Computing and Systems Technology: |
Editorial Notes
by Peter Rony and Karl Schnelle
Welcome to the 11th online issue of CAST Communications. At the CAST Awards Dinner in Salt Lake City, the 2007 Computing in Chemical Engineering Award Lecture was received by Erik Ydstie, Carnegie Mellon University. His award presentation may be viewed in either ppt, pdf, or mov format. For further details, please see the section on the Award Lecture.
CAST Election Results are reported by Wayne Bequette, 2006 CAST Chair. The CAST elections committee (Andy Hrymak, Vince Grassi and Wayne Bequette) is pleased to announce the results of the election of officers for 2008. In addition, we wish to acknowledge Ken Muske and Don Bartusiak (2007-9 Directors) for helping us coordinate the elections.
Our new 2008 SECOND VICE-CHAIR, Scott Keeler, received his degrees in Chemical Engineering from the University of Waterloo in Canada (B.A.Sc. (1984), M.A.Sc. (1985), Ph.D. (1990)). Scott is currently Research Leader in Bioprocess R&D at Dow AgroSciences. Our new 2008-2010 DIRECTORS are Jeffery Logsdon and Bhavik R. Bakshi. Jeffery Logsdon is an Advisor for Reaction Engineering and Modeling and Simulation for INEOS Nitriles in Lisle, Illinois. Bhavik R. Bakshi is a Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and co-director of the Center for Resilience at The Ohio State University. For biosketches for all three new officers, please see Election Results.
Photos from the 2007 CAST Awards Dinner were taken by Wayne Bequette, 2006 CAST Chair, and Peter Rony, CAST Publications Board Chair. We show photos of all the award winners announced at the 2007 CAST Banquet:
Your editor participated – as somebody completely new to the concept of webCASTs – in one of the live CAST WebCAST presentations, namely, “Multi-scale Modeling and its Application to Catalyst Design and Portable Power Generation”, by Professor Dion Vlachos of the University of Delaware. The date was Thursday, 24 April 2008, from 2 PM to 4 PM EDT. This webCAST was amazing to the editor, and well worth the time spent. Dan Sliva managed the webCAST from his home in New York. During the webCAST, your editor succeeded in capturing each PowerPoint screen using SnagIt 6.0 from TechSmith, Inc.
CAST has been doing these webCASTs since 2004. AIChE started in 2007 and has them archived at Webinars. Here is a list of previous AIChE webinars:
Our interest in the details of our CAST Division web server encourage us to discuss the future of web hosting for the newsletter.
The CAST server has 664 files, 29 folders, and a uses a total of 760 MB of storage space. Paul Rony operates the RAID-array web server in Blacksburg, VA. His connection to the Internet is located at his home in Holly Springs, North Carolina. The CAST website links to the Internet through his web server.
The web server – which is called “Ronycentral” – in Blacksburg crashed on April 10, 2008. As analyzed by Karl Rony, the 256-MB RAM-memory module became defective after about 4 years of reliable operation. A quick trip to our local Best Buy led to purchase of a 1 GB RAM memory module, which replaced the defective, 256-MB module and brought the server back to life after six hours of down time.
The “Ronycentral” server in Blacksburg is not the correct answer for the CAST website in the future, a site that increasingly will serve archived webCAST and CAST AIChE session presentations. According to Paul Rony, such large video files may need to be stored using a 3rd party, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), to which the CAST website would have a link for each streaming video.
And, finally, the Quote of the Day is by Henry Petroski.
Articles
Fuel Cell Systems: an Introduction for the Chemical Engineer This material [4.6 MB ] is intended for anyone with a background in Chemical Engineering and aims to provide a foundation for those interested in fuel cell research. Among the great challenges facing upcoming generations is the construction of a new globally focused and sustainable energy infrastructure. Clearly, many researchers believe that fuel cell systems will play a large role in this development, as evidenced by the plethora of articles published on the subject each year. The 89 page presentation was recently given at the 2007 Annual Meeting of AIChE. |
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Communications
2006 CAST Directors' Award
Given for the best poster presentations at the AIChE Annual Meeting. The following are for Work Presented at the 2006 AIChE Annual Meeting in San Francisco. .
First Place: Click on the poster [246 KB ] for the full-size pdf of the winning poster. Honorable Mention: |
2007 CAST Award Winners |
The 2007 CAST Division Awards were announced previously - details are here [79 KB ].
The intro and presentation were recorded for posterity in mov format. The file is 192MB, so please right-click and select "Save Target As..." to download it to your own computer before trying to view it. Please email Karl if you would like to see video of future CAST presentations. If you have an internet connection that is slower than DSL (a modem for instance), the file will take a long time to download! An online speed test is at tech.msn.com.
Award Introduction Computing in Chemical Engineering Award - Recognizes outstanding contributions in the application of computing and systems technology to chemical engineering The introduction [604 KB ] to the attendees of the 2007 CAST Awards dinner may be downloaded in pdf format. |
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2007 Computing in Chemical Engineering Award Lecture The award presentation given at the 2007 CAST Awards Dinner may be viewed in ppt [5.2 MB ] or pdf [6.0 MB ] format. During the presentation, Erik showed a few short animations which can be viewed if the ppt file is opened as a PowerPoint Slide Show. If you do not have PowerPoint or the free Viewer, then the pdf is available. |
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Photos from the 2007 CAST Awards Dinner We would like to congratulate again all the award winners announced at the 2007 CAST Banquet: |
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And here are some casual shots from the banquet.
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CAST Election Results The CAST elections committee (Andy Hrymak, Vince Grassi and Wayne Bequette) is pleased to announce the results of the election of officers for 2008. Please join us in congratulating Scott, Jeff, and Bhavik, and in thanking them for agreeing to provide leadership roles in the CAST Division. We also thank all of the candidates for putting their names forward for election. In addition, we wish to acknowledge Ken Muske and Don Bartusiak (2007-9 Directors) for helping us coordinate the elections.
Scott has been active in the CAST Division of AIChE for more than 15 years. He was CAST Division Secretary/Treasurer for five years. He has been Programming Chair for Area 10C, and was Production Editor of the CAST Communications Newsletter for several years. Scott is also a member of CSChE (the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering). He has chaired and organized technical sessions for both Institutes as well as the World Congress of Chemical Engineering.
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New Travel Grants
by the Editors
Please congratulate the following individuals for winning the first annual CAST Travel Grant (for attending the 2007 AIChE Annual Meeting):
Charles McFall,
Rene Elms,
Sathyendra K. Ghantasala,
Victor M. Zavala,
Panagiota Foteino,
Pradeep Y Tiwari,
Mahadevabharath Somayaji,
Pradeep Suresh Babu,
Alexander Smith,
Duy Quang, Nguyen Thanh,
Yogendra Shastri
Nominations are due August 1st for the 2008 grants.
Announcements
Free CAST Membership Offered!
by Karen High, 2007 CAST Chair
CAST membership is now free to Undergraduate AIChE members! This is a great mechanism for students to find out about what goes on in the CAST Division. One of the best perks is their ability to participate in live webCASTS! Goto Join AIChE to apply.
How to Contact AIChE
Publication sales, meeting registration, applications for membership, technical training, and other AlChE products and services may be obtained by using the contact information below or visiting AIChE Contacts.
American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE)
3 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10016-5991
General Inquiries: 800-242-4363
International calls: 212-591-8100
Fax: 212-591-8888
On-line contact form
For answers to questions, try one of the following AIChE Staff:
Felicia Guglielmi Director of Volunteer & Membership Activities 212.591.7329 |
Bette Lawler Director of Operations (212) 591-7207 |
Joe Cramer Director of Technical Programming (212) 591-7950 |
Anette Ngijol Volunteer & Membership Activities (212) 591-7478 |
Steve Smith Director of Technical Activities & Journals (212) 591-7335 |
CAST10 E-Mail List
The following websites are used to participate in the list:
The address to post messages to the list is CAST10 at LISTSERV.UMD.EDU .
2008 Award Nomination Form
Please use the 2008 Award Nomination Form [52KB, MS Word], which should be completed by April 15, 2008 [extended to May 14!!!]]. See CAST Division Awards for submission guidelines. Electronic submissions are encouraged.
Quote of the Day
Successful design is not the achievement of perfection but the minimization and accommodation of imperfection.
-- Henry Petroski, in forbes.com
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Production Details: | Retain your original art, please. Submit an e-mail containing a WORD or PDF version (contact editor for preferred formats) of your advertisement, to the CAST newsletter editor: Peter R. Rony. |
Deadlines: | December 1 for the Winter issue; July 1 for the Summer issue. |
Payment Details: | Prior to publication of advertisement, please submit check payable to CAST Division, AIChE to the CAST Division Secretary/Treasurer |
Questions: | Peter R. Rony, Telephone (540) 951-2805 |
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The Computing and Systems Technology (CAST) Division of AIChE is responsible for the wide range of activities within AIChE that involve the application of computers and mathematics to chemical engineering problems including process design, process control, operations, and applied mathematics. We arrange technical sessions at AIChE Meetings, organize special conferences, and publish this newsletter - CAST Communications - twice a year. These activities enable our members to keep abreast of the rapidly changing fields of computing and system technology. The cost is $10 per year, and includes a subscription to this newsletter. Shouldn't you join the CAST Division now?
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CAST Communications - Spring 2008
The Semi-Annual Publication of the Computers and Systems Technology Division of AIChE
Editor: Peter R. Rony, Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering, Virginia Tech
Associate Editor: Karl D. Schnelle, Dow AgroSciences LLC