc.com.

American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Rochester Chapter President, Michelle Sommerman, PE, 585-272-4650, ext. 59.

Email: MSommerman@nrg-concepts.com American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Rochester Section Chairman, Sarilyn Swayngim Email: sarilyn.swayngim@gmail.com

Genesee Valley Land Surveyors Association President, Robert Hatch, 585-349-3750.

Email: bhatch@schultzpc.com Illuminating Engineering Society of North America Inc., Rochester Section Executive Director, Chuck Eckert, 585-766-0329, Email: ceckert1@rochester.rr.com President, Michael Trippe Email: mtrippe@pointsourcegroup.com Imaging Science & Technology, Rochester Chapter President, David Odgers Email: odgers@frontiernet.net

American Society of Plumbing Engineers, Rochester New York Chapter President,Terry Brown, CPD, 585-288-5590 Email: tpbrown@meengineering.com

Independent Entrepreneurs Council, Rochester NY Chapter Chairman, Ralph Kraft, 585-621-6946

Association for Bridge Construction and Design President, Jeffery Blank Email: jblank@didonato.cc

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Rochester Section Chairman, Greg T. Gdowski Email: TBA

Association of Energy Engineers Western New York Chapter President, William Murray, 585 641-7121 Email: bmurray@ec4b.com

Institute of Industrial Engineers, Rochester Chapter President, John Kaemmerlen, 585-475-2767 Email: jxkpdm@rit.edu

New York State Association of Transportation Engineers, Section 4 President, Howard R. Ressel, 585-272-3372.

Email: Howard.Ressel@dot.ny.gov New York Water Environment Association Inc., Genesee Valley Chapter (www.gvcnywea.org) President, Bill Davis, 585-381-9250 Email: william.davis@mrbgroup.com Professional Services Management Association, Upstate New York Chapter President, Margaret Rathmell, SWBR Email: mrathmell@swbr.com Refrigeration Service Engineers Society Executive Director, Kirstie Steves 585-313-8972, fax 538-6166, Email: kirstie@rses-rochester.org President, Jim Allen, email: jta141@yahoo.com Sheet Metal & Air-Conditioning Contractor’s National Association-Rochester, Inc. Executive Director, Aaron Hilger 585-586-8030. Email: mzin@smacnaroc.org Societ of Manufacturing Engineers, Chapter 16 Chairman, Christopher r. Vastola, 585-367-2904 Email: SMERoch16@aol.com Society of Plastics Engineers, Rochester Section President, Brett Blaisdell, Bausch & Lomb, 1400 North Gooaman Street, Rochester, NY 14609 585-338-5417, Email: brett.blaisdell@bausch.com Society of Women Engineers President, Carol Richardson Email: carite@rit.edu

Corporate Members of the Rochester Engineering Society Alstom Signaling Inc.

Erdman Anthony Associates

Popli Design Group

Barton & Loguidice, PC

Garlock Sealing Technologies (Champion)

Rochester Business Alliance Rochester Institute of Technology, Kate Gleason College of Engineering

Bergmann Associates P.C. (Champion) BME Associates Clark Patterson Lee Corporation (Champion) Clough, Harbour & Associates LLP Environment21, LLC/Kistner Concrete Products, Inc. (Enterprise)

IBC Engineering, PC (Champion) Iberdrola Energy Projects, Inc. (Enterprise) LaBella Associates (Champion) M/E Engineering, P.C. Optimation Technology, Inc. (Enterprise)

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Stantec Inc. (Champion) TY-Lin International (Enterprise) University of Rochester Visron Design, Inc. V.J. Stanley Inc. IS YOUR COMPANY LISTED HERE? Call 585-254-2350 for information.

FEBRUARY 2014 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 55

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