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Emergency Team

NIST, FEMA Strengthen Disaster Response and Research Capabilities

To strengthen their response and research capabilities for dealing with fire, building and homeland security issues, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on March 29, 2002. The agreement designates NIST to serve as a research and technical resource for FEMA, along with strengthening the collaborative bonds between the two agencies.

Both agencies recognize that their missions in fire, natural disaster prevention and man-made disaster events are highly complementary and that, based on their history of successful collaborations following disasters, it is in the public interest to continue to draw on this relationship.

Under the MOU, NIST and FEMA will work jointly to:

    • reduce loss of life and property and protect the nation’s buildings and infrastructure from all types of hazards;

    • aid the development of technology and methods to evaluate equipment for use by the nation’s fire, rescue, civil defense services and other first responders; and

    • ensure that FEMA can quickly call on NIST for assistance with scientific and technological services in disaster investigations, recovery planning and support technologies.

The agencies agreed to:

    • develop and implement an annual process to plan, prioritize, select and fund projects of mutual interest in fire, disaster prevention and homeland security as well as projects to evaluate equipment for first responders; and

    • establish protocol for a quick deployment mechanism to be activated when both agencies determine a need for a NIST response to extreme events.

More information on the NIST-FEMA MOU is available at www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/nistfema.htm.

Media Contact:
Michael E. Newman, (301) 975-3025

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Collaboration

NIST Partners with Historically Black Colleges, Universities

O n March 22, 2002, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) entered into a partnership with the Science and Engineering Alliance (SEA)—an alliance of four state-supported historically black colleges and universities and the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory—to support and foster collaborative research among the staff of both organizations, and serve as a vehicle for exchange of students, faculty and staff members between the SEA institutions and NIST.

The partnership agreement will harmonize and enhance the scientific, technical and creative resources and talents of the SEA member institutions, and advance the knowledge in the fields of chemical and physical science and engineering while producing top-quality graduate and undergraduate students.

SEA addresses the challenge of establishing an ethnically diverse technical workforce prepared to compete in today’s global marketplace. SEA’s unique program is dedicated to ensuring African Americans play a vital role in the nation’s scientific and engineering future.

The university member institutions of the SEA are: Alabama A&M University, Jackson State University, Prairie View A&M University, and Southern University and A&M College.

For more information on SEA, go to www.llnl.gov/sea.

Media Contact:
Michael E. Newman, (301) 975-3025

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Quality

Questionnaire Helps Leaders Answer ‘Are We Making Progress?’

Imagine your organization has spent months developing a carefully crafted strategy for improvement. Or there’s been an extensive effort to communicate to your employees what the organization considers important. But is it working? Are your mission, vision, values, customer commitment and plans being deployed? Are they understood by your leadership team and your employees? A new, easy-to-use questionnaire developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Baldrige National Quality Program can help senior leaders assess how their organization is performing and focus improvement and communication efforts on areas needing the most attention.

Based on the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence, the questionnaire has 40 statements and asks respondents to check one of five boxes ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree.” It is designed to be used in conjunction with the Baldrige criteria but can be used on its own. For example, statements on leadership—criteria category 1—include “I know my organization’s mission (what it is trying to accomplish).” In another example, statements on customer and market focus—category 3—include “I am allowed to make decisions to solve problems for my customers.”

Thousands of organizations use the Baldrige performance excellence criteria to assess performance on a wide range of key indicators, including leadership, customer and employee satisfaction, process management and results. The criteria can help any organization align resources; improve communication, productivity and effectiveness; and achieve strategic goals.

Both the questionnaire and the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence are available at www.quality.nist.gov/Progress.htm and www.quality.nist.gov/Criteria.htm. They also are available by calling the Baldrige National Quality Program at (301) 975-2036.

Media Contact:
Jan Kosko, (301) 975-2767

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Physics

NIST Issues Updated Time and Frequency Services Handbook

NIST physicist Judah Levine pushes a button on the control panel  for NIST Time & Frequency Services.
On time? Thank NIST physicist Judah Levine who helps millions synchronize their clocks to NIST's atomic clock.

The Time and Frequency Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) operates one of the world’s most accurate time systems, along with maintaining the primary standard of frequency and time interval for the United States. However, such an amazingly accurate clock would benefit few users if there was no way to make its time and frequency signals available to everyone.

To help spread the word about NIST’s “timely” help in this area, the agency recently published an updated version of NIST Time and Frequency Services (NIST Special Publication 432). This comprehensive and technically detailed guide describes the variety of time and frequency services provided by NIST, including:

    • high- and low-frequency radio broadcasts,
    • telephone announcements and timing signals,
    • Internet-based time-setting, and
    • Global Positioning System (GPS)-based calibration.

Most of these services are free. They are used to synchronize and calibrate clocks, electronic devices and electrical equipment across the nation and around the world.

SP 432 may be downloaded free of charge from the Time and Frequency Division Web site at http://tf.nist.gov/general/generalpubs.htm. A single printed copy may be obtained from SP 432 Request, MC 847.00, NIST, Boulder, Colo. 80305-3337; (303) 497-3276; timeinfo@boulder.nist.gov.

Media Contact:
Collier Smith (Boulder), (303) 497-3198

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Measurement

Being in the Right Place at the Right Time ... Anytime

Two National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers have developed a technique that offers designers and users of precision machines such as scanning tunneling microscopes or coordinate measuring machines a more dependable way to acquire quality control and production data than current methods.

The new process is called “Spatial RAM” due to its use of a RAM memory chip to hold predetermined data acquisition locations and its reliance on an external sensor that monitors the probe of the measuring instrument as it moves through space. The Spatial RAM circuitry commands the measuring instrument to record data on some property of the product, such as a semiconductor chip, whenever the external sensor detects a match with the preloaded value in the RAM. Unlike data collection based on presumed probe speed—which can be incorrect if the probe movements are changed by conditions such as temperature changes or gradients— Spatial RAM always collects the data where it is needed.

NIST’s Tom Wheatley, who devised the patented technique with colleague Clayton Teague, said, “Even tiny changes in high precision data collection can be detrimental in manufacturing today’s miniaturized machine parts. The Spatial RAM system avoids this potential problem by simplifying the measuring process. Because data acquisition values are loaded into the RAM operating circuitry, the sensor or probe does not have to be at a particular spot at a particular time to acquire the data from that particular spot. Anytime the probe arrives at the spot is the right time.”

Since Spatial RAM allows for any data value to be loaded and matched, manufacturers also can create non-uniform or unequal spacing over samples or use values that compensate for known errors.

For more information, contact Tom Wheatley at (301) 975-3449.

Media Contact:
John Blair, (301) 975-4261

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Chemistry

Thermodynamics Center Seeks More Reliable Data

To improve data reliability and information infrastructure for the chemical processing, pharmaceutical, biotechnology and other industries, the Thermodynamics Research Center (TRC) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has embarked on a major project called dynamic data evaluation.

The project has two significant components: (1) development of a comprehensive relational data depository system on chemical and physical properties; and (2) development of software tools to monitor data entry; support data integrity, mutual consistency and overall quality control; and serve as a data expert system to automate the critical data evaluation process and assess the uncertainties of the numerical values taking into account all possible sources of errors.

Currently, the TRC SOURCE data system contains about 35 percent of all the data ever published on thermophysical and thermochemical properties. By the end of a five-year period, the center expects to have 80 percent of these data. To do this, the TRC Data Entry Facility has been established to process about 300,000 data points per year.

In addition, data exchange programs with the Russian Center for Standardization and Chinese Academy of Sciences are being established to cover information published in Russian and Chinese literature. Discussions also are under way to work with the major journals in the field to capture data at the time a paper is released for publication.

The software system will be used as a filter for all the accumulated data and, therefore, will provide the most reliable sets of evaluated data. “If there are gaps, they will be filled in using various prediction methods,” says Michael Frenkel, director of the TRC. “As a result, the implementation of this concept will for the first time allow generation of a full set of thermophysical property data with their uncertainties automatically.”

For more information, contact Michael Frenkel at NIST, MC838, Boulder, Colo. 80305-3328; (303) 497-3952.

Media Contact:
Fred McGehan (Boulder), (303) 497-3246

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Editor: Michael E. Newman

Date created: 4/3/2002
Last updated: 4/3/2002
Contact: inquiries@nist.gov