Rochester Engineering Society Magazine January 2015

www.roceng.org

JANUARY 2015

Growing an Engineering Business in Rochester All the right ingredients for keeping it local | 8

Cohocton Wind in Steuben County.

Through a NYSERDA demonstration project, Poseidon Systems sensors are monitoring a dozen of the 50 wind turbines at this site.

Also in this Issue:

The Path to Pinewoods | 48

Engineering Entrepreneurship Issue

The Rochester Engineer Published since 1922 by

ROCHESTER ENGINEERING SOCIETY, INC.

Growing an Engineering Business in Rochester

The Path to Pinewoods

Founded March 18, 1897

Volume 93, Number 7, JANUARY 2015 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.

(cover)

(feature)

Page 8

Page 48

contents

4 • Join the RES Tutoring Team - Help a Rochester Child Learn to Read 5 • Call for Nominations - 2014 Engineer of the Year, Young Engineer of the Year, and Engineers of Distinction 6 • RES Scholarship Application Information 10 • The Limited Monopoly - Crowdsourcing of Prior Art - A New Road To Patent Quality?

13 • Get to the Point! - Keeping Track of Your Performance 14, 30 • What's News 15-16, 18 • News From Professional Firms 17-18, 22 • Professional Firms - Employee News 19, 27 • Campus News 20-22 • Position Openings 24 • Continuing Education Opportunities

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

25-26 • Engineers’ Calendar

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

28-29 • RES 113th Annual Gala and Sponsorship Opportunities

Board of Directors:

OFFICERS: President MARY STEBLEIN, PE LaBella Associates / mary.steblein@swe.org First Vice President ADAM CUMMINGS, PE Barton & Loguidice, PC / ACummings@bartonandloguidice.com Second Vice President TBD Treasurer MICHAEL V. TRIASSI Optimation Technology, Inc. / mike.triassi@gmail.com Past President EDWARD HENSEL, PhD, PE Rochester Institute of Technology / Email: echeme@rit.edu DIRECTORS: CORNELIUS (NEAL) ILLENBERG PE Retired / nillenberg@aol.com JON KRIEGEL Retired / jkriegel@rochester.rr.com SCOTT GRASMAN, PhD Rochester Institute of Technology / Email: scot.grasman@rit.edu ESTHER BETANCOURT Harris Corporation / ebetanco@harris.com RICHARD E. RICE, PE MJ Engineering / rriceaquash@gmail.com CASEY DILL Arnold Magnetic Technologies / casey.dill@gmail.com CARL J. PILLETTERI, PE cjpill@rochester.rr.com DIRECTOR to TBD Administrative Director LYNNE M. IRWIN Rochester Engineering Society / e-mail: res@frontiernet.net

50 • RES Individual Membership Application 51 • Rochester Engineer Advertising Rates 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.....................34 • AFE Association for Facilities Engineering...........................................37 • APWA American Public Works Association...........................................44 • ASCE American Society of Civil Engineers............................................40 • ASHRAE American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers..............................................41-42 • ASPE American Society of Plumbing Engineers....................................39 • EA Electrical Association.......................................................................35 • GVLSA Genesee Valley Land Surveyors Association.............................45

2 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | JANUARY 2015

• IEC Independent Entrepreneurs Council...........................................33 • IES Illuminating Engineering Society....................................................36 • IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.................46-47 • INCOSE International Council of Systems Engineering...........................32 • 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........................................................43

index

President’s Message Please send in your thoughts and ideas to: president@roceng.org

Mary Steblein, RES President 2014 - 15 Welcome to 2015! It’s a brand new calendar year, and the perfect time for New Year’s Resolutions. Speaking of resolutions, one of my goals as your RES President is to make progress on the creation of the RES Strategic Plan.

The development and implementation of a strategic plan will assist the RES Board with short-term and long-term activity planning, and help with the annual budgeting process. The plan will also assist us in ensuring that our activities align with our mission to be a leader in the engineering community. The plan is intended to provide a comprehensive map for the next three to five years, but will also touch on long term planning horizons such as 25 years from now.

We could use your help! We are looking to our membership to provide a variety of ideas and opinions in order to create the most effective strategic plan. I’m interested in hearing from everyone – from those of you who have been members for many years and have seen changes, to those of you who are brand new and have boundless ideas for what RES can achieve. Without the knowledge of our members our group would not thrive and be as successful as we are today. This is the time to “dream big,” and then chart a reasonable course to meet these goals, while identifying the necessary resources.

If you have any thoughts about the following, I’d love to hear them: • RES’ strengths and weaknesses, successes and failures • Challenges facing the Rochester engineering community and organizations • Opportunities for RES • Your vision of RES 2040 (25 year horizon)

Our Strategic Planning Committee will compile and review all of the information received in order to then develop and rank strategic priorities. To make this a productive and effective process, we are looking to our members to join the committee. Please contact me if you are interested in joining. During this process, we will also consider our current vision and mission statement. Are we truly leaders in our community? Do we provide the right opportunities to our local engineers? Do we offer enough information to our youth to make the proper decisions about their future careers? We need to analyze these statements to make sure we are portraying who RES truly is to our community. Any changes to the mission and vision statement would be brought to the membership for action at our Annual Meeting.

Research from the University of Scranton, Journal of Clinical Psychology (01/01/2014) indicates that 45% of Americans usually make New Year’s Resolutions. Only 8% were found to be successful in achieving their resolutions.

Almost half report “infrequent success.” But most importantly, “People who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don’t explicitly make resolutions.” (http://www.statisticbrain. com/new-years-resolution-statistics/). Please hold me accountable to furthering our Strategic Plan, and keep up with this New Years Resolution.

RES continues to gear up for the fabulous 113th Annual Gala on April 11th. New features this year include a Silent Auction, Casino Games, exhibits including a drone flying around the Convention Center atrium while sending a live feed to a monitor, a robotics demonstration, and entertainment by The Up! State Cirque Performers. We welcome volunteers to make the Gala a success. If your company is interested in sponsoring this event – it’s a great marketing opportunity – please see the flyer in this magazine for more details. Reservations for corporate sponsorship are requested by Friday, January 16, 2015 (in order to meet print deadlines for pre-event branding opportunities). Contact Lynne for more information.

• Increasing and maintaining our membership

res news - president’s message

JANUARY 2015 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 3

RES News SAVE THE DATE 113th RES ANNUAL GALA Saturday, April 11, 2015 Rochester Riverside Convention Center 123 East Main Street, Rochester Sponsorship Opportunities Available - See page 28 or go to the website at www.roceng.org

Join the “RES Tutoring Team” Help a Rochester Child Learn to Read Whether or not you think you have the time to commit to it right now, please contact us and learn about this successful program, and the opportunity it offers us to “make a difference” in Rochester’s City Schools. Let us come and meet with you, your business associates, family members, friends, neighbors. Even just two hours a week of your time can make a big difference in the life of a student.

The RES Tutoring Team at Dr. Walter Cooper Academy currently includes full-time, employed Professional Engineers, recently-graduated engineers, retired engineers, retired school teachers, U of R undergraduate engineering students, RIT undergraduate, and graduate engineering students and local business employees using their “flex-time” to spend a few hours a week as tutors. The new school year is under way, and we’re seeking more, dedicated people, willing to make room in their busy lives for this important opportunity to “give back” to our community, for next year. We now have more than 20 local volunteers tutoring at #10 School, this Winter, but we still need more. We are currently scheduling presentations with local engineering and architectural firms, to tell their employees about this important opportunity. We need your help...Can we #10 School Students with Bob Bechtold of schedule one with yours?

Harbec Plastics and RES Tutors, Zachary Schedule a presentation to learn about the school, the Volunteer Program Kolbuc & Lee Loomis, on a field trip to study Leaders, Administrators and Dr. Walter Cooper (RES 1996 Engineer of the Year). "Power and Energy" Hear about the training each tutor will receive. Please contact the RES office, and let us know you’re interested in tutoring at Dr. Walter Cooper Academy - School #10, 353 Congress Ave. (in the 19th Ward, one block North of Genesee Pk. Blvd., between Post Ave. and Virginia Ave.) The RES Tutoring Team is affiliated with…

Friends of Educational Excellence (FREE) Partnerships, (585) 218-0038 via email: bpollock@freepartnerships.org, via website: www.freepartnerships.org Reach the RES Tutoring Team at the Rochester Engineering Society, (585) 254-2350 via website: www.roceng.org or via email: leeloomis46@gmail.com, (585) 738-3079 (cell) 4 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | JANUARY 2015

res news

s

RES News Call for Nominations 2014 Engineer of the Year 2014 Kate Gleason Young Engineer of the Year and

2014 Engineers of Distinction A couple of years ago the RES Board of Directors introduced a streamlined nomination form.

A simple initial form allows an individual or organization to nominate a candidate. The RES committee will then contact the nominator if the candidate progresses to the next phase. At that point, a final form will be used to gather essential details from the nominator and candidate which will be used to determine our finalists.

The RES will select and recognize the finalists for the Engineer of the Year, Young Engineer of the Year, and Engineers of Distinction Awards in a variety of public venues and media during the weeks before the Gala. The Award recipients will be introduced on Saturday April 11, 2015 during the Gala at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center.

Visit our website at www.roceng.org and click on Call For Nominations, or call 585-254-2350 (res@frontiernet.net) to request a nomination form.

The following information is described:

Eligibility for Nomination Awards Criteria

Deadline for Preliminary Nominations - Friday, December 19, 2014 Deadline for Final Nominations - Friday, January 9, 2015 res news - call for nominations

JANUARY 2015 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 5

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. Scholarships from the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) require applicants be student members of their respective organization. Eligibility: Applicants must meet the following qualifications: 1. Be an undergraduate student in good standing who has completed two years and/or achieved Junior standing in an ABET-accreditd engineering, engineering technology, science or technology program.

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

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

4. 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.

5. Not be a previous recipient of this scholarship.

Application: Applicants must submit the six required items listed below, postmarked no later than Friday, January 16, 2015. 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 notify those persons supplying reference letters that timely response is critical. Reference letters may be submitted in individually sealed envelopes within the application package. Deliver or mail all items by Friday, January 16, 2015 to: The Rochester Engineering Society, 657 East Avenue, Rochester, New York 14607.

Required Data and Instructions 1. Certificate of Interview from a member of the Scholarship Committee - Request an appointment for interview by sending an email to the Scholarship Chairperson, Barry Quinn, at barryquinn@aol.com. In your email, include your full name, phone number, and the day(s) and time(s) you are available for an interview. Attach your resume to the email. Contact Barry Quinn at 585-737-1117 if you have not received a reply within three days. The interviewer will provide a certificate that the interview was conducted after August 15, 2014 and before January 10, 2015 (interview deadline).

2. Transcript - Official copy of applicant’s current transcript showing grades for the entire enrollment in current school and if a transfer student, courses taken and accepted from his/her 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 Chairman of the Scholarship Award Committee of the 6 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | JANUARY 2015

Rochester Engineering Society. This letter shall not be more than one typewritten page in length and should discuss the applicant’s position with respect to the following: a. Why the applicant is studying engineering and chose his/her particular field. b. Why the applicant is applying for the scholarship. c. The applicant’s involvement in professional society activities, the leadership positions held and describe active involvement in other extra-curricular activities. d. Statement that the scholarship will be used in engineering, engineering technology, science or technology studies in an undergraduate ABET-accredited program in September, 2015 should an award be presented.

5. Reference Letter #1 - Letter from the applicant’s faculty advisor in his/her current school. This letter should indicate the applicant’s standing in the class relative to other students, his/her course load and involvement.

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 scholarship application

r

e

d )

m

l d

n

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, and beyond. The Second World War and the Korean Conflict are now history. These experiences have changed the face and, no doubt, the future of the community. The Rochester municipal leadership and the industrial community have become immersed in the cold-war, growth economy.

“The Rochester Engineer” (October 1958)

This issue announced a joint RES/ASME dinner meeting presentation, “Computing Machines and Their Application to Engineering,” by Dr. John W. Mauchly from Remington Rand Univac Division of Sperry Rand Corporation. Dr. Mauchly was the developer of ENIAC, the first fully automatic and electronic computer, predecessor to UNIVAC. Coincidentally, this issue included a detailed article, describing the recently-introduced S-C 500, High Speed Electronic Printer, a collaborative effort of Stromberg-Carlson/General Dynamics and the Haloid Xerox Corporation. This new printer was developed in response to the advent of high-speed computers, such as UNIVAC. It was the result of the combination of two locally-developed technologies; S-C’s Charactron shaped-beam tube and Haloid Xerox’s Copyflo printer. This new machine was capable of printing an unheard of 5,000 lines of 120 characters/line, per minute.

November 6, 1958

(Called Society Meeting, Hotel Sheraton) – attendance 86 – This meeting of the RES membership was called to vote on the changes to the RES Constitution, as proposed at the October 9, 1958 RES Membership meeting. Motion carried.

November 24, 1958

(RES Board Meeting, Hotel Sheraton) The Board considered, in detail, a proposal for an RES Constitutional Amendment establishing an Executive Committee for the purpose of transacting RES society business between board meetings. Concern that Affiliate members and, soon-to-be-designated Cooperating members might feel left-out of participation in RES business, caused the motion to be withdrawn, in favor of a re-writing of the motion that would better define the composition and powers of a proposed Executive Committee. The board then considered the presentation of recently prepared, “General Terms of Cooperation,” providing for payments from “Cooperating Societies” for membership and for services rendered by the RES and its staff. The board approved the presentation of these terms to the Monroe County Chapter of the NY State Society of Professional Engineers. res news - history

A Sampling from the Archives of the Rochester Engineering Society...1897 - 1959

by Lee M. Loomis

“The Rochester Engineer” (November 1958)

This month’s joint RES/IRE/AIEE dinner meeting featured Frank H. Slaymaker, manager, Electroacoustics R&D Stromberg-Carlson Company on “Speech Analysis & Bandwidth Compression.” He described how normal conversation, at 20 bits/second, could be transmitted over a channel 20 cps wide, whereas, normal telephone channels require 3000 cps and high fidelity speech reproduction requires a 9000 cps. Mr. Slaymaker discussed methods by which information could be extracted from normal speech, transmitted over a narrow band communication channel, and reassembled as intelligible speech at the receiving end. This month’s three RES luncheon meeting topics included, “The Midtown Plaza,” by Maurice Forman, president of Midtown Holdings Corporation, “Civic Center Progress,” by Mayor Peter Barry & Donald Faragher, and “Latest Plans for Highway Development in the Rochester Area,” by Dominic Masucci, Rochester District, NYS Department of Public Works. The RES announced that the ASME had conferred an “Honorary Membership,” its highest honor, on James E. Gleason, Chairman of the Board, Gleason Works, as an, “outstanding industrialist, civic leader and engineer-inventor.” At this time, he was the single “Honorary Member” of the RES.

“The Rochester Engineer” (December 1958)

A joint meeting of the RES/AIEE/IRE featured Darrell C. Romick, Aerophysics Department Goodyear Aircraft Corporation on “The Dawn of the Age of Space Travel.” The RES reported that member, Alexander M. Beebee, Jr., was appointed plant engineer at Rochester Products Division of General Motors Corporation.

“The Rochester Engineer” (January 1959)

The “Automotive Number,” this issue featured a detailed article, “Pressure Gauges for Transportation Service,” by William D. Huston of Rochester Manufacturing Company. In it, he traced the evolution of pressure gauges from the mid-nineteenth century to the current day. Editor’s note: Imagine, if you can, that an effective, reliable air pressure gauge for measuring altitude was not perfected until 1925, 22 years after the first airplane flight! In the automotive industry, progress in measuring the higher pressures for air and oil was more encouraging, as gauges for these purposes became available by 1920.

The RES announced that its joint meeting with AIEE would feature a presentation, “Trends in Electrical Assists for Automated Automobiles,”

by Vaughn H. Hardy, chief engineer, Delco Appliance Division, General Motors Corporation.

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.

JANUARY 2015 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 7

Growing an Engineering Business in Rochester All the right ingredients for keeping it local – by Mark Redding A 1986 Computer Science graduate of RIT, Mark Redding co-founded Impact Technologies in 1999. The startup engineering company became a leading R&D defense contractor and seven-time member of the Rochester Top 100 before being sold to Sikorsky Aircraft in November, 2011. Postsale, Mr. Redding has taken an Impact spinoff, Poseidon Systems to new levels. Sensors designed and manufactured here in Rochester are making their way onto wind turbines and mining equipment across the globe.

Growing up as the son of a self-employed chiropractor who started or purchased multiple offices in the southern tier and even had a failed attempt at opening up a natural foods restaurant and health spa, I’ve always had a bit of the entrepreneurial spirit in my blood. Having witnessed first-hand the 3 P’s of the entrepreneurial success formula (Passion, Patience, and Perseverance), I knew that hard work and long days were two keys to success. Being owner or part-owner of a business had been a long term goal since first going to college. It took twenty years, but just before my 40th birthday, the timing and motivation was right for starting my first business.

Having gained a strong technical background from RIT and broad business exposure from working at a small engineering consulting business, I persuaded some like-minded engineers that we could do it on our own. We had developed personal relationships with customers having buying authority that gave us the confidence that we could generate purchase orders. Surrounded by talented, driven engineers, we found success within the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program that funded our ideas and our growth.

A 250 ft ladder climb to install Poseidon Systems' sensors isn't for the acrophobic.

Through the co-op and internship programs of RIT and the University of Rochester, we were able to conduct multi-month “interviews” of talented local engineers and make full-time job offers to the “best-of-the-best.” Working with a relatively small local bank, GRB, and a local CPA firm, DeJoy, Knauf & Blood, where we got great personal service and attention, I was introduced to a number of other local business owners and attended local networking events. Although almost none of our customers were local, getting to know other local business owners, whether within a technology field or not, helped expand the awareness of our company and of me personally. That exposure contributed to two local acquisitions, investment in other Rochester startups and board of director seats.

The Rochester area is large enough to have a huge network of support services and suppliers, but small enough that you can feel like a contributor to the community. It makes a difference when you support a local charity like the Veterans’ Outreach Center or Alternatives for Battered Women where you can see the direct positive effect your donations have on peoples’ lives. Similarly, because of that feeling of fraternity amongst local business owners, there is always someone I can call on for help or advice.

My current business, Poseidon Systems, is focused on developing oil sensors for real-time monitoring of lubrication systems. We target applications where the consequential cost of machinery downtime is significant. Part of the underlying technology was developed by my current partner and RIT graduate, Ryan Brewer, and a portion of it came via acquisition of three companies in the United Kingdom. The acquisitions in the UK led to our establishment of an office in Glasgow, Scotland. We do some sensor manufacturing there, and it provides for a local presence for support and expansion of our European business.

A Poseidon Systems' sensor alerted the wind turbine operator of this damaged bearing and prevented a catastrophic failure.

One of our more mature sensing technologies detects fine metal particles in oil – particles as small as 40 microns, or about half the width of a human hair. Metal particles of this size in oil are generally an indication that abnormal wear is occurring, and by taking corrective action early, not only can you plan for the repair to reduce downtime, generally, you can avoid a more expensive, catastrophic failure. The other primary oil sensing technology looks at the electrical impedance of the oil to determine things like additive package depletion, and the presence of water or other contaminants that would alter the electrochemical properties of the oil. By detecting these minute changes in the oil, we can determine suitability of the oil for service and can influence oil change intervals. We believe that we have the best technology in the marketplace, which I believe to be another key ingredient to business success. While I also believe that a strong sales team is more important than having the best technology at the best price, it helps attract quality sales people when they know they having an easier job beating out the competition.

8 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | JANUARY 2015

cover article

e

Our current primary markets are wind turbine gearboxes and large diesel engines. We are installed at more than 30 wind farms across the US and Europe and anticipate a large order coming from China in early 2015.

Four of those wind farms are located in New York State, including the one pictured. An average wind turbine gearbox failure costs between $300,000 and $500,000. Much of this cost can be eliminated by knowing far enough in advance to do proper planning and minimize downtime. Our sensors also allow the operator to confidently and safely continue to operate until a repair or replacement can be made.

The consequential cost of downtime was the motivation for installing Poseidon's sensors on the diesel engine of this massive loader.

Large diesel engine applications include mining trucks and ship propulsion systems. We are installed on mining trucks in Australia where real-time data is making its way back to our servers in Rochester. We also have the first systems of their kind to be installed on a US Navy ship. Related to that installation this past fall, we were awarded an SBIR contract from the US Navy to expand the sensor suite and capabilities.

The homerun for Poseidon Systems would be to have one of our sensors installed on every diesel engine truck on the road today telling drivers when to change their oil. We are currently an order of magnitude away on price and a few years of technology maturity, but we have a path to get there by 2020.

The most important ingredient to staying in business is funding – whether it be from investors, customer orders or government funds. Engineers in New York state looking for funding related to a technology business in the energy space are fortunate in that there are relatively large funding opportunities from New York State Energy and Research Development Authority (NYSERDA) for various stages of technology development and demonstration. Poseidon has benefited from multiple NYSERDA contracts in support of our wind turbine business and now in the manufacturing side of our business. I’m not aware of any other state in the U.S. that has a similar funding source. While the NYSERDA contracts typically don’t cover all of the costs, they reduce the risk of private investment and in many ways provide credibility to your ideas.

What Rochester lacks in the way of traditional venture capital funding, it makes up for with a large network of wealthy individuals that are willing to invest and participate in the management of new companies. Engineers looking to start their own companies have a number of places to turn to find financing.

"Local engineers also have the benefit of business incubators at both RIT and the University of Rochester, as well as, High Tech Rochester (HTR). HTR operates two incubation centers in Rochester where clients can lease space at attractive rates and take advantage of HTR's business mentoring resources."

Poseidon's model Trident DM4500 sensor manufactured in Rochester, NY

Although Poseidon Systems has my primary focus, I’m equally excited about another local startup I am involved with that probably has even greater potential for commercial success. OLEDWorks was founded by two scientists who came out a division of Kodak that was developing OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) technology. Kodak sold off the division to the South Korean giant, LG, in 2009, which in turn, took the patent portfolio and laid off all the employees. As has been the result of many of the downsizing moves of Kodak and Xerox, it had spawned new businesses. Talented people find a way of making things work, and these two individuals, with the help of a visionary financial advisor have built OLEDWorks from a two-person consulting business to the only US-based OLED lighting panel manufacturer in just 3 short years. While many people have yet to experience OLED lighting because products are just coming to market, I’m convinced it is the future of lighting and I envision the day when your home windows let sunlight in during the day and product OLED lighting at night.

With its excellent higher learning institutions, strong sense of community, and network of serial entrepreneurs, Rochester is a great place for an engineer to take that leap of starting their own business. q

OLEDWorks' first product - white and amber lighting panels used in marker light fixtures. cover article

Mark Redding is an RIT Computer Science graduate, President of Poseidon Systems, member of the RIT Mechanical Engineering Advisory Board, and 2010 Rochester Business Person of the Year finalist. He can be reached at mark.redding@poseidonsys.com.

JANUARY 2015 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 9

The Limited Monopoly® Crowdsourcing of Prior Art – A New Road to Patent Quality?

by John Hammond, PE and Robert Gunderman, PE That Which Is Known

“Prior Art” is one of the most important concepts in any statute-based system of granting a patent to an applicant. Stated succinctly, “prior art” is “that which is known.” In particular, as it relates to an invention and an application for a patent on that invention, prior art is information that demonstrates that the invention, or a part of the invention, is already known to the public.

Examination

As readers of this column may recall, when a patent application is filed in the USPTO, it undergoes what is known as prosecution.1 An Examiner studies the application to determine if the claims meet the requirements for patentability as set forth in certain statutes. Two critical statutes are 35 U.S.C.§102, which requires that the invention must be novel, i.e. new, and not previously known; and 35 U.S.C.§103, which requires that the invention must be unobvious, i.e., a person “of ordinary skill in the art” would not easily be able to combine knowledge from multiple sources to create the invention.

In examining an application against the novelty and obviousness statutes, the Examiner does a “prior art search” in the relevant classifications of patents and published patent applications in the U.S. and worldwide, as well as in relevant non-patent literature (academic and trade journals, Internet sources, etc.) If the Examiner finds references that render the invention as defined in the claims of the application as lacking novelty or being obvious, they are rejected under “102” or “103” in an Office Action. The Applicant then has the burden of responding with a rebuttal of the Examiner’s findings, and/or amending the claims so that they are found to be novel and unobvious as compared to the prior art. This often takes more than one iteration of the Office Action/ Response cycle, but at the conclusion, if the claims are not found to be novel and unobvious, the grant of a patent is denied.

Patent “Quality”

Once issued, a U.S. patent is presumed to be valid and enforceable, thus providing the patentee with the right to exclude any third party from making, using, or selling the claimed invention during the term of the patent. Accordingly, a key aspect of the “quality” of an issued patent is its validity, which may be thought of as its ability to withstand any legal challenges asserted in court, or in further post-grant proceedings in the USPTO. Thus it is easy to see that the “quality” of an issued patent is highly dependent upon the quality of the prior art search performed by the Examiner. On any given application, an Examiner is given a limited time to perform examination, including searching for prior art that may be the basis for properly rejecting the claims as unpatentable. Under 10 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | JANUARY 2015

“Count us as skeptical that crowdsourcing of prior art will be effective in improving patent quality.” such circumstances, and without enough time to do a more thorough search, an Examiner might miss a relevant piece of prior art that would have been the basis for a rejection, and instead allow the claims. As a consequence of the lack of discovery of this critical piece of prior art, a “bad patent” is then issued by the USPTO.

Public Perception

There has been a perception in recent years, driven to some extent by parties with particular interests at stake, that the USPTO has been issuing too many “bad patents.” Whether the perception is justified or not, Congress was duly persuaded when drafting the America Invents Act, which was enacted in September of 2012. Under the AIA, new statute 35 U.S.C. §122(e) provides an opportunity for a third party to submit prior art to the USPTO for entry into the record and consideration by the Examiner during prosecution of a patent application.2,3 The provisions of 122(e) are quite structured and specific, and are intended to conform to the ex parte proceedings of

patent prosecution: • Submissions are limited to “any patent, published patent application, or other printed publication of potential relevance.” Thus collections of multiple documents are not permitted in a single submission.

• There are very specific timing requirements, i.e. there is a specific “window” in prosecution during which the submission must be made.

• The submission must be accompanied by “a concise description of the asserted relevance of each submitted document,” and a fee must be paid to the USPTO for entry and consideration of the submission.

If Some Prior Art Is Good…

More is better, apparently. The third party prior art submission provisions of the AIA notwithstanding, the perception that Examiners are still not accessing and considering the most relevant prior art remains. On February 20, 2014, the White House announced4 a new executive action that directs the USPTO to develop and implement a program to “crowdsource” prior art.

Since that time, the USPTO has held two “roundtable” events for open discussion of the initiative, on April 10th and December 2nd. The Office has also had two periods for the public to submit written comments The Limited Monopoly

y

on the initiative, the first running from March 19th to May 9th, and the second starting November 12th and recently extended to January 13, 2015.

In reviewing the online comments page for the March 19th comment request, we see that a total of 16 comments have been submitted. We were unable to locate the comments for the current period, and it appears that since the period is still open as of this writing, they are not yet available online. In any event, the total of 16 comments in the first comment period does not suggest a groundswell of support for crowdsourcing of prior art.

Not surprisingly, in the roundtables, much of the subject matter in various presenters’ slides, as well as additional crowdsourcing-related material that we found online, was directed to concerns with software patents. These have long been controversial, and will continue to be argued in Congress, the courts, and the Patent Office.

In another development, the Office has recently posted an online solicitation of assistance in prior art crowdsourcing from the private sector, “… seeking information from qualified firms that are capable of electronically receiving and potentially hosting millions of structured/ indexed and unstructured documents. The firm shall index and/or add searchable metadata (e.g. keywords, author, date of public availability, etc.) to the received materials. The firm shall have the capability to provide access to a publically [sic] searchable database.”

Thanks For Asking, But…

The USPTO will have a difficult challenge implementing the crowdsourcing of prior art while still complying with 35 U.S.C. 122(c), which states. “…no protest or other form of pre-issuance opposition to the grant of a patent on an application may be initiated after publication of the application without the express written consent of the applicant.”

Any new crowdsourcing rules that the Office implements must comply with the ex parte structure of patent prosecution that is required by the statutes. However the USPTO crowdsourcing initiative evolves, we are skeptical that it will be effective in improving patent quality for several reasons.

Examination of patent applications occurs on a case-by case basis, and patentability is determined by what is recited in the claims of an application. Regardless of whether new prior art databases are made available from the private sector, they are still just that: databases that must be searched by an Examiner so that relevant information can be extracted. Currently, this still requires human (the Examiner’s) intelligence to extract the information that is relevant to the claims of the particular application. In engineering parlance, the Examiner must find the signal in a lot of noise.

Also, with regard to examination - if you were examining an application, which would you pay more attention to – a pile of crowdsourced information from a database, or a single document filed by one third party that includes “a concise description of the asserted relevance” of the document to the claims of the application? Exactly. The former is a shotgun blast of #8 at 50 yards, and the latter is a rifle shot with a scope that can be aimed right at the claims. No serious opposers (e.g.,any rival firms) would submit prior art via the crowdsourcing route when, for the payment of a $180 fee, they can include that critical statement of relevance, which may well persuade the Examiner to reject the claims.

There is also the distinct possibility that if your rival has a key piece of prior art, it may hold back and not submit it during prosecution.

Submitting that prior art gives the Applicant a chance to address it, and potentially overcome it, resulting in a stronger patent. Instead, by holding back until after the patent issues, the rival firm can then challenge the issued patent with the new prior art in new AIA post grant proceedings5 in the USPTO (which are turning out to be quite favorable The Limited Monopoly

to third parties), or through litigation in court. Much as you don’t always lead with trump in Euchre, it may make sense to hold your prior art cards until after patent issuance. Considering both of the above scenarios, the crowdsourced prior art option is not a useful method for a company that wants to influence its rivals’ patent applications.

So given that entities in competition with each other are not likely to crowdsource prior art, that leaves concerned citizens in general as potential crowdsourcers. In FY2012, almost 543,000 utility patent applications were filed. Of this total, by now, about 500,000 of these applications have been published, and are thus of public knowledge. So if crowdsourcing of prior art is instituted, and present statistics hold, about a half million new patent applications will be available each year for crowdsourcing submissions. That’s going to take a lot of concerned citizens to access and study those applications, and then search, find, and submit that relevant prior art – especially if the USPTO maintains the requirement that a statement of the relevance of the prior art is necessary along with the submission.

Since most of the citizenry have better things to do, such as job and family obligations, there is potentially a small subset, which we refer to as “the angry mob.” While it is possible that some activists could spam a company’s patent application with a pile of crowdsourced prior art, we expect that it would have little effect, for the reasons stated above.

Lastly, and ironically, we think that there is the opportunity for abuse of crowdsourcing by an unscrupulous Applicant. Such an Applicant could submit one important prior art reference anonymously via the crowdsourcing route, camouflaged by another fifty or so additional crowdsourced references of no relevance. In that context, the significance of the key reference could be overlooked by the Examiner, but it would still be checked off as having been considered in prosecution of the application. That would make it much more difficult to assert the reference later in any challenge to the issued patent.

Next Move – the USPTO

It will be interesting to see how the prior art crowdsourcing initiative progresses, and if the USPTO issues new rules to implement it. We will provide an update in a future column if that happens. In the meantime, hopefully, this concept won’t be applied to health care. We’d rather not have our doctor crowdsource the reading of our chest X-ray or MRI. 1. See The Limited Monopoly® March 2009.

2. See The Limited Monopoly® October 2012.

3. See also 37 C.F.R.§1.290 4. http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/02/20/factsheet-executive-actions-answering-president-s-call-strengthen-our-p 5. See The Limited Monopoly® September 2012.

PHOTO CREDIT: “Socialists in Union Square, N.Y.C.,” 1 May 1912.

Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 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 2015 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.

JANUARY 2015 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 11

Get to the Point!

Keeping Track of Your Performance It’s that time of the year again. Once a year I offer this article as an encouragement to document what you do. We all are evaluated on our performance an often our pay and promotions are linked to our accomplishments. Every year—or half-year for some people—managers and supervisors write performance appraisals to describe the strengths and weaknesses of the staff who work for them. (Performance appraisals are written about them, too, by someone further up in the organization.) This article describes a simple personal evaluation technique that can become a catalyst at performance review time.

Write a Progress Report

Many of us, as part of our work, have to write regular progress or status reports describing how a project or task is progressing.

We suggest using this progress report technique to describe what you, personally, have accomplished during a specific period.

This is an excellent time management tool too, because it helps you understand what you are spending your time on and what may be slipping off the agenda.

Set Aside 30 Minutes

On the last working day of every month, open up a new file and list particular accomplishments you had during the month, plus other factors that either enhanced or constrained your work. Include projects you worked on, courses you attended, committees you are involved in and any issues you helped resolve. Also include ideas you have about future projects and training or conferences that will improve your performance or help you become a more effective staff member.

The plan is to capture this information while it’s fresh in your mind.

Create a Template

The ideal way to do this is to create a format for entering information each month. The template should have brief headings followed by a space for entering information. We suggest headings like these:

Personal Progress Report Month:______________ 1. Accomplishments: Planned Unplanned 2. Problems/Difficulties: Impact Steps Taken Effect Achieved 3. Objectives: Next month Balance of year 12 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | JANUARY 2015

Your goal should be to record details about the key events that transpired during the month. Rather than describe what was expected of you, identify what you accomplished.

As the template shows, divide your information into three compartments: 1.

2.

What you accomplished, separating your information into the work you planned to do and work that was unexpected.

Problems that arose and how you coped with them.

Divide this information into three subcompartments:  What impact the problem had on your work.  What steps you took to overcome or avert the problem.  What effect these steps had.

3. What you plan to achieve during the next month and, if practicable, the balance of the year.

Summarize the Key Points

When performance evaluation time approaches, read through your 12 personal reports for the past year to help remind you of your activities. This is so much more effective than trying to remember it all, and you’ll be amazed at how much you accomplished. Extract key factors to show your manager or supervisor during the performance review meeting. Write them as a summary report, using the same topic headings you used for the monthly reports. You will be surprised at the positive impact this has, when your manager sees that you have prepared for the interview and have been doing some self-evaluation.

Why not start the New Year with a fresh start. Work on finding 30 minutes on the last Friday of every month and plan to write a personal progress report. If you include this in your monthly routine, you’ll find that if all is running smoothly, you will only need to focus on your Objectives. If it isn’t working this way, you have valuable scheduling and time management information to discuss with your manager.

RGI Learning offers workshops in conflict resolution and communicatons skills.

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. © 2014, 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

advertisement

JANUARY 2015 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 13

What's News Building the Best Drone: Young Engineers Build Tomorrow's Tech Today and Vied for World Title in Montreal Eighteen teams of young engineers-in-training competed for the right to call themselves world champion drone builders at the 22nd annual ASME Student Design Competition (SDC) finals in November at the International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exhibition at Montreal's Palais des Congrès.

See images from the event here: http://inr.synapticdigital. com/ASME/studentdesigncompetition The international slate of teams - including squads from universities in China, France, India, Peru, Turkey and across the United States - brought their talent and training to bear on one of today's hottest mechanical technologies: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or as they are better known, drones. Each team had designed and built a powerful, maneuverable, remotely-piloted drone to fly in this year's competition.

Every year, the SDC tests the mettle of young engineering students through a design-and-build challenge based on latest developments in industry and academia. A committee of ASME members led by Dr. Tim Hodges, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Virginia Military Institute, works throughout the year to bring the SDC to life.

Today, drones are one of the world's hottest technologies.

Though an industry still in its infancy, drones and their potential have captured the imaginations of leaders in business, government and academia. They promise new solutions for difficult, dangerous or time-critical tasks in industries from agriculture to emergency medicine, from energy to journalism and beyond.

"Students get to use their engineering knowledge to design and build a vehicle, and then they get to compare their work with that of their peers," Hodges said. "It gives them lots of confidence to work into the future and toward employment in the real world. And they have done such a wonderful job." Wearing protective glasses and clutching clipboards, Hodges and his colleagues also served as judges of the competition.

The SDC Challenge for 2014: design and build an original drone, pilot it successfully through a series of high and low obstacles, complete a targeted payload drop, and return to the start -- in one piece.

And a great day of competition it was: motors roared; assembled crowds hooted, laughed, and cheered; multicolored, multi-propellered flying robots swooped and zoomed high, loud and sometimes dangerously close to the competitors and judges in the arena.

Judges' papers were repeatedly blown away by the windy force of the machines in flight. And though many succeeded, several entries crashed and shattered, with carbon-fiber blades and aluminum struts flying in all directions.

Student engineer Oscar Wall Arias of the Instituto Tecnológico de Ciudad Juarez (Mexico) exemplified not only the technical excellence of the assembled teams but their humane ambition. "We're engineers," Arias said.

"We're here to do good, to build, to make human lives better. What a great thing to be here with all these great teams today."

At day's end, the University of North Dakota team took first place with their massive 78.4lb. gleaming steel-andaluminum machine. Second place went to the nine-man, black-clad squad from California Polytechnic State University. Third place was taken by the "Airwolf," the drone flown by the "Wolfpack" team from North Carolina State University.

ASME President J. Robert Sims was deeply impressed by what he saw. "From looking at the exhibits and talking to the students, their dedication and expertise is just amazing," Sims said. "These folks are going to do well in the future in engineering. It's just a very impressive group - all of them. Whether they're winners or not in the finals, they are incredible individuals."

Said Scott McDaniel of North Dakota's winning team: "We drove two full days to get here from North Dakota - I'm so glad we did!"

What's News, continued on page 30...

14 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | JANUARY 2015

what's news

News From

SWBR Architects Completes Final Design of $10.5 Million Project in Rochester; Groundbreaking Ceremony Held in Honor of Completion SWBR Architects announced the completion of the design for Stadium Estates, a new affordable housing project that will be built adjacent to Sahlen’s Stadium in the JOSANA neighborhood in Rochester, New York. SWBR served as lead designer and architect for the $10.5 million project, $9.2 million of which has been invested by New York state.

The project in the JOSANA neighborhood will consist of 45 three-, four- or five-bedroom rental units, with the possibility of home ownership in the future. This is part of the city’s comprehensive master plan to guide the continued revitalization of the JOSANA neighborhood in northwest Rochester.

SWBR Architects — along with Stantec, Davidson Fink LLP, the City of Rochester, NYS Homes and Community Renewal, Federal Home Loan Bank of New York, NYS Housing Trust Fund, Raymond James Tax Credit Funds Inc. and Citizens Bank — celebrated a groundbreaking ceremony in October.

Construction is estimated to take about a year. q

RIT GIS Design Team Recognized by Design-Build Institute of America

– Firms Land Two Awards for Golisano Institute for Sustainability Project at Rochester Institute of Technology – SWBR Architects, in collaboration with FXFOWLE and LeChase Construction, was recently recognized for its role in the design of Rochester Institute of Technology’s Golisano Institute for Sustainability (RIT GIS). SWBR served as executive architect and architect of record on the project, with LeChase Construction as design-build team leader and FXFOWLE as design architect. The firms and the project have been recognized with two renowned awards by the Design-Build Institute of America. The project was awarded with the DBIA 2014 Excellence in Design and the DBIA 2014 National Award of Excellence in the education category.

The nearly $36 million RIT GIS project consisted of a unique 84,000-square-foot, four-story addition to the university. It houses sustainability research, technology transfer, education and outreach, and is a state-of-the-art showcase for green construction and design, as well as GIS master’s and Ph.D. programs in sustainability and architecture. The project was completed in March 2013. It houses one of the world’s first Ph.D. programs in sustainability.

The design team incorporated cutting-edge “green” technology throughout the building, ranging from the solar panels on the soaring canopy to the vertical wind turbines near its front entrance. The building contains specialized research labs, student work areas, classrooms and office suites, and features a fuel cell, microgrid, geothermal system, green roof and green wall.

The DBIA defines, teaches and promotes best practices in design-build project delivery and was established in 1993. President of SWBR Architects David Beinetti, AIA, serves on the local board for DBIA. The DBIA and its members work to form an alliance between designers and builders that fosters collaboration and teamwork. Members work to have an impact on the local design and construction community through programs and events, legislative efforts, and owner and professional education and certification. q

.

s

Professional Firms

News from Professional Firms, continued on page 16... news from professional firms

JANUARY 2015 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 15

News From

Professional Firms

News from Professional Firms, continued on page 18...

16 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | JANUARY 2015

news from professional firms

p

Professional Firms Employee News LaBella Announces New Employee Hires

LaBella Associates, D.P.C. announced the hiring of the following employees: Michael Romano, PE has joined as a senior electrical engineer. He will be working with K-12, higher education, corrections, county, and utility clients.

Marjani Wilson, PE has joined as a mechanical engineer. She has a strong background in buildings related engineering with experience in energy and commissioning work.

Michael Romano, PE

Marjani Wilson, PE

James Barnum, EIT

Paul Vogel

Thomas Kennedy Jr., EIT

Robin Closs, SE, PE

Kerianne Parlavecchio

John Hewitt, PE

James Barnum, EIT has joined as an electrical engineer. His experience includes work in the K-12, municipal and industrial market sectors.

Paul Vogel has joined as an electrical engineer. He has a strong background working on K-12 projects as well as some experience working in the higher education sector.

Thomas Kennedy Jr., EIT has joined as a junior electrical engineer. He has experience working in the utility engineering field and working with state facilities.

Robin Closs, SE, PE has recently joined as a senior structural engineer in the

building engineering group and will be working in the Buffalo office. She has experience working with institutional, commercial, government, nuclear and industrial clients.

Kerianne Parlavecchio has recently joined as a junior marketing coordinator in the building engineering group. She is a recent graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology with a degree in marketing and visual technology.

John Hewitt, PE has recently joined as a senior mechanical engineering, working out of the Ithaca office. He has over 30 years of diverse engineering experience spanning many market sectors, with particular interest in the healthcare industry. q

Joshua Patton Hired as CRM Database/Digital Media Specialist at Erdman Anthony Joshua Patton was recently hired as CRM database/digital media specialist in the marketing department of Erdman Anthony, Rochester.

Patton is a marketing and technology professional with several years of experience in web/market analytics and creation of innovative web content and marketing materials.

The Rochester resident holds a bachelor of fine arts degree in professional photographic illustration in advertising as well as a master of business administration degree in marketing and management from Rochester Institute of Technology. q Professional Firms, Employee News continued on page 18 Joshua Patton professional firms employee news

JANUARY 2015 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 17

News From

Professional Firms

Erdman Anthony Projects in Upstate New York Receive Two Prestigious ACEC Awards Erdman Anthony received two awards in the 2015 American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) New York Engineering Excellence Awards Competition. The firm was recognized with the Diamond Award in the Structural Systems category and the Gold Award in the Building/ Technology Systems category for work on two projects in Upstate New York.

The Diamond Award is for the firm’s Forest Home Drive Bridge Rehabilitation entry, completed in 2014. The bridge, located in Ithaca, was built in 1909 and was no longer able to meet modern load standards. The primary objective of the project—to increase the bridge’s load capacity while preserving its historic truss—was accomplished by building a new bridge inside the old one.

All Diamond Award winners are entered into competition to receive the Empire Award, given to the highestrated project in New York State. The Empire award and all other awards will be formally presented at the ACEC Engineering Excellence Gala in New York City next spring.

Erdman Anthony also received the Gold Award for the firm’s 2014 work on the $21.6 million SUNY Geneseo Bailey Hall rehabilitation project. Engineers and designers were charged with radically reconfiguring the former hard science building into a social science center that would become an integral part of the campus’s College Green area. The project was funded by the State University Construction Fund. q

Professional Firms Employee News Exciting Changes for Fisher Associates

Fisher Associates has a new name…we are now Fisher Associates, P.E., L.S., L.A., D.P.C., as we just converted from a Professional Corporation (PC) to a Design Professional Corporation (or DPC)!

In addition to this change we announced the promotion of Roseann B. Schmid, PE as vice president of Transportation. Mrs. Schmid is a licensed engineer with more than 26 years of experience in Roseann B. her field including project Schmid, PE management, highway design, traffic engineering, structural engineering, transportation planning, environmental screening and compliance, and construction management. She is experienced in managing and coordinating the planning, design, and construction phases of a variety of highway project types including corridor studies, trails, construction of roadways on new alignment, as well as rehabilitation and reconstruction of existing roadways. With

her environmental background, she is adept at managing complex bridge and highway projects in environmentally sensitive settings.

Her diverse background and attention to detail are invaluable in providing technical oversight for our engineering disciplines.

Fisher Associates would also like to welcome the addition of Dana White, IE and Jaymes Tanski, PE to our transportation group, as well as Ryan Kucinski to our planning group.

comes to us from the Connecticut Department of Transportation. He brings eight years of design experience in multi-disciplined highway and bridge projects and is a 2006 graduate from the University of Buffalo. Originally from the Attica area, he is excited to be back working in Western New York.

Ryan has joined as a planner and has a background in bicycle planning, urban design, comprehensive planning and historic preservation. His unique approach to planning and Dana White, IE Dana has joined as a junior design is influenced by his engineer and is a recent Ryan Kucinski prior graduate education and graduate from the University professional experience in Los of Buffalo with experience Angeles implementing public as a transportation space designs that complement and enhance construction inspector for the relationship between transportation two summers with New corridors and surrounding land uses. He is a York State Department of 2011 graduate from the University of Buffalo Transportation Region 4. and also excited to be back working in Western Jaymes Tanski, Jaymes has joined as a project New York. q PE engineer and Professional Firms, Employee News continued on page 22

18 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | JANUARY 2015

news from professional firms | professional firms employee news

s

t

y

d s

n

2

Campus News Thomas Gaborski Named 2014 Young Innovator

by International Biomedical Engineering Society Innovative research by RIT professor in use of adipose stem cells and ultra-thin, nano-membranes points to improvements in tissue engineering Thomas Gaborski’s research may be in ultra-thin nanomembranes, but it’s going to be titanic in advancing tissue engineering.

Gaborski, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology, and his research team are developing ways to use ultra-thin nano-membranes and adipose stem cells to create the vascular network necessary in engineering tissue, skin and organs.

For these organs to be viable, there is a need for not only the organ structure but also the inner network of micro-vessels and capillaries. Gaborski is helping develop that complex structure, using transparent and permeable membrane “scaffolds” to support cell and tissue growth, essential to tissue engineering.

Using adipose-derived stem cells that come from fat tissue, acquired from adults rather than embryos, Gaborski has been able to create functional microenvironments that help support and differentiate stem cells into the specialized cells that make up the human body. Creating engineered tissues from stem cells can help to address the critical shortage of donor organs. It also may alleviate some aspects of organ rejection by an individual’s immune system because of the likelihood that an individual’s own stem cells could generate needed tissue.

For his work with thin membranes and cell culture on membranes, Gaborski received the 2014 Young Innovator Award in Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering given by the Biomedical Engineering Society this fall. The award is given to profile the best research being carried out by talented assistant professors working in the growing bioengineering field. He presented results of his work in porous membranes and the ability to control cell functions at the society’s annual meeting, Oct. 22-25 in San Antonio, Texas.

The goal of tissue engineering is to repair or replace tissues and organs damaged as a result of injury or disease. This requires the precise use of many types of cells, support scaffolds and biochemical factors to create replacement tissue. It is important to design these structures with the proper mechanical and physiological requirements, said Gaborski, a faculty member in RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering.

Today, researchers can develop two-dimensional tissues such as campus news

artificial skin that is thin enough to receive needed oxygen and nutrients. However, most organs are three-dimensional, he explained.

“While it is possible in the lab to make very thin slices of tissue-mimics, once you create a three-dimensional tissue you need to create the blood vessel network, essentially the ‘highway system.’ The work that we are doing here is differentiating the adipose stem cells into the cells that make up blood vessels.”

Gaborski found that porous membranes could be used to help promote endothelial differentiation of adipose-derived stem cells and to investigate perivascular interactions. Growing the adipose stem cells on one side of a thin, porous nanomembrane and culturing them, the team found that the cells differentiated into endothelial cells even when grown on this lab-produced membrane, and that they acted more like perivascular cells—those that help blood vessels form and stabilize.

“We hope to create the tools and methodologies that will enable future tissue engineers to create blood vessels from anyone’s own fat tissue,” said Gaborski, who is also part of the Nanomembrane Research Group, a collaborative team from RIT, the University of Rochester and local nanotechnology company SiMPore. The Nanomembrane Research Group is made up of faculty, students, scientists and engineers working to develop ultrathin silicon membrane technologies. The group focuses on use of novel porous nanomaterials because of their permeability and ability to be scaled-up for varied biological and non-biological devices and structures.

“We believe this sort of toolbox could be used by others to create vascular cells for 3D-printed tissues,” Gaborski added.

“There has been a lot of discussion about 3D-printed organs and tissues. We are not looking to generate organs here at RIT, but what we are looking to do is generate protocols and the tools necessary to differentiate your cells, or my cells, into blood vessels that would be used in 3D-printed organs of the future.” q Campus News continued on page 27 JANUARY 2015 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 19

Position Openings

Copy for advertising in the Rochester Engineer is due by the 10th of the month.

Advertising rates are on the website (www.roceng.org) or on page 51 of this issue.

20 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | JANUARY 2015

position openings | advertisement

Position Openings

Electrical Engineer Hunt Engineers, Architects & Land Surveyors, PC, has an opportunity available for an Electrical Engineer (EIT) in its Rochester, NY office. Position requires engineering and design experience with a focus on lighting, power distribution, fire alarm/ security, energy efficiency, sustainability, and cost effective solutions.

Excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to organize and present design information to clients, and collaborate with all other disciplines to create constructible designs.

Familiar with AutoCAD, Revit, MS Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and proficient knowledge of lighting and electrical calculation programs.

The ideal candidate will have the ability to: • Perform design functions including equipment selection, system sizing, load calculations, product specifications, and design layouts for electrical systems.

• Be able to lead and influence the technical design solutions on prospective projects.

• Incorporate a strong working knowledge of building and energy codes.

• Prepare design documents for senior engineering and client review.

• Team with and support cross-discipline colleagues per direction of project leads.

Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, and 3 - 5 years of related experience is required. LEED AP certification, or interest in gaining, a plus.

Email resume to: rusnackd@hunt-eas.com, or mail to: Dan Rusnack, PE, HUNT Engineers, 4 Commercial St., Ste 300, Rochester, NY 14614 or apply online at: www.hunt-eas.com.

Looking For: Second Vice President and a Director on the RES Board of Directors Please contact Lynne Irwin, Admin Director (res@frontiernet.net) or Mary Steblein, RES President (president@roceng.org)

position openings

JANUARY 2015 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 21

Position Openings

Professional Firms Employee News Bergmann Associates Announces New Hire

Bergmann Associates announced that Zachary Hess has joined the company as a mechanical design engineer in their Rochester office. Before joining Bergmann, Zachary worked for TAITEM Engineering as an intern in Ithaca, NY. He has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Syracuse University. q Zachary Hess

SWBR Architects Hires Marketing Coordinator SWBR Architects welcomes Kimberly Mura to the firm as marketing coordinator.

Mura will be responsible for proposal preparation, and will assist with corporate communications.

She will also assist with various marketing duties, such as tradeshow coordination, award submissions, distribution of marketing materials, and updating corporate collateral materials.

Prior to joining SWBR, she was marketing manager at Next Generation Vending. Mura serves on the Board of Directors for Writers & Books, a literary center based in Rochester that fosters and promotes reading and writing as lifelong activities.

Kimberly Mura

Mura received a bachelor of science in english literature from The College at Brockport, State University of New York. q

22 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | JANUARY 2015

position openings | professional firms employee news

advertisement

JANUARY 2015 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 23

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

Continuing

Education Opportunities

Wednesday, January 14

American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)

p40

“Planning Around Critical Water System Component Downtime” 1 PDH Credit Pending

Thursday, January 15

Engineering for Bridge Construction Projects 1 PDH Credit (pending)

Association for Facilities Engineering (AFE)

p34

p37

Scholarship Night: Rochester Museum and Science Center “Information on the Role on the Energy Modeler and the Positive Impact of Early State Energy Modeling for LEED v4” PDH Credit Possible - Pending

Speaker: Guest speaker from Erdman Anthony Place: Rochester Museum and Science Center, 657 East Avenue, Rochester Cost: $25 for Members; $30 for Non-members.

Time: 5:30 pm; Buffet Dinner – by Mario’s Via Bruzzi Italian Restaurant Reservations: Contact Craig Avalone, CHA by January 7th at CAvalone@chacompanies.com or 585-232-5610 ext. 287.

Support Your Affiliate

p39

Speaker: Rudi Tillmann, Viega Place: Valicia’s Ristorante, 2155 Long Pond Road, Gates Time: 12:00 noon to 1:30 pm.

Cost: $20 per person (no credit cards) Reservations: Contact Adam Kramer at 585-341-3163 or akramerrr@ibceng.com by January 19th.

December 2014 through March 2015

Location: Lodge on the Green, 2888 Ridgeway Avenue, Rochester Time: 12:00 noon Cost: $25 for members; $30 for non-members, $15 for students.

Reservations: Contact Ellen Kremer by Thursday, January 8th, 585-295-6233 or EKremer@LaBellaPC.com.

Wednesday, January 21

American Society of Plumbing Engineers (ASPE) Radiant Heating & Cooling 1 PDH Credit Pending

Speaker: Clement Chung, PE, MRB Group Place: Back Nine Grill, 3500 East Avenue, Rochester Time: Registration at 11:30 am; Lunch and presentation at noon.

Reservations: Reservations to ascerochester@gmail.com. Additional details to be advertised vie email and ascerochester.org.

Association for Bridge Construction and Design (ABCD)

Wednesday, January 21

Winter Engineering Workshops

January 6, January 7 February 3, February 4, February 24, February 25, March 10, March 11, March 24, and March 25

1 PDH Credit Approved for Each Session

Locations: Held in 2 locations - refer to website for location of specific session. Everett J. Prescott, Inc., 200 Lake Avenue, Blasdell, NY or at 241 Farrell Road, Syracuse, NY Time: 12 Noon to 1:00 pm Cost: $10 per person, per session. Lunch and certificates will be provided.

Details: Phone 716-822-1544 or email robin.palmer@ejprescott.com.

Wednesday, January 28

Project Management Institute (PMI Rochester) How to Keep Your Projects From Going up in Flames 1 PMP PDU Credit

Speaker: Jim Stranz, Seneca Foods Corporation & Penfield FD Place: Penfield Fire Hall, 1838 Penfield Road, Penfield Time: 5:30 to 8:00 pm. Dinner catered by Sticky Lips BBQ Cost: $25 members, $35 non-member Reservations: Reservations and details at www.pmirochester.org.

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

24 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | JANUARY 2015

continuing education

e

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.

Wednesday, January 14

Tuesday, January 6

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

p46

Place: Hibachi Sushi Buffet Restaurant, South Town Plaza on Jefferson Road (Route 252), Jefferson Road, Rochester.

Time: 12:00 noon.

Comment: Any IEEE member is invited to attend and to participate, or just to observe. Lunch is $3 for IEEE member.

No reservation or RSVP is needed, just show up. Website: http://rochester.ieee.org.

Wednesday, January 7

Illuminating Engineering Society (IES)

p36

Harley Hill & Energetix Award Submissions – Come view local lighting projects submitted.

Place: RIT Inn & Conference Center, 5257 West Henrietta Road, West Henrietta Time: 12:00 noon to 1:00 pm. Registration opens at 11:30 am Cost: $25 per person. Payment required at the door (cash, check or credit card).

Reservations: email to ceckert1@rochester.rr.com or call Chuck at the IES office, 585-766-0329 by Monday, January 5th with your luncheon choice (Cheeseburger on Kaiser Roll, Grilled Chicken Sandwich, or Caesar Salad with Grilled Chicken).

p41 & p42

Tour of the Gene Polisseni Center and Family Event – Hockey Game

Place: Gene Polisseni Center, Rochester Institute of Technology Time: Tour and meeting at 3:00 pm; Hockey Game at 7:05 pm Cost: Tour and presentation is free, Tickets for hockey game are $12 for adults, $10 for RIT staff/alumni, $6 for youth (12 & under).

Reservations: Reservations are required by January 7th. Reserve your tickets for the hockey game before Sunday, January 4th. If you have questions about the hockey game contact Chris Walter at 585-486-2148. You can reserve for the tour and game tickets by going to website at www.rochester.ashraechapters.org. To reserve by phone for the tour contact Tim Duprey at 585-330-6430 or tim.duprey@pres-services.com.

Engineers' Calendar continued on page 26... engineers’ calendar

Imaging Color Target for Off-Axis Illumination Reflectance Microscopy

p31

Speaker: Jennifer D.T. Kruschwitz, co-authored by Roy S. Berns Place: Room 1275 of the Carlson Center for Imaging Science, RIT Campus.

Time: 6:00 pm Comments: Everyone is welcome to attend. Parking is available in the F lot, just north of the building. No meeting reservations are required.

Wednesday, January 14

American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)

p40

“Planning Around Critical Water System Component Downtime” 1 PDH Credit Pending Speaker: Clement Chung, PE, MRB Group Place: Back Nine Grill, 3500 East Avenue, Rochester Time: Registration at 11:30 am; Lunch and presentation at noon.

Reservations: Reservations to ascerochester@gmail.com.

Additional details to be advertised vie email and ascerochester.org.

Thursday, January 15

International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE)

Friday, January 9

American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and AirConditioning Engineers (ASHRAE)

Society for Imaging Science and Technology (IS&T)

p32

Update on the Android Course and Replay of the presentation (recorded live) given in November, “How to Fail at Model Based SE (MBSE) Speaker: Matt Hause, Chief Consulting Engineer, Atego Place: Telephone conference access at many sites – see page 32 for locations or details on the website at www.incose/org/flc Time: Meeting introduction and featured presentation at 6:00, approximate adjournment at 7:15 pm.

Association for Bridge Construction and Design (ABCD)

Engineering for Bridge Construction Projects 1 PDH Credit (pending)

p34

Location: Lodge on the Green, 2888 Ridgeway Avenue, Rochester Time: 12:00 noon Cost: $25 for members; $30 for non-members, $15 for students.

Reservations: Contact Ellen Kremer by Thursday, January 8th, 585-295-6233 or EKremer@LaBellaPC.com.

JANUARY 2015 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 25

Wednesday, January 21

Wednesday, January 28, Continued

“Information on the Role on the Energy Modeler and the Positive Impact of Early State Energy Modeling for LEED v4”

GVLSA Strategic Planning Committee Meeting

Association for Facilities Engineering (AFE)

p37 Genesee Valley Scholarship Night: Rochester Museum and Science Center Land Surveyors Association (GVLSA)

PDH Credit Possible - Pending Speaker: Guest speaker from Erdman Anthony Place: Rochester Museum and Science Center, 657 East Avenue, Rochester Cost: $25 for Members; $30 for Non-members.

Time: 5:30 pm; Buffet Dinner – by Mario’s Via Bruzzi Italian Restaurant Reservations: Contact Craig Avalone, CHA by January 7th at CAvalone@chacompanies.com or 585-232-5610 ext. 287.

American Society of Plumbing Engineers (ASPE)

p39

Radiant Heating & Cooling 1 PDH Credit Pending (call or email for confirmation after Jan. 16) Speaker: Rudi Tillmann, Viega Place: Valicia’s Ristorante, 2155 Long Pond Road, Gates Time: 12:00 noon to 1:30 pm.

Cost: $20 per person, cash or check (no credit cards) Reservations: Contact Adam Kramer at 585-341-3163 or akramerrr@ibceng.com by January 19th.

p45

NYSAPLS 56th Surveyors Conference & Exhibition

Speaker: Jim Stranz, Seneca Foods Corporation & Penfield FD Place: Penfield Fire Hall, 1838 Penfield Road, Penfield Time: 5:30 to 8:00 pm. Dinner catered by Sticky Lips BBQ Cost: $25 members, $35 non-member Reservations: Reservations and details at www.pmirochester.org.

Wednesday, February 11

Society for Imaging Science and Technology (IS&T)

p31

Monday, February 16

Annual Electrical Week Luncheon – “Creating Opportunities for Rochester: Career Pathways and Partnerships for MCC”

Friday, January 23

Independent Entrepreneurs Council (IEC)

p33

Webnair – Non-Biological Methods for Solids Removal in Industrial Wastewater Effluents Presenter: Dennis R. Roote, PE Time: 10:00 am EST Registration: Visit www.cde-pllc.com/news

Society of Women Engineers (SWE) SWE Region E Conference

p43

p35

Featured Speaker: Dr. Anne Kress, President, Monroe Community College Place: Midvale Country Club Visit www.eawny.com for details.

Friday – Sunday, February 20-22

Place: Hedonist Artisan Chocolate, 674 South Avenue, Rochester Time: 6:00 pm Visit our website, www.swerochester.org for registration and event fees.

26 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | JANUARY 2015

How to Keep Your Projects From Going up in Flames 1 PMP PDU Credit

Electrical Association (EA)

Place: Turning Stone Resort & Casino, Verona, NY Register today at www.nysapls.org.

Meet and Mingle: Tour and Chocolate Tasting

Project Management Institute (PMI Rochester)

Speaker: Ray Ptucha, PhD, Rochester Institute of Technology Place: Room 1275 of the Carlson Center for Imaging Science, RIT Campus.

Time: 6:00 pm Comments: Everyone is welcome to attend. Parking is available in the F lot, just north of the building. No meeting reservations are required.

Genesee Valley Land Surveyors Association (GVLSA)

Society of Women Engineers (SWE)

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

Deep Belief Networks

Wednesday - Friday, January 21-23

Wednesday, January 28

p45

p43

Place: Drexel College, Philadelphia, PA Visit www.sweregioneconference.org/ for more information on the conference.

The RES website (www.roceng.org) has a calendar of events for meetings that are received or updated after the deadline. Please refer to the website for updated information. If you wish to be listed on the calendar please send details to res@frontiernet.net engineers’ calendar

Campus News

RIT’s Nabil Nasr named to United Nations panel dedicated to world’s natural resources Sustainability leader to head International Resource Panel’s efforts around remanufacturing

Nabil Nasr, associate provost and director of Rochester Institute of Technology’s Golisano Institute for Sustainability, has been named a member of a United Nations panel dedicated to protecting use of the world’s natural resources.

governance of natural resources and poverty eradication, and marine resources.

The United Nations Environmental Program’s (UNEP) International Resource Panel, widely considered the most authoritative scientific forum for scientists and experts working in the area of natural resource management, was launched in 2007 to build and share knowledge toward improving the use of resources worldwide.

Nasr is leading the panel’s discussions and proposals surrounding remanufacturing and the circular economy, a generic term for an industrial economy that is designed to becoming more restorative in its relationship with the environment.

The panel consists of eminent scientists, highly skilled in resource management issues. Their reports distill the latest scientific, technical and socio-economic findings around global resource use. The panel’s goal is to steer people away from overconsumption, waste and ecological harm to a more prosperous and sustainable future.

In addition to reports around global resource use, the panel provides advice and connections between policymakers, industry and the community on ways to improve global and local resource management. It is comprised of scientists and governments from both developed and developing regions with the goal of steering the planet away from over-consumption, waste and ecological harm toward a more prosperous and sustainable future.

In his appointment letter to Nasr, Achim Steiner, U.N. undersecretary-general and UNEP executive director, wrote “the next years will certainly be exciting for the International Resource Panel … expectations for the Panel are growing as the work streams mature, and as resource issues gain importance in the political agenda.”

“To be selected to serve on this panel is a tremendous honor and I am very excited to have the opportunity to work with such an outstanding panel to help inform policymakers globally in areas related to sustainable management of natural resources,” Nasr said. “For RIT, this is terrific recognition for the expanding global reputation of our world-class Golisano Institute for Sustainability (GIS).”

During a meeting in the Netherlands recently, the panel identified areas for future research: the “circular economy” (remanufacturing); ecosystem resilience and restoration; the campus news

Nabil Nasr has been named a member of the United Nations Environmental Program’s International Resource Panel, comprising international experts guiding the U.N. on its environmental priorities.

Credit: A. Sue Weisler

About the International Resource Panel The International Resource Panel was established in 2007 to provide independent, coherent and authoritative scientific assessments on the sustainable use of natural resources and the environmental impacts of resource use over the full lifecycle. By providing up-to-date information and the best science available, the panel contributes to a better understanding of how to decouple human development and economic growth from environmental degradation. Through its scientific assessments, the panel’s findings have been used in discussions and decisions on establishing new policies in the areas of resource efficiency, sustainable consumption and production, and a green economy. Go to http://www.unep.org/resourcepanel/ for information.

About UNEP The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) is the voice of the environment in the U.N. system. Established in 1972, UNEP’s mission is to provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.

UNEP’s work involves providing support for environmental assessment and reporting; legal and institutional strengthening and environmental policy development; sustainable use and management of natural resources; integration of economic development and environmental protection; and promoting public participation in environmental management. q

JANUARY 2015 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 27

Rochester Engineering Society

113 ANNUAL GALA th

Saturday - April 11, 2015 Sponsorship and Advertising

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

Commitments must be reserved no later than Friday, January 16, 2015 to be included in preevent branding opportunities. Company Logos in both black & white and color (high quality PDF, TIFF, or JPEG file format) need to be  Platinum Sponsor - $2,500 submitted by February 10th to be included 4 Gala Tickets with Reserved Seating Company Name on All Printed Materials and Media Communications in the Rochester Engineer and the dinner Corporate Logo Display on Banner during Gala program.

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

Advertising Copy for the dinner program must be submitted electronically, in black & white, by February 6, 2015.  Gold Sponsor - $1,500 Remit to:

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

HONORING 2014 Engineer of the Year 2014 Young Engineer of the Year 2014 Finalists for Young Engineer of the Year 2014 Engineers of Distinction Scholarships to High School & College Students

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 25% Discount on a Quarter-Page Corporate Ad in Gala Program Book

ADVERTISEMENT OPPORTUNITIES

ENTERTAINMENT RECEPTION

Casino Games Penfield Robotics Team Demonstration Drone Exhibition Silent Auction

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”)

     

Main Act - The Up! State Cirque Performers

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

*Only one advertisement available on a first response basis.

Name: Title: Company: Address: City, State, Zip:

Entertainment and reception plans are still being finalized. Details will be posted on the website and updated in the next issue.

28 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | JANUARY 2015

Phone & Fax: Email: Enclosed is a check payable to the “Rochester Engineering Society” res news - gala sponsorship

res - 113th annual gala

JANUARY 2015 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 29

What's News SPI Supports Efforts to Clear Waterways of Pollution WASHINGTON - SPI: The Plastics Industry Trade

globe, in 2011 SPI signed The Declaration of the Global

Association advocates on behalf of programs designed

Plastics Associations for Solutions on Marine Litter, a

to pursue zero waste. In response to the Five Gyres

public commitment to address plastics in the marine

Institute’s recent release of a study that estimates the

environment. SPI is one of 60 associations representing

quantities of plastics in the world’s oceans (“Plastic

34 countries that have signed the declaration to

Pollution in the World’s Oceans: More than 5 Trillion

promote policies and practices that rid our waterways

Plastic Pieces Weighing over 250,000 Tons Afloat at

of ugly, harmful marine debris.

Sea”), SPI President and CEO William R. Carteaux released the following statement:

“Plastics are renewable resources that are too valuable to lose as litter. Because of this, we’ve invested heavily

“Marine debris is a serious pollution problem that

in a broad range of recycling projects geared toward

impacts our environment, the economy and our

encouraging the public to reuse and recycle plastics

way of life. As responsible plastics manufacturing

products. Most recently, SPI became an inaugural

professionals, SPI and its members are firmly

member of the Recycling Partnership, a grant fund

committed to addressing marine litter issues with

established by the Curbside Value Partnership

sound solutions that achieve our goal of pursuing zero

(CVP) to support and transform public recycling

waste.

performance. In this role, we advocate for expansion of programs in communities that have the capability

“Operation Clean Sweep, an international product

to maximize recovery of plastic products including

stewardship program launched by SPI in 1994 and

rigids, thermoforms and other non-bottle packaging

currently administered in conjunction with the

materials.

American Chemistry Council, is credited with reducing the concentration of pellets in the waterways by 80

“By supporting efforts to close the loop on all

percent. We are extremely proud of our success in

plastics materials so that none reaches the marine

this realm and plan to continue working with our peer

environment or the landfill, SPI and its partners are

organizations as well as our members to make greater

helping to combat marine debris and look forward to

strides in the future.

a day when plastics in the marine environment are a thing of the past.” q

“Along with similar-minded organizations around the 30 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | JANUARY 2015

what's news

Rochester Chapter

Society for Imaging Science and Technology Website: http://rochesterengineeringsociety.wildeapricot.org/ISandT Save the Dates: 2014-15 Meeting Schedule

February 11, 2015 - "Deep Belief Networks," by Dr. Ray Ptucha, Assistant Professor, Director in Machine Intelligence Lab, Rochester Institute of Technology

April 15, 2015 - TBD

March 18, 2015 - "Observer functions and observer metamerism," by Yuta Asano, Ph.D. Candidate in Program of Color Science, Munsell Color Science Laboratory, Rochester Institute of Technology

Our meetings are held at 6:00 pm in Room 1275 of the Carlson Center for Imaging Science 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.

May 13, 2015 - TBD

January IS&T Meeting - Wednesday, January 14, 2015 Imaging Color Target for Off-Axis Illumination Reflectance Microscopy Presented by Jennifer D. T. Kruschwitz (Co-authored by Roy S. Berns) Abstract A color target has been designed and fabricated for off-axis illumination reflectance microscopy that utilizes microlens arrays and color mirrors. The color mirrors are optical interference coatings that are similar to designs used for anti-counterfeiting effect pigments.

This system of microlenses and color mirrors allows the user to image different colored specular highlights. An infinite number of spectral reflectance profiles can be created with these color targets and used not only colorimetrically, but also for multispectral imaging applications. The targets are not limited to the visible region; they can also be designed to work in the ultraviolet and infrared wavelength regions. This presentation will describe how these targets work, the image capturing considerations (flatfielding, white balance, etc.), and some experimental results.

Biography: Jennifer D. T. Kruschwitz is pursuing her Ph.D. in Color Science from Rochester Institute of Technology as the Macbeth-Engel Fellow. She has received both her B.S. (1989) and M.S. (1995) in Optics from the University of Rochester. She is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in Optics for both the University of Rochester and the University of Arizona. She has worked in the field of optical interference coatings for more than 25 years and has been an independent consultant in Rochester, NY for coating design since 1998. Her main focus has been optical coating design for display, lighting, and effect pigments. She is a Senior Member of the OSA and a member of SPIE.

February IS&T Meeting - Wednesday, February 11, 2015 Deep Belief Networks Presented by Ray Ptucha, PhD, Rochester Institute of Technology Abstract: Deep belief networks are revolutionizing the machine learning community winning numerous competitions in signal and pattern recognition. This presentation will review what deep belief networks are, how they evolved over the years, and how they differ from competing technologies such as support vector machines / random forests. Examples will be given demonstrating their widespread usage, and as this technology is described, it will become clear why deep belief networks are doing so well. After understanding how these networks are able to learn complex systems in both unsupervised and supervised settings, references will be shared on how to train and use your own deep belief networks using open source utilities, with an emphasis on how to setup parameters and configure models for maximum success. is&t news

Biography: Ray is a an Assistant Professor in Computer Engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology specializing in machine learning, computer vision, robotics, and embedded control. Ray was a research scientist with Eastman Kodak Company for 20 years where he worked on computational imaging algorithms and was awarded 22 U.S. patents with another 26 applications on file. He graduated from SUNY/ Buffalo with a B.S. in computer science (1988) and a B.S. in electrical engineering (1989). He earned a M.S. in image science from RIT in 2002. He earned a Ph.D. in computer science from RIT in 2013.

Ray was awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship in 2010 and his Ph.D. research earned the 2014 Best RIT Doctoral Dissertation Award. Ray is a passionate supporter of STEM education and is an active member of his local IEEE chapter and FIRST robotics organizations.

JANUARY 2015 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 31

Finger Lakes Chapter

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

Finger Lakes Chapter of INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON SYSTEMS ENGINEERING www.incose.org/flc

Upcoming Chapter Meeting Events

6 week course Fundamentals of Systems Engineering Starts January 2015

Learn the basics of System Engineering (which can be applied to almost anything) by building an Android App in 6 weeks following a systems engineering process.

Cost: Free to all •

January 2015: Our intent is to bring some fun while learning systems engineering at the same time learning how to program android apps using a web-based graphical programming tool. No prior programming experience required.

•

Please register with Rick Zinni, rzinni@gmail.com by January 8th (seats are limited, so signup ASAP).

•

January, 15, 2015 INCOSE Finger Lakes Chapter Meeting - Update on the Android Course and a replay of the presentation (recorded live) given on November 20th entitled “How to Fail at Model Based SE (MBSE)” by Matt Hause, Chief Consulting Engineer, Atego (for further details please contact Rick Zinni: rzinni@gmail.com)

•

Call for nominations for chapter leadership: Do you enjoy working with great people, full of ideas and experience?

Consider joining the leadership team of the Finger Lakes chapter of INCOSE. We have two openings on the board of directors for 2015. Please email Clark.hochgraf@rit.edu to learn more about being part of this friendly and fun group.

Meeting Agenda:

6:00 pm Meeting Introduction / Featured Presentation 7:15 pm (approx time) Adjourn Meeting

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): Ithaca, NY Syracuse University Xerox Binghamton University Rome, NY SRC, No. Syracuse, NY Lockheed Martin SI Rochester Inst. of Tech.

Wesley Hewett at wahewett@gmail.com, Ithaca, NY; Dr. Young Moon at ybmoon@syr.edu, 220 Link Hall Charles Rizzolo at charles.rizzolo@xerox.com Steve Czarnecki at czar@binghamton.edu Bruce Rubin at bruceieeerubin@yahoo.com Kevin Devaney at devaney@srcinc.com, 6225 Running Ridge Road, 13212 Stephen C. Felter Ph. D. at stephen.felter@lmco.com, LMCO Clark Hochgraf at cghiee@rit.edu, RIT, Rochester, NY, Bld 82, Room 1150

32 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | JANUARY 2015

incose news

s

Rochester NY Chapter

Independent Entrepreneurs Council "The Junction of Technology, Manufacturing & Business Development" Chairman/Moderator Ralph Kraft R. Kraft, Inc 585-621-6946 Program Director Robert Lewis AdviCoach 585-385-2087 Treasurer Richard Blazey Business Metamorphosis LLC 585-520-3935 Web Master Richard Blazey Business Metamorphosis LLC 585-520-3935 Event Planner Rick Rivers The Rivers Organization 585-586-6906 Community Outreach: Terry Rogelstad Pfeiffer Vacuum 585-330-9713 Dave Bassett Bassett IP Strategies 585-739-9726 Lee Drake OS Cubed 585-765-2444 Dennis Roote CDE Engineering & Environmental PLCC 585-330-6986

Entrepreneurs Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed Monthly Breakfast Series Date: January 23, 2015 Location: This will be a Webnair Time: 10:00 am EST Presentation: Audio/Visual Registration Required: Visit www.cde-pllc.com/news Topic:

Non-Biological Methods for Solids Removal in Industrial Wastewater Effluents

Presenter: Dennis R. Roote P.E. Abstract: Many industrial processes use water for equipment cooling, washdown, and material processing (such as cleaning or cutting). This process wastewater frequently requires pretreatment for the removal of suspended and precipitated solids prior to discharge into municipal sewer systems or state regulated water bodies via NPDES/SPDES permit.

Dennis will examine several different technologies for the removal of solids from the wastewater to include chemical treatment, straining/filtration, and settlement. Dennis will also explore solids thickening, handling, and disposal options.

Dennis has over 28 years of experience in civil and environmental engineering working mainly with industrial clientele. He is President of CDE Engineering and Environment, PLLC, a civil and environmental engineering firm that provides industrial clients with design and process solutions for industrial wastewater, stormwater, and other environmental compliance concerns.

Dennis is a Licensed Professional Engineer in New York, New Hampshire, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Upcoming Talks:

Date Speaker Topic February Dave Bassett How to Patent Your Invention March Terry Rogelstad What’s New in Dry Vacuum Pumps April Lee Drake TBD May Richard Blazey How to expand Your Consulting Services Into New Areas June Ralph Kraft Items to consider when designing a cleanroom If you are a “technology based entrepreneur” and you feel that you have a topic of interest that you would like to present, contact Bob Lewis (585-385-2087).

Talks are the 3rd Tuesday of every month (8:00-9:30 am) Reservation Required.

Join us at our monthly luncheon meeting to see how we can help you grow your business.

Contact one of the persons listed to the left for time and place.

iec news

JANUARY 2015 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 33

34 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | JANUARY 2015

abcd news

ea news

JANUARY 2015 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 35

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

January IES Rochester Meeting Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Harley Hill & Energetix Award Submissions Come view local lighting projects submitted by area Engineers, Architects, Designers, Contractors and Lighting Reps. They’ve offered their best work so you can experience the state of the art. Every submission will be presented and all attendees will be eligible to vote by electronic ballot to determine the winners. The award will be presented at the Electrical Week Luncheon in February. The deadline for submissions was Friday, December 5, 2014.

RIT Inn & Conference Center 5257 West Henrietta Rd, Henrietta NY

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

Time: 12:00 Noon - 1:00 pm Cost: $25.00 per person Reservations required by Monday, Jan. 5 - Space is limited email to ceckert1@rochester.rr.com or call Chuck at 585-766-0329. Be sure to include your menu selection.

Spring Courses Wednesday, March 18, 2015 - Daylighting Tuesday, March 24, 2015 - Light & Health Thursday, March 16, 2015 - Vision + Color 36 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | JANUARY 2015

ies news

Rochester Chapter No. 21

Association for Facilities Engineering 2014/15 BOARD OF DIRECTORS PRESIDENT Josh Murray R L Stone Co. Inc. (585) 203-1222 joshm@rl-stone.com VICE PRESIDENT Matthew Knights Ultrafab Inc. (585) 924-2186 ext. 221 mknights@ultrafab.com SECRETARY Frank St. George J.T. Mauro Co. (585) 210-4491 fstgeorge@jtmauro.com TREASURER Craig Avalone CHA Companies (585) 232-5610 CAvalone@chacompanies.com ASSISTANT TREASURER Dennis Roote CDE Engineering & Environment, PLLC (585) 330-6986 dennis.roote@cde-pllc.com IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT Dan Friday YMCA of Greater Rochester (585) 341-3121 danf@rochesterymca.org DELEGATE DIRECTORS Joseph R. Graves – RMSC Fred Schreiner – Buckpitt and Co. Mark Ramsdell – Haley & Aldrich CHAPTER HISTORIAN Joe Dioguardi – MicroMod CHAIRMAN, EDUCATION COMMITTEE Thomas Coburn The Gleason Works (585) 461-8073 tcoburn@gleason.com CHAIRMAN, COMMUNICATION COMMITTEE Bryan D. Stalk Crosby-Brownlie, Inc. (585) 325-1290 bstalk@crosbybrownlie.com CHAIRMAN, MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE Kurt Finkbeiner (585) 671-7771 kfinkbeiner@rochester.rr.com

afe news

January 2015 Meeting Notice Date/Time: Wednesday, January 21, 2015 – 5:30 p.m.

Scholarship Night: Rochester Museum and Science Center This is our annual scholarship night and this year we will be awarding three $1500 scholarships. The scholarship candidates are from FLCC, MCC and RIT (3rd and 4th Year). We are going to have a guest speaker from Erdman Anthony, presenting information on the role of the energy modeler and the positive impact of Early Stage Energy modeling for LEED v4. We are planning on being able to provide PDH credits for this.

Directions: 657 East Ave, Rochester NY 14607

• From Rochester, take I-490 to Goodman Street Exit (17) • Turn left onto Goodman (coming from the west) or right (from the East) • Follow Goodman to East Avenue, Turn right onto East Avenue • 657 East Avenue is on the right

Dinner: Buffet Dinner by Mario’s Via Bruzzi Italian Restaurant

• Mixed Greens and Vegetables Salad with Assorted Dressings • Fresh Baked Italian Rolls, with butter • Relish Tray • Baked Chicken in a Mushroom Sauce • Combination of Meatballs & Italian Sausage, with Mario's Pasta Sauce • Red Bliss Potatoes, with butter & parsley • Penne with Mario's Pasta Sauce • Mixed Vegetable Medley

Cost: Members - $25

Non Member - $30

Please RSVP by January 7th to: Craig Avalone CHA Companies (585) 232-5610 CAvalone@chacompanies.com

JANUARY 2015 | 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

2014-15 Officers: President Joe Dombrowski, PE, President-elect Chris Devries, PE, Treasurer Neal Illenberg, PE, Membership Chair Joe Dombrowski, PE 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.” 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.

Five Reasons to Get Licensed  Prestige: PEs are respected by the public and are seen in the same light as licensed professionals in other fields.

PEs are also held in high esteem by their peers within the engineering community, who see the PE as part of an elite group.  Career Development: Employers are impressed with engineers who have their PE license. Licensure not only enhances your stature, it shows commitment to the profession and demonstrates heightened leadership and management skills. Licensure is also a necessity for rising to increased levels of authority and responsibility.  Authority: Only PEs can sign and seal engineering drawings; and only PEs can be in responsible charge of a firm in private practice or serve as a fully qualified expert witness. Also, many government agencies and 38 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | JANUARY 2015

educational institutions are emphasizing licensure among their engineers as well.  Flexibility: Having a PE license opens up your career options. You can become a specialist, or establish your own business. It also protects you during industry downsizing or outsourcing. The PE license allows you to go as far as your initiative and talent will take you.  Money: Studies have shown that most PEs earn higher pay throughout their business careers. Having your PE allows expanded opportunities beyond a company structure - as an independent consultant for example.

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 As always please contact me or any other MPES board member should you have any questions. My contact information is: (585) 288-5590 or jdombrowski@meengineering.com.

Joe Dombrowski, P.E. President - MPES

mpes news

a

s

Rochester, NY Chapter

American Society of Plumbing Engineers www.aspe.org President: ALAN SMITH, P.E. IBC Engineering, P.C. 3445 Winton Place, Suite 219 Rochester, NY 14623 585-292-1590

President's Message

Vice President Technical: ADAM KRAMER IBC Engineering, PC 3445 Winton Place Suite 219 Rochester, NY 14623 585-292-1590

ASPE will be issuing Volume 2, Plumbing Systems of the Plumbing Engineering Design Handbook in the first quarter of this year. The handbook will be distributed to all active members in good standing. If you have not renewed your membership, please contact ASPE to ensure you will receive your copy as part of your membership benefits.

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., P.E. Harris Corporation Rochester, NY 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

aspe news

Happy New Year and welcome to 2015! While we’re dealing with the snow and cold, just think that in five (5) short months we’ll be having our annual Golf Outing.

The Alfred Steele Scholarship application deadline is January 31st. The scholarship is limited to ASPE members and their immediate families that have a 3.0 GPA or higher and are in, or plan to, attend college, university or technical school on a full-time basis enrolled in an engineering program.

Alan Smith, P.E.

Rochester Chapter President

Meeting Notice – Save the Date Topic: Radiant Heating & Cooling Speaker: Rudi Tillmann, Viega

Date: Wednesday, January 21, 2015 Time: 12:00 noon – 1:30 p.m.

Place: Valicia’s Ristorante, 2155 Long Pond Rd., Rochester 14606 (just north of Route 31, Gates) Credit: PDH Approval Pending (call or e-mail for confirmation after January 16th)

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

RSVP: To Adam Kramer (585-341-3163) or akramer@ibceng.com

by January 19th.

Future meetings: February 18th, March 18th (Chapters are not authorized to speak for the Society)

JANUARY 2015 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 39

40 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | JANUARY 2015

asce news

a

s

MORE ASHRAE NEWS ON PAGE 42 ashrae news

JANUARY 2015 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 41

Rochester Chapter

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

Greetings...the year is new, the hopes are new, the aspirations are new. I wish you and your families all the best and prosperity in the New Year! We are having a great start to the year! Our lunch meeting that was held on Monday, December 8th featured the program topic of Freeze Block Technology and was presented by Mr. Bob Cooney. The technology of the installation of a temperature and pressure relief valve as a means of defense against costly coil freeze situations was very informative, as was the discussion of insurance companies’ interest in this technology. I could not help but think of the original origins of the Hartford Loop! I hope all that attended found the program content as interesting and useful as I did.

Our upcoming January program meeting will be held at RIT on Friday, January 9th at RIT. The program meeting will consist of a refrigeration tour of the new Gene Polisseni Ice rink at RIT. The refrigeration tour event is combined with an ASHRAE Rochester Chapter Family event. Friday evening will be an ASHRAE Family night hockey game at RIT (RIT Tigers vs. American International). Look for details in our newsletter, page 41 of this issue and on the Rochester ASHRAE chapter website.

As a chapter we are undertaking the initiative to be involved with a community project this year. We are exploring two excellent opportunities: 1. Involvement with a community event sponsored by ASHRAE similar to an Explorers Post. Either an event with multiple meetings of middle school to high school students getting together to solve a problem over an extended period of time. Or simply have ASHRAE host a one-day event where a group of kids solve a predetermined problem. This could include a Lego device or some type of competition.

I see this as a great synergy opportunity, not only to get the ASHRAE name out to the community, but also help kids learn what they might possibly like (or things they definitely do not like) in regards to a education or career path.

2. Involvement of HVAC system design and installation for a sensory stimulation building currently being renovated at the Rochester Rotary Sunshine Campus.

This building will be used by thousands of campers each summer who attend our program. It is designed to assist campers who are dealing with autism (or other sensory issues) the ability to enter a building that is designed to assist them in calming themselves and allowing them the ability to have a successful camp experience. As a chapter I am looking for design engineers, manufacturer’s reps and contractors to provide turnkey HVAC design and installation to the camp Rotary Sunshine Campus at zero cost.

We are really looking to make one or both of these events happen! We are flexible and looking for personal or corporate involvement. If you would like to be involved please contact Mr. Matt Kramer’s at Modular Comfort Systems or Mr. Edward Burns at Mech Tech HVAC, Inc. Other upcoming events and news include: • The ASHRAE Conference takes place Jan. 24-28 in Chicago, IL at the Palmer House Hilton. The ASHRAE co-sponsored AHR Expo takes place on Jan. 26-28 at McCormick Place.

• Rochester ASHRAE Buyers Guide. Opportunities to advertise in this years

42 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | JANUARY 2015

JANUARY NEWSLETTER

January ASHRAE Meeting - Tour Date:

Friday, January 9, 2015

Location:

Gene Polisseni Center at RIT

Time: 3:00 PM (no food will be served at this meeting/tour) Cost:

Presentation & Tour is FREE. See flyer on page 41 for ticket prices for the Game

Speaker:

Mr. Rich Laudisi LeChase Construction Services

Topic:

Presentation and tour of the Gene Polisseni Center at RIT

Later that night is an ASHRAE family event.

Game time: 7:05 PM.

See page 41 for detailed flyer and how to reserve tickets.

Tickets must be reserved by January 4, 2015.

Buyers Guide is coming soon.

• Annual Rochester ASHRAE Valentines Dance, Friday, February 6th at Colgate Rochester Divinity School.

• Rochester Engineering Symposium in Rochester, NY to be held Wednesday, April 29th. Note the day is Wednesday this year.

Thank you to all the ASHRAE volunteers who help make our chapter the success that is! I look forward to seeing you all in the New Year!

Please check out our chapter website at www.rochester. ashraechapters.org or if facebook is your preferred method of communication take a moment to “like” us www.facebook. com/#!/ashraerochester.

Edward J. Burns Rochester ASHRAE President

ashrae news

s

swerochester.org facebook.com/SWE-Rochester c/o Rochester Engineering Society at RMSC 657 East Ave. Rochester, NY 14607

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.

Message from the President ~ Celebrations and Reflections Happy New Year! We are half way through our leadership year and have so much to celebrate and reflect upon. We celebrate new Professional Members! Welcome to Elizabeth DeBartolo, Sheryl Dill, Amanda Dingman, Becca Hendrix, Emily Joseph, Shiori Kawaguchi, Jennifer Kerry, Rachel Silvestrini, John Wadach, and Anahita Williamson. We celebrate all the “ROC the DAY” contributors to SWE’s 3rd annual event. Together we raised $669.36. Many thanks to all of our ROC Stars! We will continue to provide our annual student scholarship, and community outreach events. Congratulations to New Member John Wadach – who received national recognition as the Outstanding Community College Professor of the Year. The award was given by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council of Advancement and Support of Education. There were nearly 400 nominees! John is also the Faculty Advisor for the new MCC student SWE Collegiate Interest Group. We are proud of all John’s accomplishments. If you have something to celebrate, an achievement or award from SWE or through your work, we look forward to hearing from you so we can recognize you. Happy 2015 going forward! ~ Jodi Carville

SWEet Engineer - Member Highlight: Sara Gilbert

Current SWE Positions: Rochester Section Grants/Fundraising Chairperson Education: BS Clarkson University Employer: Pinewoods Engineering, P.C. Title: President/Senior Project Engineer Time in Position: 5 months Job Description: Pinewoods Engineering, P.C. is a civil/site engineering consulting company I started. Our mission is to provide support to companies with an interest in: community involvement, environmental sustainability, and promoting education.

Why my job is SWEet: I’m challenged all the time. My clients are demanding and their projects can be really challenging. I enjoying working through problems with them and being proud of the results we formulate. My job gives me the opportunity to be involved in the community.

Words of Wisdom to someone starting in this field: Don’t ever leave your desk without a paper & pencil. Write down all the direction you’re given, even if you think you’ll remember them. It makes the person giving them feel like you are really listening and they’ll be more open to questions or providing further assistance later.

Something other SWE members may not know about me: I was electrocuted three times while doing the Tough Mudder, once fully submerged in water. I am an avid poker player; in fact, I met my husband during a poker tournament. It came down to just the two of us.

I won, but he claims he let me win because he liked me.

Meet and Mingle: Hedonist Artisan Chocolate, January 28, 2015

Join us for our January Meet and Mingle for a tour and chocolate tasting at Hedonist Artisan Chocolate, 674 South Ave, Rochester, NY 14620. We will start at 6 pm. Visit our website, www.swerochester.org for registration and event fees.

SWE Region E Conference, Feb. 20-22, 2015

The sections of Region E will gather in Philadelphia, PA at Drexel College Feb. 20-22. Visit www.sweregioneconference.org/ for more information on the conference. If interested, RIT SWE Student section is organizing a charter bus. It is available for professional members’ transportation. Please contact, Marca Lam, SWE VP and RIT SWE Faculty Advisor if interested: marca.lam@swe.org

SWE Explorers Post Update

On Nov. 18th, twenty Explorers visited Bergmann Associates. Eight female engineers presented the various types of engineering that Bergmann handles and how consulting engineering is different from some of the other engineering type companies they may have already toured. The presentation concluded with a panel Q&A session; which the students found very beneficial. Our next meeting will be at the New York Battery Lab. Thank you to SWE Member Mackenzie Zimmerman for organizing the Bergmann Associates engineering night!

In Memoriam

Esther Conwell passed away on Nov. 16, 2014 at the age of 92. Conwell was a long time professor at the University of Rochester after building a career as a physicist and research scientist during the 1940s and 50s. She received the SWE Achievement Award in 1960 for her work and was a life member of SWE. swe news

JANUARY 2015 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 43

Genesee Valley Branch

American Public Works Association Website: www.apwa.net Geoffrey Benway, PE Genesee Valley Branch President Serving Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Orleans and Wayne County

Responsible Public Works

the roadway networks.

“The most important thing about global warming is this. Whether humans are responsible for the bulk of climate change is going to be left to the scientists, but it's all of our responsibility to leave this planet in better shape for the future generations than we found it.”

Mike Huckabee

Changes in the types and intensity of weather events are already being felt in every community. People can debate the reasons for these changes but the fact is that they are an important part of public works and emergency response. APWA is developing a new campaign to support public works as the ultimate first responder with the slogan “The first to arrive and last to leave.”

How fitting!

It’s a new year with new optimism for growth and prosperity. But there are also challenges that need to be faced by all of us. These challenges may be political, financial, emotional, administrative, or regulatory. What can we look forward to in 2015, let’s take a stroll through the wonderful world of the internet.

Medical issues will continue to affect public works. The Ebola scare certainly gave every first responder a chance to think about their role in any pandemic. Are our public works staff adequately trained and equipped to respond to a biological attack?

Funding issues include the need for major investments in maintaining our infrastructure. At the time of writing this, Washington was debating a $1.1 TRILLION omnibus spending bill! Not bad when you can print your own money. The budget does call for $71 billion for transportation with $4.1 billion for Amtrak, just to keep them from going under. On the plus side, the EPA is being cut by $60 million and the IRS is being cut by $346 million. So forget about your tax returns and watch out for more environmental fines. The problem for most municipalities is that there is little money that trickles down to the locals. Yet most towns and villages see their road mileage go up each year while the state and county road miles remain unchanged. The distribution of aid should and must be revised to reflect the annual changes.

Political issues are like death and taxes…you just can’t avoid them! In a couple of years we will see a new president and a new county executive. Each will create sweeping changes to public works as conflicts for funding continue to be a challenge.

Environmental issues are slowing drowning us in paperwork.

Phase 2, Right to Know, Definition of Solid Waste Rule, and Underground Storage regulations are all changing. Keeping up with these changes is emotionally and financially crippling. NY State cannot afford to not allow hydraulic fracturing for gas due to the windfall of new taxes. That leaves public works to decide how to manage and regulate the impacts to the community and 44 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | JANUARY 2015

The dramatic increase in flood insurance premiums is being felt as residents complain to the local representatives about the added cost and the impact to their homes. This action to cover losses due to historical natural disasters has a double effect on many homeowners that may never need disaster aid. They see their house value drop while paying more for flood insurance.

Public works will continue to deal with the fluctuation of costs.

Oil is down but salt is up! Vehicles that meet the new emission standards are costing more to operate and maintain. Insurance and retirement costs are driving municipal leaders to reduce staff.

We all try to pitch in and buy into cost saving but, at some point, the only thing you can do with less is less! Add to that the 2% limit imposed by Albany on tax increases and it clear that the road ahead is very bumpy. The transition from the baby boomers to a new generation of work force is also a challenge. The number of potential employees is dropping along with competition for higher paying wages in the oil and gas industry will make the filling of public works jobs very competitive.

There is no doubt that the future of public works requires staff’s to be diverse and flexible to meet these needs. Public works departments, including all other support services that contribute to the good of the community, must evolve and have more training. Unions must also participate to allow greater flexibility in how the staff can meet these changes. The use of contract help should be supported to address rising costs of equipment and labor.

New York Chapter Conference The program for the 2015 conference in Utica, NY is shaping up to be the best in years! Mark your calendar for April 23rd & 24th. Sessions for all levels of public works are available with up to 8 PDH’s for engineers. Come join your fellow public works associates for networking and problem solving.

apwa news

s

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

Year 2015 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

January 2015

2013-2015 Michael C. Bodardus, LS Jared R. Ransom, LS 2014-2016 Clifford J. Rigerman, LS Joseph J. Hefner, LS 2015-2017 Jeffrey A. Tiede, LS Scott E. Measday, LS

Robert B. Hatch, LS, ex officio

Year 2015 Meeting Dates January 28, 2015 GVLSA Strategic Planning Committee Meeting Tom Wahl's in Avon, NY 5:30 to 8:00 pm

February 19, 2015 GVLSA Board of Directors Meeting 40 & 8 Club, 933 University Avenue, Rochester 6:00 pm

NYSAPLS 56th Surveyors Conference & Exhibition Survey 3600 at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino Verona, NY

January 21-23, 2015 Looking forward to seeing you at the New York State Association of Professional Land Surveyors 56th Annual Surveyors Conference hosted by Central New York Society of Land Surveyors!

Professional Affiliations • • •

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

GVLSA Strategic Planning Committee Meeting January 28, 2015 Tom Wahl's in Avon, NY 5:30 to 8:00 pm

gvlsa news

JANUARY 2015 | 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, January 6 at Noon The next monthly Rochester Section business meeting is on Tuesday, January 6, at 12:00 pm, at the Hibachi Sushi Buffet Restaurant in South Town Plaza on Jefferson Road (Route 252) just west of West Henrietta Road (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.

Your 2015 Section Officers • Chair: Greg Gdowski • Vice-Chair: Andreas Savakis

• Treasurer: William Fowlkes • Secretary: Raymond Ptucha

Message from Section Chair Greg Gdowski Happy New Year!!! My first term as the Chair of the Rochester Section of IEEE ends this month. It has been an honor to be the Chair during the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Rochester Section. I would like to thank all of the Rochester Section officers including Matt Sidley (Vice Chair), Dennis Thompson (Treasurer), and Ray Ptucha (Secretary). We could not have accomplished nearly as much without their dedication over the last year. This month we elected new officers for the upcoming year. Having been re-elected as the Section Chair for the upcoming year, it is my pleasure to announce and congratulate the new officers: Andreas Savakis (Vice Chair), William Fowlkes (Treasurer), and Ray Ptucha (Secretary). I look forward to working with the new Section officers in the upcoming year.

We also had a remarkable year with numerous Section and Chapter events. We now have over 50 volunteers that contribute to events within the Rochester Section. I am grateful to all of the IEEE volunteers that have helped to manage and orchestrate events over the last year. Their efforts truly make Rochester a better place to live. I would especially like to thank Jacob Schanker who has been managing the Sectional Newsletter for several years. His efforts have been crucial for getting the word out to help make all of our events successful.

Jacob Schanker The following are just a few of the larger meetings held this year that were run by the Section.

Joint Chapters Meeting (April). Vice Chair Matt Sidley, and Judy Principe. Mendon Center Elementary School – Build a loudspeaker (April). University of Rochester Student Chapter. Jeremy Warner, David Anderson, Yuqing Guo, David Heid, Andrew Hevey, Edward Samuels, Gary Ge, Breanna O'Reilly, and Wendi Heinzelman (faculty adviser).

Mendon Center Elementary School.

Build a loudspeaker!

46 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | JANUARY 2015

Section Centennial Meeting and Region 1 Board of Governors Meeting (August). Centennial Planning Committee including: Paul Lee, Jean Kendrick, Alex Loui, Carol Richardson, Jack Schanker, Jayanti Venkataraman, Ray Ptucha, and Matt Sidley.

Computing Technologies Workshop (October). Communications/ Aerospace and Electronics Systems. Nirmala Shenoy Best Practices for Effective Test (October). Greg Gdowski (Chair) and James Campbell.

38th EDS/CAS Activities in Western New York Conference (November). Electron Devices Society. Karl Hirschman.

Western New York Image and Signal Processing Workshop (November). Signal Processing Society. Nathan Cahill, Edgar Bernal, Zhiyao Duan, Behnaz Ghoraani, Survi Kyal, Paul Lee, Michel Molaire, David Odgers, Raymond Ptucha, and Beilei Xu. The Engineering of Wine Making (December). Greg Gdowski (Chair), Michael Vonheckler (Buffalo Section), Steve Griffith, and Judy Principe.

The Volunteer Appreciation Dinner at Artisanworks (December).

Greg Gdowski (Chair), and Judy Principe.

Photonics in Rochester (December). Chris Cassidy, Tom Pian, and Paul Lee. This year also marks numerous notable achievements and awards for our members: • Paul Lee was recently selected as a recipient for elevation to IEEE Fellow. Each year, following a rigorous evaluation procedure, the IEEE Fellow Committee recommends a select group of recipients for elevation to IEEE Fellow. Less than 0.1% of voting members are selected annually for this member grade elevation. The IEEE Board of Directors, at its November 2014 meeting, elevated Dr. Lee to IEEE Fellow for his contributions to the development of CMOS image sensor technology and the pinned photo-diode active pixel sensor. Congratulations Paul, what a spectacular accomplishment!

Paul Lee, Centennial Dinner 2014 • Ron Hira was the recipient of the IEEEUSA George F. McClure Citation of Honor for Ron Hira and Matt Sidley at JCM 2014 ieee news

“educating the public on outsourcing legislation and its effects on the engineering profession.”

• Nine individuals were elevated to Senior member status including: Dmitry Sizov, Steven Richeson, Jack Mottley, Eric Weatherbee, Frank Ryan, Ray Ptucha, Raja Bala, Dhireesha Kudithipudi, and Vicki Hanson.

• Technology Innovation/Academic Awards from IEEE Region 1 were presented to Bruce Smith and Greg Gdowski.

• IEEE Students Jackson Anderson and Jeremy Warner were selected to receive the Rochester Section IEEE Scholarships this year. Jackson Anderson resides in Churchville, NY and is a microelectronic engineering student at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Jeremy Warner resides in Riverhead, NY and is an electrical engineering student at the University of Rochester.

• Aaron Lim and Jeremey Warner, both from the University of Rochester, were selected as 2014 IEEE Power Energy Society Scholars.

December Sectional Events:

Did You Ever Wonder What It Would Be Like To Be a Vintner?

Held on December 2nd at the University of Rochester. Michael Vonheckler and Steve Griffith.

We recently had a remarkable event focused on the essence of wine making. This was one of those seminars that sounded good on paper – and it was even far better than anticipated. About 25 people attended the seminar. You know it is going to be a good event when one of the speakers (S. Griffith) momentarily leaves the event to get more wine out of his car for the attendees. Michael Vonheckler, from the Buffalo IEEE Section, spoke about the creation of the Niagara Wine trail. He spoke of the identification of the opportunity and the search for the land to make it happen – when few vineyards existed south of the Canadian border in Buffalo. It was a fascinating story describing the Niagara escarpment, its temperature/climate advantage, and the soil conditions that led to the Warm Lake Estate Vineyards becoming one of the largest growers of Pinot Noir (55 acres) east of the Rocky Mountains. Steve Griffith, owner of the Big Oak Vineyard in Monroe County, was equally remarkable.

He described a collaboration of talents and passions that he and his wife shared whiled pursuing a vision of growing a local vineyard. His talk went from artistic renderings of wine labels to what it takes to farm and maintain a small vineyard. He also talked about his early concepts for controlling the microclimate of a vineyard to protect a crop during cold conditions.

Quite honestly, I’m now sure I don’t have what it takes to be a vintner. That said I would be the first one to cheer on these upstate NY entrepreneurs. My thanks to both Michael and Steve; we are looking Michael Steve Griffith forward to having you back for another spectacular wine event!

Vonheckler Rochester IEEE Section Excom Volunteer Appreciation Dinner.

December 11th from 6-10 pm. Artisanworks was open to all Rochester IEEE Section Excom volunteers. As of December 9th, we had 52 reservations! Artisanworks is an incubator for local artists housing over half a million items within its 40,000 sq ft facility.

2. Any student from an ABET-accredited engineering school within the Rochester Section.

These scholarships are to recognize outstanding engineering, engineering technology, and science or technology students. These are merit-based scholarships. This is a great opportunity for students! Applications must be sent to the Rochester Engineering Society (RES). The information required for applying to the local IEEE scholarships can be found on the RES website (http://www.roceng.org/page-1702084).

Membership statistics for 2014.

The Rochester Section currently has 999 active members including: 13 Fellows, 14 Life Fellows, 87 Senior members, 36 Life Senior members, 578 Members, 94 Life Members, 80 Graduate Students, 69 Student Members, and 28 Associate Members. Nearly half of our members have already renewed their membership for 2015! Please renew your membership today if you have not already done so. Not a member?

Join IEEE and become a part of the world's largest professional association, dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence!

ARE YOU A NEW STUDENT OR ARE YOU NEW TO THE AREA? If you are a new student (graduate or undergraduate) in the Rochester area, there really is no reason why you should not join the IEEE Society. The engineering community extends well outside your campus, and IEEE is by far the best way to get to know them. Joining is easy and the dues for students are remarkably low ($32/yr)! If you are an undergraduate or a graduate student and would like to become an IEEE member, I can help. Undergraduate and Graduate Student members must carry at least 50% of a normal full-time academic program as a registered graduate student in a regular course of study in IEEEdesignated fields. The designated fields are: Engineering, Computer Sciences and Information Technology, Physical Sciences, Biological and Medical Sciences, Mathematics, Technical Communications, Education, Management, and Law and Policy. Please join today and let us help you get connected!

Join us at the next EXCOM Meeting If you are looking for a cheap $3 lunch, join us for the next monthly Rochester Section IEEE Executive Committee meeting. It will be from 12:00 - 1:00 pm on January 6th at the Hibachi Sushi Buffet in Southtown Plaza (3333 W. Henrietta Rd, Henrietta, NY). All current and prospective IEEE members may attend! Please join us to learn more about the Society and how you may contribute. We are always looking for new members and volunteers.

Can you name the past nine former Rochester Section Chairs featured in the picture below? The first IEEE member to email me the names of all Section Chairs will receive a special gift from the Section! Only IEEE members are eligible to receive the gift!

Again, Happy New Year and have a great January. See you next month.

Best regards. Greg Gdowski, Rochester IEEE Section Chair

Rochester Section Undergraduate Scholarships!

There is still time for you to apply! The Rochester Section is offering two $1,500 annual scholarships to undergraduate members of IEEE. Two types of students are eligible.

1. If you have a kid that is in an ABET-accredited engineering school (even if they are not in school in Rochester) they are likely eligible as long as you reside within the Section. The student does not have to reside within the Rochester section while they are at school.

Centennial Dinner 2014

New Free E-Book for Members in January

In January, IEEE-USA E-books will offer to members a complimentary copy of Gus Gaynor’s “Shaping an Engineering Career -Book 1: Responding to Career Challenges -- A Personal Journey.” ieee news

JANUARY 2015 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 47

r w l o

The Path to Pinewoods

By Sara Gilbert, PE, LEED AP “How does it feel to be your own boss?”...Is the question I get asked the most now that I am an entrepreneur. I usually answer with, “Tough! Turns out I make a pretty demanding boss.” My time as an entrepreneur has been both extremely challenging and rewarding. I am fulfilling a goal I’ve had since childhood and answering the question that would be unbearable years later to not have answered; “What could my life be like as an entrepreneur?” I love being an engineer and am extremely passionate about my work. It was this passion and drive to be involved in all aspects of providing this service that led me to start Pinewoods Engineering. Knowing the firm would qualify for the Women Business Enterprise (WBE) and Disadvantage Business Enterprise (DBE) support programs was further incentive to give it a try. My confidence and inclination to venturing out on my own was built very slowly over years of gaining needed experience, skills and connections. In looking back there were some key events along my career path which led me to this point.

After completing my engineering degree at Clarkson University in civil engineering and environmental studies, I spent the first four years of my career working exclusively on large national retail chain land development projects. My involvement spanned the entirety of: proposal development, preparing plans, obtaining jurisdictional approvals and construction coordination. The company I worked for was small, but growing rapidly. With only a few employees, they required their engineers to support all aspects of a project, including doing all their own drafting. As a result, early in my career, I became very proficient with drafting software. My engineering experience in those first years became very specific in storm water management. In 2003, following the EPA’s lead, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) issued new storm water management regulations that posed substantial changes from earlier versions. At the same time clients was under scrutiny by the EPA in regards to their past compliance with requirements from previously constructed sites. Storm water regulations are typically met through the preparation of a Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP). Wal-Mart commissioned SWPPP’s to be completed for all of their recently constructed projects including new stores, expansions and additions. As quickly as possible, we were charged with preparing SWPPP’s for dozens of projects in locations across the eastern USA. As a result, we put together a time-table for completion, promising to complete one SWPPP report per week. This task was mainly delegated to me. Thus, each week I would research the state’s individual requirements, travel to the site for an evaluation, and complete the report. This crash course focus on the strictest adherence of the requirements, to ensure absolute compliance with each state regulation was a daunting but invaluable experience.

Years later my career took a shift again when I was asked to provide assistance to a senior project manager who was involved in some very different projects than my prior experience. These projects worked with private developers on tight budgets, who often approached the development process differently from the commercial clients I had worked for previously. The projects were each incredibly unique and challenging. My favorite project was the site engineering for an anaerobic digestion facility. The project manager and I found we worked very well together and he became one of my most trusted mentors. He had previously had a successful engineering company for a lot of years and he knew my hopes of someday starting out on my own. As a result, throughout our time working together he would 48 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | JANUARY 2015

feature article

A t d a I p c c d I w t r

O t h w n m a

I s a a M m a s t i p

M e p Th o q o t f

S

e f t e Y

M U n i

f

e

relay insights and advice teaching me how to run a business. It was in working with him and watching his interactions with his clients that I learned how to develop clients, meet their needs, and successfully closeout a project.

As I gained experience, my engineering work was expanding quickly to much more challenging engineering projects, such as storm water designs requiring individual DEC permits, floodplain mitigation, dam analysis, expert testimony, etc. In fact, the scope of the engineering I was doing often exceeded the capabilities of the current modeling program I was using which led me to have to identify and learn more complicated programs. As a result I became proficient in many of the common software analysis programs. I became involved in litigation dealings on a few projects as a result of components of the project I was involved in. My work or analysis held up under this scrutiny which built my confidence in my engineering expertise. I was gaining the understanding of how to approach new problems and identify the resources or locations needed to figure it out.

One of the earliest challenges of starting the company was determining the best way to transition to it from my current employment. I have a great deal of respect for my previous employer and the team I worked with there. I took great care to ensure the transition would not undermine their operation. To do this I informed the senior management early on of my intentions and worked with them in setting an end date that coincided with the completion of some large projects.

I credit having a strong network of support as the key to the company’s success thus far. It takes a dedicated and experienced team of mentors, advisors, lawyers, accountants, engineers, drafter/designers, IT experts, and even insurance agents to build a successful engineering company.

My network provides me with invaluable relations for quality control, meeting my client’s needs and expanding the services we offer. My advice to someone looking to start their own company would be to start with a good lawyer and accountant who can provide advice on the corporate structure to use and company set-up. The next step is to identify your strengths and weaknesses and seek out relationships with people that compliment your weaknesses.

My vision for Pinewoods Engineering is to become one of the leading engineering consulting companies in the greater Rochester area, by providing clients exceptional value and superior engineering expertise.

The WBE and DBE certifications may open doors and provide new opportunities but I hope as a result of that, clients will return due to the quality of the service they receive. Rochester has a tremendous amount of engineering talent and it is inspiring and humbling to be a part of that community and some of the great company models we have to follow. q Sara Gilbert, P.E., LEED AP Ms. Sara Gilbert has over eleven years of civil

engineering experience working on a variety of large and small development projects for commercial, industrial, alternative energy, transportation and residential sites throughout the east coast. President of Pinewoods Engineering, P.C., a civil/site engineering consulting firm, Ms. Gilbert is a licensed Professional Engineer in New York and Pennsylvania.

and approval coordination, utility design, site grading, and utility approvals.

Additionally, Ms. Gilbert has also worked as the senior engineer on alternative energy biogas facilities and has successfully achieved a Certified LEED rating on a project in which she was the LEED Administrator. She is on the executive board for the Society of Women Engineering, a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and works with the Girl Scouts of America as a STEM advocacy volunteer.

Ms. Gilbert received her bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from Clarkson University. She has served as the senior engineer with both Rochester local and For more information on Sara Gilbert and Pinewoods Engineering, national engineering companies performing a wide variety of engineering tasks, please visit www.pinewoodsengineering.com. including preparation of engineering studies, calculations and reports, permitting feature article

JANUARY 2015 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 49

657 East Avenue Rochester, NY 14607 p: (585) 254-2350 e: res@frontiernet.net w: www.roceng.org

50 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | JANUARY 2015

res news | membership application

n

Published since 1922 by the Rochester Engineering Society, Inc.

657 East Avenue, Rochester, NY 14607 (585-254-2350 Email: res@frontiernet.net Web: www.roceng.org 3,000+ monthly circulation

res news | advertising rate sheet

JANUARY 2015 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 51

Directory of Professional Services John E. Rooney

REGIONAL MARKETING MANAGER | DIRECTOR

400 Andrews Street Harro East Building | Suite 710 Rochester, NY 14604 p 585-295-7700 | f 585-263-2869

john.rooney@obg.com direct 585-295-7718 www.obg.com

Asbestos Consulting & Analytical Services Environmental Chemistry NYSDOH & NVLAP Certified 24 Hour Turnaround Available 179 Lake Avenue, Rochester, NY 14608 / (585) 647-2530

www.paradigmenv.com

R. KRAFT, Inc.

CLEANROOMSERVICES.COM ISO/IEC 17025:2005 Accredited Testing/Certification/Troubleshooting of Cleanroom Facilities Laminar Flow Bench Testing/Certification Hepa/Ulpa Filter Testing Contamination Control Investigations Training Seminars/Workshops SOP/Protocol Development and Implementation Clean Mfg, Lean/Six Sigma, FMEA Consulting

C: (585) 261-5935 O: (585) 621-6946

52 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | JANUARY 2015

rk.cleanroomservices@gmail.com

directory of professional services

s

Directory of Professional Services Compliance Plans, Permits, and Reports Industrial Water Treatment Compliance Auditing Stormwater Design/Management NPDES/Air/Solid Waste Engineering Civil/Site Design Environmental Design and Engineering Evaluation

87 South Vendome Drive, Rochester NY 14606

585 330-6986 (Phone) 585 429-6985 (Fax) dennis.roote@cde-pllc.com

Solving soils problems for over 30 years.

335 Colfax Street, Rochester, NY 14606 Tel: 585-458-0824 • Fax: 585-458-3323 www.foundationdesignpc.com

www.larsen-engineers.com

Michael S. Quagliata, Jr., PE President

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ 217 West Commercial Street East Rochester, New York 14445 585/385-1450 585/385-1482 Fax mikeq@q-techpc.com

Electrical & Mechanical Engineering & Design

Inc. A sign, of ct Deeld, NY 14526 US u d o r P P. Haltaolt nfi e f P f.com o , e r H Ga ry Halt ridge Lan @ y arr ckb

40 Ro

G

Design Engineering Services - Concept thru Production Mechanical / Electromechanical - Consumer / Industrial All Plastic and Metal Technologies Tel: 585-388-9000 Fax: 585-388-3839

directory of professional services

www.Haltof.com

JANUARY 2015 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 53

Directory of Professional Services, continued

Loren Cook-Vari-Plume Laboratory and Fume Exhaust Heating, Ventilation & A/C Products

www.eco-rentalsolutions.com 855-ECO-RENT Newest Rental Fleet in the Industry Exceptional Customer and Technical Service Consistent Quality Rentals • Sales • Service

IAQ Products Ruskin-Louvers, Control & Fire/Smoke Dampers Loren Cook- Centrifugal & Prop Roof Fans, Gravity Vents Titus - R G & D’s, Terminal Boxes, Chilled Beams, FCU Flexible Duct, Access Doors, Kitchen Exhaust Systems

www.slaterequipment.com sales@slaterequipment.com T 585-473-5310 F 585-473-9546 768 Clinton Ave South, Rochester, NY 14620-1402

TK CONTROLS, INC Instrument Maintenance

Looking For: Second Vice President and a Director on the RES Board of Directors

Walter Dutcher, P.E. Registered P.E. NYS Water Quality Municipal—Industrial

Annual Calibrations for NYS Regs Flow, Pressure, Temperature, pH, Conductivity 24 Hour emergency service, fully insured and bonded Vintage analog, HART, and digital Phone: 585-224-5581 E-mail: wdutcher@tkcontrols.com www.tkcontrols.com

Please contact Lynne Irwin, Admin Director (res@frontiernet.net) or Mary Steblein, RES President (president@roceng.org)

Directory of Business Services

Sore Muscles Slowing You Down?

You need a massage!

Albert Dedicke, LMT Specializing in massage for muscle pain, carpal tunnel www roccitywellness.com 54 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | JANUARY 2015

270-9081

directory of business services | directory of professional services

s

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

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

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

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

American Public Works Association Monroe County/Genesee Valley Branch Past-Chairman, Geoff Benway Email: benway@penfield.org American Society of Civil Engineers, Rochester Section President, Thomas Zaso, PE Email: TZaso@rocgeotechnical.com American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Rochester Chapter President, Edward J. Burns Email: ejb@mechtechhvac.com American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Rochester Section Chairman, Sarilyn Swayngim Email: sarilyn.swayngim@gmail.com American Society of Plumbing Engineers, Rochester New York Chapter President, Alan Smith, IBC Engineering 585-292-1590. Email: asmith@ibceng.com Association for Bridge Construction and Design President, Daniel D. Duprey, Jr., PE 800-274-9000 ext. 1033 Email: DDuprey@ClarkPatterson.com Association of Energy Engineers Western New York Chapter President, William Murray, 585 641-7121 Email: bmurray@ec4b.com

Genesee Valley Land Surveyors Association President, John F. Gillen, LS Ex-Officio, 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, Chris Langton Email: clangton@labellapc.com Imaging Science & Technology, Rochester Chapter President, David Odgers Email: odgers@frontiernet.net

Monroe Professional Engineers Society President, Joseph Dombrowski, PE Email: JDombrowski@meengineering.com 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 Project Management Institute, Rochester Chapter Preesident, Brian Gregory, PMP Email: president@pmirochester.org 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

Independent Entrepreneurs Council, Rochester NY Chapter Chairman, Ralph Kraft, 585-621-6946 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Rochester Section Chairman, Greg T. Gdowski, 585-275-2580 Email: Greg_Gdowski@urmc.rochester.edu Institute of Industrial Engineers, Rochester Chapter President, John Kaemmerlen, 585-475-2767 Email: jxkpdm@rit.edu International Council on Systems Engineering, Finger Lakes Chapter President, Jack Riley Email: jackri2139@hotmail.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, Jodi Carville, RIT, 585-475-7028 Email: jlceee@rit.edu

Corporate Members of the Rochester Engineering Society LaBella Associates (Enterprise)

(Enterprise)

Stantec Inc. (Champion)

M/E Engineering, P.C. (Champion)

BME Associates

TY-LIN International (Champion)

MRB Group (Champion)

University of Rochester

Clark Patterson Lee Corporation (Champion)

Optimation Technology, Inc.

Vanguard Engineering, PC

Clough, Harbour & Associates LLP

Passero Associates

EnergyMark, LLC

Popli Design Group

Erdman Anthony Associates

Rochester Business Alliance

IBC Engineering, PC (Champion)

Rochester Institute of Technology, Kate Gleason College of Engineering

Bergmann Associates P.C.

(Enterprise)

affiliated societies & corporate members of the rochester engineering society

Visron Design, Inc. V.J. Stanley Inc.

IS YOUR COMPANY LISTED HERE? Call 585-254-2350 for information.

JANUARY 2015 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 55

Non-Profit Org. US Postage PAID Permit No. 178 Rochester, NY PUBLISHED BY ROCHESTER ENGINEERING SOCIETY 657 EAST AVENUE ROCHESTER, NEW YORK 14607

Address Service Requested

IMPORTANT DATED MATERIAL Please do not delay

RIT

Golisano Institute for Sustainability

Seeking Cover & Feature Articles The RES is seeking articles for our monthly (except July) publication. We have themes for our upcoming issues and would love to hear from you (subject to change).

www.meengineering.com

Value-driven solutions

February - 25 Years of E-Cubed Fair - A tradition of STEM Outreach March - Engineer of the Year, Young Engineer of the Year and Engineers of Distinction Announcements April - 113th RES Annual Gala on April 11 and the Engineering Symposium on April 29 Contact the RES for information - res@frontiernet.net.