News

Tom Hill’s Co-Workers Friends Remember Former Publisher of Oak Ridger

Tom Hill — who died Saturday, March 23 — was a tremendous influence on many people he hired over the years to work at The Oak Ridger, as well as those who worked with him in the Oak Ridge community and well beyond. Former state Rep. David Coffey worked closely with Hill not only when the former was in the state legislature, but before that as an Oak Ridge business owner. “His quiet influence at The Oak Ridger and in creativity at the East Tennessee Economic Council (ETEC) have gone without notice,” Coffey said. “He would diligently be politically unbiased, but with a Democrat heart that could not be hidden. I treasured my time with him. Tom worked behind the scenes in many charitable ventures."
Read More

Safety Fest TN 2019 Offers More Than 100 Free Safety Classes April 29-May 3

Safety Fest TN announces that registration is now open for Safety Fest TN 2019. The annual community event offers over 100 free safety classes, sessions and demonstrations to residents and companies from April 29-May 3.This year’s training will be offered at Y-12’s New Hope Center, ORAU’s Pollard Technical Center, and other venues in Oak Ridge and Knoxville. Registration and a complete list of classes can be found at www.safetyfesttn.org.   
Read More

Safety Training Prepares New Generation of Workers in Oak Ridge

Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) cleanup contractor UCOR and the United Steelworkers (USW) Local 9-288 have partnered for the last three years to cultivate a new generation of environmental cleanup workers by providing free training to east Tennessee high schools.This year, UCOR and USW supplemented that training with a new course: Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) General Industry Outreach Training. The class is drawing people interested in training for the challenging hazardous waste response field.Students from the Tennessee School for the Deaf in Knoxville, Tennessee were among the first members of the class and completed the training earlier this month. The school provides an inclusive learning environment for deaf and hard-of-hearing students from toddlers through age 22.
Read More

On the Lighter Side: 10 of the Coolest 3D Printed Cars in 2019

Mostly used as a rapid prototyping tool, 3D printing has been present in the automotive industry for quite some time. Now, whole cars are being 3D printed. Here are 10 of the coolest cars that are 3D printed or contain 3D printed parts.
Read More

UT Extension Licenses Impact Young Lives

That principle, says UTRF Vice President Maha Krishnamurthy, is nowhere more clear than in UTRF’s work licensing original curricula for K-12 students.Curricula developed at the University of Tennessee is now being taught in 4-H programs across the country, thanks to UTRF’s partnership with Tennessee’s 4-H program, which operates as a branch of UT Extension, the educational outreach unit of UT’s Institute of Agriculture. UT Extension brings the expertise and research capabilities of the state’s flagship university directly to local communities. It provides educational programming to county residents on a wide universe of topics, including agriculture and natural resources, family and consumer sciences, community development, and 4-H youth development.
Read More

DARPA Modernizes Small Business Innovation Research Program

Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) are the principal set-aside programs for small business participation in federal research and development funding, yet the requirements for administering and managing these programs have not changed significantly in decades.To keep pace with discovery in science and technology worldwide, DARPA now intends to release SBIR/STTR opportunities on an out-of-cycle basis, separate from the three pre-determined announcements traditionally issued directly through the Department of Defense (DoD). The change is expected to reduce the overall time from opportunity announcement to contract award.
Read More

TN Tech announces Grand Challenge: Rural Reimagined

In sharing Gov. Bill Lee’s vision and passion for the accelerated transformation of rural areas, Tennessee Tech announced today a Grand Challenge initiative: Rural Reimagined. This initiative will focus on how the university will harness science, technology and innovation to transform rural living. Rural Reimagined will help leverage the unique assets of Tech while helping develop and support the success of rural areas throughout Tennessee.
Read More

DOE and NIST Considering Long-Term Research Reactor Plans

The Department of Energy and the National Institute of Standards and Technology have recently turned their attention to the long-term future of their research reactor user facilities. Meanwhile, unplanned shutdowns at both facilities have put a temporary strain on the U.S.’ already heavily subscribed capacity for neutron-beam research.Momentum is building behind efforts to plan for the future of research reactors in the United States.
Read More

Unique Partnership Helps Y-12 Employee Chris Borum Pursue a New Path

Chris Borum, for more than 16 years a security guard at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, said it was time for a change.As the years passed, he worried he might not be able to meet rigorous annual physical qualifications for his job at the nuclear weapons facility.Borum, a Kingston resident, said he wanted to stay at Y-12 and eventually retire from there, “but I wanted to leave on my own terms.”So when a job posting for a material handler was posted on the Y-12’s Intranet, he went for it.That’s when a unique partnership between Y-12, Roane State Community College and the Tennessee Department of Labor came into play.
Read More

DOE and Intel to Build First Exascale Supercomputer

Intel Corporation and DOE will build the first supercomputer with a performance of one exaFLOP in the United States. The system being developed at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago, named “Aurora”, will be used to dramatically advance scientific research and discovery. The contract is valued at over $500 million and will be delivered to Argonne National Laboratory by Intel and sub-contractor Cray Computing in 2021.
Read More