Idaho Society of Professional Engineers
Friday Update - 02/13/04
UPCOMING EVENTS:
● ISPE Southwest Chapter February Luncheon, Tuesday, February 17,
2004, 12:00 Noon, Burger n Brew Restaurant, 6125 Fairview Avenue (near Curtis),
Boise
● ISPE Southeast Chapter MATHCOUNTS Competition - Pocatello - February 21,
2004
● ISPE Southwest Chapter MATHCOUNTS
Competition - Boise - February 21, 2004
● National Engineers Week, February 22 -
28, 2004
● ISPE Magic Valley Chapter MATHCOUNTS
Competition - February 24, 2004
● Boise State University College of
Engineering Open House, Thursday, February 26, 2004, 5:00-7:00pm
● ISPE State MATHCOUNTS Competition - Boise
- March 6, 2004
● Continuing Education Seminar, Design of
Waste Containment and Closure Systems, BSU, March 24, 2004, For additional
information: Call Joseph Sener, College of Engineering, Civil Engineering
Department, at 208-426-4814
● IBPEPLS Board Meeting, April 30 and May
1, 2004
● NSPE 2004 Convention and Expo, July 8 -
10, 2004, Honolulu, Hawaii
2004 Annual Meeting - It was a Success!
by Karen Doherty, ISPE State President
Our Annual Meeting last week in Boise was enjoyed by many participants from
around the "Gem State" and visitors from other parts of the United States. We
received NSPE President Terri Helmlinger's views on the future of NSPE and
enjoyed interaction with Western Region V-P Elect Cliff Ishii. Hats off to
Andrew Swensen and the steering committee from Twin Falls for an informative
program. The licensure round-table discussion and future of engineering
education in Idaho discussions gave us all food for thought as we continue to
encounter economic challenges. Ken Catlow's presentation on the Pentagon
rehabilitation gave us an insight into the massive effort to update this
American landmark. Friday's banquet and awards ceremony was highlighted by
presentations of ACEC's Engineering Excellence awards and ISPE's individual
achievement awards. Congratulations to our winners: Ellis L. Mathes, PE - Idaho
Engineering Hall of Fame, Lyman D. Wilbur, PE - Idaho Engineering Hall of Fame,
James A. Higgins, PE - 2004 Idaho Excellence in Engineering Award, Dale L.
Riedesel, PE/LS - 2004 Idaho Excellence in Engineering Award, Norman F. Dahm, PE
- 2004 Idaho Excellence in Engineering Educator Award, James H. Milligan, PE -
2004 Idaho Excellence in Engineering Educator Award, Dewitt "Tal" Neill, PE -
2004 Idaho Excellence in Engineering Educator Award, and Heather M. Carroll, PE
- 2004 Young Engineer of the Year. Thanks to Bill Ancell and his committee for
their work in recognizing these outstanding individuals.
The SW Chapter E-Week Banquet was held on Thursday prior to the Annual Meeting.
Our newly licensed P.E.s were recognized and took their oath with Scott McClure.
ITD Director David Ekern provided a thoughtful presentation on the future of
Idaho's Transportation program. Additionally, outstanding students from BSU were
highlighted for their academic achievements at the luncheon.
Of course, we also conducted two important business meetings during this Annual
Meeting as well. We are finishing the meeting minutes from our membership and
Board meetings;
visit the website in the next week to review the discussions.
2004-05 ISPE State officers are as follows: President - David Schiess, Secretary
Treasurer - Joe Canning, Regional Director - Charles Bergman, Junior Regional
Director - Nestor Fernandez, President Elect - Stephen Loop, Past President -
Karen Doherty. Three new members were elected to serve three-year terms on the
ISPE Foundation Board - Larry Comer, Bill Holder, and Steve Walker.
Congratulations on a job well done and I look forward to seeing you all at the
2005 Annual Meeting. President-Elect David Schiess and the Southeastern Chapter
will be planning this event in Eastern Idaho. Look for advance information on
dates and locations soon!
Click on the following link
http://sections.asce.org/sis/idahoeweek.html for a list of National
Engineers Week activities in southern Idaho.
Engineers are turning ideas into reality at
Boise State University!
Please join us at our College of Engineering Open House on Thursday, February
26th, 5-7pm, as we celebrate National Engineer’s Week and Boise State’s 30th
Anniversary as a university. This is your opportunity to
● Meet the dean, faculty, staff, students and
industry partners
● Tour our exceptional engineering facilities
housing electrical and computer, mechanical, and civil engineering, materials
science and engineering, computer science, construction management, and
instructional and performance technology departments
● Visit research laboratories and see firsthand
exciting breakthroughs in semiconductors, nanotechnology, alternative energy,
materials science, biomedical engineering, high performance computing,
environmental sensors, rapid prototyping, air quality, intelligent
transportation systems, sustainable construction and much more
● See student posters, projects and
demonstrations
Find out about additional partnership
opportunities
We invite you and your colleagues to
experience the College of Engineering spirit at Boise State and to take this
opportunity to learn more about engineering right here in the Treasure Valley.
Future City Competition Coming to Idaho:
Click here for more information on the press conference being
held on Monday, February 23, 2004:
http://home.rmci.net/ispe/future_city.htm
NSPE Continuing Education - New Online
Course:
Risk Management for Design Professionals
Instructor: Gerald Farquhar, Esq., Victor O. Schinnerer Company
Risk consists of structuring decisions and actions taken (or avoided) during the
normal day-to-day conduct of the professional engineer to ensure the safety and
success of a project. In this course you will learn methods to identify and
manage risk, practice assertively, improve profitability, and preserve the
integrity of your business or organization.
Topics addressed in this course include:
· Claim Frequency Trends
· Elements of Professional Liability
· Expert Witness
· Contracts
· Documentation
· Investigating Claims
· Proposals
· Dispute Avoidance
· Indemnification Agreements
This course is presented by NSPE in partnership with the Center for
Collaboration and Education in Design, C2Ed. Regularly priced at $139.95, we are
offering this new program at an introductory price of $115.95 through March
2004. Register for the course at www.C2Ed.com.
Log in and proceed to "Courses Guaranteed for Licensure Renewal." "Risk
Management for Design Professionals" and other online courses are available
24/7.
Gerald Farquhar, Esq., serves as a risk management consulting attorney to the
Victor O. Schinnerer Company, as executive editor of Schinnerer's AELegal
Reporter and provides CNA and Schinnerer with decision support in the areas of
professional liability insurance underwriting, policy drafting and revision, and
risk management. A nationally recognized speaker, Farquhar has conducted
hundreds of seminars for various professional and trade associations on
professional practice improvement and risk control in project delivery.
MATHCOUNTS PROBLEM OF THE WEEK
Can you solve this MATHCOUNTS problem? The answer will appear in next week's
edition of the Friday Update!
A MATHCOUNTS Valentine
On some graph paper, graph the following segments:
y = x, for 0 ≤ x ≤ 2
y = 2x - 2, for 2 ≤ x ≤ 3
x = 3, for 4 ≤ y ≤ 6
y = -x + 9, for 2 ≤ x ≤ 3
y = 7, for 1 ≤ x ≤ 2
y = x + 6, for 0 ≤ x ≤ 1
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Now reflect each of the segments over the y-axis. What popular shape have you
drawn?
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What is the area of the region you have enclosed with this Valentine shape?
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Using your complete picture, now perform a dilation with center (0, 4) and a
scale factor of 2. What is be the area of this new shape?
Answer to last week's problem:
We need to find 48% of 55%. To do this we can multiply the two values together
and see that 48% of 55% is .48 × .55 = .264 = 26.4 % to the nearest tenth. For
problems like this we can also work with real numbers if that’s easier. Assume
there were 100 total complaints. We know 55% or 55 complaints were
Internet-related. Now we know that 48% of these 55 complaints were also
auction-related. So .48 × 55 = 26.4 complaints. Now we see that 26.4 of the 100
complaints is equal to 26.4%.
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We are given the total amount of loss ($200 million) and the amount per person
($195). If we divide $200 million into equal portions of $195, we see that there
are 200,000,000 ÷ 195 = 1,026,000 equal portions/victims, to the nearest
thousand.
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When we are working with an arithmetic sequence, the mean of the numbers is
equal to the median of the numbers. Since the totals for each of the five years
add up to 27.3 million, we know that the third year (median) is equal to 27.3
million ÷ 5 = 5.46 million (mean). If the third year had 5.46 million and the
fifth year had 7 million, we also now know that there is a difference of 7 –
5.46 = 1.54 million every two years, so the first year would have 5.46 – 1.54 =
3.92 million identity thefts. (There is a constant difference between
consecutive terms of an arithmetic sequence, and therefore, there would be a
constant difference between every other term in an arithmetic sequence.)
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In this case, there is not a constant difference between each year’s totals, but
rather a constant quotient. If the fourth year had x identity thefts, then we
can set up the equation 1.14x = 7 million. Then we divide each side by 1.14 and
see that the fourth year had approximately 6.14 million identity thefts. We can
continue to divide by 1.14 to finally get to the first year. This would require
a total of four divisions, which can all be done at the same time if we perform
7 million ÷ (1.144), which is 4.14 million, to the nearest hundredth.
If you want to see last week's problem again, click on
http://www.mathcounts.org/Queries/POW_Archive.taf?_function=detail&Q_A_uid1=479&_UserReference=98F33F52E12423DF402A8D5D
Idaho Society of Professional Engineers
PO Box 170239
Boise, ID 83717-0239
208-426-0636
Fax: 208-426-0639
E-Mail: ispe@rmci.net
Web Site: www.Idahospe.org