The International Code Council (ICC) introduced dedicated provisions for higher education laboratories in 2018. This includes Section 428 in the International Building Code (IBC) (laboratory suites in Group B occupancies) and the new Chapter 38 in the International Fire Code (IFC). These provisions allow colleges/universities to use “laboratory suites” (instead of stricter control areas) with higher maximum allowable quantities (MAQs) of hazardous materials, without triggering a high-hazard (Group H) occupancy classification, provided enhanced fire safety, separation, ventilation, emergency power, and other requirements are met.
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The 2027 revision of the IBC is in production and will be released for public use in early 2027.
Safety and sustainability concepts for research and healthcare delivery cut across many disciplines and standards suites and provides significant revenue for most research universities. The International Code Council provides free access to current editions of its catalog of titles incorporated by reference into public safety law. CLICK HERE for an interactive edition of Chapter 38 of the 2021 International Fire Code.
During today’s colloquium we will examine consultations for the next edition in the link below:
We encourage our colleagues to participate directly in the ICC Code Development process. The next revision of the International Fire Code will be undertaken accordingly to next ICC Code Development schedule; the timetable linked below:
We encourage directly employed front-line staff of a school district, college or university that does not operate in a conformance/compliance capacity — for example, a facility manager of an academic unit — to join a committee. Not the Fire Marshall. Not the Occupational Safety Inspector. Persons with job titles listed below:
Fire Safety System Designer
Fire Alarm Technician (Shop Foreman)
Building Commissioner
Electrical, Mechanical Engineer
Occupational Safety Engineer
These subject matter experts generally have a user-interest point of view.
Contact Kimberly Paarlberg (kpaarlberg@iccsafe.org) for information about how to do so.
Anglosphere (United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) ~ $39.2T (or ~33% of GGDP)
United States GDP $30.8T (or about 26% of GGDP)
“Livres des Merveilles du Monde” 1300 | Marco Polo | Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Today we break down consultations on titles relevant to the technology and management of the real assets of education communities in the United States specifically; but with sensitivity to the global education markets where thousands of like-minded organizations also provide credentialing, instruction, research, a home for local fine arts and sport.
“Even apart from the instability due to speculation, there is the instability due to the characteristic of human nature that a large proportion of our positive activities depend on spontaneous optimism rather than on a mathematical expectation, whether moral or hedonistic or economic. Most, probably, of our decisions to do something positive, the full consequences of which will be drawn out over many days to come, can only be taken as the result of animal spirits — a spontaneous urge to action rather than inaction, and not as the outcome of a weighted average of quantitative benefits multiplied by quantitative probabilities. Enterprise only pretends to itself to be mainly actuated by the statements in its own prospectus, however candid and sincere that prospectus may be. Only a little more than an expedition to the South Pole is it based on an exact calculation of benefits to come. Thus if the animal spirits are dimmed and the spontaneous optimism falters, leaving us to depend on nothing but a mathematical expectation, enterprise will fade and die; — though fears of loss may have a basis no more reasonable than hopes of profit had before.”
Extended Versions Certain standards are required to be read in tandem with another standard, which is known as a reference (or parent) document. The extended version (EXV) of an IEC Standard facilitates the user to be able to consult both IEC standards simultaneously in a single, easy-to-use document.
A partial list of projects with which we have been engaged as an active participant; starting with the original University of Michigan enterprise in the late 1990’s and related collaborations with IEEE and others: (In BOLD font we identify committees with open consultations requiring a response from US stakeholders before next month’s Hello World! colloquium)
IEC/TC 8, et al System aspects of electrical energy supply
We collaborate with the appropriate ANSI US TAG; or others elsewhere in academia. We have begun tracking ITU titles with special attention to ITU Radio Communication Sector.
main(){printf("hello, world\n");}
We have collaborations with Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Sapienza – Università di Roma, Universität Zürich, Universität Potsdam, Université de Toulouse. Universidade Federal de Itajubá, University of Windsor, the University of Alberta, to name a few — most of whom collaborate with us on electrotechnology issues. Standards Michigan and its 50-state affiliates are (obviously) domiciled in the United States. However, and for most issues, we defer to the International Standards expertise at the American National Standards Institute
* A “Hello, World!” program generally is a computer program that outputs or displays the message “Hello, World!”. Such a program is very simple in most programming languages (such as Python and Javascript) and is often used to illustrate the basic syntax of a programming language. It is often the first program written by people learning to code. It can also be used as a sanity test to make sure that a computer language is correctly installed, and that the operator understands how to use it.
Much economic activity in the global standards system involves products — not interoperability standards. Getting everything to work together — safely, cost effectively and simpler — is our raison d’etre.
Manufacturers, testing laboratories, conformance authorities (whom we call vertical incumbents) are able to finance the cost of their advocacy — salaries, travel, lobbying, administration — into the cost of the product they sell to the end user (in our cases, estate managers in educational settlements). To present products — most of which involve direct contact with a consumer — at a point of sale it must have a product certification label. Not so with systems. System certification requirements, if any, may originate in local public safety requirements; sometimes reaching into the occupational safety domain.
Our readings of the intent of this technical committee is to discover and promulgate best practice for “systems of products” — i.e. ideally interoperability characteristics throughout the full span of the system life cycle.
Standardization in the field of network management in interconnected electric power systems with different time horizons including design, planning, market integration, operation and control. SC 8C covers issues such as resilience, reliability, security, stability in transmission-level networks (generally with voltage 100kV or above) and also the impact of distribution level resources on the interconnected power system, e.g. conventional or aggregated Demand Side Resources (DSR) procured from markets.
SC 8C develops normative deliverables/guidelines/technical reports such as:
– Terms and definitions in area of network management, – Guidelines for network design, planning, operation, control, and market integration – Contingency criteria, classification, countermeasures, and controller response, as a basis of technical requirements for reliability, adequacy, security, stability and resilience analysis, – Functional and technical requirements for network operation management systems, stability control systems, etc. – Technical profiling of reserve products from DSRs for effective market integration. – Technical requirements of wide-area operation, such as balancing reserve sharing, emergency power wheeling.
Individuals who are interested in becoming a participant or the TAG Administrator for SC 8C: Network Management are invited to contact Adelana Gladstein at agladstein@ansi.org as soon as possible.
This opportunity, dealing with the system aspects of electrical energy supply (IEC TC 8), should at least interest electrical engineering research faculty and students involved in power security issues. Participation would not only provide students with a front-row seat in power system integration but faculty can collaborate and compete (for research money) from the platform TC 8 administers. We will refer it to the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee which meets online 4 times monthly in European and American time zones.
“The Jack Pine” | Tom Thomson (1916) | National Gallery of Canada
Originally posted January 2014
In these clips — selected from Canadian Parliamentary debate in 2013 — we observe three points of view about Incorporation by reference(IBR); a legislative drafting technique that is the act of including a second document within a main document by referencing the second document.
This technique makes an entire second (or referenced) document a part of the main document. The consensus documents in which we advocate #TotalCostofOwnership concepts are incorporated by reference into legislation dealing with safety and sustainability at all levels of government. This practice — which many consider a public-private partnership — is a more effective way of driving best practices for technology, and the management of technology, into regulated industries.
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In Canadian debate over incorporation by reference, former Member of Parliament Craig Scott drew an important distinction between incorporating a fixed document and incorporating one “as amended from time to time.”
A fixed, or static, incorporation places an identifiable edition of an external standard into law. When the standards developer publishes a new edition, that revision does not automatically acquire legal force. The responsible public authority must act again to adopt it.
An ambulatory incorporation works differently. When a standard is incorporated “as amended from time to time,” later revisions may become binding law automatically—without another regulatory amendment or further intervention by Parliament.
Scott’s concern was therefore not incorporation by reference itself, but who effectively exercises legislative authority after incorporation. If a private, international or standards-development organization can revise a document whose future editions automatically become enforceable, part of the law-making function has effectively moved outside government.
The distinction also raises questions of public access and historical certainty. Citizens must be able to know not only what an incorporated standard requires today, but which edition constituted binding law at a particular time.
The engineering advantage is obvious: ambulatory incorporation keeps regulation current. The constitutional question is equally clear: who changes the law?
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https://www.youtube.com/embed/Vm0eQotyzo0
Parent legislation — such as the Higher Education Act of 1965, the Clean Air Act and the Energy Policy Act – almost always require intermediary bureaucracies to administer the specifics required to accomplish the broad goals of the legislation. With the gathering pace of governments everywhere expanding their influence over larger parts of the technologies at the foundation of national economies; business and technology standards are needed to secure that influence. These standards require competency in the application of political, technical and financial concepts; competencies that can only be afforded by incumbent interests who build the cost of their advocacy into the price of the product or service they sell to our industry. Arguably, the expansion of government is a reflection of the success of incumbents in business and technical standards; particularly in the compliance and conformity industries.
About two years ago, the US debate on incorporation by reference has been taken to a new level with the recent statement released by the American Bar Association (ABA):
The incorporation by reference policy dilemma has profound implications for how we safely and economically design, operate and maintain our “cities-within-cities” in a sustainable manner but, admittedly, the results are only visible in hindsight over a time horizon that often exceed the tenure of a typical college or university president.
A recent development — supporting the claims of ANSI and its accredited standards developers — is noteworthy:
The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) manages a website — Standards.GOV — that is a single access point for consensus standards incorporated by reference into the Code of Federal Regulations: Standards Incorporated by Reference Database. Note that this database does not include specific reference to safety and sustainability codes which are developed by standards setting organizations (such as NFPA, ICC, IEEE, ASHRAE and others) and usually incorporated by reference into individual state public safety and technology legislation.
LEARN MORE:
We applaud the Federal Government’s commitment to fund free access to the National Building Codes that are developed by the @NRC_CNRC. As a not-for-profit developer of standards that contribute to the health, safety and well-being of Canadians, CSA Group…https://t.co/QqhdkDvb7spic.twitter.com/1KRDvxDTaC
“Starry Night Over the Rhône” 1888 Vincent van Gogh
Today we refresh our understanding of the moment in illumination technologies for outdoor lighting systems— related but different from our exploration of building interior illumination systems in Illumination 200. Later in 2024 we will roll out Illumination 400 (Holiday illumination) and Illumination 500 which explores litigation related to public illumination technology. As cities-within-cities the shared perimeter of a campus with the host municipality has proven rich in legal controversy and action.
Illumination technology was the original inspiration for the electric utility industry; providing night-time security and transforming every sector of every economy on earth. Lighting load remains the largest component of any building’s electric load — about 35 percent– making it a large target for energy regulations.
Our inquiry begins with selections from the following documents…
2023 National Electrical Code: Article 410 (While the bulk of the NEC concerns indoor wiring fire hazards, there are passages that inform outdoor lighting wiring safety)
…and about 20 other accredited, consortia or ad hoc standards developers and publishers aligned principally with vertical incumbents. Illumination was the original inspiration (i.e. the first “killer app”) for the electrical power industry in every nation. Its best practice literature reflects a fast-moving, shape-changing domain.
Click in today with the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.
Upper Wharfedale Primary Federation School District Yorkshire Dales
Outdoor lighting systems can be owned and maintained by different entities depending on the context and location. Here are some examples of ownership regimes for outdoor lighting systems:
Public ownership: In this case, outdoor lighting systems are owned and maintained by the local government or municipal authority. The lighting may be installed in public spaces such as parks, streets, and other outdoor areas for the safety and convenience of the public.
Private ownership: Outdoor lighting systems may be owned by private individuals or organizations. For example, a business owner may install outdoor lighting for security or aesthetic reasons, or a homeowner may install outdoor lighting in their garden or yard.
Co-owned: Outdoor lighting systems may be owned jointly by multiple entities. For example, a residential community may jointly own and maintain outdoor lighting in their shared spaces such as parking areas, community parks, or recreational facilities.
Utility ownership: Outdoor lighting systems may be owned and maintained by utility companies such as electric or energy companies. These companies may install and maintain street lights or other lighting systems for the public good.
Third-party ownership: In some cases, a third-party entity may own and maintain outdoor lighting systems on behalf of a public or private entity. For example, a lighting contractor may install and maintain lighting in a public park on behalf of a local government.
The ownership regime of an outdoor lighting system can have implications for issues such as installation, maintenance, and cost-sharing. It is important to consider ownership when designing and implementing outdoor lighting systems to ensure their long-term effectiveness and sustainability.
Abstract: A new committee* under the Industrial and Commercial Power Systems (I&CPS) Department of the Industry Applications Society (IAS) received approval at the October 2014 IAS Annual Meeting, in Vancouver. This committee will be dedicated to the special needs and characteristics of the Educational and Healthcare segments of the US and World economies. For example, these two segments of the US economy, alone, annually spend $60 billion on electrical and telecommunication systems; yet, these two segments are either underrepresented, or not represented at all, in most electrical engineering forums, code writing, and/or standards writing institutions. (May 2015)
A few of the University’s Electrical Engineers
APERÇU
Education, Health & Sport Essential Works
The change from IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee
to IEEE Education, Health & Sport Essential Works Committee
is more than a change of label. It better describes the territory.
“Facilities” directs attention toward buildings. Our work has never stopped at
the building envelope. Universities, schools, hospitals and athletic enterprises
depend upon networks of electrical power, communications, water, transportation,
energy storage, emergency systems and digital infrastructure extending across
campuses and into the surrounding public utility fabric.
Facilities describes the containers;
Essential Works describes the systems that make them work.
Essential Works is therefore the larger and more accurate idea.
It directs attention toward the infrastructure necessary for an educational
settlement to function continuously, safely and economically.
Replacing Healthcare with Health broadens the
field as well. Health encompasses hospitals and clinical facilities but also
research laboratories, public health, student health, rehabilitation, wellness
and the increasingly interconnected medical and research systems found on
university campuses.
Adding Sport recognizes another substantial class of infrastructure.
Stadiums, arenas, natatoria, field houses and outdoor athletic complexes present
demanding problems of illumination, power quality, emergency power, broadcasting,
communications, crowd safety, refrigeration and increasingly sophisticated
digital systems.
The three words — Education, Health & Sport — describe enduring
human activities. Essential Works describes the technical systems
that sustain them.
That is closer to what the committee actually does: not merely standards for
facilities, but engineering for the complex settlements in which people learn, heal, compete and live.
New update alert! The 2022 update to the Trademark Assignment Dataset is now available online. Find 1.29 million trademark assignments, involving 2.28 million unique trademark properties issued by the USPTO between March 1952 and January 2023: https://t.co/njrDAbSpwBpic.twitter.com/GkAXrHoQ9T
