The Conservation Foundations “Beyond the Basics: Integrating Conservation in our Communities” Seminar
On February 18th, W-T Civil Engineering and Brusseau Design Group attended the all day event which focused on the environmental benefits of stormwater management. Here is a brief list of the presentions:
- Forthcoming EPA regulation changes were presented by Abby Hall of the EPA
- Dr. Martin Jaffe, University of Illinois at Chicago presented his finding from his study of The Effectiveness of Best Management Practices on stormwater quality, as funded an Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant (IISG)
- Shoreline Restoration & Protection was presented by Bob Kirschner of the Chicago Botanic Garden.
- Permeable Parking Lots were discussed by Kris Bachtell of the Morton Arboretum and Bruce Mather of Elmhurst College
Presentations will be available soon at:
http://www.theconservationfoundation.org/gobeyond
26th Annual DuPage Engineers Week Expo at IIT’s campus in Wheaton
Jeff Gutowsky, Sokol Gjata and Jason Green spent the day with their children at the 26th Annual DuPage Engineers Week Expo at Illinois Institute of Technology’s Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Campus in Wheaton. Truth be told, the children weren’t overly excited about attending the event beforehand, which was extremely difficult for their fathers to understand. However, once at the event, we ALL had a fantastic time. Some of the most memorable exhibits included:
Jeff Gutowsky, Sokol Gjata and Jason Green spent the day with their children at the 26th Annual DuPage Engineers Week Expo at Illinois Institute of Technology’s Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Campus in Wheaton. Truth be told, the children weren’t overly excited about attending the event beforehand, which was extremely difficult for their fathers to understand. However, once at the event, we ALL had a fantastic time. Some of the most memorable exhibits included:
- Building a lunar lander using common household items such as Dixie cups, drinking straws & rubber bands and trying to keep our marshmallow astronauts from falling to their “deaths”.
- IIT Bridge Contest for High School Students. The anticipation was thick in the air as we watched the popsicle stick bridge competition testing. We were all holding our breath as we watched the judges load the bridges with enormous weights, just waiting for the collapse.
- High-Rise Building Design (Shake,Rattle & Roll!) included, among other things, a shake table, which allowed students to construct their own LEGO® building designs and subject the buildings to earthquake loading.
- ZOOM into Engineering (based on the PBS program ZOOM®)
- DuPage Children’s Museum-Kids Design Network
- LEGO® Robotics — Chicago Robotics
- Ozinga Concrete-permeable concrete
- Lastly, Mr. Freeze of the FERMI lab presented a Cryogenic Show that was literally a blast. The Mr. Freeze demonstration shows the interesting and fun properties of cryogenics using Liquid Nitrogen (LN2). Did you know that,
- in large quantities, liquid Nitrogen only costs 22¢/gal since it is really a by-product of the liquid oxygen “manufacturing” process
- LN2 boils at -320o Fahrenheit
- Liquid Nitrogen expands about 700 times when it boils into a gas
- A small sonic boom (thunder) will occur if droplets fall on the carpet
- Don’t try this at home, but LN2 can be poured onto an open hand since the liquid it will “float” on top of a thin layer of Nitrogen gas instead contacting your skin directly?... but don’t get any on your clothing or hair since these would absorb the liquid and hold it against your skin and cause a bad burn.
If you put some LN2 in a plastic pop bottle and close the cap, the liquid will boil and pressure will increase inside the bottle until it bursts open and, flies 15+ feet into the air. A picture of the ceiling damage at end of day is below.
IPRA “SyntheticTurf: DesignConsiderations and Permitting” Webinar
Jason Green, of W-T Civil Engineering, gave a “Synthetic Turf: Design Considerations and Permitting” webinar to the Illinois Park & Recreation Association on February 25. Park Districts and Village/City Landscape departments were in “attendance”. Interest was expressed for a follow up webinar that delved deeper into the intricacies of synthetic turf, so watch out for Jason to return with more information on one of his favorite topics. Here are some excerpts from the presentation.
2010 IAPD / IPRA Conference
The Illinois Association of Park Districts (IAPD) and the Illinois Park and Recreation Association (IPRA) conference was a great success and was fun too. This year’s exhibition took place at the Hilton Chicago located directly off of Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago on January 28th-30th. W-T Engineering, Inc. and its family of companies are proud, annual exhibitors in this conference, which is because we are devoted to making parks and recreation facilities available to every individual regardless of age, race, or creed. With some promising new leads, including a request for proposal to structurally design a new tent for a traveling circus, the future is bright and will be full of new and exciting opportunities.