Managing and Understanding Artificial Intelligence Solutions
Department of Industry, Science and Resources
Tune in to our latest podcast ‘Building a global Quantum Industry: Explaining, Scaling and Standardising Quantum Technologies’ where experts draw upon quantum’s most exciting applications.https://t.co/dFun1MTkDE
— Standards Australia (@standardsaus) November 29, 2023
Evolution of the standards system in Australia is tracking the evolution of the United States standards system administered by the American National Standards Institute. In many economic sectors adherence to Australian Standards is mandated by legislation, however, access to the standards are often cost prohibitive, particularly to small business and sole traders.
Principal petitioner Andrew Gardso, an electrical engineer, states,
“This in essence will force small organisations and sole traders out of business or necessitate services being performed without having access to these standards.”
Access to Standards Australia Construction codes can cost more than $2673 for three years’ access to the National Construction Code set of standards. A petition to the Australian parliament’s House of Representatives seeks free or affordable access to essential standards that govern the safety and consistency of products services and systems, including design and construction.
Survey and Analysis of Current End-User Data Analytics Tool Support
Three ways Artificial Intelligence is transforming agriculture and food
*
Canadian Parliament Debate on Standards Incorporated by Reference
This week, we hosted the @IECStandards #smartcities committee in Sydney. Experts discussed smart tech and #sustainability to tackle #urbanchallenges. Discover more about our efforts to build resilient, sustainable cities: https://t.co/GOjoOBXoc9 pic.twitter.com/gvqvegx4km
— Standards Australia (@standardsaus) February 14, 2025
— Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu
Heat tracing is a process used to maintain or raise the temperature of pipes and vessels in order to prevent freezing, maintain process temperature, or ensure that products remain fluid and flow through the system properly. Without electric heat tracing; much of the earth would be uninhabitable.
Heat tracing works by using an electric heating cable or tape that is wrapped around the pipe or vessel, and then insulated to help retain the heat. The heating cable is connected to a power source and temperature control system that maintains the desired temperature by regulating the amount of heat output from the cable. Heat tracing is commonly used in industrial applications where temperature control is critical, such as in chemical plants, refineries, and oil and gas facilities.
There are several types of heat tracing, including electric heat tracing, steam tracing, and hot water tracing, each of which have their own unique advantages and disadvantages. The selection of the appropriate type of heat tracing depends on the specific application and the required temperature range, as well as factors such as cost, maintenance, and safety considerations.
Heat Tracing for Piping Specification | NECA Standards (N.B. Link unstable)
2026 NEC CMP-17 Public Input Report | 2026 NEC CMP-17 Second Draft Report
Capturing snow flakes as the fall out of the sky
[📹 Dmitry Dotsenko / dots_foto]pic.twitter.com/e3rwNUGLmK
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) January 29, 2025
Today we review the literature for snow and ice management (and enjoyment) produced by these standards-setting organizations:
Accredited Snow Contractors Association
American Society of Civil Engineers
American Society of Mechanical Engineers
ASTM International
Destructive Deep Freeze Strikes Cold and Hot Regions Alike
Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers
Electrical Heat Tracing: International Harmonization — Now and in the Future
Indiana University.
The most beautiful college campus in the country covered in snow. pic.twitter.com/Tp33cQgKuq
— Alex Paul Photo (@alexpaulphoto) January 11, 2025
International Code Council
International Building Code: Chapter 15 Roof Assemblies and Rooftop Structures
National Electrical Contractors Association
National Fire Protection Association
Winter is Coming: Is Your Facility Protected? (Holly Burgess, November 2022)
National Electrical Code: Articles 426-427
National Floor Safety Institute
Snow and Ice Management Association
Underwriters Laboratories
Manufacturers:
Chromalox Electrical Heat Tracing Systems Design Guide
It is a surprisingly large domain with market-makers in every dimension of safety and sustainability; all of whom are bound by state and federal regulations.
Join us at 16:00 UTC with the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.
Red surely made the most of his snow day! 🛷 ☃️
Who’s team snow on campus? ❄️ pic.twitter.com/F03KX1XyaR
— The Catholic University of America (@CatholicUniv) January 14, 2025
There have been several recent innovations that have made it possible for construction activity to continue through cold winter months. Some of the most notable ones include:
Overall, these innovations have made it possible for construction crews to work through the winter months more comfortably and safely, which has helped to keep projects on schedule and minimize delays.
Somewhat related:
Capturing snow flakes as the fall out of the sky
[📹 Dmitry Dotsenko / dots_foto]pic.twitter.com/e3rwNUGLmK
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) January 29, 2025
Map showing what states can actually drive in snow pic.twitter.com/qgKEhLtKbr
— Midwest vs. Everybody (@midwestern_ope) February 7, 2025
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United States Technical Advisory Group Administrator: INCITS
TC 64 Electrical installations and protection against electric shock
“Le Lac Léman ou Près d’Evian au lac de Genève” 1883 François BocionISO and IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 is the work center for international information and communications technology (ICT) standards that are relevant to education communities. In accordance with ISO/IEC JTC 1 and the ISO and IEC Councils, some International Standards and other deliverables are made freely available for standardization purposes.
Freely Available International Standards
We at least follow action, and sometimes contribute data and user-interest perspective, to the development of standards produced by several ANSI-accredited ICT standard developing organizations — ATIS, BICSI, IEEE, INCITS, TIA among them. US-based organizations may communicate directly with Lisa Rajchel, ANSI’s ISO/IEC JTC 1 Senior Director for this project: lrajchel@ansi.org. Our colleagues at other educational organizations should contact their national standards body.
We scan the status of Infotech and Cloud standards periodically and collaborate with a number of IEEE Societies. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.
More
The ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee for Information Technology (JTC 1)
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 36 Information technology for learning, education and training
“No work of art can be great,
if it is not composed of the smallest things.”
— Vitruvius (Book VII, Chapter 9)
Today during our usual hour we sweep through standards action in building glazing, entrances and means of egress. The word fenestration (Latin: fenestra) has become a term of art for the design, construction, and placement of openings in a building, including windows, doors, skylights, and other glazed elements. While the word has sparse use in the International Code Council and National Fire Protection Association catalog it is widely used by the Construction Specifications Institute in its MasterFormat system for organizing construction standards, guidelines and building contracts.
The percentage of a building envelope “skin” that is comprised of doors and windows varies depending on the specific building design, function, and location. However, a commonly cited range is between 15% to 25% of the total building envelope. The actual percentage will depend on several factors such as the building’s purpose, orientation, local climate, and energy performance goals. Buildings that require more natural light or ventilation, such as schools, hospitals, and offices, may have a higher percentage of windows and doors in their envelope. In contrast, buildings with lower lighting and ventilation requirements, such as warehouses, may have a smaller percentage of windows and doors.
Fenestration presents elevated risk to facility managers. The education facility industry is a large target and a pattern of settling out of court. For example:
These cases illustrate that colleges and universities can face legal action related to doors and windows, either due to alleged negligence in maintaining or repairing them, or due to issues related to student housing and accommodations.
Our inquiry breaks down into two modules at the moment:
Exterior facing fenestration
Interior window walls and doors
Join us online at the usual time.
Related:
— Ramin Nasibov (@RaminNasibov) May 25, 2024
NFPA Fire Protection Systems Catalog (Lorem ipsum)
Crosswalk: NFPA Fire Code and ICC International Fire Code
Free public access to the current edition of NFPA’s parent fire safety document is linked below:
We attend to occupancy-specific chapters (listed below) because of their significant presence in education communities.
Chapter 25: Grandstands and Bleachers, Folding and Telescopic Seating, Tents and Membrane Structures (N.B)
Chapter 26: Laboratories Using Chemicals
Chapter 29: Parking Garages
Chapter 32: Motion Picture and Television Production Studio Soundstages and Approved Production Facilities
Chapter 35: Animal Housing Facilities
Chapter 36: Telecommunication Facilities and Information Technology Equipment
Chapter 50: Commercial Cooking
Chapter 52: Energy Storage Systems




Some of the chapters reference other titles such as NFPA 45 Standard of Fire Protection for Laboratories Using Chemicals which support risk management in other occupancies. It is noteworthy that in the 2021 revision cycle of NFPA 1 there are relatively few new concepts regarding education facilities that have been proposed. You get a sampling of the ideas in play from the transcript of public input for the 2024 edition.
Public Input Report (525 Pages)
Use search terms such as school, college, university, dormitory(ies), laboratory(ies), classroom, children, day-care, student, et cetera for a sense of the ideas in play.
Results of the 2027 First Draft meetings have not yet been posted as on November 9, 2024. A preview of the ideas in play can be found in the meeting minutes of the several committees linked below:
Fire Code (FCC-AAC): First Draft Meeting Minutes
First Draft: Fundamentals of the Fire Code (FCC-FUN)
Special Equipment, Processes and Hazardous Materials (FCC-HAZ)
Building Systems and Special Occupancies (FCC-OCP)
Public comment on the First Draft of the 2027 revision will be received until April 24, 2025.
We include NFPA 1 on our periodic fire safety colloquia — identified by the mnemonic Prometheus — and march along peak interests.










Campus fire safety is domain relatively well-covered by other organizations such as the Center for Campus Fire Safety and HigherEd Safety so we place NFPA 1 in the middle of our priority tier. We are more interested in the harmonization of NFPA 1 with a competitor title International Fire Code; published by the International Code Council; to wit:
International Fire Code: The purpose of this code is to establish the minimum requirements consistent with nationally recognized good practice for proving a reasonable level of life safety and property protection from the hazards of fire, explosion or dangerous conditions in new and existing buildings, structures or premises and to provide a reasonable level of safety to fire fighters and emergency responders during emergency operations
Fire Code: The scope includes, but is not limited to, the following: (1) Inspection of permanent and temporary buildings, processes, equipment, systems, and other fire and related life safety situations (2) Investigation of fires, explosions, hazardous materials incidents, and other related emergency incidents (3) Review of construction plans, drawings, and specifications for life safety systems, fire protection systems, access, water supplies, processes, hazardous materials, and other fire and life safety issues (4) Fire and life safety education of fire brigades, employees, responsible parties, and the general public (5) Existing occupancies and conditions, the design and construction of new buildings, remodeling of existing buildings, and additions to existing buildings (6) Design, installation, alteration, modification, construction, maintenance, repairs, servicing, and testing of fire protection systems and equipment (7) Installation, use, storage, and handling of medical gas systems (8) Access requirements for fire department operations (9) Hazards from outside fires in vegetation, trash, building debris, and other materials (10) Regulation and control of special events including, but not limited to, assemblage of people, exhibits, trade shows, amusement parks, haunted houses, outdoor events, and other similar special temporary and permanent occupancies (11) Interior finish, decorations, furnishings, and other combustibles that contribute to fire spread, fire load, and smoke production (12) Storage, use, processing, handling, and on-site transportation of flammable and combustible gases, liquids, and solids (13) Storage, use, processing, handling, and on-site transportation of hazardous materials (14) Control of emergency operations and scenes (15) Conditions affecting fire fighter safety (16) Arrangement, design, construction, and alteration of new and existing means of egress
Note that both ICC and NFPA parent fire safety documents are developed on coincident 3-year cycles.
Issue: [18-90]
Category: Fire Safety, Public Safety
Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Joshua W. Elvove, Joe DeRosier, Casey Grant
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Today’s Handout: Radon, et al (For future dedicated session)
During today’s colloquium we audit the literature that sets the standard of care for mechanical engineering design, construction operations and maintenance of campus district energy systems — typically miles (kilometers) of large underground pipes and wires that characterize a district energy system. Topically, Mechanical 400 deals with energy systems “outside” or “between” buildings; whereas Mechanical 200 deals with energy systems within an individual building envelope.
2024 International Mechanical Code
A campus district energy system is a centralized heating and cooling network that supplies thermal energy to multiple buildings within a defined area, such as a college or university campus. The system generates steam, hot water, or chilled water at a central plant, which is then distributed through an underground network of pipes to individual buildings for space heating, domestic hot water, and air conditioning. By consolidating energy production and distribution, campus district energy systems can achieve significant energy and cost savings compared to individual building systems, as well as reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve reliability and resiliency of the energy supply.






We track standards setting in the bibliographies of the following organizations:
AHRI | Air Conditioning, Heating & Refrigeration Institute
ASHRAE | American Society of Heating & Refrigeration Engineers
ASHRAE Guideline 14: Measurement of Energy and Demand Savings
ASHRAE Guideline 22: Instrumentation for Monitoring Central Chilled Water Plant Efficiency
ASME | American Society of Mechanical Engineers
ASPE | American Association of Plumbing Engineers
ASTM | American Society for Testing & Materials
AWWA | American Water Works Association
AHRI | Air Conditioning, Heating & Refrigeration Institute
IAPMO | International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials
IEC | International Electrotechnical Commission
Institute of Electric and Electronic Engineers
Research on the Implementation Path Analysis of Typical District Energy Internet
Expansion Co-Planning of Integrated Electricity-Heat-Gas Networks in District Energy Systems
Towards a Software Infrastructure for District Energy Management
IMC | International Mechanical Code
IDEA | International District Energy Association
District Energy Best Practices Handbook
District Energy Assessment Tool
IPC | International Plumbing Code
ISEA | International Safety Equipment Association
NFPA | National Fire Protection Association
SMACNA | Sheet Metal Contractors National Association
UL | Underwriters Laboratories
UpTime Institute
(All relevant OSHA Standards)
It is a large domain and virtually none of the organizations listed above deal with district energy systems outside their own (market-making) circle of influence. As best we can we try to pull together the peak priorities for the real asset managers and engineers who are responsible for these system.
* Building services engineers are responsible for the design, installation, operation and monitoring of the technical services in buildings (including mechanical, electrical and public health systems, also known as MEP or HVAC), in order to ensure the safe, comfortable and environmentally friendly operation. Building services engineers work closely with other construction professionals such as architects, structural engineers and quantity surveyors. Building services engineers influence the architectural design of building, in particular facades, in relation to energy efficiency and indoor environment, and can integrate local energy production (e.g. façade-integrated photovoltaics) or community-scale energy facilities (e.g. district heating). Building services engineers therefore play an important role in the design and operation of energy-efficient buildings (including green buildings, passive houses and zero energybuildings. uses. With buildings accounting for about a third of all carbon emissions] and over a half of the global electricity demand, building services engineers play an important role in the move to a low-carbon society, hence mitigate global warming.
More:
Practical Essay on the Stength of Cast Iron and Other Metals Thomas Tredgold (1882)
George Herman Babcock — through his patents of pumps, steam engines, and novel boiler designs with collaborator Stephen Wilcox — raised the standard for safe boiler design & operation.https://t.co/qakAw4jfCn pic.twitter.com/3rCxXHkBfM
— Standards Michigan (@StandardsMich) October 21, 2020
University of New England Financial Report 2022 | ($30.81M)
Classic British comfort food. The origin of the recipe can be traced back to the United Kingdom in the mid-20th century. The dish’s name, “bangers,” comes from the habit of sausages bursting open (banging) while cooking due to their high water content, particularly during World War II when meat was scarce, and fillers were added to sausages.
The popularity of sausages and mashed potatoes as a meal likely dates back much further in British culinary history. Sausages have been a part of British cuisine for centuries, and mashed potatoes have been consumed in the UK since potatoes were introduced to Europe in the 16th century. It has long since become the go-to meal for college students seeking a satisfying, simple, and budget-friendly option during their academic years.
Ingredients:
Pork sausages (traditional British bangers)
Potatoes (such as Russet or Yukon Gold)
Butter
Milk or cream
Salt and pepper to taste
Onion gravy (optional, for serving)
Instructions:
Start by preparing the sausages. You can grill, pan-fry, or oven-bake them until they are cooked through and nicely browned.
While the sausages are cooking, peel and chop the potatoes into chunks. Place them in a pot of salted water and bring to a boil. Cook until the potatoes are tender and can easily be pierced with a fork.
Drain the potatoes and return them to the pot. Mash the potatoes using a potato masher or a potato ricer.
Add butter and a splash of milk or cream to the mashed potatoes, and continue mashing until you achieve your desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Serve the cooked sausages on top of the mashed potatoes, and if desired, pour onion gravy over the dish.
The History of “Bangers and Mash” as a College Meal:
Simplicity: The dish is easy to prepare, requiring basic cooking skills and readily available ingredients, making it ideal for students who may have limited cooking facilities or time.
Affordability: Sausages and potatoes are often budget-friendly ingredients, making “Bangers and Mash” a cost-effective meal for students on tight budgets.
Comfort and Nostalgia: The dish’s hearty and comforting nature brings a sense of nostalgia and home-cooked goodness to college students, especially those living away from home for the first time.
Social Meal: “Bangers and Mash” is a dish that can be shared with friends or hallmates, making it a popular choice for communal meals in college dormitories or shared kitchens.
Overall, “Bangers and Mash” has not only been a staple in British cuisine but also a go-to meal for college students seeking a satisfying, simple, and budget-friendly option during their academic years.
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/njrDAbSpwB pic.twitter.com/GkAXrHoQ9T
— USPTO (@uspto) July 13, 2023
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