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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:
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reduce
loss of life and property and protect the nations buildings
and infrastructure from all types of hazards;
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aid
the development of technology and methods to evaluate equipment
for use by the nations fire, rescue, civil defense services
and other first responders; and
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ensure
that FEMA can quickly call on NIST for assistance with scientific
and technological services in disaster investigations, recovery
planning and support technologies.
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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
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establish
protocol for a quick deployment mechanism to be activated when both
agencies determine a need for a NIST response to extreme events.
Media
Contact:
Michael
E. Newman, (301) 975-3025
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 Energys
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratoryto 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 todays global marketplace. SEAs
unique program is dedicated to ensuring African Americans play a vital
role in the nations 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
Quality
Questionnaire
Helps Leaders Answer Are We Making Progress?
Imagine
your organization has spent months developing a carefully crafted
strategy for improvement. Or theres 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 Technologys 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 leadershipcriteria
category 1include I know my organizations mission
(what it is trying to accomplish). In another example, statements
on customer and market focuscategory 3include 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
Physics
NIST Issues Updated
Time and Frequency Services Handbook
|
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 worlds 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 NISTs 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:
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high-
and low-frequency radio broadcasts,
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telephone
announcements and timing signals,
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Internet-based
time-setting, and
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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
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 speedwhich 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.
NISTs 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 todays 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
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.
Go back to NIST News Page
Editor: Michael E. Newman
Date
created: 4/3/2002
Last updated: 4/3/2002
Contact: inquiries@nist.gov
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