Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of National Engineers Week, February 20-26
The 60th Anniversary of National Engineers Week, to be celebrated February 20-26, will center on programs that reach out to current and future generations of engineering talent. The week features a toolkit that promotes volunteerism among engineers, an initiative to introduce young women to engineering, and more.
Engineers Week 2011 is sponsored by the National Engineers Week Committee, which includes American National Standards Institute (ANSI) members the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE); the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE); the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE); ASME ; IEEE; and the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES).
For more information, visit the National Engineers Week website.
NIST Seeks Input on Areas of Potential R&D Funding
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has posted a three-year plan outlining areas of potential competition for research and development (R&D) funding under the agency's Technology Innovation Program (TIP). The program, which provides cost-shared funding for high-risk, high-reward R&D, was created to foster novel technologies to meet critical national needs.
Proposed TIP competition topics outlined in the plan would support advanced technology work in the fields of civil infrastructure, manufacturing, energy, health care technologies, water resources, and sustainability.
TIP has posted staff-written white papers detailing the scope of potential future competitions and invites comment from the public. Additionally, TIP is seeking white papers from all interested parties identifying other areas of critical national need for consideration in future TIP competitions.
For more information about TIP, click here. To read the white papers, provide comments, or learn more about the TIP white paper process, click here.
ISO Standards Improve Visual and Auditory Design Accessibility
Two new standards from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) help to make products, signs, and displays more accessible for all.
Addressing visual and auditory design, the standards are part of a suite of standards designed to improve the accessibility of products, services, and environments encountered in all aspects of daily life, as well as in the consumer market.
ISO 24502:2010, Ergonomics - Accessible design - Specification of age-related luminance contrast for coloured light, provides a basic method of calculation that can be applied to the design of lighting, visual signs, and displays. Taking into account the age-related change of spectral luminous efficiency of the eye, the standard specifies the luminance contrast of any two lights of different color seen by a person of any age.
ISO 24501:2010, Ergonomics - Accessible design - Sound pressure levels of auditory signals for consumer products, aims to determine an appropriate sound level range of auditory signals so that all users can hear them properly against interfering sounds.
ISO 24501 and ISO 24502 were developed by ISO Technical Committee (TC) 159, Ergonomics, Subcommittee (SC) 5, Ergonomics of the physical environment. ANSI member the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) serves as the ANSI-accredited U.S. Technical Advisory Group (TAG) administrator to both committees.
ANS for Cable-less Controls for Electric Overhead Traveling Cranes
ANSI member and accredited standards developer the Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA) recently released an American National Standard (ANS) for the material handling and logistics industry.
ANSI ECMA 15: 2010, Specifications for Cable-less Controls for Electric Overhead Traveling Cranes, covers overhead traveling cranes controlled by remote/cable-less/wireless devices. The standard was developed by MHIA's Electrification and Controls Manufacturers Association (ECMA) Industry Group.
MHIA is an international trade association that has represented the material handling and logistics industry since 1945. MHIA members include material handling and logistics equipment and systems manufacturers, integrators, consultants, publishers, and third-party logistics providers.
RIMS Seeks ANSI Accreditation
The Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS) has submitted an application for accreditation as an ANSI-accredited standards developer. The proposed scope of activity would cover standards relating to risk management and the integration of various risk management practices and techniques throughout organizations.
To obtain a copy of RIMS's proposed operating procedures, or to offer comments, please contact: Nathan Bacchus, state affairs associate, RIMS ([email protected]; phone: 212.655.6215; fax: 212.655.2699).
Comments to RIMS should be submitted by March 7, 2011, with a copy to Jim Thompson, the recording secretary of ANSI's Executive Standards Council ([email protected]; fax: 212.840.2298).
To view or download a copy of RIMS' proposed operating procedures, click here.