The National Institute of Standards and Technology is responsible for maintaining and disseminating official time in the United States. While NIST does not have a direct role in implementing clock changes for daylight saving time, it does play an important role in ensuring that timekeeping systems across the country are accurate and consistent.
Prior to the implementation of daylight saving time, NIST issues public announcements reminding individuals and organizations to adjust their clocks accordingly. NIST also provides resources to help people synchronize their clocks, such as the time.gov website and the NIST radio station WWV.
In addition, NIST is responsible for developing and maintaining the atomic clocks that are used to define Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the international standard for timekeeping. UTC is used as the basis for all civil time in the United States, and it is the reference time used by many systems, including the Global Positioning System (GPS) and the internet.
Overall, while NIST does not have a direct role in implementing clock changes for daylight saving time, it plays an important role in ensuring that timekeeping systems across the country are accurate and consistent, which is essential for the smooth implementation of any changes to the system.
“The morning cup of coffee has an exhilaration about it which the cheering influence of the afternoon or evening cup of tea cannot be expected to reproduce.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, 1858)
Dr Ajith Parlikad, CSIC Co-Investigator and Senior Lecturer;
Mark Enzer, Global Water Sector Leader,
Mott MacDonald; Keith Bowers, Principal Tunnel Engineer, London Underground;
Ross Dentten, Asset Information and Configuration Manager, Crossrail;
Matt Edwards, Asset Maintenance and Information Manager, Anglian Water Services;
Jerry England, Group Digital Railway Director, Network Rail;
Volker Buscher, Director, Arup Digital.
Smart Infrastructure is a global opportunity worth £2trn-4.8trn. The world is experiencing a fourth industrial revolution due to the rapid development of technologies and digital abundance.
Smart Infrastructure involves applying this to economic infrastructure for the benefit of all stakeholders. It will allow owners and operators to get more out of what they already have, increasing capacity, efficiency and resilience and improving services.
It brings better performance at lower cost. Gaining more from existing assets is the key to enhancing service provision despite constrained finance and growing resource scarcity. It will often be more cost-effective to add to the overall value of mature infrastructure via digital enhancements than by physical enhancements – physical enhancements add `more of the same’, whereas digital enhancements can transform the existing as well.
Smart Infrastructure will shape a better future. Greater understanding of the performance of our infrastructure will allow new infrastructure to be designed and delivered more efficiently and to provide better whole-life value.
Data is the key – the ownership of it and the ability to understand and act on it. Industry, organisations and professionals need to be ready to adjust in order to take advantage of the emerging opportunities. Early adopters stand to gain the most benefit. Everyone in the infrastructure sector has a choice as to how fast they respond to the changes that Smart Infrastructure will bring. But everyone will be affected.
Change is inevitable. Progress is optional. Now is the time for the infrastructure industry to choose to be Smart.
Perspective: Since this paper is general in its recommendations, we provide examples of specific campus infrastructure data points that are difficult, if not impossible, to identify and “make smart” — either willfully, for lack of funding, for lack of consensus, for lack of understanding or leadership:
Maintenance of the digital location of fire dampers in legacy buildings or even new buildings mapped with BIM. Doors and ceiling plenums are continually being modified and the As-Built information is usually not accurate. This leads to fire hazard and complicates air flow and assuring occupant temperature preferences (i.e. uncontrollable hot and cold spots)
Ampere readings of feeder breakers downstream from the electric service main. The power chain between the service substation and the end-use equipment is a “no-man’s land” in research facilities that everyone wants to meter but few ever recover the cost of the additional metering.
Optimal air flow rates in hospitals and commercial kitchens that satisfies both environmental air hazards and compartmentalized air pressure zones for fire safety.
Identification of students, staff and faculty directly affiliated with the campus versus visitors to the campus.
Standpipe pressure variations in municipal water systems
Pinch points in municipal sewer systems in order to avoid building flooding.
How much of university data center cost should be a shared (gateway) cost, and how much should be charged to individual academic and business units?
Should “net-zero” energy buildings be charged for power generated at the university central heating and electric generation plant?
How much staff parking should be allocated to academic faculty versus staff that supports the healthcare delivery enterprises; which in many cases provides more revenue to the university than the academic units?
Finally, a classical conundrum in facility management spreadsheets: Can we distinguish between maintenance cost (which should be covered under an O&M budget) and capital improvement cost (which can be financed by investors)
Illycaffè— commonly known as “Illy” — is an Italian coffee company sets high standards in the art and science of coffee culture. Founded by Francesco Illy in Trieste, Italy, in 1933, the company collaborates with artists to create innovative coffee-related products
International Electrotechnical Commission Technical Committee TC 62 prepares international standards and other publications concerning electrical equipment, electrical systems and software used in healthcare and their effects on patients, operators, other persons and the environment. As such the work of this parent committee — which has broad implications for comparatively cash-rich multi-national medical equipment manufacturers — coordinates the work of several subcommittees; listed below:
62A Common aspects of medical equipment, software and systems
62B Medical imaging equipment, software and systems
62C Equipment for radiotherapy, nuclear medicine and radiation dosimetry
62D Particular medical equipment, software and systems
Germany is Global the Secretariat. The Business Plan is linked below:
The U.S National Committee of the International Electrotechnical Commission serves as the focal point for U.S parties who are interested in the development, promulgation, and use of globally relevant standards for the electrotechnical industry. The USNC is also engaged in the assessment of conformance to standards, undertaking work in areas such as testing, certification, and accreditation. Tony Zertuche is ANSI’s point person (zertuche@ansi.org) and we encourage you to communicate directly with Tony for the most up-to-date information.
We coordinate our response to the development of IEC titles in this domain with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee which meets 4 times monthly in European and American time zones. When there are Committee Draft for Votes released for public consultation (CDV) we coordinate our responses with experts active in IEEE globally.
Since the scope of this committee’s work involves products (in the main) we rank it in the middle of our priority tier. Our primary interest lies with interoperability standards, all the while recognizing that there is very little difference in the way education communities respond to IEC standard proposals than the way all other stakeholders would respond. At the risk of understatement medical research and clinical healthcare delivery are a large part of the revenue of many university systems so that is why we track these titles and others.
We maintain work flow of this committee on our Health, Electrical and Nursing colloquia. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.
IEC 63120 ED1: Refurbishment of medical electrical equipment, medical electrical systems and sub-assemblies and reuse of components as part of the extended life-cycle.
We found similar concepts running through the literature among United States consensus product developers; notably the IEEE, NFPA and NEMA. Re-use, reconditioning, recycling of electrical equipment is a priority that can contribute to the safety and sustainability agenda of healthcare enterprises in education communities so we follow it; vigilant for excessive market-making by incumbent verticals.
The comment period lapsed on March 27th but we will likely see more action in the technical committees receiving proposals from vertical incumbents making markets in medical equipment replacement parts. We track development of this and other IEC titles on our provisional workspace*:
We encourage our colleagues working in university-affiliated healthcare enterprises to interact directly with the IEC by setting up a Commenting Account to access the redline linked below:
It is our custom to follow the lead of the the US National Committee to the International Electrotechnical Commission (USNA/IEC) primarily, though we have significant professional relationships with academic scholars in other nations through the IEEE Standards Association and the E&H Committee. We are happy to discuss any consensus product, any day at 11 AM Eastern time, however the expertise for responding to invitations for public comment like this is usually present during the E&H Committee meetings which take place four times monthly in European and American time zones.
Issue: [11-66]
Category: Electrical, Healthcare Facilities, International
*This is a carry-over workspace from the original University of Michigan facility standards enterprise — @StandardsUMich — and has been re-purposed for educational use and collaboration with the IEEE E&H Committee and the IEEE Engineering in Medical and Biology Society
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
