ALWAYS ON
The Coffee Lab
"Our focus is on the business of coffee, which is unique from other coffee labs. Our goal is to engage students across a multitude of disciplines: Marketing, management, accounting, entrepreneurship, engineering, anthropology and sociology, to name a few." -Jim McDermet M '92,North Central College Trustee and Board Chair and former senior vice president, global and Americas operations, Starbucks Corporation
Winter Sport
Today we review the status of technical standards for designing, building and maintaining facilities for very competitive sport and less competitive recreational activity. Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.
Mas-fhìor do: Goireasan Spòrs
"We are a sporting people, and pride ourselves on our victories, but we also learn from our losses, and the value of the lesson is in proportion to the skill and determination of our opponents." - Nicola Sturgeon, Scottish politician and First Minister of Scotland
Quadrivium: Winter
Educational settlements should be magical places. The stack informing the beauty of these "cities-within-cities" changes 100 to 1000 times per day globally. Titles are time-sensitive, copyright protected and land in public law. We monitor the action continuously to formulate response to public consultations. Topics appear on our CALENDAR and explored every day at 16:00 UTC. Recommend refresh of this web page once or twice to see timeliest information.
Sports Equipment & Surfaces
ASTM International is one of the first names in standards-setting for sport equipment and facilities in education communities which present at least as large a market as the private sector. The parent committee meets again at the Hyatt Regency Dallas, May 5-7. 2026. (The ASTM business model rests heavily on income generated from participant hotel reservations.) Linked here is information about participation discounts to students and faculty.
Ice Swimming
No self-respecting campus winter carnival can be without a Polar Bear Plunge; for charity and for fun. Researchers have turned up evidence that cold-water immersion may alleviate stress and depression and help tackle autoimmune disorders.
Current Issues & Recent Research
We examine the proposals for the 2028 National Electrical Safety Code; including our own. Public comment on proposed changes will be received until March 24th. The 2026 National Electrical Code which has recently been released for public use (public input on the 2029 revision will be received until April 9, 2026).
Throwing Stones
Engineering students take a Newtonian Mechanics point of view: "There's a lot of science behind curling, including some that's actually not so well understood," says graduate student Nate Bailey, a member of the MIT Curling Club which welcomes newcomers to a winter sport of precision, or -- according to its partisans -- "Chess on Ice".