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Welcome to the Channel Islands Section home page.
The Mechanical Engineers of Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties!
Upcoming Events
Important ASME section meeting for all members and active non-members on Wednesday, June 5, 2013 at 6:30pm-8:30pm in Ventura.. AGENDA:
In a joint meeting promoted by IEEE-BV and ASME-CI, Dr. Geoffrey Speedding of the USC Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering presented "Bird Design and Aircraft Evolution" on April 25, 2013. Abstract: Alternative flying machines (in the sense that they differ from our usual designs) can be invented, or studied. In all cases, it is reasonable to wonder whether a particular design is optimal, or perhaps what it is optimal for. Definitions of optimality quickly become complex: "minimum drag:lift ratio for n passengers that allows our company to outcompete our rival(s)" or "something that can be grown fast, still works when 50% of the aft surfaces are missing, and that fits in a nest." We will consider two examples of flying devices, one evolved and one invented, and we will look for parallels that exist between them, or perhaps ought to.
What's Going On With ASME at UCSB? was the topic of joint meeting betweeen ASME Channel Islands and the UCSB ASME Student Section at UCSB on April 16, 2013. Student Section President Amanda Mathews prepared a presentation on all the various (fun and serious!) activities of the ASME Student Section. What a great time to be a student! Together, we discussed future joint meetings, tours, mentors and other student/professional development topics that would be of interest to alls. As a real world product develpoment example, Dennis Horwitz/MICRONOR also did presentation on Micronor's MR338 MRI Compatible Fiber Optic Absolute Encoder which had been recently selected 2013 ASME-CI Project of the Year. Link to UCSB ASME Student Section Website
Celebrating the accomplishments of the the engineers of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, the annual National Engineers Week Awards Banquet was held on Thursday evening, February 21, 2013 at the Residence Inn by Marriott at River Ridge in Oxnard-CA. Engineering is a very broad discipline and every local engineering society was represented - civil, structural, electronic, mechanical, computers, aerospace, quality, naval, etc. One of the major purposes of the event is to raise money for engineering scholarships. 10 engineering students representing Ventura College, Moorpark College, Oxnard College, Santa Barbara City College, Cal Lutheran University, Westmont College and USCB were each presented a $1000 scholarship. Following the scholarship presentations, the various engineering societies presented awards for Projects Of The Year, Engineer Of The Year and further recognition for the area's Teacher Of Year. The guest speaker was Dr Richard Rush, President of Cal State University-Channel Islands, who provided a great overview of where CSUCI came from, where it is today and where it's going. Link to Event Website
MICRONOR MR338 MRI-Compatible Fiber Optic Absolute Position Sensor has been selected as the 2012 Project Of The Year by the ASME-Channel Islands Section. At our meeting on January 22, 2013, POY applications submitted the previous week were presented and evaluated by the attendees. The MR338 offers 13-bit resolution over 0-360°, 12-bit multiturn tracking and is considered the world's first commercially available MRI compatible Absolute Encoder. The product was 7 years in development and represented many development challenges. For more information about the project, you can download the MICRONOR MR338 POY Application here. Micronor will receive the ASME Project Of The Year plaque at the upcoming National Engineers Week Awards Banquet on February 21, 2012.
Engineering meets the Outdoors in the "An Engineering Evaluation of Camping Stove Technology By A Lightweight Backpacker" presentation by AMSE member Dennis Horwitz. The dual presentation on October 30,2012 in Goleta and December 11,2012 in Newbury Park brought this interesting and fun topic to our members spread throughout both counties. The presentation was inspired by the rash of new product release appearing in several engineering design magazines about the Biolite Campstove. A twig-burning stove (i.e. no need to carry fuel) incorporating a thermoelectric generator that could also charge an electronic device such as a smartphone or rechargeable GPS. As a lightweight backpacking gear-junkie, I was impressed with the multiple functionality but skeptical of its practicality. A few members of the local Engineers Without Borders (EWB) chapter thought this was pretty cool for use in 3rd world countries. But backpacking? And so spawned the idea for this ASME presentation.
Engineers appreciate good design plus tend to be logical. We got down and analyzed the specs to separate marketing hype from reality. Which stove is really better? What factors need to be considered to select a the right stove for a particular outing? Few things in this world are universal - stoves included. Download a copy of the presentation with this link
Special presentation "Mars Science Laboratory-Curiosity Rover: The Road to a Successful Landing on Mars" was held on Wednesday, 10/17/2012, at CLU. Organized by IEEE and presented by Mr. Fernando Abilleira/JPL who was Trajectory Lead of the MSL Mission Design and Navigation Team. Fascinating presentation! Did you know that only 2/3 of all Mars missions were successful? 
Tour of Rubel Castle in Glendora was held on Friday, July 27. Organized by Dennis Horwitz. Rubel Castle (also known as Rubelia) was established in Glendora, California, by Michael Clarke Rubel (April 16, 1940-October 15, 2007). More than just a castle, this is a village! It has been called "a San Gabriel Valley version of Watts Towers.” Rubel purchased a 2 ˝ acre citrus orchard on which the structure resides in 1959. He and his friends completed construction in 1986. Rubelia is considered the first major recycling project in the United States, according to David Traversi, who authored 'One Man's Dream: The Spirit of the Rubel Castle'. Rubel Castle was constructed partly out of concrete, but also out of scrap steel, rocks, bedsprings, coat hangers, bottles and other pieces of junk that Rubel found. You have to see to believe! Glendora History Society and Rubel Castle Website
All about Engineers Without Borders (EWB-USA). Presentation by Mark Whelchel (markw@crushanalysis.com) in Ventura. EWB is a nonprofit humanitarian organization established to support community-driven development programs worldwide through partnerships that design and implement sustainable engineering projects. Over 12,000 EWB-USA members, comprised of professional and student engineers or other disciplines, work with local communities and NGOs in over 45 developing countries around the world on projects such as water, renewable energy, sanitation and more. ASME and EWB-USA have built a rewarding relationship since signing a memorandum of understanding in 2003. ASME’s organizational support for EWB-USA, both financial and in-kind, enables EWB-USA to continue to address the needs of the developing world while providing ASME with a new paradigm for training and educating mechanical engineers for the 21st century. The photo shows a water distribution point that the EWB-Santa Barbara group helped build in Opanga, Luanda, Kenya. www.ewb-usa.org
"New Innovations in product development using simulation. Examples will be in medical devices and heavy machinery." Presentation by Mayuran Muttulingam, ANSYS Applications Engineer was held on Wednesday, May 30, 2012 in Goleta-CA.
Tour of TTE International (Santa Maria, CA) on Saturday, March 24, 2012 Hosted by entrepreneur David Baskett, Entrepreneur and President of TTE International and International Emergency Services (IES). TTE International, Inc. has grown into a diversified company with experience in project development in the Russian Federation and the Commonwelath of Independent States. TTE's experience ranges from development of sports arenas to providing heavy equipment to the Russian mining industry. TTE also formed, incubated, and then spun off as a daughter company, American Ethanol, Inc., which is in the process of finishing financing on a $300 million bio fuels plant to be constructed in Santa Barbara County. TTE is also seeking to develop a tire incineration energy conversion plant modeled after successful operations in the Ukraine. Sister company International Emergency Services is also the driving force bringing the BE-200, the most advanced firefighting aircraft in the world to the US. www.tteinternational.com 
Ryan Olson-UCSB was awarded Mechancial Engineering Scholarship at National Engineers Week Awards Dinner at the Ronald Reagan Library on Thursday, Feb 23, 2012. Every year, the National Engineers Foundation sponsors Engineers Week® to celebrate the contributions engineers make to society. This year's theme was: 7 billion people. 7 billion dreams. 7 billion chances for engineers to turn dreams into reality. Here in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties, we are lucky to be able to hold the annual NEW event at a signature venue like the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley. The dinner brings together the diverse range of engineering active in the area: ASME, ASQ, ASCE, ASHE, IEEE, SWE, ASHE, ASNE, ASME, etc. The dinner program offers the engineering societies a chance to recognize signature Projects and Engineers, support a superlative Teacher of the Year, present Engineering Scholarships recognizing both merit and need - plus an inspiring Keynote Speaker! Congratulations to Ryan Olson-UCSB and the eight other scholarship winners. Not pictured, ME majors Jenny Lei-UCSB and Michael Kierman-Ventura College also received scholarships. Keynote Speaker was was Dr. Tim Psomas, Chairman and Founder of Psomas Engineering, who who spoke on "Our Engineering Legacy". Nearly 250 engineers attended the dinner - don't be left out next year! www.newc-vsb.org
Tour of Aurora Casting & Engineering (Santa Paula, CA) was held on Thursday, October 20, 2011, hosted by John Penrose, President and General Manager. Aurora Casting & Engineering, Inc. (www.auroracasting.com) is a small woman-owned
business enterprise that has been producing aluminum and steel castings since 1980. It has
grown steadily to become an industry leader as a result of careful attention to detail at each step
of the manufacturing process. Specializing in small to medium investment castings with varying
complexities, Aurora has a proven delivery record, can produce end-item machined parts, and
also provide prototype castings through the sterolithography process. Aurora has built a
reputation for quality in the production of aluminum and steel investment castings. The constant
effort to improve service to customers has recently emphasized:
• Rapid prototyping and manufacturing for both aluminum and steel.
• In-house heat treating and machining.
• Bar-coded tracking system linked with real-time production control system.
• EDI and Internet capabilities.
• Cooperation with certified 3rd party facilities for non-destructive testing, plating and painting.www.auroracasting.com
Fiber Optic Presentation and Tour of Coastal Connections (Ventura-CA) was held on September 14, 2011 -hosted by Andy Devine, President and Founder. Andy began with a presentation on the current and future state of fiber optics along with the technical and business challenges that face Coastal Connections, then a tour of the facility. About The Company: Coastal Connections was founded in 2002 to serve the specialty fiber optic termination market and is reported to be the 20th fastest growing company in the Tri-Counties according to the Pacific Coast Business Times. They specialize in solving technical challenges involving very precise (‹0.5um) alignment and surviving mechanical stresses from extreme environments. Their cables are used in: LASIK eye surgery, intravenous plaque analysis, blood analysis, explosive ignition, military sensors, electronic countermeasures, space communications, oil industry sensors and even in searching for aliens. www.coastalcon.com
Tour of Calleguas Municipal Water District was held on May 19, 2011 - hosted by Tony Goff, Operations and Water Quality Supervisor. The mission of the Calleguas Municipal Water District is to provide its service area with a reliable and adequate supply of quality supplemental water through the acquisition and distribution of both regional and locally-developed water in an environmentally and economically responsible manner. Roughly three quarters of Ventura County residents use water purchased by their retail purveyors from Calleguas’ distribution system. Some purveyors have wells and blend water from Calleguas with groundwater. Others rely exclusively on Calleguas. Calleguas does not deliver water directly to consumers. Most questions about water quality or service changes are best answered by the local retail purveyor. Calleguas’ primary job is importing and distributing water from Metropolitan Water District of Southern California; water that arrives via the State Water Project from northern California. To increase reliability, Calleguas can also pump water from its Las Posas Well Field. www.calleguas.com
Tour of BMW DesignWorksUSA was held on April 19, 2011 - hosted by Jackie Jones, Marketing Executive, BMW Group DesignWorksUSA. DesignWorks is a creative consultancy that has been driving innovations for almost 40 years. Acquired by BMW Group in 1995, DesignworksUSA enables its parent company as well as internationally renowned clients outside the automotive industry to grow their businesses through a portfolio of creative consulting services. With clients including Coca Cola, Dassault Aviation, Embraer, HEAD, HP, Microsoft, Siemens, Intermarine, and Varian Medical Systems, DesignworksUSA is deeply immersed in a broad cross-section of industries. Combining cross-fertilized knowledge with strategic long-term perspectives and global context provided by studios in Los Angeles, Munich and Singapore, DesignworksUSA draws upon its unique and vibrant resources to create the future. www.designworksusa.com
Tour A Test Lab - Experior Laboratories was held on January 20, 2011 - hosted by Lorenz Cartellieri, President, Experior Laboratores Our January 20th meeting brought together 25 attendees from both ASME (organizer) and IEEE (invited). Lorenz provided an overview of the company, its products and services and entrepreneurial roots. capabilitand their entrepreneurial roots. Experior Laboratories is an independent, third party testing, design verification and qualification laboratory. Specializing in fiber optics, electrical connectors and environmental testing. Experior provides services to component manufacturers, military contractors, integrators and system providers within the telecom, datacom, military, aerospace and industrial markets. www.experiorlabs.com
Launching a Start-Up - 3 Critical Lessons Learned" was presented on November 16, 2010 by Robb Moore, CEO, ioSafe. The meeting offered an insightful look into what it takes to bring a product to market. Robb Moore, founder and CEO of ioSafe, offered 3 Critical Lessons that he learned during the initial phases of incubating this fast growing high tech data storage startup. PDF of presentation can be downloaded here. ioSafe manufactures fireproof waterproof hard drives like an aircraft black box but for consumer and business data protection. As featured on ABC, BBC, PC World and the Wall Street Journal, ioSafe is on track to grow 300% for 2010 and another 300% for 2011. ioSafe customers range from the Pentagon down to home consumers. Products are sold through Costco, Wal-Mart, Amazon, BestBuy and Dell. www.iosafe.com
What is Lego Robotics? Technology and hands-on fun converged at October 27, 2011 meeting in Ventura. Lego Robotics is an after-school program taught at private elementary schools throughout Los Angeles, teaching kids about engineering, programming and robotics by using Lego Mindstorm NXT 2.0 technology. The class is part of the STEM curriculum strategy to motivate kids and foster their interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Eric Horwitz is an after-school instructor, wirter and entrepreneur. His Lego Robtotics classes motivate young students using a unique mission-based storylines in which they build tanks, robotic alligators and even a walking humanoid bot. He is a graduate of UCLA with Bachelors in English and Italian. Eric teaches Lego Robotics at private schools in the L.A. area - and is also the founder and teacher of Cooking Italiano For Kids, another after-school program that teaches kids how to cook Italian food and learn about Italian culture. www.cookingitaliano4kids.com
Mechanical devices that measure by touch such as profilometers have been around for over 100 years. However, in the last 25 years, a new type of tactile microscope, the Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) has become ever more advanced and common. These instruments are beginning to rival scanning electron microscopes in popularity and are appearing in many research and manufacturing applications. Dr. Cleveland provided a basic introduction into how these microscopes work as well as provided several examples of AFM measurements ranging from biological research to manufacturing of hard disk drives. This was a fascinating and intellectual presentation and discussion! For more information, go to www.AsylumResearch.com
How To Unleash The Entrepreneur In You! Have an idea for a product? How do you develop that idea? Who do you go to for help? How can you get it on the market? Dr. Duane Bates provide an overview of the various elements of Entrepreneurship Support he has discovered in the Santa Barbara area and insights and how to put these elements to work for you. Presentations were presented April 21, 2010 in Ventura and May 27, 2010 in Goleta.
Plant tour of Haas Automation in Oxnard. Industrial machinery manufacturing is alive and well in Ventura County! A group of ASME members toured Haas Automation on December 15, 2009.
Overview of Position Sensors: From Electromechanical to Electronic To Fiber Optics. Dennis Horwitz, VP of Micronor, presented an excellent overview on Position Feedback Sensors. All motion control applications require position or speed feedback back of some time. This presentation covered the broad range of technology: electromechanical limit switches, selsyns, resolvers, optical rotary encoders and fiber optic position sensors. Discussion included advantages and disadvantages of each type. PDF of presentation can be download here. Meeting was held at Marie Calendars in Ventura on November 19, 2009.
| We are working hard to make the Channel Islands Chapter a crown jewel of ASME. Now we have a brand new committee. We are going to work hard to keep the section's webpage up-to-date. If you have any suggestion, please send your comment to us. |
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Around the Region
| The ASME Channel Islands region covers both Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties - from the inland regions of Ventura County to the coastal communities along the 101 from Westlake Village up to Goleta. Major cities include:
Channel Islands is a beautiful area with its headquarters and visitor center in Ventura Harbor. The famous Channel Islands National Park encompasses five remarkable islands (Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel and Santa Barbara) and their ocean environment. And don't forget to visit beautiful Santa Barbara - also know as the American Rivera. |
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ASME Latest News and Articles
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2009-2010 CHANNEL ISLAND SECTION OFFICERS
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| Open Board Member |
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There are open seats
on the Executive committee, contact Don Carter if you are interested.
Mission and Vision Statements of ASME International
ASME helps the global engineering community develop solutions to real world challenges. Founded in 1880 as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, ASME is a not-for-profit professional organization that enables collaboration, knowledge sharing and skill development across all engineering disciplines, while promoting the vital role of the engineer in society. ASME codes and standards, publications, conferences, continuing education and professional development programs provide a foundation for advancing technical knowledge and a safer world.
Mission
ASME’s mission is to serve diverse global communities by advancing, disseminating and applying engineering knowledge for improving the quality of life; and communicating the excitement of engineering.
Vision
ASME aims to be the essential resource for mechanical engineers and other technical professionals throughout the world for solutions that benefit humankind.
Core Values
In performing its mission, ASME adheres to these core values:
ASME Credo
Setting the Standard…
Objectives of the ASME North American Pacific District (D):
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To provide a "Seamless" relationship with ASME International at all levels. |
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To significantly increase member participation in section, technical chapter, subsection and group operations while encouraging student involvement in Region IX activities. |
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To establish Region IX financial stability and self-sufficiency in order to provide better operational programs and allow for new initiatives at all levels. |
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To implement training programs for student, section, technical chapter and regional volunteers. |
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To provide programs and services that increase the technical competency of members including services for their economic well-being. |
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To maximize volunteer, member, and student recognition through honors and awards. |
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To initiate and implement programs responsive to the needs of young engineers. |
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To become the leading ASME region in terms of the number of student and corporate members. |
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To develop a seamless relationship between students and corporate members. |