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The National Construction Safety Team (NCST) Advisory Committee advises NIST on carrying out investigations of building failures conducted under the authorities of the NCST Act. The NCST Advisory Committee will hold a virtual meeting on September 9
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RSS feed source: National Institute of Standards & Technology
DENVER – This morning, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) authorized the use of federal funds to help with firefighting costs for the Forsyth Fire burning in Washington County, Utah near Pine Valley.
FEMA Region 8 approved the state’s request for a federal Fire Management Assistance Grant (FMAG) after receiving the request Thursday night and determining that the fire threatened such destruction that it would constitute a major disaster.
At the time of the request, the Forsyth Fire was threatening more than 400 homes, which were under an evacuation order. The fire started on Thursday and has burned more than 500 acres.
The authorization makes FEMA funding available to pay 75 percent of the state’s eligible firefighting costs under an approved grant for managing, mitigating and controlling designated fires. These grants do not provide assistance to individual home or business owners and do not cover other infrastructure damage caused by the fire.
Fire Management Assistance Grants are provided through the President’s Disaster Relief Fund and are made available by FEMA to assist in fighting fires that threaten to cause a major disaster. Eligible items can include expenses for field camps; equipment use, repair and replacement; mobilization and demobilization activities; and tools, materials and supplies.
For more information on FMAGs, visit https://www.fema.gov/fire-management-assistance-grants-program-details.
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The U.S. National Science Foundation Zettawatt-Equivalent Ultrashort pulse laser System (NSF ZEUS) laser facility at the University of Michigan now has the most powerful laser in the U.S., with roughly double the peak power of any other laser in the country. Researchers at NSF ZEUS achieved a laser pulse of two petawatts (2 quadrillion watts) in a brief pulse that lasted 25 quintillionths of a second. In that moment, the laser exceeded the total global output of electrical power by more than 100 times.
The NSF ZEUS laser is available to scientists across the U.S. for experiments in a range of fields, including quantum physics and plasma science with potential applications in medicine, national security, materials science and more.
“The fundamental research done at the NSF ZEUS facility has many possible applications, including better imaging methods for soft tissues and advancing the technology used to treat cancer and other diseases,” said Vyacheslav Lukin, program director in the NSF Division of Physics, which oversees the ZEUS facility. “Scientists using the unique capabilities of ZEUS will expand the frontiers of human knowledge in new ways and provide new opportunities for American innovation and economic growth.”
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The United States semiconductor industry is projected to have between 60,000 and 100,000 unfilled jobs by 2030. As the need for semiconductor technicians, engineers and scientists continues to increase, there is also a growing demand for innovative ways to train this anticipated workforce. But such training typically requires expensive clean rooms and advanced equipment, resources that many schools don’t have access to.
A team of researchers, which included high school and community college students, found a solution to this challenge by using artificial intelligence-powered virtual reality (VR) to create simulations as a cost-effective alternative for people to learn about the process of semiconductor fabrication. The results of their research, which is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education Micro Nano Technology Education Center at Pasadena City College (PCC), in collaboration with the University of California, Irvine (UCI), are available in the Journal of Advanced Technological Education.
“Many students, especially those at underfunded schools, never get to see or touch the real semiconductor fabrication tools,” said Kristal Hong, a member of the research team and a computer science major at UCI. “I, myself, was a community college student without access to a cleanroom, so I know how that gap can dampen student enthusiasm.”
By using AI-powered VR to create cleanroom simulations, the team is offering a learning channel outside of traditional classrooms and
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