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If you haven’t yet setup an RSS reader so you can subscribe to newsfeeds, I’ll try to provide some practical and fun reasons for you to get started now.  For both practical and fun news in one feed, consider subscribing to Cool Tools.  Their recent review of  the book 40 Principles, Lateral Strategies for Innovation, introduced me to TRIZ.

TRIZ was developed by Genrich Altshuller and others in the former Soviet Union beginning in 1946.  TRIZ is based on the hypothesis that there are universal principles of invention that advance technology.  Over the last 50 years, more than 2 million patents have been examined, leading to these 40 principles of innovation,  which you can interact with on the TRIZ40 website.  Go to their home page to try their “interactive contradiction matrix.”

Also checkout the TRIZ Journal where you can find news, resources and learn more about what TRIZ is.

Click here for more about Cool Tools and other personal favorites in RSS feeds.  You’ll also find more here on RSS basics and other peoples’ favorite feeds. 

For another example of a cool tools for process engineers, you can download the free FeedSmart recipe optimizer on K-Tron’s website (requires registration to download).  This has been an exceptionally popular free tool that lets you compute the lowest possible recipe cost for every blend, formulation or compound you process, and calculate additional savings with improved feeder accuracy.

Don Dunnington

The Pacific Northwest Clean Water Association has scheduled a microscopic workshop for 14-16 September in Port Angeles, Washington.  The workshop consists of the following training:

1. Care and Use of Microscope 
2. Identification of wastewater organisms (with special emphasis on filamentous bacteria) 
3. Implications of microscopic examination and relationship to operation of treatment plant 
4. Microscopic case studies (with participation of class. Given a microscopic examination, can you determine the reasons why specific organisms are present? 
5. Staining (Gram, Neisser and Reverse ((India Ink))stain and probably PHB stain).  Proper staining protocol 
6. Relationship of bacterial growth curve to lab and operations, F/M, SRT.  Nitrification/denitrification and other important laboratory parameters such as anion/cation balance and its effects on the morphology of the floc and dewatering properties.  The importance of Fe to floc formation and digestion.
 
I will be the person doing the presentation.  More information and registration forms are available at http://www.pncwa.org/Calendar/PNCWAcalendar.html

Victor Santa Cruz