I’m so excited to share that I will be joining the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Neurology as a Neuropsychologist this fall, with a special focus on neuro-oncology and epilepsy! #OnWisconsinpic.twitter.com/JuS1Von6AB
📣 NSAI is seeking new members for our standards committees
We are establishing new technical committees on Light Gauge Steel, Mass Engineered Timber, and the National Annex for Eurocode 5 (structural fire design).
Once was fun, twice is very nice! UVM Olympian Ben Ogden has done it again, capturing silver in the men’s cross-country team sprint w/teammate Gus Schumacher! This is the first medal for Team USA in this event and makes Ogden the team’s most decorated men’s cross-country skier. https://t.co/0SxTfMnKQI
✅ SCHOOL RECORD
✅ NCAA RECORD (by 8 seconds btw)
✅ 10TH FASTEST 5000M BY AN AMERICAN
✅ 11TH INDOOR 5000M TIME IN THE WORLD
✅ FIRST COLLEGIATE WOMAN TO RUN SUB 14:50 (indoor AND outdoor)
CHASE DOWN❗️ Şilan Ayyildiz finishes 9th individually at the cross country national championship to lead the Ducks to a 3rd place finish. Ayyildiz went from 18th to 9th place over the final K 😮💨 #GoDuckspic.twitter.com/spP7A0UEmo
Yale topped previously undefeated Harvard in the 141st playing of The Game, earning a share of the Ivy League title and the league’s first-ever automatic bid to the NCAA FCS playoffs.
BYU’s Jane Hedengren just beat the defending 5K and 10K national champion by 42 seconds head-to-head at regionals. FORTY-TWO SECONDS! We are witnessing greatness. 🏃♀️ pic.twitter.com/6ELw3anmhL
Led by senior Chad Perrine and junior Luke Skuratowicz, three Hope College men’s cross country runners finished in the Top 30 of the 167-runner field at the Muskegon Community College Jayhawk Invitational on Saturday. Read the meet recap on the Hope Athletics website. #d3xcpic.twitter.com/Dynob8mVrX
Northwest High School junior Cooper Lutkenhaus has run the fastest 800-meter race in the world for any athlete younger than 18! Cooper set the new U18 world best at the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships by running a time of 1:42.27 to earn silver. pic.twitter.com/5imZ9yZHLN
The U.S. men’s four won gold for the first time at the U23 World Championships. Ryan Martin, Wilson Morton, Sam Sullivan, and Lyle Donovan are victorious in the A Final, winning by 2.25 seconds. pic.twitter.com/2fAtSEwewA
Over the weekend, Anhelina Khmil earned a second place finish at the CEV Nations Cup Final in Portugal as part of the Ukrainian team! pic.twitter.com/2zuEa9wk9c
The bottom of the ground was nothing for Emily Beisel! She moves into the Top 4 of her set by almost two tenths of a second to lock in her place at the Cheyenne Frontier Days Semifinals. pic.twitter.com/1uDeztOlZM
— The Cowboy Channel (@Cowboy_Channel) July 20, 2025
Savannah Sutherland d capped an incredible career at Michigan with her second NCAA title and has been named the 2024-25 Female Michigan Athlete of the Year! 〽️ #LeadersAndBest
— Michigan Track & Field / Cross Country (@UMichTrack) June 23, 2025
𝐀𝐔𝐁𝐔𝐑𝐍 𝐁𝐄𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀𝐔𝐁𝐔𝐑𝐍
Our list of Fences Riders of the Year is getting long…
✔️ 2025: Avery Glynn (SEC & NCEA ROTY); Kate Hagerty (SEC Freshman ROTY)
✔️ 7-straight SEC ROTY awards
✔️ 4 of the last 7 NCEA ROTY honors
✔️ 7 SEC Freshman ROTY awards#WarEaglepic.twitter.com/1bRaWk4ytY
Savannah Sutherland sets the Hodges Stadium facility record and for the second straight year she sets the NCAA East First Round record in the 400H! pic.twitter.com/u48jsKv3Zm
— Michigan Track & Field / Cross Country (@UMichTrack) June 1, 2025
Your Duke family is proud of you guys! Dom and Gavin both fared well in the state tournament!! Dom went 2-2, and Gavin went 7-1! Gavin finished 3rd overall in his weight class!! Congratulations to both boys!! @WEVSD_sports@whsladydukes@AndyPeltzpic.twitter.com/5yEMNYkU7Q
Another @MSU_Hockey BIG10 Championship! What an exciting night at Munn Arena for our Spartan players, coaches, students and fans. Go Green!! pic.twitter.com/u9ZWUTeBVc
Every Thursday, coach Brandon runs men’s IM threshold practice and Coach Sarah & I run the women’s IM group. It’s one of those “all hands on deck” type of day. Last night, in the 400 IM the men went 1-2-3-5-10-11 and the women went 2-3-4-5-6-10-17-22. pic.twitter.com/pCfhLWSvoA
What a shot at the buzzer! Michigan State pulls off the win at Maryland, 58-55. #Spartans have won four games in a row, including three straight against ranked opponents.pic.twitter.com/1NMM6xdH46
Great day in the weight room at Weatherford High School! We have football, basketball, girls and boys track programs working hard. We are blessed with the best facilities in the state! pic.twitter.com/gvH85GZmoM
The Revere Varsity Competition Squad traveled to Big Walnut High School today to compete in the OASSA State of Ohio Cheerleading Championships! They finished in fourth place, D3 Non Build Division!!! We are so proud of you ladies! @RevereLocalpic.twitter.com/evF06thfAD
Wow! What an amazing couple of weeks for ‘OE’ Justin Davies. He broke the Welsh indoor 800m record at the Keely Klassic and then went on to become the British champion at the UK Indoor Championships! #uptherose 🌟🏅 pic.twitter.com/fgFq5AOX09
— Sport & PE | King Edward’s School (@KESBathSport) February 24, 2025
My girl shot her first ever perfect 5 bullseyes at her county tournament today
Great job girl! pic.twitter.com/Xhyl1bEK0R
“We’re putting every school receiving taxpayer dollars on notice that if you let men take over women’s sports teams or invade your locker rooms, you will be investigated for violations of Title IX and risk your federal funding.” –President Donald J. Trump 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/MUd6FAetWr
Remember when it was so cold the rivers and lakes iced over? Our college wild swimmers certainly do – they took the plunge (without wetsuit insulation) and lived to report back! 🥶 pic.twitter.com/CKyLK0ySMu
“We’re feeling confident in our performance so far. We’re being challenged, but so far have managed to stay sharp.” – Catherine Clifford, third
This quote sums up the Canadian women’s performance thus far at the World University Games, as they remain undefeated after two wins on… pic.twitter.com/jetQK1TtbH
“Rowing is more poetry than sport.” — George Pocock (‘Boys in the Boat’ 2024), a British-born boat builder, rowing coach, and influential figure in American rowing, best known for his craftsmanship of racing shells and his philosophical approach to the sport.
We are consolidating over 10+ years of coverage of sport standards by the season now. This is our first cut breaking the topic into four separate seasons. Join us today at the usual hour when we sort through stabilized literature and the codes and standards open for public consultation
Starting 2026 we will organize our weekly syllabi in a less structured but in a more time sensitive manner. Stay tuned.
100 years ago, the Supreme Court made it clear in Pierce v. Society of Sisters: raising children is the responsibility of parents, not the government.
100 years later, the Trump Administration remains committed to protecting parental rights. pic.twitter.com/yduXdLShty
— Secretary Linda McMahon (@EDSecMcMahon) June 1, 2025
“…O chestnut tree;, great rooted blossomer, Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bold? O body swayed to music, O brightening glance, How can we know the dancer from the dance?”
We sweep through the world’s three major time zones; updating our understanding of the literature at the technical foundation of education community safety and sustainability in those time zones 24 times per day. We generally eschew “over-coding” web pages to sustain speed, revision cadence and richness of content as peak priority. We do not provide a search facility because of copyrights of publishers and time sensitivity of almost everything we do.
Our daily colloquia are typically doing sessions; with non-USA titles receiving priority until 16:00 UTC and all other titles thereafter. We assume policy objectives are established (Safer-Simpler-Lower-Cost, Longer-Lasting). Because we necessarily get into the weeds, and because much of the content is time-sensitive and copyright protected, we usually schedule a separate time slot to hammer on technical specifics so that our response to consultations are meaningful and contribute to the goals of the standards developing organization and to the goals of stewards of education community real assets — typically the largest real asset owned by any US state and about 50 percent of its annual budget.
1. Leviathan. We track noteworthy legislative proposals in the United States 118th Congress. Not many deal specifically with education community real assets since the relevant legislation is already under administrative control of various Executive Branch Departments such as the Department of Education.
We do not advocate in legislative activity at any level. We respond to public consultations but there it ends.
We track federal legislative action because it provides a stroboscopic view of the moment — the “national conversation”– in communities that are simultaneously a business and a culture. Even though more than 90 percent of such proposals are at the mercy of the party leadership the process does enlighten the strengths and weakness of a governance system run entirely through the counties on the periphery of Washington D.C. It is impossible to solve technical problems in facilities without sensitivity to the zietgeist that has accelerated in education communities everywhere.
Michigan Great Lake Quilt
Michigan can 100% water and feed itself. Agriculture is its second-largest industry.
After athletic arena life safety obligations are met (governed legally by NFPA 70, NFPA 101, NFPA 110, the International Building Code and possibly other state adaptations of those consensus documents incorporated by reference into public safety law) business objective standards may come into play.For almost all athletic facilities, the consensus documents of the Illumination Engineering Society[1], the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers[2][3] provide the first principles for life safety. For business purposes, the documents distributed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association inform the standard of care for individual athletic arenas so that swiftly moving media production companies have some consistency in power sources and illumination as they move from site to site. Sometimes concepts to meet both life safety and business objectives merge.
During hockey season the document linked below provides information to illumination designers and facility managers:
Athletic programs are a significant source of revenue and form a large part of the foundation of the brand identity of most educational institutions in the United States. We focus primarily upon the technology standards that govern the safety, performance and sustainability of these enterprises. We collaborate very closely with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee where subject matter experts in electrical power systems meet 4 times each month in the Americas and Europe.
See our CALENDAR for our next colloquium on Sport facility codes and standards. We typically walk through the safety and sustainability concepts in play; identify commenting opportunities; and find user-interest “champions” on the technical committees who have a similar goal in lowering #TotalCostofOwnership.
Issue: [15-138]*
Category: Electrical, Architectural, Arts & Entertainment Facilities, Athletics
Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Jim Harvey, Jack Janveja, Jose Meijer, Scott Gibbs
LEARN MORE:
[1] Illumination Engineering Handbook
[2] IEEE 3001.9 Recommended Practice for Design of Power Systems for Supplying Lighting Systems for Commercial & Industrial Facilities
[3] IEEE 3006.1 Power System Reliability
* Issue numbering before 2016 dates back to the original University of Michigan codes and standards advocacy enterprise
We examine the proposals for the 2028 National Electrical Safety Code; including our own. The 2026 National Electrical Code where sit on CMP-15 overseeing health care facility electrical issues should be released any day now. We have one proposal on the agenda of the International Code Council’s Group B Committee Action Hearings in Cleveland in October. Balloting on the next IEEE Gold Book on reliability should begin.
FERC Open Meetings | (Note that these ~60 minute sessions meet Sunshine Act requirements. Our interest lies one or two levels deeper into the technicals underlying the administrivia)
Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei City, Taiwan
First Draft Proposals contain most of our proposals — and most new (original) content. We will keep the transcripts linked below but will migrate them to a new page starting 2025:
N.B. We are in the process of migrating electric power system research to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers bibliographic format.
Recap of the May meetings of the Industrial & Commercial Power Systems Conference in Las Vegas. The conference ended the day before the beginning of the 3-day Memorial Day weekend in the United States so we’re pressed for time; given all that happened.
We can use our last meeting’s agenda to refresh the status of the issues.
We typically break down our discussion into the topics listed below:
Codes & Standards:
While IAS/I&CPS has directed votes on the NEC; Mike is the only I&CPS member who is actually submitting proposals and responses to codes and standards developers to the more dominant SDO’s — International Code Council, ASHRAE International, UL, ASTM International, IEC & ISO. Mike maintains his offer to train the next generation of “code writers and vote getters”
Performance-based building premises feeder design has been proposed for the better part of ten NEC revision cycles. The objective of these proposals is to reduce material, labor and energy waste owed to the branch and feeder sizing rules that are prescriptive in Articles 210-235. Our work in service and lighting branch circuit design has been largely successful. A great deal of building interior power chain involves feeders — the network upstream from branch circuit panels but down stream from building service panel.
Our history of advocating for developing this approach, inspired by the NFPA 101 Guide to Alternative Approaches to Life Safety, and recounted in recent proposals for installing performance-based electrical feeder design into the International Building Code, appears in the link below:
Access to this draft paper for presentation at any conference that will receive it — NFPA, ICC or IEEE (or even ASHRAE) will be available for review at the link below:
NFPA 110 Definitions of Public Utility v. Merchant Utility
NFPA 72 “Definition of Dormitory Suite” and related proposals
Buildings:
Renovation economics, Smart contracts in electrical construction. UMich leadership in aluminum wiring statements in the NEC should be used to reduce wiring costs.
This paper details primary considerations in estimating the life cycle of a campus medium voltage distribution grid. Some colleges and universities are selling their entire power grid to private companies. Mike has been following these transactions but cannot do it alone.
Variable Architecture Multi-Island Microgrids
District energy:
Generator stator winding failures and implications upon insurance premiums. David Shipp and Sergio Panetta. Mike suggests more coverage of retro-fit and lapsed life cycle technicals for insurance companies setting premiums.
Reliability:
Bob Arno’s leadership in updating the Gold Book.
Mike will expand the sample set in Table 10-35, page 293 from the <75 data points in the 1975 survey to >1000 data points. Bob will set up meeting with Peyton at US Army Corps of Engineers.
Reliability of merchant utility distribution systems remains pretty much a local matter. The 2023 Edition of the NESC shows modest improvement in the vocabulary of reliability concepts. For the 2028 Edition Mike submitted several proposals to at least reference IEEE titles in the distribution reliability domain. It seems odd (at least to Mike) that the NESC committees do not even reference IEEE technical literature such as Bob’s Gold Book which has been active for decades. Mike will continue to propose changes in other standards catalogs — such as ASTM, ASHRAE and ICC — which may be more responsive to best practice assertions. Ultimately, improvements will require state public utility commission regulations — and we support increases in tariffs so that utilities can afford these improvements.
Mike needs help from IEEE Piscataway on standard WordPress theme limitations for the data collection platform.
Mike will update the campus power outage database.
Healthcare:
Giuseppe Parise’s recent work in Italian power grid to its hospitals, given its elevated earthquake risk. Mike’s review of Giuseppe’s paper:
Mike and David Shipp will prepare a position paper for the Harvard Healthcare Management Journal on reliability advantages of impedance grounding for the larger systems.
The Internet of Bodies
Forensics:
Giuseppe’s session was noteworthy for illuminating the similarity and differences between the Italian and US legal system in handling electrotechnology issues.
Mike will restock the committee’s library of lawsuits transactions.
Ports:
Giuseppe updates on the energy and security issues of international ports. Mike limits his time in this committee even though the State of Michigan has the most fresh water international ports in the world.
A PROPOSED GUIDE FOR THE ENERGY PLAN AND ELECTRICAL INFRASTRUCTURE OF A PORT
Other:
Proposals to the 2028 National Electrical Safety Code: Accepted Best Practice, exterior switchgear guarding, scope expansion into ICC and ASHRAE catalog,
Apparently both the Dot Standards and the Color Books will continue parallel development. Only the Gold Book is being updated; led by Bob Arno. Mike admitted confusion but reminded everyone that any references to IEEE best practice literature in the NFPA catalog, was installed Mike himself (who would like some backup help)
Mike assured Christel Hunter (General Cable) that his proposals for reducing the 180 VA per-outlet requirements, and the performance-base design allowance for building interior feeders do not violate the results of the Neher-McGrath calculation used for conductor sizing. All insulation and conducting material thermal limits are unaffected.
Other informal discussions centered on the rising cost of copper wiring and the implications for the global electrotechnical transformation involving the build out of quantum computing and autonomous vehicles. Few expressed optimism that government ambitions for the same could be met in any practical way.
Are students avoiding use of Chat GPT for energy conservation reasons? Mike will be breaking out this topic for a dedicated standards inquiry session:
“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.
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
Today at 16:00 UTC we review best practice for engineering and installing the point of common coupling between an electrical service provider its and an purchasing — under the purview of NEC CMP-10.
Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.
The relevant passages of the National Electrical Code are found in Article 230 and Article 495. We calibrate our attention with the documents linked below. These are only representative guidelines:
We are in the process of preparing new (original, and sometimes recycled) proposals for the 2026 National Electrical Code, with the work of Code Panel 10 of particular relevance to today’s topic:
First Draft Meetings: January 15-26, 2024 in Charleston, South Carolina
Electrical meter billing standards are generally regulated at the state or local level, with guidelines provided by public utility commissions or similar regulatory bodies. These tariff sheets are among the oldest in the world. There are some common standards for billing and metering practices, including:
Meter Types: There are various types of meters used to measure electricity consumption, including analog (mechanical) meters, digital meters, and smart meters. Smart meters are becoming more common and allow for more accurate and real-time billing.
Billing Methodology:
Residential Rates: Most residential customers are billed based on kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity used, which is the standard unit of energy.
Demand Charges: Some commercial and industrial customers are also subject to demand charges, which are based on the peak demand (the highest amount of power drawn at any one point during the billing period).
Time-of-Use Rates: Some utilities offer time-of-use (TOU) pricing, where electricity costs vary depending on the time of day or season. For example, electricity may be cheaper during off-peak hours and more expensive during peak hours.
Meter Reading and Billing Cycle:
Monthly Billing: Typically, customers receive a bill once a month, based on the reading of the electricity meter.
Estimation: If a meter reading is not available, some utilities may estimate usage based on historical patterns or average usage.
Smart Meter Readings: With smart meters, some utilities can provide daily or even hourly usage data, leading to more precise billing.
Meter Standards: The standards for electrical meters, including their accuracy and certification, are set by national organizations like the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Meters must meet these standards to ensure they are accurate and reliable.
Utility Commission Regulations: Each state has a utility commission (such as the California Public Utilities Commission, the Texas Public Utility Commission, etc.) that regulates the rates and billing practices of electricity providers. These commissions ensure that rates are fair and that utilities follow proper procedures for meter readings, billing cycles, and customer service
Large University “Utilities”. Large colleges and universities that generate and distribute some or all of their electric power consumption have developed practices to distribute the cost of electricity supply to buildings. We will cover comparative utility billing practices in a dedicated colloquium sometime in 2025.
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
