Engineering

RENO, Nev. — GPS technology developed and implemented at the University of Nevada, Reno will be the centerpiece of a major test this year by NASA to pinpoint the location and magnitude of strong earthquakes along the West Coast of the United States. The project was announced by NASA today.

Please Nevada Business Connections for our next monthly Nevada Business Connections breakfast meeting, Wednesday, April 18th at 8:00 A.M. This breakfast will feature a panel of local manufacturers discussing the business climate.

Doors will open at 7:30 A.M. at the Gold Dust West Casino, Carson City. The meeting is scheduled for exactly one hour. Cost is $20 for members and $30 for guests. Please RSVP to NBC at 775.771.5747 or kris@nvbizconnect.com.

"Nuclear Physics: Fission and Fusion, Explosions and Electricity" Presentation by Dr. Thomas Herring, Head of Physics and Engineering at Western Nevada College. Basics of nuclear physics: what scientists mean when they say "radiation", structure of the nucleus, forces between things in the nucleus, effects of nuclear radiation on humans, technological applications of nuclear physics. 

The Rotary Club of Carson City and High Sierra Brewing Company presents the Beer and Pizza Championships, March 31 at Carson Mall.

Come and taste the best beer and pizza in the region, and vote for your favorite. You can also enjoy the Final Four on TV at the same time, or take part in basketball shooting contests. There will be a live auction for trips and events, a silent auction for great local gifts, and a drawing for a Samuel Adams trip to Boston.

A partial list of the competitors:

Beers:
High Sierra
Great Basin
Silver Peak
Knee Deep
Buckbean

Pizza:
Firkin & Fox

Recognized for stewardship and care taken in the building and construction of developments around Lake Tahoe, the 22nd annual Best in the Basin awards were announced Tuesday by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.
The TRPA, which sets policy for development around Lake Tahoe, will recognize the winners, listed below, during the 2011 Best in the Basin awards presentation during the meeting of its Governing Board on Wednesday, Feb. 22 in Stateline. Go here for the agenda.

Reno, NV – CGI, Inc, the leading manufacturer of custom gearheads and robotic solutions today announced their pledge towards becoming the main event sponsor for the Northern Nevada FTC® Championship Tournament February 24-25 at Carson City High School, Carson City, NV.

CARSON CITY – Members of the Nevada chapter of a small business organization say the state’s minimum wage and construction defects laws are hampering job growth in the state.

The state’s prevailing wage law was also cited as a drag on economic development in the survey of its members by the Nevada chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business.

The operator of BlueGo, the South Lake Tahoe area public transportation system, has installed four new bus shelters and will put up three more in spring to provide riders safety, convenience and comfort.

RENO, Nev. – An online graduate certificate in renewable energy that provides an opportunity to study the policies and practices in the diverse fields of renewable energy is being offered at the University of Nevada, Reno beginning in the spring 2012 semester.

“With an emphasis on renewable energy by the Governor’s Task Force on Economic Development, this should be a popular program,” Nancy LaTourrette, of the University’s College of Engineering, said. “The program provides a breadth of understanding of the different aspects of renewable energy in a traditional semester-long time frame.”

Nevada traffic fatalities dropped in 2011 to 243.

Preliminary numbers show that 243 fatalities occurred on Nevada roads in 2011. This compares to 257 Nevada traffic deaths in 2010.

The reduced fatalities follow a general trend of traffic deaths dropping from an all-time high of 432 in 2006 to 243 in 2011.

The Carson City Board of Supervisors is seeking applications from persons interested in serving on the Redevelopment Authority Citizens Committee. There are six (6) openings in the following categories, two (2) in each category:

• “Business Operator” or “Property Owner” from Redevelopment Area 1
• “Business Operator” or “Property Owner” from Redevelopment Area 2

UPDATED 8:35AM: California State Parks is investigating vandalism that happened over the weekend on Washoe Meadows State Park land near the Lake Tahoe Golf Course. Electronic equipment and river monitoring devices were damaged or destroyed. Two logs were found to have graffiti sprayed on them, saying "Stop Golf" and "Save the Park."

A research project at the University of Nevada, Reno has received a $410,220 grant to explore how video exercise games can be played without using visual feedback so the visually impaired, especially adolescents, can improve their health through increased activity. The funding comes from the human-centered computing program of the National Science Foundation.

The Marlette water system was an engineering marvel when it was built nearly 140 years ago, using gravity to move water up and out of the Tahoe Basin, down the Sierra and into the Virginia Range...

By Mike Wolterbeek
Six full-size pickup trucks took a wild ride on a 16-foot-high steel bridge when it shook violently in a series of never-before-conducted experiments to investigate the seismic behavior of a curved bridge with vehicles in place. The 145-foot-long, 162-ton steel and concrete bridge was built atop four large, 14-foot by 14-foot, hydraulic shake tables in the University of Nevada, Reno’s world-renowned Large-Scale Structures Earthquake Engineering Laboratory.

Dr. Graham Kent, Professor of Geology & Engineering at UNR and head of the Nevada Seismological Laboratory, will do a presentation about earthquakes in Nevada and how best to prepare for them.

Our meetings are free, fun and educational! Silent auction, door prizes and refreshments are included. Share your finds...meet other rockhounds...bring the kids (activity and 10 free rocks for each child). Learn about our member field trips, newsletter, and special events.

By the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center
Members of the public will be able to visually immerse themselves in two of the best-known lakes in the United States, thanks to a $2.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation to UC Davis' Tahoe Environmental Research Center.

If you’re spending Labor Day weekend in rural Nevada, beware. Drivers are more than twice as likely to die in a car crash on a rural road than on other roads throughout the state.

CARSON CITY, Nev. — The Silver State has ranked high on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's recently released "Enterprising States: Recovery and Renewal for the 21st Century" report.
"To be ranked first in export intensity growth and export growth among other Western states like Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington is a real point of pride for our state," said Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval.

By Claudene Wharton

By Mike Wolterbeek
RENO — To meet the demands of the marketplace, the University of Nevada, Reno has combined disciplines and added a new major to its roster: computer science and engineering.

“This will make our students more marketable, more well-rounded and more likely to be incorporated and become productive in their new work environments,” Yaakov Varol, chair of the University of Nevada, Reno’s CSE department, said.

Jane Johnson, Program Chair of the American Association of University Women Capital Branch, presents a set of Cool Careers books to Amber Sady, the Carson City Library Youth Services Librarian. These books were created by Sally Ride Science and donated by AAUW to interest girls and boys in today's exciting careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Space Science for Schools is proud to announce Nevada's first Nevada Space Day 2011 celebration at the Carson City Airport. Nevada Space Day 2011 is designed to encourage students to consider studies and careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).

By Mike Wolterbeek
RENO, Nev. – The University of Nevada, Reno’s micromouse scooted its way around the maze in the fastest time Saturday to beat out 10 other teams from around the west. The MicroMouse competition featured small robotic vehicles designed, built and programmed by undergraduate electrical engineering students.

RENO, Nev. –The 2011 edition of Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges will include the names of 15 students from the University of Nevada, Reno, who have been selected as national outstanding campus leaders.

Students were selected on their academic achievement, service to community, leadership in extracurricular activities and potential for continued success.

They join an elite group of students from more than 2,300 institutions of higher learning in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and several foreign nations.

The students selected from Nevada are:

LAS VEGAS – The presidents of Nevada’s colleges and universities said the governor’s budget cuts would put their institutions on a starvation diet.
They argued that past budget cuts severely slimmed their institutions, meaning additional funding reductions would threaten their core academic mission.

RENO — A new streamlined system to enable University of Nevada, Reno and Desert Research Institute (DRI) faculty to begin start-up companies and seek entrepreneurial partnerships is part of a new plan launched this month.

The idea, now a part of the university's Technology Transfer Office, is based primarily on a new standard license agreement, the “NSHE Express,” available to faculty-based start-up companies.

Ramping down Nevada’s dependence on the gambling industry (and associated consumer spending) through developing new job-creating industries was the main topic at last Friday’s Nevada 2.0 economic forum at UNLV.
Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki used the word “retooling” as he spoke of the need for diversity in his opening remarks, adding that he did not believe the vision of  an economically robust Nevada was “Pollyanna-ish.”

Dee Freewert talks about the First Lego League competition for area children to learn about engineering by building robots:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdkfeg1QQic

Geothermal Development Associates of Reno received the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Export Achievement Certificate today.

The award recognizes businesses that have achieved significant success in the global marketplace and have also benefited from the programs and assistance of the International Trade Administration’s U.S. Commercial Service. Chuck Alvey, president/CEO for the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada made the presentation.