FSU X and Y Requirements

FACULTY recently received the following communication from our Administration. This may be important information for Engineering Students ---

We had a student inquiring about FSU’s X and Y requirements so Bruce from FSU provided me this link that I wanted to share with all just for a better understanding of the requirement.  I will also post the link out on the Academic Advising portal  under the Student Support Tab.  (In the future, we plan to develop an advising portal piece for students for information such as this.)

For TCC students planning to transfer with an AA degree, they will only have to meet one X or Y requirement before graduating from FSU.  They do not have to complete it here but for some majors (e.g., Engineering and Business) it is highly recommended that they take one of our courses to meet that requirement because there are no options in those majors at the junior/senior level (per Bruce at FSU).  The TCC courses that will satisfy either the X or Y multicultural requirement for FSU are identified on the AA Planning Guide.

Go to http://studentsfirst.fsu.edu and hit the Check Course Requirements link (second one on the academic information box)

MEETING FRIDAY 8/29

THERE WILL BE A MEETING OF THE TCC ENGINEERING CLUB
FRIDAY, AUGUST 29, 2008
2:30 UNTIL ??
SM 260 (SCIENCE/MATH CONFERENCE ROOM)

AMONG MANY IMPORTANT ITEMS TO BE DISCUSSED IS
THE TRIP TO ORLANDO SEPT 19 & 20
TO THE ASME SLS (STUDENT LEADERSHIP SEMINAR).

++++ THE RESERVATIONS MUST BE MADE BY AUG. 31!!! ++++

WHO WANTS TO GO???

-- DJ

Internships Available

I got an e-mail from Catie Goodman, who is the Program Coordinator for the TCC Internship Program about some internship opportunities.

Her office is CT 242 and her e-mail address is saurinoc (at) tcc.fl.edu.

One is an UNPAID internship at The Brogan Museum in their early childhood through elementary age science programs, including Family Day activities on the weekend.

The other is a PAID internship with the Rose Printing Company, which sounds like a part-time job (running printing and binding equipment).

I have a copy of the information sheets (so come by my office if you want to see it), or contact Catie directly via e-mail or in person.

UPDATED:

I just got another e-mail, announcing an "Interships 101" program to introduce students to the options available to them. It looks like it was sent to the entire campus, so you might have one in your TCC e-mail. The schedule is:

• Wed 9/3 from 10 am to 11 am in CT 108
• Wed 9/3 from 6 pm to 7 pm in CT 108
• Thurs 9/4 from 10 am to 11 am in CT 120
• Thurs 9/4 from 6 pm to 7 pm in CT 118

It sounds like they will also help you with preparing your resume to help you get into one of those programs.

ORLANDO ASME SLS -- SEPT. 19 & 20, 2008

Here is a link to the web page copied above: http://districts.asme.org/SLS/FL/index.htm

This web page announces the ASME Student Leadership Seminar. It is very worthwhile to attend. Generally speaking it is for Officers of the Student Sections (Side note: Who are our Fall Officers going to be?), but I believe that other members can go -- we may just have to find some outside money to spring them.

I have taken delegations from TCC and FAMU/FSU for the last two years -- first to Atlanta and then to Tuscaloosa. The students seemed to have profited by the experience.

Question is: WHO IS INTERESTED?

Post a comment to this notice, email me or Dr. Carr or Ms. Williams ASAP.

We have deadlines to meet.

-- DJ

Some results from the Cart-to-Solar project

With a deadline looming (and past) and no students around since the start of summer final exams, I spent part of last week and this weekend putting together a mid-point report to the Foundation on the Cart-to-Solar project. As you all recall, Aaron did a great job getting this funded and on its way to a successful conclusion this summer, organizing a team that carried on the work even when he was not here. However, I was not aware of just how well the project worked out until I processed the data into the form shown below.

The baseline data acquired during the spring are shown with diamonds on this graph. (The two green squares are results of an initial trial with the solar panels and should be ignored here.) I made the three points that were outliers red and excluded them when computing the mean and sample standard deviation shown with the blue band. The yellow band shows the average and standard deviation if all points are included.


You can see for yourself how consistent most of the data were. (The gap in March is Spring Break, and one of the anomalous points appeared when the cart sat idle while the campus was closed.) Aaron did some nice work to try to understand what might be going on with those red points, but I won't include the graph or try to explain it here.

FYI, getting about three miles per kWhr corresponds to an operating cost of about 5 cents per mile for "fuel". (This does not count the cost of amortizing the cost of replacement batteries every few years.) These carts are pretty efficient.

The data acquired after the solar panels installed are shown with squares. There are really three sets of data here: The green squares were some initial tests with three panels, the first set of maroon squares were tests with six panels used in one configuration, while the ones in the region following a break for spring finals, the area covered by the green band, used a different configuration.


You can see very clearly that almost all of the data in this last set show performance that is better than any of the baseline observations. I speculate that the three low points were overcast days but found no weather records to use to test this guess. The green band shows the mean and sample standard deviation for this set (including the three low points). The average value is about a 50% improvement on the efficiency of the cart, which is, I think, about what Aaron had predicted. The band is wider than for the baseline data because of the variability introduced by weather conditions.

FYI, adding the panels saved about $2 worth of electricity over those six weeks. An interesting question is whether they will improve battery life and reduce that cost as well.

In my opinion, the primary goals of the project have been completed but (as discussed at our meeting on July 11, there are still some great things to do this fall to wrap up work with one cart, improve how it works, do the final report, and possibly start a longer-term project monitoring battery life and/or convert other carts.

Good work, everyone!

ASME - TSS joint meeting on Biomass plant

Ben Cowart writes about Thursday's meeting:

Subject: ASME - TSS joint meeting Time changed to 7 - 9 PM, August 7th

All - please put on your calendar to attend the August 7th meeting of the joint meeting with the Tallahassee Scientific Society meeting from 7- 9 at the City Hall Commission Chambers. The topic will be the BG&E Biomass Plant. Several local activist have been calling the project "incineration in disguise" and this forum is to hear the evidence from the Pro and Con groups on the project. Should prove to be lively.

Please try to attend.

This will be our August Meeting.

Thanks,
Ben

I've looked at the BG&E proposal and they do take an interesting angle. My reading of it is that at one point they argue (correctly) that they are not burning the waste materials so they are not governed by waste-to-energy incinerator rules. (They are converting it to gas in a low temperature process quite unlike the plasma torch process we heard about a summer or two ago.) However, at another point they argue that the power plant that burns this gas is not subject to emission rules for power plants because it is a waste-to-energy facility, so they don't have to account for what is in the gas they produce.

Ben may be able to tell us what they would have to do at Hopkins if they bought this gas from BG&E and burned it. That will, indeed, make an interesting discussion.