“Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky” 1816 Benjamin West
Benjamin Franklin conducted his famous experiment with lightning on June 10, 1752.
He used a kite and a key to demonstrate that lightning was a form of electricity.
This experiment marked an important milestone in understanding the nature of electricity
and laid the foundation for the development of lightning rods and other lightning protection systems.
Seasonal extreme weather patterns in the United States, resulting in damages to education facilities and delays in outdoor athletic events — track meets; lacrosse games, swimming pool closures and the like — inspire a revisit of the relevant standards for the systems that contribute to safety from injury and physical damage to buildings: NFPA 780 Standard for the Installation of Lightning Protection Systems
This document shall cover traditional lightning protection system installation requirements for the following: (1) Ordinary structures (2) Miscellaneous structures and special occupancies (3) Heavy-duty stacks (4) Structures containing flammable vapors, flammable gases, or liquids with flammable vapors (5) Structures housing explosive materials (6) Wind turbines (7) Watercraft (8) Airfield lighting circuits (9) Solar arrays
This document shall address lightning protection of the structure but not the equipment or installation requirements for electric generating, transmission, and distribution systems except as given in Chapter 9 and Chapter 12.
(Electric generating facilities whose primary purpose is to generate electric power are excluded from this standard with regard to generation, transmission, and distribution of power. Most electrical utilities have standards covering the protection of their facilities and equipment. Installations not directly related to those areas and structures housing such installations can be protected against lightning by the provisions of this standard.)
This document shall not cover lightning protection system installation requirements for early streamer emission systems or charge dissipation systems.
“Down conductors” must be at least #2 AWG copper (0 AWG aluminum) for Class I materials in structures less than 75-ft in height
“Down conductors: must be at least 00 AWG copper (0000 AWG aluminum) for Class II Materials in structures greater than 75-ft in height.
Related grounding and bonding requirements appears in Chapters 2 and Chapter 3 of NFPA 70 National Electrical Code. This standard does not establish evacuation criteria.
University of Michigan | Washtenaw County (Photo by Kai Petainen)
The current edition is dated 2023 and, from the transcripts, you can observe concern about solar power and early emission streamer technologies tracking through the committee decision making. Education communities have significant activity in wide-open spaces; hence our attention to technical specifics.
Public input on the 2026 revision is receivable until 1 June 2023.
We always encourage our colleagues to key in their own ideas into the NFPA public input facility (CLICK HERE). We maintain NFPA 780 on our Power colloquia which collaborates with IEEE four times monthly in European and American time zones. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.
Lightning flash density – 12 hourly averages over the year (NASA OTD/LIS) This shows that lightning is much more frequent in summer than in winter, and from noon to midnight compared to midnight to noon.
Issue: [14-105]
Category: Electrical, Telecommunication, Public Safety, Risk Management
Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Jim Harvey, Kane Howard
Didn't really plan for all possibilities, did they. 🤓
Churches and chapels are more susceptible to lightning damage due to their height and design. Consider:
Height: Taller structures are more likely to be struck by lightning because they are closer to the cloud base where lightning originates.
Location: If a church or chapel is situated in an area with frequent thunderstorms, it will have a higher likelihood of being struck by lightning.
Construction Materials: The materials used in the construction of the building can affect its vulnerability. Metal structures, for instance, can conduct lightning strikes more readily than non-metallic materials.
Proximity to Other Structures: If the church or chapel is located near other taller structures like trees, utility poles, or buildings, it could increase the chances of lightning seeking a path through these objects before reaching the building.
Lightning Protection Systems: Installing lightning rods and other lightning protection systems can help to divert lightning strikes away from the structure, reducing the risk of damage.
Maintenance: Regular maintenance of lightning protection systems is essential to ensure their effectiveness. Neglecting maintenance could result in increased susceptibility to lightning damage.
Historical Significance: Older buildings might lack modern lightning protection systems, making them more vulnerable to lightning strikes.
The risk can be mitigated by proper design, installation of lightning protection systems, and regular maintenance.
NFPA 72 National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code is one of the core National Fire Protection Association titles widely incorporated by reference into public safety legislation. NFPA 72 competes with titles of “similar” scope — International Fire Code — developed by the International Code Council. We place air quotes around the word similar because there are gaps and overlaps depending upon whether or not each is adopted partially or whole cloth by the tens of thousands of jurisdictions that need both.
Our contact with NFPA 72 dates back to the early 2000’s when the original University of Michigan advocacy enterprise began challenging the prescriptive requirements for inspection, testing and maintenance (IT&M) in Chapter 14. There are hundreds of fire alarm shops, and thousands of licensed fire alarm technicians in the education facility industry and the managers of this cadre of experts needed leadership in supporting their lower #TotalCostofOwnership agenda with “code-writing and vote-getting”. There was no education industry trade association that was even interested, much less effective, in this space so we had to do “code writing and vote getting” ourselves (See ABOUT).
Code writing and vote getting means that you gather data, develop relationships with like minded user-interests, find agreement where you can, then write proposals and defend them at NFPA 72 technical committee meetings for 3 to 6 years. Prevailing in the Sturm und Drang of code development for 3 to 6 years should be within the means of business units of colleges and universities that have been in existence for 100’s of years. The real assets under the stewardship of these business units are among the most valuable real assets on earth.
Consider the standard of care for inspection, testing and maintenance. Our cross-cutting experience in over 100 standards suites allows us to say with some authority that, at best the IT&M tables of NFPA 72 Chapter 14 present easily enforceable criteria for IT&M of fire alarm and signaling systems. At worst, Chapter 14 is a solid example of market-making by incumbent interests as the US standards system allows. Many of the IT&M requirements can be modified for a reliability, or risk-informed centered maintenance program but fire and security shops in the education industry are afraid to apply performance standards because of risk exposure. This condition is made more difficult in large universities that have their own maintenance and enforcement staff. The technicians see opportunities to reduce IT&M frequencies — thereby saving costs for the academic unit facility managers — the enforcement/compliance/conformity/risk management professionals prohibit the application of performance standards. They want prescriptive standards for bright line criteria to make their work easier to measure.
While we have historically focused on Chapter 14 we have since expanded our interest into communication technologies within buildings since technicians and public safety personnel depend upon them. Content in Annex G — Guidelines for Emergency Communication Strategies for Buildings and Campuses — is a solid starting point and reflects of our presence when the guidance first appeared in the 2016 Edition. We shall start with a review of the most recent transcript of the NFPA Technical Committee on Testing and Maintenance of Fire Alarm and Signaling Systems
Public comment of the First Draft of the 2025 Edition is receivable until May 31, 2023. As always, we encourage direct participation in the NFPA process by workpoint experts with experience, data and even strong opinions about shortcomings and waste in this discipline. You may key in your proposals on the NFPA public input facility linked below:
You will need to set up a (free) NFPA TerraView account. Alternatively, you may join us any day at 11 AM US Eastern time or during our Prometheus or Radio colloquia. See our CALENDAR for the online meeting.
Issue: [15-213]
Category: Fire Safety & Security, #SmartCampus, Informatics
Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Joe DeRosier, Josh Elvove, Jim Harvey, Marcelo Hirschler
Information and communications technology (ICT) is a fast-moving economic space in which a mix of consensus and open-source standards form the broad contours of leading practice. ICT standards tend to follow international developments — more so than, say, fire safety standards which are more familiar to education facility leadership. All school districts, colleges, universities and university-affiliated health care systems have significant product, system, firmware and labor resources allocated toward ICT. Risk management departments are attentive to cybersecurity issues. All school districts, colleges, universities and university-affiliated health care systems have significant product, system, firmware and labor resources allocated toward ICT.
The Building Industry Consulting Service International (BICSI) is a professional association supporting the advancement of the ICT community. This community is roughly divided between experts who deal with “outside-plant” systems and “building premise” systems on either side of the ICT demarcation point. BICSI standards cover the wired and wireless spectrum of voice, data, electronic safety & security, project management and audio & video technologies. Its work is divided among several committees:
The change is largely administrative. Comments are due December 10th
You may send comments directly to Jeff (with copy to [email protected]). This commenting opportunity will be referred to the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee which meets 4 times monthly in American and European time zones and will meet today; typically on Tuesdays. CLICK HERE for login information.
In educational environment, the use of new pedagogies such as collaborative learning requires an evolution from a traditional classroom model to active classroom. The students should be able to share resources to collaborate with each other through computers, tablets, or other devices. The design of smart classroom should enable the control of audiovisual equipments, projectors, interactive whiteboards, in order to facilitate interaction among teachers and students. Ubiquitous computing or pervasive computing is a concept where processors and sensors are embedded in various physical objects to form a network and communicate information. Applying the pervasive computing can facilitate the collaborative learning by creating a smart learning environment. The ubiquitous classroom should be able to support interaction of heterogeneous devices connected through wireless links to a gateway. This paper presents a model of classroom that makes several smart devices such as laptops, tablets, projectors connected through a gateway in order to encourage communication of information between learners and the smart environment. Also, the gateway manages classroom smart devices by automatic detection and connectivity and it serves as application execution platform. Finally the gateway allows the classroom to be remote managed as well as the remote integration of application.
This part of IEC 62109 applies to the power conversion equipment (PCE) for use in Photovoltaic (PV) systems where a uniform technical level with respect to safety is necessary. This standard defines the minimum requirements for the design and manufacture of PCE for protection against electric shock, energy, fire, mechanical and other hazards. This standard provides general requirements applicable to all types of PV PCE. There are additional parts of this standard that provide specific requirements for the different types of power converters, such as Part 2 – inverters. Additional parts may be published as new products and technologies are commercializd.
This document forms part of the foundation of electrical safety consensus documents produced by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the National Electrical Equipment and Medical Imaging Manufacturers and the National Fire Protection Association, to name a few. In distributed energy projects on educational campuses, for example; you will find it called out in design guidelines and construction contract specifications in the general purpose clause” “Conform to all applicable standards”; thereby setting up discussion about whether or not this, and similar standards, apply when something untoward happens.
Comment on the proposed UL re-affirmation that will establish the 2019 revision is due April 7th.
Public consultation on the 2024 revision should occur sometime during 2023. Since the last revision more questions about the “recycle-ability” of solar panels have risen in the national conversation about sustainability.
We typically refer this to the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facility Committee which meets four times per month in European and American time zones. Additionally, since Underwriters Laboratory is one of about twenty “continuous maintenance” standards developers, whose catalog changes daily, we are happy to discuss this any day during our standing 11 AM Eastern time teleconferences. Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.
Issue: [19-AAA]
Category: Electrical, Energy, District Energy, #SmartCampus
“The Renaissance of Burnley” Nicole Burnley | University College of London
In Rome you long for the country;
in the country – oh inconstant! – you praise the distant city to the stars.
— Horace
As cities-within-cities, education communities stakeholders in broad policy formulation of town-gown infrastructure of the emergent #WiseCampus. Since 2014 we have been participants in this project, supporting the original US TAG — the National Fire Protection Association. Last year the NFPA relinquished the US TAG role in this project but we are on “standby” and ready to resume activity when a replacement US TAG is found.
Consensus documents emerging from ISO/TC 268 tend to be large, fast-moving and highly interdependent. Drafts for US stakeholder comment and balloting arrive frequently as new workgroups are spawned from the core ISO TC/268 committees.
CLICK ON IMAGE FOR MORE INFORMATION
We are happy to review these documents with education communities in other participating countries involved in this project online during our Hello World! and Zoning colloquia; the next shown on our CALENDAR. Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.
ANSI seeks a US Technical Advisory Group Administrator
31 July 2021:
No new consultations released to ANSI.
15 July 2021:
No new consultations released to ANSI.
20 May 2021:
No new consultations. NFPA has relinquished its role as US TAG and it is likely that ANSI is busy either finding a new TAG or assuming leadership of the TAG role itself.
9 March 2021:
No consultations issued by NFPA, the US TAG
9 December 2020:
ISO/CD 37108 Sustainable Cities and Communities – Business Districts – Guidance for Practical Local Implementation of ISO 37101. Ballots due 8 January
2 November 2020:
ISO/DIS 37106:2018/DAM 1 Sustainable Cities and Communities — Guidance on Establishing Smart City Operating Models for Sustainable Communities – Amendment 1. Comments due November 23rd
13 October 2020:
Smart community infrastructures — Data exchange and sharing for community infrastructures based on geo‐information. Comments due November 3.
2 October 2020:
ISO/CD 37109 Sustainable Development and Communities – Practical Guidance for Project Developers – Meeting ISO 37101 Framework. Comments due October 21
10 September 2020:
ISO / CD 37110 Sustainable Cities and Communities — Management Guidelines of Open Data for Smart Cities and Communities — Part 1: Overview and General Principles. Comments due September 29
Holidays in France
No drafts open for comment
5 August 2020:
ISO/PWI 37111 Sustainable Cities and Communities – Small and Medium Sized Cities – Guidance for Practical Implementation of ISO 37101. Comments due August 19th
15 July 2020:
ISO/DIS 37164 Smart Community Infrastructures – Smart Transportation Using Fuel Cell LRT. Comments due July 27th.
ISO / FDIS 37165 Smart Community Infrastructure – Guidance on Smart Transportation with the Use of Digitally Processed Payment (d-payment. Comments due August 5th
8 July 2020:
No drafts open for comment
15 June 2020:
ISO/FDIS 37163 Smart Community Infrastructures – Guidance on Smart Transportation for Parking Lot Allocation in Cities. Comments due June 22nd
7 May 2020:
ISO / DIS 37167 Smart Community Infrastructures – Smart Transportation for Energy Saving Operation by Slowly Driving Intentionally. Comments due June 5th.
1 May 2020:
ISO/CD 37166 Smart Community Infrastructures – Urban Data Integration Framework for Smart City Planning. Comments due May 21st.
21 April 2020:
No drafts open for comment
19 March 2020:
ISO/NP Reserved 37180 Smart community infrastructures — Guidance on smart transportation with QR code identification/authentification in transportation and its related/additional services Comments due April 9th
11 March 2020:
ISO/ DIS 37106 Sustainable Cities and Communities – Guidance on Establishing Smart City Operating Models for Sustainable Communities – Amendment 1. Comments due by March 18th
3 February 2020:
ISO/FDIS 37160 Smart Community Infrastructure – Electric Power Infrastructure – Measurement Methods for the Quality of Thermal Power Infrastructure and Requirements for Plant Operations and Management. Comments due by February 17th
13 January 2020 Update:
No exposure drafts open for comment at this time.
26 December 2019 Update:
ISO/FDIS 37162 Smart Community Infrastructures – Smart Transportation for Newly Developing Areas. Comments due 9 January 2020
4 December 2019 Update:
ISO/DIS 37165 Smart Community Infrastructures – Guidance on Smart Transportation by Non-cash Payment for Fare/Fees in Transportation and its Related or Additional Services. Comments due 18 December 2019
WG4 TR— Data exchange and sharing for community infrastructure based on Geoinformation. Comments due 18 December 2019
WG4 TR Smart Community Infrastructures Report of Pilot Project on the Application of SC1 Deliverables. Comments due 18 December 2019
4 November 2019 Update:
ISO/NP 37169 Smart Community Infrastructures –Smart Transportation by Run-Through Train/Bus Operation in/between Cities. Comments due November 20th
ISO/NP 37168 Smart Community Infrastructures – Guidance on Smart Transportation for Autonomous Shuttle Services Using Connected Autonomous Electric Vehicles (eCAVs). Comments due November 20th
ISO/FDIS 37155 Framework for Integration and Operation of Smart Community Infrastructures – Recommendations for Considering Opportunities and Challenges from Interactions in Smart Community Infrastructures from Relevant Aspects through the Life Cycle. Comments due November 20th
7 October 2019 Update:
ISO/FDIS 37123 Sustainable Cities and Communities – Indicators for Resilient Cities. Comments due October 29th
25 September 2019 Update:
ISO/NP 24609 Smart Community Infrastructures – Data and Framework of Digital Technology Apply in Smart City Infrastructure Governance. Comments due October 3rd
10 September 2019 Update:
ISO/FDIS 37105 Sustainable Cities and Communities – Descriptive Framework for Cities and Communities. Comments due September 19th
2 August 2019 Update:
ISO/CD 37164 Smart community infrastructures — Smart transportation using fuel cell light rail transportation. Comments due August 16th
ISO/DIS 37163 Smart Community Infrastructures – Guidance on Smart Transportation for Parking Lot Allocation in Cities. Comments due August 19th
1 August 2019 Update:
ISO/NP 37167 Smart Community Infrastructures — Smart Transportation for Energy Saving by Intentionally Slowly Driving. Comments due August 12th
July 28, 2019 Update:
ISO/CD 37155-2 Framework for Integration and Operation of Smart Community Infrastructures- Part 2: Holistic Approach and the Strategy for Development, Operation and Maintenance of Smart Community Infrastructures. Comments due August 1st.
June 25, 2019 Update:
ISO / DIS 37160 Smart Community Infrastructure – Measurement Methods for Quality of Thermal Power Station Infrastructure and Requirements for Plant Operations and Management. Comments due July 12th
June 5, 2019 Update:
No commentable documents at this time.
May 22, 2019 Update:
ISO/DIS 37161 Smart Community Infrastructures – Guidance on Smart Transportation for Energy Saving in Transportation Services in Cities.Comments due June 5th
May 16, 2019 Update:
No commentable documents at this time. We walk through all transportation-related standards action on May 16th.
April 29, 2019 Update:
ISO NP 37166 New Work Item Proposed: Smart Community Infrastructures. Specification of Multi-Source Urban Data Integration for Smart City Planning. Comments due May 14th
March 14, 2019 Update:
ISO/FDIS 37122 Sustainable Cities and Communities – Indicators for Smart Cities | Comments due April 2nd.
February 19, 2019 Update:
ISO/FDIS 37104 Sustainable Cities and Communities – Transforming Our Cities – Guidance for Practical Local Implementation of ISO 37101 | Comments due February 15th
ISO NP 23944 (N330) New Work Item Proposed: Smart Community Infrastructures – Guidance on smart Transportation by Non-Cash payment for Fare/Fees in Transportation and its Related or Additional Services | Comments due February 15th
Ballot for ISO NP 23943 (N328) New Work Item Proposed: Smart Community Infrastructures – Smart Transportation using Fuel Cell LRT | Comments due February 15th
January 24, 2019 Update:
ISO/DIS 37123 Sustainable cities and communities — Indicators for resilient cities. Ballots due February 8th
Some amount of the commentable material cannot be distributed and must be viewed online (a chronic problem). Click in to any of our daily 11 AM EST teleconferences if you would like to read and mark up with comments.
December 18, 2018 Update:
No commentable documents at this time
November 1, 2018 Update:
ISO / DIS 37155 Framework for Integration and Operation of Smart Community Infrastructures – Part 1: Opportunities and Challenges from Interactions in Smart Community Infrastructures from all Aspects through the Life Cycle.
* Owing to copyright restrictions you must send an email to [email protected] to access to the documents
14-101 ISO 268 Item ISO IEC 17021 Public Review Draft
September 18, 2018 Update:
Comments are due September 24th on the documents linked below:
14-101 ISO WD TS 37107 SEPT 2018 Sustainable Cities
14-101 ISO CD 37160 SEPT 2018 Sustainable Cities
September 16, 2018 Update:
The US TAG convened at NFPA Headquarters last this week. Since some of the material is copyright protected, we welcome education facility professionals to click in any day at 11 AM to review the commenting opportunities open to US stakeholders generally, and education industry professionals specifically.
Draft document now open for public review: Smart community infrastructures — Guidance on smart transportation for allocation of parking lots in cities. (ISO Stage 20.20) Comments are due at NFPA on September 13th
US TAG meets at NFPA Headquarters in Quincy, Massachusetts September 12 and 13. Mike Anthony will be in attendance.
August 2018 Update:
Draft document now open for public review: Sustainable development in communities — Indicators for Smart Cities. Comments are due at NFPA on August 27th.
Draft document now open for public review: Guidelines on Data Exchange and Sharing for Smart Community Infrastructures. Comments are due at NFPA on August 24th
One draft document is now open for public review: Smart community infrastructures — Smart transportation for rapid transit in/between large city zones and the surrounding areas (ISO/DIS 37159).Comments are due at NFPA on August 7th.
July 2018 Update:
No new business items received from ISO Genève. US TAG will meet in at NFPA headquarters, September 12-13, 2018
June 2018 Update:
No new business items received from ISO Genève. The US TAG is planning a September on-site meeting at NFPA Headquarters in Boston.
May 2018 Update:
Balloting was completed by the US TAG on proposed ISO/FDIS 37120 Sustainable Development in Communities – Indicators for City Services and Quality of Life
April 2018 Update:
At the 2017 Paris meeting of TC/268, the UK suggested that it would be helpful to develop an overall maturity model for cities, drawing on the framework set out by SC1 in ISO/DIS 37153. The TC agreed, and WG4 was asked to work up proposals.
At its Berlin meeting in May, WG4 made good progress and recommended a way forward. But in plenary discussion with other working groups, there was concern that WG4 was moving too quickly and on too narrowly‐focused a basis
The purpose of a recent release by ISO TC/268 — an outline of city “maturity models” — is to respond to those concerns, proposing a broader framework for future work in this area across TC/268
An explanation of the broad contours of parent standard — with the Association Française de Normalisation (AFNOR Group) as the Secretariat — is described in the videoclip below:
* Permission is granted by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to electronically reproduce this draft International Standard for purpose of review and comment related to the preparation of the U.S. position, provided this notice is included. All other rights are reserved.
One of the standing items on our advocacy agenda for the better part of 10 years has been to promote formal reliability studies and impedance grounding methods to increase the reliability of large customer-owned power grids that are common in the education industry. These approaches are already applied in data centers and mission critical facilities; we simply suggest scaling them upward onto medium voltage campus power grids — starting with university-affiliated medical campus power grids. In California, for example, there are fire safety benefits to impedance grounding since California has significant seismic risks. Impedance grounding can limit damages to campus buildings in disaster and it can hasten the return to the normal power distribution operation. Formal reliability studies offer insight into the performance of for the utility interactive power systems common on university-affiliated medical campuses.
More details are described in the video recordings below.
For the past several revision cycles of the NFPA 70 suite* of electrical consensus documents we have been advocating stronger language in National Electrical Code Article 250 (NFPA 70) for other-than-solid grounding methods for large campus power distribution systems. These resistance system grounding methods face stiff “technical-cultural” headwinds from the electrical design and enforcement community that are most comfortable with solid system grounding methods. Safety and reliability design approaches based upon subtleties in resistance grounding regimes are applied routinely in data centers. They are easily conveyed onto 5 to 500 MVA campus power systems at moderate cost.
In the video presentation to the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee we find that the University of California Berkeley has had a resistance grounded system in place for decades — a system that has dramatically reduced fault energy to which electricians are exposed and provides a signature for instrumentation to provide early warning of a condition that would lead to a forced power outage. Forced power outages on many college and university campuses can cost millions of dollars per minute.
Click on image
NEC Code Panel 5 received public input for the 2020 National Electrical Code revision. Of particular interest is the public input on Section II System Grounding. The public input and the results of the balloting are available by clicking here. The National Fire Protection Association Electrical Division is now in the process of preparing the results for public comment on July 6th.
Comments are due August 30th.
We hope to continue our enlightenment of education facility managers about the possibility of safer and more reliable campus power systems as the emergent #SmartCampus accelerates. While there is already competition among trade associations and the event industry for ownership of the #SmartCampus space we think we have the authoritative voice. We collaborate closely with the IEEE Industrial Applications Society that is developing a recommended practice for smarter campus power systems (see ANSI/IEEE Recommended Practice for the System Grounding of Industrial and Commercial Power Systems 3003.1).
All NFPA consensus documents are on the standing agenda of our weekly Open Door teleconference every Wednesday, 11 AM Eastern Time. Click here to log in. This topic and others will also be on the agenda of the September 11th online meeting of the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee; also open to the public. Click here to log in.
The National Fire Protection Association has added another standard to its suite of public safety documents: NFPA 2400 Standard for Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) used for Public Safety Operations. This standard covers the minimum requirements relating to the operation, deployment, and implementation of small unmanned aircraft systems for public safety operations. The standard is developed by two main committees — one committee for drone systems (UAS-AAA) and another committee for the professional qualifications to operate and maintain drone systems (PQU-AAC)
From the project prospectus:
This standard shall cover the minimum requirements relating to the operation, deployment, and implementation of small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) for public safety operations. This standard shall establish operational protocols for public safety entities who use and support sUAS. This standard shall include minimum job performance requirements (JPRs) for public safety personnel who operate and support sUAS. This standard shall include minimum requirements for the maintenance of sUAS when used by public safety entities. This standard shall provide additional minimum requirements specific to public safety entities.
The 2019 Edition of NFPA 2400 has already been released for public use. Because this is a relatively new addition to the NFPA suite we provide two links that offer insight into the ideas running through it: The First Draft Report for the AAA committee is linked below:
We choose these reports to provide an overview of the technical and management concepts in play in the first draft. It is not uncommon, in the developmental trajectory of any accredited standard, that the bulk of it is largely administrative. You may view it with a (free) NFPA public review account. Get one by CLICKING HERE
Application of this technology for public safety on college and university campuses will likely accelerate and, hopefully, a catalog of case studies that will be shared. We find that several educational organizations are supporting faculty and staff involvement: University of Illinois Fire Service Institute, Piedmont Virginia Community College, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Oklahoma State University and the University Of Cincinnati are supporting the participation of Special Experts. The Los Angeles Unified School District is supporting a User Interest.
We expect that agricultural colleges and universities will begin developing curricula around the use of drones for crop inspection.
We encourage operations and maintenance staff — the various roofing and landscaping and grounds shops; for example — to participate in the development of the next revision. You may do so here: NFPA PUBLIC INPUT PAGE. We recommend you communicate directly with NFPA staff — either Michael Wixler or Elena Carroll. CLICK HERE for contact help.
We maintain this title on the standing agenda of periodic Mobility, Risk and Aerospace colloquia. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.
Schriever School Age Care | Schriever Air Force Base Indoor Running Track
Issue: [18-269], [16-199]
Category: Public Safety, Risk Management, #SmartCampus
The role of the education industry in the Internet of Things (Iot) zietgeist can be understood in terms of its stakeholder position in each of the three interest categories identified in a document at the foundation of the US standards system; one that bears similarity to due process requirements for technological transformation in other nations*:
Producer. As a provider of basic and applied research in the IoT transformation. Expert faculty is recruited to respond to the demand for networking knowledge.
General Interest: As an educator that trains the workforce to manage connectivity and data exchange in the IoT transformation.
User: As a consumer of the products and systems that depend upon connectivity and data exchange in the embedded technologies of the #SmartCampus. (The weakest of all stakeholders in the global standards system and where StandardsMichigan places its resources)
These organizations provide a template for the development of IoT strategy for every member nation, for every industry; including the education industry. No government regulations in any nation or any industry will be crafted without the foundation they assemble
In prospect IoT still seems a gauzy, abstract conception for the #SmartCampus but in retrospect we already see it in power-over-ethernet lighting systems, for example (CLICK HERE). We see it in micro-transportation, campus security surveillance systems, massive open online curriculum and the like. We collaborate most closely with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee (IEEE E&H) to develop opportunities to lower #TotalCostofOwnership as this transformation gathers pace. As always, we hunt down cost-saving opportunities that appear on building construction bid tabs and per-square-foot operation and maintenance costs.
This standard defines an architectural framework for the Internet of Things (IoT), including descriptions of various IoT domains, definitions of IoT domain abstractions, and identification of commonalities between different IoT domains. The architectural framework for IoT provides a reference model that defines relationships among various IoT verticals (e.g., transportation, healthcare, etc.) and common architecture elements. It also provides a blueprint for data abstraction and the quality “quadruple” trust that includes protection, security, privacy, and safety.” Furthermore, this standard provides a reference architecture that builds upon the reference model. The reference architecture covers the definition of basic architectural building blocks and their ability to be integrated into multi-tiered systems. The reference architecture also addresses how to document and, if strived for, mitigate architecture divergence. This standard leverages existing applicable standards and identifies planned or ongoing projects with a similar or overlapping scope.
This project was launched in 2015 but has been revised by the IEEE Standards Association this month and has been posted for public comment. It will be referred to the IEEE E&H Committee hosted every other week in Europe and the Americas. Those teleconferences — one at 15:00 Central European Time and 3:00 PM Eastern time in the Americas, are open to anyone. CLICK HERE for login credentials. Of course, we are happy to discuss IoT in general terms any day at 11 AM Eastern time during our standing daily teleconferences. Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.
Issue: [16-118]
Category: Administration & Management, Electrical, Information and Communications Technology, Facility Asset Management, Information, International, Telecommunications, US Department of Energy
Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Jim Harvey, Kane Howard, Chad Jones
The newest Big Thing — a networked world of connected devices, objects and people — is getting long in the tooth. It is hazardous to even try to write about the Internet of Things without being complicit in internet triumphalism. We try to be as specific as possible, to avoid sounding like Jules Verne the futurist, even at the risk of getting too technical to be practical for the front line work force in education communities. We challenge excess cost starting with small things.
Leaders of the US #SmartCampus transformation will have to sort through the competition among them because, at the moment, the blue-sky conception of a #SmartCampus is doing more to drive trade association content and conference revenue than contribute meaningfully to lower costs in education communities.
Université de Genève
We keep pace with standards setting in the IoT transformation with particular interest in the topics listed below:
There are others; all of them with challenges, risks and ethical concerns.
The IEC produces policy templates for national standards bodies and governments. To workpoint practitioners its products may seem (at first) too “blue-sky” to be practical. The IEC consensus products are far more “finely sliced” (think prosciutto) than US consensus products such as the National Electrical Code. You will see this reflected in the Call for Public Comment in our INCITS posts.
We are happy to explain the difference between speculative hype and meaningful technical specifics that show up on future campus construction, operation and maintenance balances sheets to anyone any day at 11 AM Eastern time. We also sweep through commenting opportunities every month during our Global standards teleconference and four times per month with the IEEE E&H Committee. See our CALENDAR for the next online meetings; open to everyone.
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
_-_Benjamin_Franklin_Drawing_Electricity_from_the_Sky_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
