First meeting of Fall 2009

Our first meeting of the year will be this Thursday at 2:30 in the Science and Math conference room, SM260. This room is just to the left of the receptionist.

See you there!

Internships ...

I got the following e-mail today:

According to an article in Forbes Magazine (July 7, 2009 written by Joyce Lee), large scale internship programs can lead to full-time employment, even in a tough economy. CollegeGrad.com completed a survey of businesses that consistently use interns and assembled a list of 213 businesses hiring more interns in the past 12 months than anyone else in the U.S. Although layoffs are common and our nation has a 9.5% unemployment rate, CollegeGrad.com concluded that internship offers have been reduced by only 8%.

The TCC Internship Program is proud to agree with the CollegeGrad.com survey. Our very first intern in 2007, John Lawless, was offered permanent employment with his Internship Provider, Coaxis International. Since interning and accepting their offer, John has been promoted to management and is now supervising TCC interns.

Many of our local businesses are in need of entry-level staff but simply don’t have the budget to hire them. Their solution is internships. The TCC Internship Program has become a common outlet for organizations to pre-screen candidates and bring in fresh talent.

Faculty referrals are critical to our program’s success and we truly appreciate your support. Please let your students know that we are currently accepting Fall applications and premium internships fill quickly. For more information on the TCC Internship Program or to request an in-class presentation contact Christy Mantzanas at (mantzanc @ tcc.fl.edu).

PAID Internship Available Immediately

Catie Goodman, TCC Internship Coordinator, forwarded the following information concerning a PAID internship (paid clerical work) located in Southwood (about 15 miles to the east of the TCC campus) that is available IMMEDIATELY. Details are quoted below.

Any interested students should contact Christy Mantzanas at mantzanc @ tcc.fl.edu OR call 850.201.6172. Catie writes that "The candidate needs to be VERY reliable and intelligent. Math/Engineering majors preferred."

We have an opening for a clerical assistant in our Southwood Office. The position is part time (15 hrs a week) and temporary, but may develop into long-term for the right candidate. The position is paid hourly (probably $7.50 per hour) and the rate is based on experience. The main duty will be data entry into our standard Quickbooks program, but some other general office/clerical duties may be required as needed. Previous experience with Quickbooks is not required, but attention to detail and concern for accuracy is vital, as the data is critical to our project operations. Since the data entry is based on a unit map of the project, a candidate with experience in maps, and/or construction plans and documents, may be preferable. Please let the candidate know that the position is located at our onsite office in the Southwood Community (about 15 miles from campus), and not at our main office on Mahan Drive. We would like to interview any eligible candidates as soon as possible, as we are looking to fill the position immediately. Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you,

Jen Saurino, Administrator
All Pro Land Care of Tallahassee, Inc.

Collapse of a Parking Ramp in Atlanta

Here is a breaking news story for you:

A parking ramp near the Georgia Tech campus in Atlanta has collapsed.

This would appear to have a design that is at least superficially similar to the one on our campus although I can see some obvious differences. This will bear looking into, because I know our ramp was fabricated just outside Atlanta.

When you take a look at the slideshow, notice that a beam was launched about 20 feet or so out from the side of the building. This is what holds up the floor panels. One of these on a floor below has also been dislodged from its mountings as that floor also pancaked onto the level below under the impact of the first one that fell.

I wonder what the weakest link turned out to be in this case?

Electric Vehicles - Lunch and Learn

Put this on your calendar if you are interested in all-electric vehicles.

Topic: ASME Lunch and Learn: Electric Vehicles

I assume the talk will be about amateur conversion of regular cars to all-electric or plug-in hybrid operation because that is what members of TAEVA (Tallahassee Area Electric Vehicle Association) do.

Speaker: Andre Smith of TAEVA

When: Friday, June 26, 11:45 to about 1:15

Where: Ole Times Country Buffet

This is located on the east side of North Monroe, just north of Lake Ella and south of Tharpe Street, across the street from the Lake Ella Publix.

Details

Lunch starts between 11:45 an 12:10. I recommend getting there by 11:45. Just go in, pay your money at the register (one price for all meals at this place), then find the engineering group in one of the private dining areas. Speaker introduction and talk will be from 12:10 to 1:00 with time to inspect the cars in the parking lot before the group adjourns at 1:15 to go back to work.

I'm hoping the all-electric Miata will be there. (An article in the paper last month showed a "shade tree" conversion that replaced the engine with a bunch of DieHard batteries and an electric motor.)

Summer Advising Notes available

I put a pdf copy on the web of the notes from the group advising session I ran early this month. You can find it from several places in my TCC web pages. The best starting point is

http://faculty.tcc.fl.edu/scma/carrj/Engineering/

I cleaned up the PowerPoint notes I had prepared for the meeting so they addressed some common questions students had, and then "printed" it to a pdf file with six slides per page. It can be read OK if printed out, but it is best read by zooming to about 200% while viewing it on a computer.

There is additional information, including info about scheduling classes, in the page identified as "Pre-Engineering advising notes".

Contact me at my TCC address if you have any questions.

UCF stormwater management

I ran across this story about the development of a mixture of ground up used tires, sawdust, and sand that can be used to improve septic tank drain fields.

The story mentions the Wekiva River drainage basin, but it could also be useful in the Wakulla Springs drainage basin - particularly southern Leon and northern Wakulla county - as an alternative to expensive "advanced" septic tanks.

One important detail: The article points out that a normal septic system puts out 40 to 60 mg of N per liter (this is 40 to 60 ppm), and that the proposed system would drop this to 10 mg/L (10 ppm). For comparison, the Advanced Wastewater Treatment system being installed in Tallahassee will reduce the nitrogen load to about 3 ppm (3 mg/L).