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.  

New Duke facility will advance education and research in engineering and physics

Duke University plans to build a $100-million, 85,000-square-foot facility to expand education and research programs in engineering and physics. Scheduled to open in 2018, the building will create a hub where engineering and physics faculty work together with graduate and undergraduate students to develop solutions to society’s greatest challenges, from making solar energy economical to engineering better medicines.

“This facility will make possible the best of Duke’s vision for teaching and learning: bringing together students from different fields of study to work collaboratively on projects that address the problems of our time,” says Duke President Richard Brodhead. “It will provide a physical home for Duke’s growing partnerships that link engineering with the sciences and liberal arts, helping our students develop the broad perspectives they need to become leaders and innovators.”

The new facility will be on Duke’s West Campus, between the Teer Engineering Building and the Physics Building. Current plans include approximately 25,000 square feet of educational space, teaching labs and classrooms shared between the Pratt School of Engineering and Trinity College of Arts & Sciences designed to facilitate team-based, experiential learning. There will also be a 5,000-square-foot, 150-seat auditorium, plus 40,000 square feet for engineering research and 15,000 square feet for physics research. The common space will support integrated science and engineering teaching and opportunities for undergraduate research. 

“The building will provide a literal and metaphorical bridge between engineering and the sciences, a place where the grand challenges of engineering meet the big questions of physics,” says Tom Katsouleas, Vinik Dean of Engineering, who worked closely with Trinity Dean Laurie Patton in developing the vision for the facility. “The new building will significantly enhance our ability to provide the kind of hands-on teaching connected to real societal issues that has become a signature of a Duke education, through initiatives such as the National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenge Scholars program.”

Pratt is one of the fastest-rising engineering schools in the nation. Graduate and undergraduate enrollment is up, the school’s faculty has grown by 20 percent over the past decade, and external research funding has more than doubled in that time.

“By providing much-needed space, the new facility will support the ambitious teaching and research agendas of our current faculty, and enable us to leverage the Vinik Grand Challenge Professorships to recruit new faculty who deepen our strengths,” Katsouleas says. “We’re also excited about the ways this space will help us forge new bonds with our colleagues in physics and the sciences, similar to the way the Fitzpatrick Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering, Medicine & Applied Sciences has strengthened the ties between engineering and medicine.”   

The inclusion of state-of-the-art space for applied physics research will not only enhance recruitment and retention of top faculty in that department but create a dynamic environment for educational and industry collaborations, says Dan Kiehart, dean of natural sciences for Trinity College of Arts & Sciences.

“This building represents a significant and transformative investment in science and engineering at Duke,” Kiehart says. “Some of our top physicists are also engineering faculty, and our engineering and physics students share core classes, so it’s a very natural partnership. Co-locating the disciplines will dramatically expand the opportunities for joint research and the discovery-oriented educational experiences that are so important to prepare our students for leadership positions in academia and industry.”   

Fundraising for the facility is part of Duke Forward, the seven-year, university-wide campaign that aims to raise $3.25 billion by June 30, 2017. Every dollar donated to Duke's 10 schools and units, Duke Medicine, or university programs and initiatives counts toward the campaign.

Pending final approval from Duke’s Board of Trustees, groundbreaking for the new building will take place by late 2016.

Baxter & Woodman project wins prestigious national award

Baxter & Woodman’s Barium/Radium Removal Pretreatment System Project earned the prestigious Grand Award at the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) 2015 National Engineering Excellence Awards (EEA) competition in Washington D.C..   As one of only eight Grand Award winners, the Baxter & Woodman project was also a finalist for the 2015 Grand Conceptor Award, signifying the year’s best overall engineering achievement. 

ACEC's annual Engineering Excellence Awards program honors the year's most innovative and outstanding engineering accomplishments. Projects throughout the world were evaluated by a panel of 25-30 judges based on their uniqueness and innovative applications; future value to the engineering profession; perception by the public; social, economic, and sustainable development considerations; complexity; and successful fulfillment of the client/owner's needs, including schedule and budget.

The project is a patent-pending Barium/Radium Removal Pretreatment System added to the Village of Gilberts, IL existing municipal ion exchange softener regeneration system. The Pretreatment System incorporates technologies not previously used at municipal water treatment plants and complies with new Illinois Environmental Protection Agency National Pollution Discharge Elimination System barium limits and Illinois Emergency Management Agency radium residual disposal regulations in a cost-effective manner. With the success in pioneering this new process, Baxter & Woodman and the Village have paved the way for other municipalities to consider this process as a viable cost-effective alternative to their traditional treatment methods.

Baxter & Woodman is a consulting engineering firm that specializes in municipal engineering, transportation services, water and wastewater management, construction services, and stormwater management. Based in Crystal Lake, IL, the firm has six locations in IL and WI. For more information, visit www.baxterwoodman.com.