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4.0 pdh’s of Engineering Ethics Training via Webinar
Birmingham, Decatur, Huntsville
>ETHICS DAY < NOV 5, 2010>
Mobile, Montgomery, Muscle Shoals
$10 for ASPE/NSPE members, $100 non-members
Save the date! More information coming soon!
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“To create an authentic look, Barbie® designers worked closely with the Society of Women Engineers and the National Academy of Engineering to develop the wardrobe and accessories for Computer Engineer Barbie®. Wearing a binary code patterned tee and equipped with all the latest gadgets including a smart phone, Bluetooth headset, and laptop travel bag, Computer Engineer Barbie® is geek chic.”
To read about Barbie’s career move and see her questionable look, go here.
ELECTION RESULTS!
Congratulations to ASPE’s recently elected officers for 2010-2011:
President-elect Sharon Kimbrough PE (Mobile)
State Delegate to NSPE Harold Hite PE (Birmingham)
Vice President North James Drake PE (Huntsville)
Vice President Central Clark Womble PE (Birmingham)
Vice President South Steve Stewart PE (Mobile)
Secretary Don Lokey PE (Muscle Shoals)
The work you do is very important, and your commitment is greatly appreciated!
No-Bid Contracts Still At Issue
A recent article published May 14, 2010 in The Anniston Star acknowledged the ire that continues to be produced whenever the subject of “no-bid” contracts is brought up:
In the last two City Council meetings, Councilman Ben Little has raised concerns about how the city is awarding professional contracts.
“We shouldn’t be sticking with the same people over and over,” Little said. “Regardless of how good a job someone can do, if someone else is not afforded the opportunity to do something, we’ll never know if they could do a good job, also.”
In both meetings, Munroe-Jenkins Architects LLC was approved for contracts, one through a competitive process called “request for qualifications” and one non-competitively. Although several contracts were awarded to compa-nies that had done work for the city in the past, including Sain Associates Inc. and Development Solutions LLC, those two contracts drew Little’s comments.
STATE MATHCOUNTS COMPETITION RESULTS
The 2010 Alabama State Competition was held Saturday March 27 in Montgomery. Brian Shelton served as State Coordinator.
The Top 7 Teams Are (in rank order)—
1 Challenger Middle School
2 Baldwin Arts and Academic Magnet School
3 Pizitz Middle School
4 Cullman Middle School
5 Alabama School of Fine Arts
6 Randolph School
7 Auburn Junior High School
Regina Carter is the winning team coach, and therefore will serve as the State’s Team Coach. Congratulations, Ms Carter!
The Top 4 Individual Students make up the State Team and will go to National Competition in Orlando FL. You can watch it LIVE! Friday May 7 at 2pm edt.
Congratulations Rickie, Sabrina, Animesh and Asutosh!
The Top 10 Individual Students are—
1 Wook Suk “Rickie” Jang (Baldwin)
2 Sabrina Chen (Randolph)
3 Animesh Mahapatra (Challenger)
4 Asutosh Nanda (Challenger)
5 Leigh Marie Braswell (Cullman)
6 Sunny Chennupati (Liberty)
7 Bill Caraway (Challenger)
8 Sina Monfared (ASFA)
9 Danny Johns (Simmons)
10 Devin Sun (ASFA)
WELCOME HOME!
375th Engineer Company returning to Huntsville after a year in Iraq
April 03, 2010, 7:17AM
photo credit: Bob Gathany / The Huntsville Times…..PFC Brian Varise with company guideon at the 375th Engineer Company’s farewell ceremony held April 11, 2009 at S.R. Butler High School. The unit returns home Saturday after a year in Iraq.
HUNTSVILLE, AL — More than 100 soldiers with the Huntsville-based 375th Engineer Company return home from a year’s deployment to Iraq today, just in time for Easter with their families.
The main body of the 135-member unit is scheduled to arrive via charter plane at 5:25 p.m. today at Signature Flight Support at the Huntsville International Airport, according to 1st Lt. Chris Cunningham, who has written a weekly “Soldier’s Diary” column for The Times since the group’s deployment last April.
“We’re looking forward to it,” Cunningham said Friday in a telephone interview from Fort McCoy in Wisconsin, where the 375th has been going through demobilization activities since arriving stateside earlier this week. “Most of the soldiers have been six months, or even longer in some cases, since seeing their families on leave. Everybody’s looking forward to getting home and getting back with their families and back to some semblance of a normal life.”
Libby Morse of Hartselle, co-leader of the 375th’s Family Readiness Group, said she and 5-year-old son Landon can’t wait to see their husband and daddy, Staff Sgt. Jay Morse. He was home on leave just after Christmas, but they didn’t know he’d be back so soon.
“We’re just excited he’s coming home for Easter. We didn’t expect this,” she said.
The U.S. Army Reserve unit left Huntsville April 14 last year after a deployment ceremony April 11 at Butler High School, then spent a month and a half training in Wisconsin and California before arriving in Kuwait June 1, then Iraq June 16.
The company that left Huntsville had 180 members, but that number has dwindled to about 135 during the deployment because some soldiers were allowed to go home for family or medical issues, Cunningham said.
Though not a combat unit – the 375th spent its time in Iraq building living quarters, mess halls and other amenities for combat soldiers – that doesn’t mean they weren’t in harm’s way, Cunningham said. He said three soldiers were injured when a convoy they were in was hit by a roadside bomb, and there were many close calls from insurgent rocket attacks.
Despite that, the unit lost only one member during its deployment, and that didn’t happen in Iraq. Staff Sgt. Maury Armstrong of Columbia, Tenn., was shot and killed Feb. 20 while home on leave. His wife has been charged with murder.
“Otherwise, everybody is healthy other than a few injuries sustained just working,” Cunningham said.
The 375th’s three platoons were crafted from units around the country, though most come from North Alabama, southern Tennessee and the Birmingham area. Soldiers from other areas of the country – like Cunningham – will fly straight home.
The North Alabama soldiers will leave from the Huntsville airport with their families, and those from the Birmingham and Chattanooga areas will be bused there from Huntsville, Cunningham said.
2-23-10. [Montgomery] We gathered on a sunny Tuesday afternoon at the State Capitol Auditorium and waited to hear from invited elected officials. Who would show up? we wondered. Just outside, the gambling protesters were assembled, loudly cheering whoever was speaking at the podium. In half an hour, they would leave, and the pro-gambling folks would assemble and cheer for their speakers. Elected officials that didn’t want to get caught in the crowds would have to use the tunnel, we decided. The auditorium doors opened, and we all went in and found our seats.
The briefing began at one o’clock. Don Brown AIA was the master of ceremonies. He first introduced Sen. Lowell Barron, who spoke passionately about SB121, the “Highway Bill”, which would take $1B from the Alabama Trust Fund, and fund 10 years of roads/bridges/transportation work. This bill is sorely needed, and will most likely pass. He also spoke of the need to improve the immigration law, and get the law to “line up” with our neighbor states.
Suddenly, all the doors in the auditorium swung shut. Don went onstage and introduced the man who really didn’t need an introduction, Governor Bob Riley. Riley had just returned from the Governors’ Meeting with President Obama in Washington DC. He told us that the President is concerned about states’ needs and described him as being very “engaged”. Governor Riley stated that the “Highway Bill” will likely pass and he will sign it. Alabama needs stimulus money to fund infrastructure. Riley also said that three German companies and one Asian company are seriously looking to locate their operations in Alabama, which will bring jobs to our citizens. After being with us for 17 minutes, and much applause, the Governor returned to his office.
Following the Governor, Don introduced Senator Rodger Smitherman, Anne Elizabeth McGowin (Recovery Coordinator, AL Dept of Finance), and Don Vaughn PE (Dep Director, AL-DOT). Mr Vaughn spoke about a lot of issues facing AL-DOT in his 15 minutes at the podium, but focused on the extreme need for “longterm sustainable funding”. There is much to do, but not a lot of funding available. Passage of the “Highway Bill” will help tremendously.
Don then introduced Jay Reed, President of the Associated Builders and Contractors of Alabama. Jay handed out a position paper which listed some of the bills we are watching, its synopsis, and whether we support or oppose it: HB547 (oppose), SB11 (oppose), SB52 (oppose), SB59 (support), SB121 (support), SB179 (support). This was the tool we would refer to when we visited our state senators and representatives during the remainder of the afternoon.
Participating members of Build Alabama 2010 are: AAPA, ABC, ACEC-Alabama, ACIA, AGC-Alabama, AIA-Alabama, ARBA, and JECA.
ENGINEERING COUNCIL OF BIRMINGHAM AWARDS TWO ASPE MEMBERS!
2.19.10 [Birmingham] ECOB held its annual awards banquet last night at The Club. Approximately 350 people attended.
ENGINEER OF THE YEAR award was presented to Fouad Fouad PhD PE, professor and chair of the department of civil, construction and environmental engineering at UAB. Fouad joined UAB more than 28 years ago, has received numerous awards, 3 patents, and is known particularly for his work and research in concrete engineering. Fouad was nominated by the Birmingham Chapter ASPE. Congratulations, Dr Fouad!
DISTINGUISHED SERVICE award was presented to Edward Senter PE, principal of MJR/Senter PC, which he joined in 2007. For more than 15 years, Senter has focused on energy management, instrumentation and controls for industrial and commercial clients. As Energy Manager for UAB, Senter reduced energy costs by 12%, which resulted in savings of $11 million. Senter was nominated by ASHRAE. Congratulations, Ed!
Young Engineer of the Year award went to Shunna Marie Cannon, who works for Alabama Power Co.
The Engineering Leadership Award was presented to Garry Neil Drummond. (This information was provided by the Birmingham Business Journal.
LEGISLATIVE ALERT !!
SB52 passed the Alabama Senate (30-0), and will likely be considered soon in the House. This bill prohibits no-bid contracts, and apparently would supersede requirements to use the qualification-based-selection (QBS) process to procure professional services.
2010 BILLS matrix
What you can do NOW: Phone calls, faxes and emails to your Representative may make a difference in his/her vote.
Use this link below to find (by zip code) your Representative’s contact information:
http://www.legislature.state.al.us/misc/zipsearch.html
The ALISON (AL Legislative Information System Online) link below allows one to research a proposed bill and its history. Under the “Regular Session 2010” column on the left of the home page, click on “Bills” on the “Session” tab to view a drop-down menu, then click on “Status” to search for a bill. Type in the bill number (e.g., “SB52”) in the box, click on “Get Status,” then when the Bill Status page appears, click on the box listing the bill number under the “Instrument” column to activate the various tabs at the top of the page for that bill (e.g., clicking on “View” tab brings up an engrossed copy of Bill SB52 as passed by the Senate on 2-4-10; clicking on “History” tab gives details on its legislative history to date). Here is the link:
http://alisondb.legislature.state.al.us/acas/acaslogin.asp
Here is what was said about SB52’s passage in the Senate (read the comments too):
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2010/02/alabama_senate_passes_ban_on_m.html
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REGISTER NOW FOR PE, FE EXAM REVIEW COURSES!
It’s official! ASPE is partnering with the Minnesota Society of Professional Engineers (MnSPE) to bring you the review courses that many of you have requested. PE Civil, PE Mechanical and Fundamentals courses are taught by licensed PEs with background and expertise in the various subject areas. If you don’t pass the exam after taking the course, we guarantee that you may take a second MnSPE-provided review course FREE, provided you attend at least 80% of the classes and complete at least 80% of the homework.
Courses for PE-Civil, PE-Mechancal and FE Review will be offered via webinar.
Registration information and deadlines, Webinar system requirements, online discounts for books and additional details can be found at http://www.mnspe.org/professional_dev/pe_review.shtml.
If your company would like to offer its facilities to employees (no limits as to the number of participants), the fee will be $2500 per site for the PE course review and $1800 per site for the FE review. Participants who wish to receive credit for taking the course, or for the course guarantee to apply, MnSPE will need your names. Please contact Mary Detloff at mdetloff@mnspe.org for more information.
Basic details for each course are noted below:
PE Civil—
>Mostly Tuesday and Thursday evenings between Feb.23 and April 8 for the webinar course. Classes meet from 6-9pm.
>The cost is $600 + books (for the ASPE member) and $850 + books (nonmember).
PE Mechanical—
>Mostly Monday and Wednesday evenings between Feb 15 and April 9 for the webinar course. Classes meet from 6-9pm.
>The cost is $600 + books (for the ASPE member) and $850 + books (nonmember).
Fundamentals of Engineering—
>Mostly Tuesday and Thursday evenings between Feb.15 and April 8 for the webinar course. Classes meet from 6-9pm.
>The cost is $350 + books (for the ASPE member) and $550 + books (nonmember)
All classes will utilize books published by Professional Publications, Inc (PPI), provider of the popular Lindeburg books. When you order your review materials through MnSPE, you save 15% on selected PPI products.
If you have any questions, contact Mary Detloff at mdetloff@mnspe.org.
