Author Archives: mike@standardsmichigan.com

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Postsecondary Education Facilities Inventory & Classification Manual

The federal manual has gone approximately 20 years without a comprehensive revision.  Some settlements have gone ahead and made modifications of their own.  Today at 3:00 4:00 PM EDT the Campus FM Technology Association is hosting a “Water Cooler” discussion about organizing an update.  MORE

Western Michigan University maintains a locally updated FICM classification resource dated 2024.
WMU Facilities Management — FICM

Ohio Department of Higher Education maintains area classification codes adapted from the 2006 federal manual. Its documentation explicitly acknowledges differences between its classifications and the updated FICM definitions.
Ohio Higher Education — Area Type Codes

Washington State University continues to identify the 2006 FICM as its official campus space-classification reference.
Washington State University — FICM

Elevator Safety Code

Today, special attention to managing elevator passengers trapped in elevators during power outages.  Incident management involves the following:

  1. Automatic battery-lowering systems (standard in modern elevators) gently descend the car to the nearest floor and open the doors within minutes.
  2. Backup generators or UPS units keep lights, intercoms, and ventilation running.
  3. Mandatory two-way communication and remote monitoring allow instant contact with 24/7 response teams.
  4. Fire-service phase II keys and firefighter overrides ensure rapid rescue.
  5. Clear emergency instructions and regular maintenance of brakes and overspeed governors prevent falls.

These redundancies, required by ASME A17.1 codes in most jurisdictions, have made prolonged entrapments extremely rare and almost never dangerous.

2026 National Electrical Code Article 620: Elevators, Dumbwaiters, Escalators, Moving Walks, Platform Lifts, and Stairway Chairlifts.

CMP-12 Public Input Transcript | CMP-12 Public Comment Transcript

American School & University: Modernizing Elevator Emergency Communications on School and University Campuses

Elevator,  escalator  and moving walk systems are among the most complicated systems in any urban environment, no less so than on the  #WiseCampus in which many large research universities have 100 to 1000 elevators to safely and economically operate, service and continuously commission.  These systems are regulated heavily at state and local levels of government and have oversight from volunteers that are passionate about their work.

These “movement systems” are absorbed into the Internet of Things transformation.  Lately we have tried to keep pace with the expansion of requirements to include software integration professionals to coordinate the interoperability of elevators, lifts and escalators with building automation systems for fire safety, indoor air quality and disaster management.  Much of work requires understanding of the local adaptations of national building codes.

Some university elevator O&M units use a combination of in-house, manufacturer and standing order contractors to accomplish their safety and sustainability objectives.

In the United States the American Society of Mechanical Engineers is the dominant standards developer of elevator and escalator system best practice titles;  its breakdown of technical committees listed in the link below:

A17 ELEVATORS AND ESCALATORS

STDMi: Elevator Backup Power

C&S Connect: ASME Proposals Available for Public Review

Public consultation on a new standard for electrical inspector qualifications closes May 27th.

ASME A17.7/CSA B44.7 – 20XX, Performance-based code for elevators and escalators (280 pages)

Safety Code for Existing Elevators and Escalators

Guide for Inspection of Elevators, Escalators, and Moving Walks

Guide for Elevator Seismic Design

As always, we encourage facility managers, elevator shop personnel to participate directly in the ASME Codes & Standards development process.   For example, it would be relatively easy for our colleagues in the Phoenix, Arizona region to attend one or more of the technical committee meetings; ideally with operating data and a solid proposal for improving the A17 suite.

University of Wisconsin Stadium Elevator

 

All ASME standards are on the agenda of our Mechanical, Pathway and Elevator & Lift colloquia.  See our CALENDAR for the next online teleconferences; open to everyone.  Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.

 

Issue: [11-50]

Category: Electrical, Elevators, #WiseCampus

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Jim Harvey, Richard Robben, Larry Spielvogel

 


More:

Bibliography: Elevators, Lifts and Moving Walks

ISO/TC 178 Lifts, escalators and moving walks

Human Factors Using Elevators in Emergency Evacuation

Archive / Elevator Safety Code

 

Temporary Construction Elevators

Gross floor area: 320,200 SF | Renovation budget $550M | Renovation cost: $1447/sqft 


T
he Warren Tower renovation project uses a two-car personnel and materials hoist to move construction workers, equipment and materials. Tower A is complete. Tower B is scheduled for completion in August 2027. Tower C is scheduled for completion in August 2028.

Shawmut Design and Construction $550 million renovation of Boston University’s Warren Towers shifts to new phase with start of school year : NEREJ

National Standards | Construction Hoists

Standard Subject Official Link
29 CFR 1926.552 OSHA requirements for material hoists, personnel hoists and elevators OSHA §1926.552
ANSI/ASSP A10.4-2025 Safety requirements for personnel hoists and employee elevators on construction sites ANSI A10.4-2025
ANSI/ASSP A10.5-2020 Safety requirements for material hoists ANSI Construction Standards
29 CFR 1926, Subpart M Construction fall protection, including work around exposed edges and openings OSHA Construction Standards

OSHA §1926.552 addresses hoistway enclosures, tower anchorage, safety devices, inspections and testing.

For personnel hoists, OSHA requires inspection and testing before initial use and at intervals not exceeding three months.

Massachusetts Regulations | Construction Hoists

Regulation Subject Official Link
524 CMR 36.00 Personnel hoists and employee elevators on construction and demolition sites Massachusetts 524 CMR 36.00 — PDF
524 CMR 37.00 Safety requirements for material hoists Massachusetts Elevator Regulations
524 CMR 35.00 Safety code for permanent elevators and escalators, including Massachusetts modifications Massachusetts 524 CMR 35.00 — PDF
780 CMR, Chapter 30 Elevators and conveying systems under the Massachusetts State Building Code Massachusetts Building Code, Chapter 30
230 CMR 6.00 Hoisting machinery operation and operator licensing, where applicable Massachusetts Hoisting Regulations

Massachusetts 524 CMR 36.00 incorporates ANSI/ASSE A10.4-2016, with state-specific modifications.

The national consensus standard has since advanced to ANSI/ASSP A10.4-2025.

Elevators & Lifts

Massachusetts

Traditional Irish Soda Bread

Ballymaloe Cookery School is situated on a 100-acre organic farm in County Kerry.  It produces the freshest vegetables, fruit, meat and dairy products, all of which are used in the kitchen every day. We teach a diverse range of cooking styles but the fundamental message we pass on to our students is the importance of putting time and effort into sourcing the highest-quality ingredients.

Kerry College of Further Education

Detailed recipe with variants

National Standards Authority of Ireland

print (“Hello World!”)

https://standardsmichigan.com/136343-2/

Data Points (2025 Estimates for 193 countable nations):

Global Gross Domestic Product (GGDP) ~ $118.35T

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.

We steer away from broad policy issues and steer toward technical specifics of public consultations presented by national member bodies of the International Electrotechnical Commission, the International Organization for Standardization, the International Telecommunications Union and the American National Standards Institute.  If there is a likelihood that the titles published by these workgroups will be incorporated by reference into public safety or sustainability legislation; or integrated into the cost structure of education communities in any other way, we will listen carefully and contribute meaningfully where we can.

Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations | 1961 

Bretton Woods: A World of Common Rules

 
“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.”

“The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money” 

— John Maynard Keynes, 1936

International Standard Classification of Education

American National Standards Institute

2026 World Standards Week TBD.  NEMA will host

World Standards Week 2023

Setting the standard: Grange members can be voice of rural users in standardization system

ISO/IEC/ITU coordination – Listing of New Work Items (New: Passwords Required)

New ANSI Education Initiative Supports the Next Generation of Standardization Leaders

International Code Council

2024/2025/2026 ICC CODE DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE (3/17/2023)

International Zoning Code

International Electrotechnical Commission

International Electrotechnical Commission | CDV Consultations

IEC Open Consultations: 20 December

USNC/IEC  Current Winter 2023

IEC 87th General Meeting | Cairo, 22 – 26 October

Results from IEC General Assembly 2022 | San Francisco

Going All-Electric

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.

Elettrotecnico Lingua Franca

International Telecommunications Union

The case for standardizing homomorphic encryption

Outcomes of the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference

World Radiocommunication Conference

International Standardization Organization

How ISO codes connect the world

New partnership for ISO and ICC

Must-have skills for the green economy

Building Environment Design

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

IEC/TC 22 Power electronic systems and equipment

IEC/TC 34 Lighting

IEC/TC 62 Electrical equipment in medical practice

IEC/TC 64 Electrical installations and protection against electric shock

IEC/TC 82 Solar photovoltaic energy systems

IEC/SYC Electrotechnical Aspects of Smart Cities

SyC Smart Energy


Standards Michigan Workspace for IEC/ITU Consultations


ISO/IEC JTC 1 Information Technology, et. al

ISO/TC 205 Building environmental design

ISO/TC 215 Health Informatics

ISO/TC 229 Nanotechnologies

ISO/TC 232 Education and Learning Services

ISO/TC 251 Asset Management

ISO/TC 260 Human Resource Management

ISO/TC 267 Facility Management

ISO/TC 268 Sustainable cities and communities

ISO/TC 274 Light and Lighting

ISO/TC 276 Biotechnology

ISO/TC 301 Energy management and energy savings

ISO/TC 304 Healthcare organization management

ISO/TC 336 Laboratory Design

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

ANSI INTERACTIVE MAP: INTERNATIONAL TRADE & DEVELOPMENT

Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.

 

 

These three regions make up 50% of world GDP

 

More

Data Point: Global Construction Market is Expected to Reach $11 trillion by 2031

General Public Participation in ANSI ISO Activities

March 2021 edition of the TMB Communiqué.

ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1

ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1, Consolidated ISO Supplement

International Electrotechnical Commission Annual Report 2019

ISO Update  2021-02-09

ANSI Education & Training Overview

ANSI Guide for US Delegates

ITU Digital Technical Standards


* 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.

 

Social Responsibility

“A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” 1884 / Georges Seurat

The Association Française de Normalisation (AFNOR), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) member body for France, has submitted to ISO a proposal for a new field of ISO technical activity on Social Responsibility, with the following scope statement:

Standardization in the field of Social Responsibility to provide guidance and framework to all types of organizations, regardless of their size, activity or location.  It allows organizations to challenge their own practices, define their corporate social responsibility and thus devise strategies to enhance their contribution to sustainable development.

Anyone wishing to review the proposal can request a copy by contacting ANSI’s ISO Team (isot@ansi.org), with a submission of comments to Steve Cornish (scornish@ansi.org) by close of business on Friday, June 5, 2020

We maintain all commenting opportunities on ISO consensus products on the standing agenda of our Global teleconferences.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

Miami Dade Schools Childrens Chorus

At the moment, we find only a few ISO consensus products incorporated by reference into the best practice literature that affects the cost of US education communities.   It is wise to follow the action, however, because these products can inform higher level policy pronouncements.  We maintain all ISO consensus products on the standing agenda of our Global teleconferences.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

Issue: [20-126]

Category: Academic

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Christine Fischer

Source: ANSI Standards Action


LEARN MORE:

ANSI Accredited U.S. Technical Advisory Groups (TAGs) to ISO

 

 

 

The MOOC BA, a New Frontier for Internationalization

“The Bay of Naples with Vesuvius in the Background” c. 1872 | Oswald Achenbach

The MOOC BA, a New Frontier for Internationalization

Valentina Reda – Ruth Kerr

 

Abstract.  The early attraction of MOOCs was global reach and global branding to bolster university reputation and increase student enrollments from home and abroad, leading to a scenario marked by high numbers of HE Institutions with a low number of high-investment MOOCs. Recent emerging trends show a move towards online degrees, essentially postgraduate, which involves the big MOOC providers and universities positioning themselves to capture a growing market of lifelong learners through a broader portfolio of diversified credentials. The core business of curricular education verified by a degree, however, is only just being touched by the MOOC revolution, with very few – though significant – experiences. This paper proposes a policy framework for a MOOC strategy for bachelors degrees at the University of Naples, Federico II, which encompasses policy issues regarding funding, organization and governance.

CLICK ON IMAGE

Aperçu | Whatever Happened to MOOCs?

The massive open online courses that promised to transform higher education during the 2010s have not disappeared. They have evolved into a global market for professional certificates, microcredentials and online degrees. Coursera alone reported approximately 197 million registered learners at the end of 2025. Yet the original promise of universally free university education has given way to subscription services and paid credentials. The University of Naples Federico II was among the European institutions exploring how online instruction could extend the international reach of higher education. A decade later, the distinction between exporting instruction and exporting the residential university remains important. Digital platforms can transmit knowledge across national borders without requiring the migration of students or the construction of additional campus infrastructure.

CLICK HERE to order complete paper from IEEE

 

 

Underground

https://standardsmichigan.com/guide-for-planning-and-designing-transitions-between-overhead-and-underground-transmission-lines/

Current Issues & Recent Research

Part 3 — Safety Rules for the Installation and Maintenance of Underground Electric Supply and Communication Lines of the National Electrical Safety Code establishes safety requirements for underground electric supply and communication systems, including cables, conduits, ducts, vaults, manholes and associated equipment.

Its principal concerns are location, burial, mechanical protection, separation and accessibility. The rules address underground structures, direct-buried cables, supply and communication cables occupying common spaces, crossings with other utilities and protection against foreseeable excavation or physical damage. Part 3 also covers grounding and bonding, cable identification, work space and provisions intended to make underground systems safe for both workers and the public.

Particular attention is given to manholes and vaults, including access, drainage, ventilation where required and arrangements that reduce hazards from energized equipment, fire or accumulated gases.

For universities and other large educational settlements, Part 3 governs much of the infrastructure that is seldom visible: campus primary distribution, duct banks, utility tunnels and vaults, roadway crossings, telecommunications pathways and transitions between overhead and underground lines.

 

NESC & NEC Cross-Code Correlation

 

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