ASME Boston Section - News Archive

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Serving Mechanical Engineering Professionals in Eastern Massachusetts

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ASME Boston Section E-Week Activities 2009
Posted: 2/20/2009 3:18pm

Career Fair

Members of ASME’s Boston Section were on hand for Boston’s National Engineers Week celebration at the Hyatt Regency Boston Hotel. During the afternoon of Thursday February 12^th, a group of eighth graders from a local Boston school were brought in to perform engineering tasks and enjoyed various challenges at the e-week celebration. They were then encouraged to tour a career fair set up in a large meeting room at the hotel. Thursday evening approximately 200 seniors from area colleges attended the career fair with informational booths from dozens of area businesses and organizations including ASME Boston Section.

Workers Workers2
Working the E-Week Career Fair are (L to R) Boston Section’s Paul Smith, Program Chair Jamie Nichol and Chair Michael Smith

Awards Luncheon

On Friday, February 13^th, hundreds of representatives from dozens of local engineering firms and organizations gathered at the Boston Hyatt for a luncheon and awards ceremony. ASME Boston Section was joined by IEEE, MSPE, Society of Women Engineers and representatives from FIRST at the conference room entrance with display booths for outreach, information and membership recruitment. Co-Founder of iRobot Helen Greiner gave an interesting and informative overview of robots in society focusing on both domestic and defense related applications. Awards were presented for the New England Achievement Award, Engineers Week Scholarship, the Model Bridge Competition and others.

Setup JamieAndHelen
Setting up the ASME information station at the Awards Luncheon Program Chair Jamie Nichol chats with speaker Helen Greiner

Michael Smith Appointed as ASME Boston Section Chair
Posted: 2/6/2009 10:05pm

Dear Members of the Boston Section

Effective immediately Jim O’Leary will discontinue serving as Chair of ASME Boston Section as urgent personal matters require Jim’s full attention for the foreseeable future. As our chair since November 08 Jim has begun an exciting agenda for our section and assembled a team of support to assist with event planning, execution and logistics. In my meetings with him, he has shown a deep commitment to the section membership and to our local student sections.

Jim has asked that I take over as Section Chair. I look forward to the opportunity to serve the membership in this capacity and to continue to build on the sturdy foundation that Jim has set in place. We look forward to the leadership, wisdom and experience that Jim carries with him when he returns to an active role in the section some time in the future. For now please join me in wishing Jim the best and extending to him our gratitude for his leadership and dedication.

Your ASME Boston Section Chair

Michael Smith

ASME Boston Participating in National Engineers Week
Posted: 1/31/2009 1:50pm

February 15 through 21 is National Engineers Week. In the spirit of the celebration of engineering, ASME Boston Section will be involved with the Boston E-Week events this year. On Thursday February 12th from 4:00 to 7:00 PM there will be a career fair for local college students in the exhibit hall of the Hyatt Regency Boston Hotel at One Avenue de Lafayette in Boston MA. ASME Boston section will have a display table with information and applications for membership. Please consider coming to the career fair and talking with our future engineers. This gives them a great chance to find out what challenges and opportunities exist at some of our local businesses.

On Friday February 13th from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM there will be a reception, luncheon and awards program at the same location. This years keynote speaker will be Helen Greiner Co-Founder of iRobot Corporation. This years New England Achievement Award Recipient is Amy B. Smith, Inventor and Founder of the MIT D-Lab. The luncheon cost is $75.00 and promises to be a great afternoon of events. A link to the luncheon registration and events is included below.

http://www.engineers.org/EngWk09flyer.pdf

For questions regarding the luncheon, please contact The Engineering Center at 617/227-5551 or email engineersweek@engineers.org

ASME Boston Section Meeting - January 2009
Posted: 1/08/2009 3:46pm

Our January ASME Boston Section meeting will feature Nuvera, a local fuel cells company.

Nuvera provides innovative Polymer Electrolyte Membrane fuel cell and fuel-processing products for the industrial vehicles and equipment, power generation, and transportation industries that meet the growing demands of manufacturers, end users, and governments around the world.

Our meeting will begin on January 29th, 2009 at 6:00 PM with a light dinner and networking. We are asking for $10 per person at the door to assist with the cost of the food. At 7:00 a presentation on hydrogen and fuel cells will be given. A Lab/Facilities tour will follow the presentation.

The meeting will take place at Nuvera's US office: Nuvera Fuel Cells 129 Concord Road, Building 1 Billerica, MA 01821 More information about Nuvera can be found here: http://www.nuvera.com/ They have driving directions posted on their site in .pdf format.

Attendance at this meeting is limited to 25 people. Respondents will be taken on a first come first served basis. Please RSVP for attandance by emailing msmith@cfa.harvard.edu.

On February 12th, 2009 Boston Section is supporting National E-Week in Boston. This takes place at the Hyatt Regency Boston Hotel. From 4:00-7:00pm there will be a career fair in the exhibit hall. Please get the word out to any college students that might benefit from this great networking opportunity! More information is available at www.engineers.org/engwk.html.

ASME Boston Section - Next Meeting
Posted: 11/22/2008 12:46pm

The Next ASME Boston section meeting is planned to be held at Nuvera Fuel Cells in Billerica, Massachusetts. No formal date has been set. Please check back for updates.

James O'Leary Appointed as New Section Chair
Posted: 11/07/2008 10:28am

To ASME’s Boston Section Membership:
During the past few months it has been my great pleasure working with the section executive committee setting up meetings, restarting grant initiatives, updating our website, and representing Boston Section at both the District A meeting and the IMECE. I thank you for the great ideas for the upcoming year and the support in making our section active once again.

When appointed as acting Section Chair in August, one of my first orders of business was to initiate a search for our official Section Chair. I am delighted to announce that James O’Leary was identified by our executive search committee and, has accepted this position. Jim has many years of service with ASME and during that time has served in many different capacities. An associate professor emeritus at Tufts University, Jim brings with him a deep commitment to student sections, strong leadership great energy.

With this transfer of leadership our section can look forward to
interesting and engaging meetings, tours and activities which will benefit the membership students and the community. It will be my privilege to continue to serve the section membership as Jim has agreed to keep me on as his Vice Chair.

Please join with me in thanking Jim for taking on the leadership role for our section.

Your Humble Servant and,
Section Vice Chair
Michael J Smith

ASME Boston Section Meeting - NOVEMBER 18, 2008
Posted: 11/07/2008 12:37pm

Boston Section ASME Meeting November 18, 2008

Title: The Perfect Storm: How Energy Security, Global Climate Change, and Nanotechnology Are Driving the Development of Advanced Energy Storage Technologies.

Speaker: Andy Chu PhD

Long term success in the electric drive market requires game changing technology. A123Systems is currently one of the leading manufacturers of high power lithium ion batteries in the world. We have already demonstrated our ability to effectively compete in the cordless tool market. This high volume market provides economies of scale that are key to driving cost reductions across future automotive markets, including HEV and PHEVs. In the hybrid market, our product’s unique characteristics address the barriers that currently limit HEV and PHEV adoption. In addition, A123Systems’ manufacturing model enables large volume production (millions of cells annually) at high quality and price-performance. A123Systems’ Automotive Class Lithium Ion™ technology uses proprietary Nanophosphate™ material that offers numerous features for hybrid applications, including an enabling combination of power, abuse tolerance and life. For more information visit: www.a123systems.com

Dr. Chu is currently Director of A123's Automotive Product Line. Since joining A123 in early 2003, he has served in multiple roles, including R&D, program management, marketing and business development. Prior to joining A123Systems, he was the Department Manager of the Energy Technologies Department at HRL (formerly Hughes Research Lab.) He has a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, where his thesis research was on lithium ion battery materials.

Where: Tufts University, Anderson Hall.
When: Tuesday, November 18, 2008. 6pm Food & networking - Burden Lounge (Anderson Hall, First Floor), 7pm Presentation - Frederick C. Nelson Auditorium (Anderson Hall, First Floor) Cost: $10 Everyone is welcome!

RSVP to smithm5@asme.org or bostonsection@asme.org by Friday November 14th for attendance

Directions:
From I93 take the exit at Route 60, west. At the second traffic light (nasty intersection) turn left onto Main Street. Go under a highway bridge and proceed straight ahead on Main Street at the big fork. After five more blocks, at a single overhead yellow blinker, turn right, on to George Street. At the first corner turn left on to College Avenue. A few blocks, up a hill, over a railroad bridge and you are at an intersection with Boston Avenue. Anderson Hall is on the far left corner, red brick Georgian Building circa 1961.

From west of Boston, take route 128 to route 2 East, and then route 16 (north or east). Follow 16 through two working traffic lights and two small rotaries. At the next light, turn right onto Boston Avenue. Follow this through two traffic lights. Another quarter mile brings you to a nasty intersection with traffic lights. This is College Avenue and Anderson Hall is on the far right corner, red brick Georgian Building circa 1961.

Parking is legal on Boston Avenue on one side, in the lot behind Anderson Hall, but no longer on College Avenue in front of the building. A few feet past the building is the Somerville line, and Somerville has a residents-only parking law. The University has a large lot on College Ave across the railroad bridge from Anderson Hall.

There is a map at: http://inside.tufts.edu/compass/ If you wish to use MapQuest, the street address is 200 College Ave, Medford.

Please check out the "links"in the left hand column for K-12 Grants Progam photos and updates!

Thank You, Your Loyal Servant and Boston Section Vice Chair, Michael Smith

ASME Boston Section Meeting - OCTOBER 9, 2008

Posted: 19/12/2008 2:44pm

Please join us for a Boston Section Meeting on Thursday, October 9th at 6:00 PM.

The meeting will be held at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics located at #160 Concord Avenue, Cambridge MA, 02138. Limited on site parking (free of charge) is available.

The evening will begin in the 3rd floor conference room (M-340) with a light dinner (assorted sandwiches from Crimson Catering) while we catch up on section business and discuss future initiatives. We will then move to a tour of the Smithsonian’s Receiver Laboratory for the Submillimeter Array for Radio Astronomy given by me, Michael Smith.

We have scheduled a 7:30 tour of the Harvard College Observatory’s “Great Refractor”, a 15” telescope which was the largest in America for some 20 years, presented by Dr. Jonathan McDowell. If weather permits we can then move to the observatory rooftop where we will examine and use the Alvan Clark Optical Telescope (it gets cold up there so bring a jacket). We are asking for $10 at the door to assist with the cost of the food. Please RSVP no later than Monday October 6th by replying to this email for attendance (include any special food requirements). All interested professionals and students are welcome.

A section meeting is tentatively scheduled for the November 18th at Tufts University, more details will follow.

Thank You,
Your Loyal Servant and Acting Boston Section Chair
Michael Smith