2022
NSPE-WI (WSPE)
Virtual Discovery Conference

Today's Technology
Transforming Tomorrow's World  

 

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Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and associated travel and gathering restrictions and recommendations, NSPE-WI will again provide a virtual Discovery Conference in place of our annual in-person conference. 

Note that we also are planning a partial day in-person conference on October 13, 2022 in Green Bay.  Watch for more details on this event on our website wspe.org

We have scheduled 15 conference sessions.  All sessions will be held on Tuesdays at noon and Thursdays at noon.  You can sign up for all 15 sessions as a package for $150 or pick individual sessions at $15 each.  Secure payment is by credit card using PayPal--note a PayPal account is not required.  After registration and payment, you will be sent the Zoom meeting information via email the day of and prior to your session.  The sessions will be moderated and there will be an opportunity to ask questions via the Q&A feature in Zoom.

Session schedule and PDH recording form in PDF is available.

 

Session Schedule

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03/08/22  Tuesday 12:00 p.m.
Session 1a (1.0 PDH)
Ethics Case Study (Ethics)

Rebecca A. Bowman, Esq., P.E., D.F.E. with National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE)

Participants will examine two of the most common ethical issues encountered by engineers: duty to go beyond the "standard" and duty to be noisy.

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03/10/22  Thursday  12:00 p.m.
Session 1b (1.0 PDH)
Raider Robotics: Pushing the Boundaries of Competitive Collegiate Robotics (AI-Computer)

Nathan DuPont, Joseph Weller, Trenton Bowser, Chip Hennig, and Julian Singkham from Raider Robotics VEX U Student Organization

Raider Robotics is a collegiate robotics team, located at the Milwaukee School of Engineering. Over the past two years, the team has succeeded in building a platform that supports students from all core engineering majors, building multiple robots focused on completing yearly challenges. The team has integrated industry concepts and standards into all processes, from design and fabrication to software and AI research. This team has found success through these processes, winning the World Championship in only their second year. Additionally, the team was able to record scores that tied for 1^st in the US and 4^th in the World in their second year and are focused on sharing these results and how they have continued to improve in their third year. This presentation will highlight both the processes and improvements the team has made in the past, as well as the improvements and research being conducted by the team currently.

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03/15/22  Tuesday  12:00 p.m.
Session 2a (1.0 PDH)
The Electric Vehicle Transition - Supporting Technologies for Delivering Energy to Electric Vehicles (Electrical)

Bulent Sarlioglu with University of Wisconsin-Madison

Hybrid and electric vehicles are becoming popular for many reasons.  Recent advancements have focused on batteries, power electronics, and electric motors. After a brief overview of electric vehicle developments, this presentation will focus on the "rest of the story" which each EV driver will encounter after they leave the car dealers' lot - charging system electronics, charging station configurations, operating strategies, power sources for the stations, and cost recovery options. In addition, research on super and extreme charging concepts will be presented. There will be a questions and answers session at the end.

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03/17/22  Thursday  12:00 p.m.
Session 2b (1.0 PDH)
Designing Rockwork Including Back-up Steel for Structures Approaching 60 to 200 feet tall Self Suppored for Wind and Seismic

Richard DeSimone, PE and Fred Groth, PE, SE with GRAEF

Review various large rockwork projects including design of rockwork and support steel.  The presentation will explore the challenges in designing rock work that approaches 60 to 200 feet tall structures along with protection required for rockwork in a water park environment.   The presentation will also explore the design of rockwork typically used for interior applications.

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03/22/22  Tuesday  12:00 p.m.
Session 3a (1.0 PDH)
USGS Water Data for the Nation: Modernizing Access to Water Data (Environmental)

Emily Read with U.S. Geological Survey

Access to water data is crucial for water resources decision-making, and amazing things can be done with @USGS_Water data. But, our legacy system has become outdated and prevents crucial updates from being made, so we’re rebuilding our data delivery system. At USGS, we know it’s critical for water data to be accessible, usable, and discoverable for all US citizens. This presentation will cover how USGS is prioritizing better data delivery so you have the information you need to make important decisions. To hear more of the story, watch our brief introduction video, available on our website or on YouTube.

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03/24/22  Thursday  12:00 p.m.
Session 3b (1.0 PDH)
BioMolecular Engineering – The force is within you!

Dr. Gul Sadiq Afshan with Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE)

This talk furnishes basic knowledge about what biomolecular engineering is and how this futuristic science rooted engineering uses tools like stem cells, synthetic biology, metabolic pathways, genomics, and cell culture to change our lives and our views about our overall health, our learned behaviors like eating, and impact our approach towards the treatment and prevention of familial and nonfamilial diseases and aging.

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03/29/22  Tuesday  12:00 p.m.
Session 4a (1.0 PDH)
Challenges in Designing and Constructing the World’s Tallest Mass Timber Tower (Ascent) in Milwaukee, WI

Jordan Komp, PE, SE with Thorton Tomasetti

Presentation will review the challenges in designing and constructing a 25 story, 284 ft. tall building consisting of a six story concrete podium, 19 stories of mass timber multi-family units and 25 stories of concrete core walls.

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03/31/22  Thursday  12:00 p.m.
Session 4b 9 (1.0 PDH)
DSPS & NSPE-WI Legislative Updates (DSPS & Legislative)

Glen Schwalbach, PE with NSPE-WI

Presentation will review DSPS and NSPE-WI Legislative updates.

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04/05/22  Tuesday  12:00 p.m.
Session 5a (1.0 PDH)
A Magnet is not Just a Magnet- How Old Technology Becomes New Again (Mfg - elect-mech.)

Chris Veley with Material Control Solutions

Magnets have been used throughout industry from Food Safety and Quality management to Industrial Automation since the industrial revolution. The earliest adventurer’s using loadstone for compasses to present where intelligent magnets can tell you, when they collected metal, how much and if they need to be cleaned. We are surrounded by powerful magnets at work and in our hands, for most people every day and they don’t even realize it. We will touch on the basics of magnetism, briefly reminding everyone of high school physics for about two minutes and then dive into how we manipulate magnetic fields today to repulse non-ferrous aluminum from waste streams, how the basic principles from high school are how we shape and manipulate magnetic fields that are 400% stronger in the 25 years I have been in the industry and historically 1600% from 1950s magnet material. From an Engineer’s preceptive this presentation will give you the tools to evaluate magnets strength and suitability for the task required and offer you resources to refer to going forward both online and, in the field, as needed.

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04/07/22  Thursday  12:00 p.m.
Session 5b (1.5 PDH)
State of the Industry: Advances in 3D printing, Materials and Applications (Materials - Mech.)

Nick Schmidtke with GSC Corporation

3D printing is changing all manner of manufacturing: from manufacturing aids and advanced prototyping to end-use part creation. We reveal the hidden, not-often shared benefits of incorporating 3D printing such as no-touch time and letting parts print overnight; how operators on the floor can give timely feedback for design changes; and how lightweighting parts without sacrificing strength is common. Learn how Markforged is providing the equipment to change the way we work with the most advanced composite and metal printing technologies available specifically designed for manufacturing environments.

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04/12/22  Tuesday  12:00 p.m.
Session 6a (1.5 PDH)
Van Hise Precast Panel Failure in April 2021 and Removal & Replacement of 68 Precast Panels

Fred Groth & Justin Stuchlik with GRAEF, Jake Ehmke with Division of Facility Development (DOA), and Tim Jordan and Jeremy Neefe with JP Cullen

Presentation will review the challenges faced in assessing a precast panel failure in April of 2021, removal of 68 precast panels and designing & constructing replacement panels by end of Nov. 2021 (total of 8 months)

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04/14/22  Thursday  12:00 p.m.
Session 6b (1.0 PDH)
Fluid Dynamics Applications and Case Studies: Developing a COVID-19 Intubation Chamber (Fluid Dynamics - Chemistry)

Brandon Donnelly with GSC

Learn how SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation helped evaluate and perform several design iterations of the development of an intubation chamber for medical personnel.

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l04/19/22  Tuesday 12:00 p.m.
Session 7a (1.0 PDH)
Ethics in Alternative Dispute Resolution (Ethics)

Rebecca A. Bowman, Esq., P.E., D.F.E. with National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE)

Participants will gain perspectives about the various roles engineers play in resolving disputes.

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04/21/22  Thursday  12:00 p.m.
Session 7b (1.0 PDH)
Char Rates for Glulam Columns Exposed to a Standard Fire for Three Hours

Laura Hasburgh, PhD, PE

The fire resistance of a structural building member includes its ability to survive a specified fire without loss of its loadbearing function. For glue laminated timber columns, fire resistance is determined by either subjecting a structural member to a standard fire test or by using one of two accepted calculation methods. For wood structural members, the calculation methods rely on char rates obtained from numerous standard fire tests. The existing calculation methods are limited under United States building codes to calculating fire resistance ratings of 120 minutes or less. However, over the past decade there has been a push towards tall wood buildings and designers desire more exposed wood to be permitted in buildings. This desire, coupled with the recent adoption of code language that permits tall wood buildings up to 18 stories, has resulted in the need to determine char rates for glue laminated timber to use in the fire resistance calculations up to 180 minutes. This presentation will focus on the experimental method and char rate results of glue laminated columns exposed to the standard fire.

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04/20/22  Wednesday  12:00 p.m.
Session 7c (1.0 PDH)
Low Tech, High Impact: Leveraging Practical Tech for Inclusive Community Design

Smita Bhattacharjee and Jessica Xu with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) D-Lab

How can engineers tackle inequity and create social impact in their local and global communities? In this session, we will explore how to apply the principles of community design to create practical technologies that serve both the social and technical context of a problem. We will draw successful examples from the MIT D-Lab department, which works to develop and advance collaborative approaches and practical solutions to global poverty challenges. Further, we will present our challenges and takeaways from developing TILT, a low-cost wheelchair attachment that addresses inaccessibility in developing regions. TILT has been awarded the Voyager Grant from the MIT Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship and a juried award from the MIT IDEAS Social Innovation Challenge.

 

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