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Consortium of Universities To Provide Services to National Energy Technology Laboratory

Three industry-led teams that include Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh and three other major research universities have been awarded contracts to provide a range of research and engineering services to the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). The collective value of the three contracts is expected to exceed $465 million over a five-year period.

The NETL, part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) national laboratory system, conducts research in coal, natural gas and oil technologies, analyzes energy systems and international energy issues for the DOE Office of Fossil Energy, and performs contract and project management for a number of other DOE offices.

The consortium of universities, consisting of Carnegie Mellon, the University of Pittsburgh, West Virginia University, Pennsylvania State University and Virginia Tech, joined a major industrial firm to pursue each of the three competitive awards. URS Corporation is the prime contractor on a program to provide fossil energy research and engineering services. Booz Allen Hamilton will manage work on energy sector planning and analysis, and KeyLogic Systems is the prime contractor for project execution and integration.

“Carnegie Mellon University has a proud history of research in energy and the environment and currently has more than 70 faculty members involved in numerous energy and environmentally related research projects. I am looking forward to lead a very talented, multi-disciplinary team from both academia and industry as we work to support the DOE’s premier fossil energy and development laboratory,” said Andy Gellman, consortium research director and head of Carnegie Mellon’s Chemical Engineering Department.

“The University of Pittsburgh’s burgeoning activities in energy-related research and education will be greatly enhanced by this collaborative effort with our partner universities and NETL. The University of Pittsburgh has over 100 researchers who have been actively engaged in research with NETL over the past five years, and this award will allow for the continuance of our world-class research in a wide spectrum of energy topics,” said Brian Gleeson, the Harry S. Tack Chair Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Pitt.

Over the past four years, three of the five participating universities have collectively performed more than $40 million in research services for NETL under the previous support service contract.

The URS-led team will be responsible for providing personnel, facilities, equipment, materials, supplies and services to support NETL on the development and implementation of basic and applied fossil energy research. The team also will work with NETL’s research staff to provide research and infrastructure support, health and safety and quality control support, and logistical and technical coordination support.

“URS has a long history of supporting the DOE, including providing management services for four of the largest National Research Laboratories in the U.S.: the Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories,” said Tom Zarges, president of URS’ Washington Division. “We look forward to leveraging the diverse core competencies of the team to bring cost-effective services and leading expertise to the NETL’s Office of Research and Development.”

The Booz Allen Hamilton team will conduct energy sector analysis and planning for NETL, including engineering analysis, research and development benefit analysis, life-cycle analysis, and energy resource development and impact assessment services.

“We are delighted to bring the combined capabilities of Booz Allen and its core subcontractors (Midwest Research Institute, Technology & Management Services, Inc., and WorleyParsons Group, Inc.), and our university partners together to support energy analysis at NETL,” said Booz Allen Program Manager Gary Leatherman.

The KeyLogic team will support NETL’s work in managing and reviewing the more than 1,800 projects currently awarded to external vendors and NETL in-house researchers. This team’s activities also will include conducting validation assessments and project performance reviews, disseminating results to the technical community and providing training in process improvement.

“We are honored to support NETL and their mission to deliver technological solutions that simultaneously address our nation’s three overreaching energy issues: affordability, supply security and environmental quality,” said KeyLogic Program Manager Carey Butler.

Pitt-sponsored Exhibition—Free at Last? Slavery in Pittsburgh in the 18th and 19th Centuries—Now Accessible Online

Published December 16, 2009 Regional Impact , Something Cool Leave a Comment
Tags: Free at Last? Slavery in Pittsburgh in the 18th and 19th centuries, Senator John Heinz History Center, University of Pittsburgh, western Pennsylvania

The University of Pittsburgh-sponsored exhibition Free at Last? Slavery in Pittsburgh in the 18th and 19th Centuries, which was on display recently at the Senator John Heinz History Center, lives on in a compelling Web version.

By visiting www.library.pitt.edu/freeatlast/, a site built by a team from Pitt’s University Library System (ULS), viewers are guided through a virtual tour of the award-winning exhibition seen by thousands between October 2008 and April of this year.

Free at Last? writes a new chapter in the early history of race relations in this region by exploring the little-known fact that slavery persisted in Western Pennsylvania through the years immediately preceding the Civil War. The exhibition centers on 55 handwritten records of legal transactions in Pittsburgh between 1792 and 1857 that were discovered in 2007 by staff in the Allegheny County Recorder of Deeds Office. Those faded records, now property of the Heinz History Center, document this area’s decades-long involvement with Black slavery and indentured servitude.

“I believe that this effort captures the essence and feel of the original, physical exhibition,” said Rush Miller, director of ULS. “The ULS Web design team did an outstanding job of converting exhibition content into a first-rate online presentation, and the video commentary by Dr. Glasco is an added feature that enriches the experience of the documents and artifacts.”

Highlights of the Web exhibition include:

• Five sections that organize the story—Middle Passage to Early America, The Freedom Papers, Fugitive Slave Laws and Escapes, Abolition, and Civil War and Aftermath;

• Video segments narrated by Laurence Glasco, Pitt professor of history and the exhibition’s historical director, that explain the significance of the documents and the gripping tales of some fugitive slaves’ escapes to freedom;

• A zoom and navigation tool to closely inspect the original 55 hand-written documents;

• A typed transcript of the hand-written text; and

• A photo gallery of 81 thumb-nail images with a slideshow or the option to click for a full photo and explanation.

Pitt Web services librarian Jeff Wisniewski and designer Kari Johnston were provided with a CD of audio files, pdf files, and the hard copy of the exhibition catalogue. They reassembled the pieces online in a way that mimics the experience of viewing it at the History Center, but with more options.

Ed Galloway, director of Pitt’s Archives Service Center, digitized the slave documents. To show the information in context, a portion of each slave document is shaded in grey. The unshaded portion is a record of human sales, slaves freed by their owners, or requests for freedom papers. The shaded portion is a sales record of other property, like plots of land.

Even though it’s not the oldest material he’s worked with, Galloway says it’s among the most significant. “These records touch upon the lives of men, women, and children,” he said, “and that’s what makes them remarkable.”

Galloway says he envisions additional links that could be placed throughout the site, leading to other resources and related digitized documents in the ULS archives.

Pitt’s Office of Public Affairs developed the content for Free at Last? The exhibition won six 2009 Golden Triangle Awards from the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), including the award for Best of Show.

A to Z communications Adds Sales, Design Experts to Team; Grows Agency

Published September 29, 2009 General , PTC Member , Personnel News Leave a Comment
Tags: A to Z communications, Chuck Noll, David Crawford, Steelers, Tom Ricketts, University of Pittsburgh

A to Z communications, based in Pittsburgh’s Cultural District, recently announced the addition of a business development representative and a graphic designer.

As vice president of business development, Tom Ricketts develops new opportunities and provides project management and support for clients. Tom earned his baccalaureate in communications from The University of Pittsburgh and was an offensive lineman for the Pitt Panthers Football Team. In 1989, he was a first-round draft pick to the Pittsburgh Steelers and played under storied Steelers Coach Chuck Noll. Most recently, Tom was an account executive in industrial sales, and prior to that an executive with Collegiate Scouting Network, which paired high school athletes with colleges and universities for scholarship opportunities. Along with speaking engagements and other community activities, Tom is involved in numerous philanthropic endeavors for such organizations as the Boy Scouts, Blind and Vision Rehabilitation Services of Pittsburgh and McGuire Memorial Home Foundation.

David Crawford brings to A to Z strong conceptualization talent, print and online design capabilities and new media expertise. He has five years of experience specializing in branding, usability, interface design, online marketing and strategy. Prior to joining A to Z, David was a designer for Imagebox, GNC and American Eagle Outfitters. He has been the recipient of numerous honors including a Pittsburgh Society of Illustrators Scholarship Award. Two corporate identities he designed will be published this year in the Big Book of Green Design and in Basic Logos. David earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Graphic and Communication Design from La Roche College.

A to Z is celebrating its 21st year as a full-service marketing communications and new media design firm, producing work for companies throughout the world. Our strengths include: collateral design, corporate identity programs, branding, strategic communications, traditional and social media marketing, business-to-business and business-to-consumer advertising (TV, radio, print, billboard), annual reports, and electronic/interactive media such as web site development and interactive CDs. Over the years, our seasoned team has earned local and national recognition for design and creative excellence, including ADDY, AIGA, American Corporate Identity, Mercury, PRSA Silver Anvil and Telly awards. For more information, visit our newly designed web site: www.atozcommunications.com.

Quality of Life Technology Center Enters New Collaboration

Published June 29, 2009 Uncategorized 3 Comments
Tags: CMU. TravellingWare, Pitt, Pittsburgh, Quality of Life Technology Center, Technology, University of Pittsburgh

Carnegie Mellon’s Quality of Life Technology Center (QoLT) entered into a collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh and TravellingWave, a deveoper of next-generation multimodal input technology, to develop advanced speech solutions for products – including robotic mobility assistants – for the elderly and disabled.

The CMU and U. of Pittsburgh teams will collaborate with TravellingWave under a grant-award provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the Small Business Investigation Research (SBIR) supplemental awards program.

TravellingWave’s VoicePredict™ product – which combines voice recognition with text prediction- enables users to switch between keyboard input and speech input with near-100% task-completion accuracy.

Dr. Daniel P. Siewiorek, director of the CMU Human-Computer Interaction Institute who heads up the QoLT research in Human-System Interaction, will direct the work on the project, which marks the first commercial integration for TravellingWave’s VoicePredict. VoicePredict will release a beta version of its product in the coming months.

Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Connects with Darkstrand

Published May 23, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: Carnegie Mellon University, Darkstrand, David Moses, Michael Stein, National Science Foundation, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, Teragrid, University of Pittsburgh

Darkstrand, a pioneer in corporate high-speed connectivity bridging research and commercialization, announced a mutual agreement with the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) May 14. As a result, corporations connected to the Darkstrand Network can collaborate with PSC on high-performance computing projects leading to product development.

With this network connectivity, corporations have a direct link to PSC’s technical consultants, application experts, supercomputing systems and mass-storage capabilities. They can also flawlessly connect with leverage research and computing resources in previously unfamiliar heights of collaboration across geographies.

“Darkstrand is launching a new R&D collaboration model for corporate America, in which bandwidth is no longer a constraint on innovation,” Chief Executive Officer of Darkstrand Michael Stein said. “PSC provides the integrated HPC environment, deep technical support and Ph.D-level consultants needed to fast forward discovery in science, engineering and advanced computing.”

Founded in 1986, PSC provides industrial, government and university researchers access to several of the most powerful systems available for high-performance computing and data-handling. This is made possible through a joint effort from Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh and the National Science Foundation’s cyberinfrastructure program, a leading partner in the TeraGrid. PSC has provided computing power and expertise to support the research of more than 5,200 scientists and engineers nationwide.

PSC Executive Director David Moses said the partnership with Darkstrand will extend the reach of high-performance computing into the corporate world. “Through Darkstrand’s connectivity, American business will have ready access not only to the amazing hardware and software tools that have transformed scientific research over the last 20 years but also, and just as importantly, they will be able to interact with a consulting staff second-to-none in knowing how to use these tools to get results,” Moses said. “This is an important win for U.S. economic competitiveness.”
To learn more about Darkstrand or PSC, visit the following links:

http://www.darkstrand.com
http://www.psc.edu

“Blue, Gold and Green” Festival Planned for Next Week

Published March 30, 2009 Events , Knowledge Center , News Leave a Comment
Tags: Pitt, Pittsburgh, sustainability, University of Pittsburgh

festival1 Hey, Spring’s in the air — sort of. It was pretty chilly this morning, but it’s time to be thinking about the great outdoors and sustainability and all that good stuff. Seems like we’re over due for a festival of some kind. So check this out:

The public’s embrace of sustainability in recent years has delighted the environmentally conscious, but green ideas in action can seem elusive in day-to-day life. To spotlight sustainable lifestyles and innovations in Pittsburgh, the University of Pittsburgh will showcase the businesses, artists, and thinkers that help bring green to fruition with the “Blue, Gold, and Green” sustainability festival to be held April 9 at the William Pitt Student Union at Bigelow Blvd. and Fifth Ave., Oakland, and in nearby Schenley Plaza.

The festival features local artists and food vendors, live music, and expositions by companies actively reducing the human footprint. Speakers from local organizations and government such as Pittsburgh “bike czar” Stephen Patchan and Mayor Luke Ravenstahl will join Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg in exploring large-scale efforts to shape Pittsburgh’s environmental awareness.

Students, staff, and faculty members from local universities will create art from trash, exhibit biofueled cars, and build bicycles for underprivileged children, among other activities. A full schedule and event details are available on the festival Web site at www.bluegoldandgreen.pitt.edu

Pittsburgh Tech News! We’ve Got Your Tech News Here!

Published February 27, 2009 General , Knowledge Center , News Leave a Comment
Tags: ARMTech Showcase of Industry and Technology, Canegie Mellon University, Concurrent technologies Corporation, Eaton Corporation, McGinnis Venture Competition, ReGear Lifesciences, Swanson School of Engineering, University of Pittsburgh

We’ve reached the end of another week and once again, time is conspiring against me. A ton of tech news lands on the Pittsburgh Technology Council’s desks and it’s tough to get it all out. Friday seems like a great time to wind out the week and publish some news that we couldn’t get to over the past four days. Check out these news nuggets:

McGinnis Venture Competition on Tap

Carnegie Mellon University is holding its sixth annual McGinnis Venture Competition on March 12-14, 2009, at the Tepper School. Every year, Carnegie Mellon hosts about 20-30 graduate-student teams from across the country (and the world) to compete in three tracks (Technology, Life Sciences and Sustainable Technology) for a $20,000 grand prize (in each track) and some in-kind awards. The old Techburgher will try to get you a list of this year’s winners once they are available. Stay tuned!

Eaton Collaborates with Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering

Industrial manufacturing powerhouse Eaton Corporation will collaborate with the University of Pittsburgh’s (Pitt’s) Swanson School of Engineering to help train students in the burgeoning electric power engineering field and usher in the next generation of power-delivery technology.

Supported with a $500,000 sponsorship from Eaton, the collaboration will focus on developing courses across a broad range of electric power engineering and system topics including the growing field of smart power grids and a digitized, efficient electricity delivery system recently cited as a priority by President Barack Obama’s administration. The collaboration will also cultivate new and ongoing research related to power systems, power quality, energy efficiency and alternative energy systems.

ReGear Hires Karen Fry

ReGear Life Sciences hired Karen Fry as Vice President of Sales. Fry has joined ReGear with more than 22 years of executive sales management and selling experience, ranging from highly technical sales and solution selling to managing national accounts and operating effectively in rapid growth situations. ReGear will be her third start-up company. She joined Pittsburgh-based ReGear from CoolSystems, Inc. – makers of Game Ready, a cold and compression therapy device used by professional and collegiate sports teams, physical therapists,and orthopedic surgeons.

CTC Nabs VPP STAR Award

Concurrent Technologies Corporation (CTC) was awarded the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) “VPP STAR” designation for workplace safety and health excellence for the Company’s Johnstown facilities. CTC now is one of approximately 2,000 STAR sites across the country.

ARMTech Set for August

The 11th annual ARMTech Showcase of Industry and Technology will be held on August 19th – 21st, 2009. Each year, the Armstrong County Board of Commissioners and the Armstrong County Industrial Development Council (IDC) host the event at the Belmont Complex, located in Kittanning, PA. The three-day Showcase will feature exhibits from across the country, which will allow regional businesses and organizations to build relationships with respected industry professionals.

Exhibitors from the fields of electro-optics, advanced manufacturing, medical research, aerospace and defense contracting will be joined by U.S. Rep. John Murtha at the Showcase. The ARMTech Showcase is part of the Armstrong County Regional Manufacturing Initiative. For additional details, please contact Justin Nolder with the Armstrong County IDC at 724-548-1500 or by email at jrnolder@co.armstrong.pa.us.

Virtual Edge to Create and Produce Annual Report for the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Pediatrics

Published February 11, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: Broudy Printing, Gregg Gantwarg, University of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Department of Pediactrics, Virtual Edge Collaborative

Council member, Virtual Edge Collaborative, recently pulled down some new business. Check out the news release below:

Virtual Edge Collaborative, an alternative to U.S. and Pittsburgh advertising agencies, marketing companies, marketing firms, marketing agencies, Web design companies and graphic design companies, (www.virtualedgeonline.com), has been hired by the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Pediatrics to create and produce its 2008 Annual Report.”This 300-page publication is the largest I have seen in my 20 years in the marketing field. We are thrilled to be a part of this project for such a respected and worthwhile medical entity,” says Virtual Edge Collaborative President + CEO, Gregg P. Gantwarg. The 8.5″ x 11″ magazine-style format will serve as a comprehensive presentation of the Department of Pediatrics’ 2008 financial information, key individuals, primary capabilities and structure. The piece will be printed locally in Pittsburgh by Broudy Printing.

“When we decided to outsource this project for the first time, hiring Virtual Edge was an easy decision. I have known, Gregg Gantwarg for years, both personally and professionally. His firm’s ability to deliver high-quality work at a very competitive price is a hidden jewel in the marketing world. I think Virtual Edge’s unique and needed virtual business model makes a great deal of sense, especially in today’s tough economy. And knowing Gregg’s attention-to-detail, experience, creativity and professionalism, I can only expect the best,” says Christopher Maley, Executive Administrator.

About Virtual Edge Collaborative:
Virtual Edge Collaborative’s (The Virtual Marketing Firm) revolutionary virtual business model makes it possible for small to mid-sized businesses to receive high-quality marketing services, on an a la carte basis, from seasoned industry pros, at a fraction of the price of what quality U.S. and Pittsburgh advertising agencies, marketing companies, marketing firms, marketing agencies, graphic design companies and Web design companies, charge, without sacrificing quality. Typically, depending upon a client’s geographic location, Virtual Edge Collaborative is 50%-200% less. Instead of charging hefty retainers, sky-high hourly rates, grossly inflated markups and nickel-and-diming our clients, Virtual Edge Collaborative is affordable. Every project estimate is based on an all-inclusive flat fee, which means you know exactly what every project costs upfront. Virtual Edge offers an unbundled array of world-class marketing services (Print, Web, Interactive, Broadcast, Identity), without the obligation of an agency of record agreement or recurring monthly fees. Virtual Edge Collaborative works on a project-by-project basis, so you only pay for the services you need, when you actually need them.

For more information, please visit www.virtualedgeonline.com, e-mail gregg@virtualedgeonline.com or call 724.766.1040.

Creepy But Cool: Baby Beetles Inspire Pitt Researchers to Build “Mini Boat” Powered by Surface Tension

Published January 21, 2009 Knowledge Center , Something Cool 1 Comment
Tags: engineering, Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, Technology, University of Pittsburgh

I’m a sucker for research. It’s amazing to think of all the completely insane projects going on behind the scenes at our local universities. Innovation is bubbling everywhere. You never know where it’s going to come from. Here’s a total case in point at the University of Pittsburgh:

creepy Inspired by the aquatic wriggling of beetle larvae, a University of Pittsburgh research team has designed a propulsion system that strips away paddles, sails, and motors and harnesses the energy within the water’s surface. The technique destabilizes the surface tension surrounding the object with an electric pulse and causes the craft to move via the surface’s natural pull. The researchers will present their findings Jan. 26 at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ 2009 Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) conference in Sorrento, Italy.

This method of propulsion would be an efficient and low-maintenance mechanism for small robots and boats that monitor water quality in oceans, reservoirs, and other bodies of water, said Sung Kwon Cho, senior researcher and a professor of mechanical engineering and materials science in Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering. These devices are typically propeller-driven. The Pitt system has no moving parts and the low-energy electrode that emits the pulse could be powered by batteries, radio waves, or solar power, Cho added.

Cho envisioned the system after reading about the way beetle larvae move on water, he said. Like any floating object, larva resting in the water causes the surface tension to pull equally on both sides. To move forward, the larva bends its back downward to change the tension direction behind it. The forward tension then pulls the larva through the water.

Cho and his team—Pitt engineering doctoral students Sang Kug Chung and Kyungjoo Ryu—substituted the larva’s back bending with an electric pulse. In their experiments, an electrode attached to a 2-centimeter-long “mini-boat” emitted a surge that changed the rear surface tension direction and propelled the boat at roughly 4 millimeters per second. A second electrode attached to the boat’s front side served as the rudder.

Read an abstract of Cho’s mechanism. Footage of the boat is also available with a film of the rudder capability, too.

Pitt Researchers Create Nontoxic Clean-up Method for Potentially Toxic Nano Materials

Published December 16, 2008 Knowledge Center , News Leave a Comment
Tags: horseradish, nanotechnology, Pittsburgh, Technology, University of Pittsburgh

I could hardly pass up this interesting piece of research coming out of the University of Pittsburgh. It seems quite fitting with our “burger” theme. Who’d of thought that lowly horseradish could have so many uses? Ketchup and mustard are a little jealous right now. Check it out:

University of Pittsburgh researchers have developed the first natural, nontoxic method for biodegrading carbon nanotubes, a finding that could help diminish the environmental and health concerns that mar the otherwise bright prospects of the super-strong materials commonly used in products, from electronics to plastics.

A Pitt research team has found that carbon nanotubes deteriorate when exposed to the natural enzyme horseradish peroxidase (HRP), according to a report published recently in Nano Letters coauthored by Alexander Star, an assistant professor of chemistry in Pitt’s School of Arts and Sciences, and Valerian Kagan, a professor and vice chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health in Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health. These results open the door to further development of safe and natural methods—with HRP or other enzymes—of cleaning up carbon nanotube spills in the environment and the industrial or laboratory setting.

Carbon nanotubes are one-atom thick rolls of graphite 100,000 times smaller than a human hair yet stronger than steel and excellent conductors of electricity and heat. They reinforce plastics, ceramics, or concrete; conduct electricity in electronics or energy-conversion devices; and are sensitive chemical sensors, Star said. (Star created an early-detection device for asthma attacks wherein carbon nanotubes detect minute amounts of nitric oxide preceding an attack.)

“The many applications of nanotubes have resulted in greater production of them, but their toxicity remains controversial,” Star said. “Accidental spills of nanotubes are inevitable during their production, and the massive use of nanotube-based materials could lead to increased environmental pollution. We have demonstrated a nontoxic approach to successfully degrade carbon nanotubes in environmentally relevant conditions.”

The team’s work focused on nanotubes in their raw form as a fine, graphite-like powder, Kagan explained. In this form, nanotubes have caused severe lung inflammation in lab tests. Although small, nanotubes contain thousands of atoms on their surface that could react with the human body in unknown ways, Kagan said. Both he and Star are associated with a three-year-old Pitt initiative to investigate nanotoxicology.

“Nanomaterials aren’t completely understood. Industries use nanotubes because they’re unique—they are strong, they can be used as semiconductors. But do these features present unknown health risks? The field of nanotoxicology is developing to find out,” Kagan said. “Studies have shown that they can be dangerous. We wanted to develop a method for safely neutralizing these very small materials should they contaminate the natural or working environment.”

To break down the nanotubes, the team exposed them to a solution of HRP and a low concentration of hydrogen peroxide at 4 degrees Celcius (39 degrees Fahrenheit) for 12 weeks. Once fully developed, this method could be administered as easily as chemical clean-ups in today’s labs, Kagan and Star said.