Entech Engineering opens sixth PA office

Entech Engineering has opened a satellite office in State College, Pennsylvania, the firm's sixth office location in the state. The office is located on College Avenue across from Penn State’s Blue & White Golf Courses and near downtown State College.

According to Entech’s Vice President Robert Weir, P.E., “State College was strategically selected for an office location so we could better service nearby long-standing municipal clients and continue to grow our clientele in the region by helping clients make more informed decisions as they invest in their buildings and infrastructure. Technology has greatly improved our ability to meet and interact with clients online, but there is still no true substitute for face-to-face meetings; having staff nearby will increase the efficiency and frequency of these meetings.”

Michael Daschbach, P.E. will serve as office manager for the State College office. He is a former principal at Entech and recently returned to the company, having moved back to State College after a brief departure to pursue other interests.

Entech's engineering, consulting, and architectural teams specialized in facilities and infrastructure. The firm's six offices we employ over 100 professionals, serving the municipal, higher education, manufacturing, and natural gas markets. 

ACE Mentor Program of America to increase student enrollment

The ACE (architecture, construction, engineering) Mentor Program of America, America’s workforce development organization encouraging youth to pursue STEM-related careers, is poised to enroll and mentor even more students during the 2015 - 2016 school year.  This is the 21^styear of ACE offering opportunities for students to prepare them for college and beyond, and the organization is making exciting new changes. ACE has launched a re-designed website, hired a new president and CEO, added new national sponsors, welcomed a new affiliate in Utah.

“The ACE Mentor Program attracts students to its 35-40-hour after-school program who want to reach beyond textbooks and understand real world applications of their studies,” states Thomas Gilbane, Jr., chairman of the board, ACE Mentor Program and chairman & CEO of Gilbane, Inc.

According to Jack Kalavritinos, named president & CEO of ACE in January, quantitative results from two 2015 ACE studies show that:

·         63% of ACE seniors were minority students vs. the national average of 44.3%

·         98.6% of ACE high school seniors graduate from high school vs. the national average of 80%

·         92% of ACE seniors entered college directly from high school vs. the national average of 66%

·         70% of college-bound ACE seniors major in architecture, engineering or construction management

“Survey results reveal and validate the work ACE is doing through its extensive network of affiliates and mentors across the U.S.,” states Tony Guzzi, ACE vice-chairman of the board and president and CEO of EMCOR Group. “The data helps define the value of this unique program for high school students, many of whom might not otherwise pursue a college education.”

“The secret of the ACE Mentor experience is that students and construction and design professionals work as a team to develop a realistic project that often relates to an actual site. This is possible thanks to the myriad design and construction industry companies supporting ACE,” comments Peter Davoren, ACE vice-chairman of the board and president and CEO of Turner Construction Company.

The ACE Mentor Program of America was founded in 1994 by the principals of design and construction firms under the leadership and guiding force of Dr. Charles H. Thornton. Its mission is to engage, excite, and enlighten high school students to pursue careers in architecture, engineering, and construction through mentoring and to support their continued advancement in the industry.  ACE’s 63 affiliates in 34 states, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico organize 2,000 mentors to deliver a 15-session after-school program to almost 8,000 students.  ACE’s sponsors include many of America’s companies in the design and construction industry. For more information visit: www.acementor.org.

Professional Service Industries promotes three engineers

Professional Service Industries (PSI) has promoted three engineers within its ranks. Based in PSI’s Tampa, FL office, Robert Sprehe, P.E. has become principal consultant of its construction services line. He serves a dual role as manager of the Tampa construction services department. Morgan Dickenson, P.E. is now principal consultant for its Geotechnical Engineering Service Line. Based in the firm's Fort Lauderdale, FL office, he serves a dual role as district manager. James Becco, P.E., has become vice president of PSI’s Wisconsin operations. Based in PSI’s Waukesha office, he previously served as district manager and principal consultant for PSI’s Waukesha operations.

Sprehe has 12 years of construction materials testing experience, having earned his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of South Florida. He has been a member of the PSI team since 2010.

Dickinson has over 35 years of experience with numerous projects including roads, bridges, airports, high-rise buildings, and educational facilities. He earned his Master of Science in Geotechnical Engineering from Northwestern University and his Bachelor Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Colorado.
  

Becco has nearly 30 years of geotechnical engineering and environmental consulting experience. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Michigan Technological University. 

PSI provides environmental, engineering and testing services, including environmental consulting, geotechnical engineering, construction materials testing and engineering, industrial hygiene services, facilities and roof consulting, nondestructive evaluation, and specialty engineering and testing services. Headquartered in Oakbrook Terrace, IL, PSI operates from  some 100 U.S. offices with about 2300 employees.

Virginia Tech engineers design quieter turbine blades inspired by owl feathers

Virginia Tech engineers, leading an international team of researchers with members from Florida Atlantic University, Lehigh University, and Cambridge University, say a turbine blade inspired by the downy covering of owl feathers may offer a way to reduce noise from engines or wind farms. Their results were recently presented at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Conference in Dallas, Texas.

William Devenport, a professor of aerospace and ocean engineering in the school's College of Engineering; second-year doctoral student Ian Clark of S​lidell, Louisiana; research professor Nathan Alexander, and others have focused on a phenomenon called trailing-edge noise. When a blade like the ones on a wind turbine slices through the air, the sharp edge at the back of the blade converts the air's turbulence into sound waves. The resulting noise is often cited as a barrier to the more widespread installation of wind farms because it can be a nuisance for nearby residents. Finding a way to reduce the noise could boost wind farming and increase the availability of sustainable energy.

For inspiration, Devenport looked to a species that seems to have solved the problem of trailing-edge noise: owls. Unlike many other birds, owls can fly silently to surprise their prey. "From an engineer's perspective, that shouldn't be possible," Devenport says, "because if you look at the owl, it's covered in edges, and each of those edges should radiate noise." In fact, when researchers in past studies have sent other kinds of birds, like pigeons and hawks, flying past sensitive microphones, their flapping wings generate substantial trailing-edge noise. But when an owl flies by, the microphones detect virtually nothing.

Devenport and his collaborators wondered if tiny hairs that cover the owl feathers could be reducing the trailing-edge noise. To mimic this effect on a wind turbine blade, they designed a set ribs, or finlets, that would sit in front of the blade's trailing edge and manufactured them with 3-D printing technology. In all, 22 different finlet configurations were tested last year by 150 aerospace and ocean engineering undergraduate students as part of a lab course. The finlets reduced the trailing edge noise substantially. Devenport explained that the finlets may chop up the turbulence approaching the trailing edge into smaller eddies that can't generate a loud noise. "Most of the sets we tested last year worked really well, and so we tried to refine it this year," Clark says.

Like last year's work, the second round of testing, funded by the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science, was performed in the Virginia Tech Stability Wind Tunnel, which has a novel configuration for measuring acoustics. Its walls are made from custom-made Kevlar panels. Sound can travel through, but the air does not. Behind the tightly-stretched fabric, 117 microphones record the noise produced as air rushes over the blade at up to 160 miles per hour.

"We think this is a whole new way of looking at noise control," Devenport says. The team has filed an international patent on the design; they are also involved in licensing discussions. While the current design is optimized for wind turbine blades, Devenport and Clark imagine that a similar strategy might work for smaller blades, like the fans in computers and cars. "The end goal is getting it out in the real world and making a difference," Clark says.

Schnabel Engineering promotes Thomas Fitzgerald to principal

Schnabel Engineering has promoted Thomas Fitzgerald, P.E. to principal of the firm. He is currently the branch leader of the Greensboro, NC office of Schnabel Engineering South, where he manages a team of over 25 engineers, geologists, and CAD and GIS professionals doing dam projects across the continental United States and Alaska. Fitzgerald has more than 18 years of technical and project management experience in dam-related work, including inspections, hydrology and hydraulics, design of new dams, rehabilitation of existing dams, spillways upgrades, instrumentation, and risk assessments. His experience includes work on all major dam types, from earthen embankments to concrete dams and RCC (roller-compacted concrete). He is a FERC-approved Independent Consultant and Facilitator for Potential Failure Mode Analyses and leads the firm's efforts in tracking FERC’s recent Risk-Informed Decision Making initiatives.

Fitzgerald holds a B.S. degree in civil engineering and an M.S. degree in water resources engineering, both from Rutgers College of Engineering. He is vice president of the North Carolina Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), a member of the Roller Compacted Concrete subcommittee of ASTM, and a member of ASDSO, USSD, AWWA, ACI and AISC. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in Washington, Virginia, Oregon, Alaska, North Carolina, New Jersey, Michigan, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania.

An employee-owned company, Schnabel Engineering employs over 300 professionals in 18 nationwide locations. The firm specializes in geotechnical, geostructural, dam, and tunnel engineering and offers environmental, geosciences, construction monitoring, and resident engineering services. For more information, please visit www.schnabel-eng.com.

Society of Plastics Engineers takes on student debt

Student debt is a major issue in the United States, and the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) is doing something about it. SPE has named Credible Labs, a marketplace for student loans and loan refinancing, as its preferred provider of student loan refinancing services.

SPE members can compare student loan refinancing offers from multiple lenders after completing a single form. Credible acts as a matchmaker between borrowers and lenders, to give college graduates personal loan refinancing options. According to Credible, borrowers who have used the service have saved an average of $11,000.

“SPE’s partnership with Credible will not only help alleviate the burden of student debt but also address the financial needs of future students,” says Russell Broome, managing director of SPE in Bethel, CT. “For each loan closure generated through this partnership, a donation will be made to the SPE scholarship fund.”

For more information about Credible, see www.credible.com.

For more information about SPE, visit www.4spe.org

Geo-environmental firm Sanborn, Head & Associates Opens Boston office

Sanborn, Head & Associates (Sanborn Head) has opened a Boston office.  The firm was started in 1993 in Concord, NH, and soon thereafter opened an office in Westford, MA, which has grown to over 40 people. As Sanborn Head’s geotechnical and environmental work in support of urban redevelopment increased, more and more staff began to spend time in and around Boston with clients and on job sites. “Having a presence in Boston has been discussed for almost five years. It simply makes sense for our clients, staff, and growth plans,” says Sanborn Head President Barret Cole.  

Sanborn Head has a resume of projects that includes the Center for Life Science, Longwood Center, 45  Stuart Street, Garden Garage, Avalon Exeter, The Street at Chestnut Hill, Chestnut Hill Square, Assembly Row, Boston Landing, 17 Cambridge Center, 88 Ames Street, Brookline Place, and now MGM Springfield. Sanborn Head is excited about having a presence in Boston where many of its clients and projects are located. “It’s going to make our days more productive and allow for us to be an even bigger part of the Boston design community”, says Vice President Stan Sadkowski (above) who will relocate to the new Boston office. “I’m really excited to be a part of this great opportunity.”

Sanborn Head delivers consulting engineering services in the industrial, solid waste, energy, and developer practice areas.  They can be found online at www.sanbornhead.com.