|
This October 2024 OWM Newsletter highlights and celebrates our recent training, workshop, and “Info Hours” events that brought together hundreds of our stakeholders from device manufacturers and industry, U.S. federal agencies, state weights and measures officials, and other NMI metrology colleagues from across the globe. OWM staff hosted, trained, and presented a wide range of legal metrology topics, from electric vehicles to price verification to software for measuring instruments and the future of digital publications. We also rejoice in the launch of our new OWM Contacts System platform for our training program. Lastly, we celebrate our latest group of Metric (SI) program student interns and their successes, and welcome our new NIST detailee, Mike Stocker, who will work with us on EVSE metrology training and our new NIST International Associate Ombati Wilson Nyang’au from the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) who will support OWM’s laboratory metrology program.
Enjoy our articles, and as always, we welcome your suggestions and feedback.
Katrice Lippa, NIST OWM Chief
 Mike Stocker (NIST OWM) measuring line level and control pilot signals on AC Level 1 charger. Credit: NIST/P. Corey
NIST OWM-ANL Co-Host Inaugural EVSE Metrology Training Event
Several of the NIST OWM staff teamed up with Ted Bohn of Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) to deliver a one-day hybrid workshop and training event on electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) on September 20, 2024. BTC Power (in Irvine, CA) generously provided their facility for the NIST-ANL team to conduct both classroom hybrid presentations and demonstrations of field testing, which was also streamed live.
NIST OWM Teams Up with Massachusetts for Price Verification Training
NIST OWM was delighted to provide a 2-day price verification training event based on the NIST Handbook 130 Examination Procedure for Price Verification for the Massachusetts Weights and Measures Association (MWMA) in Marlborough, MA. The event was held on September 10 and 11, 2024.
The student turnout and level of participation were spectacular—with 116 inspectors and administrators in attendance. Each official brought with them a broad range of experience and was actively engaged and enthusiastic as part of Massachusetts’s vibrant and active price verification program.
|
 Info Hours Presented by NIST OWM: 2024 Series Successfully Completed!
This year, NIST OWM launched a new series of Information Hours, aka “Info Hours,” as an informal forum for our customers and stakeholders to engage in discussions related to current topics related to weights and measures, legal metrology, and documentary standard-relevant issues. The original set of six (6) Info Hour sessions was launched in June and covered current and pertinent weights and measures areas related to e-commerce, existing scales code, and grain moisture measurements to emergent areas related to electric vehicles fueling systems, instrument and device software, and the upcoming digitalization of our documentary standards.
NCWM changed its name, but its mission remains the same!
On August 13, 2024, the National Conference on Weights and Measures (NCWM), with unanimous support from the membership, officially changed its name to the “National Council on Weights and Measures.” The name change was prompted to clarify to the general public that NCWM is not just a meeting (or conference), but rather an organization that provides many valuable programs and services for its members and stakeholders across the weights and measures community.
Further, NCWM's overall mission of ensuring equity and uniform standards in a changing marketplace is constant, and fortuitously, the NCWM acronym remains the same!
NIST OWM values its longstanding and continued partnership with the NCWM and is committed to collaborating with the newly-named National Council on Weights and Measures in the future. Read more about the NCWM's history here and on the relationship between NIST OWM and the NCWM here.
|
2024 NCWM National Price Verification Survey
The National Council on Weights and Measures (NCWM) recently completed the 2024 National Price Verification Survey together with support from NIST OWM and Weights and Measure officials. This survey, conducted by 26 States and 20 local and county jurisdictions which amassed over 7400 inspections, was critical to obtaining information to maintain the integrity of pricing practices and support equitable commerce across the U.S. By systematically evaluating the accuracy of pricing in various retail environments, the survey not only highlighted compliance with existing regulations but also bolstered consumer confidence in the fairness of day-to-day commercial transactions.
|
DYK: NIST OWM Fun Facts
NIST OWM’s principal mandate to “fix the standard of weights and measures” is explicitly stated in the U.S. Constitution. Also, the “Office of Standard Weights and Measures” was formed in 1836 as part of the Coast and Geodetic Survey and predated the formation of the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) which was renamed the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in 1988. This makes the Office of Weights and Measures (OWM) the oldest office at NIST. Learn more About OWM here.
|
Metric Week 2024: Measure Up with Metric Education
National Metric Week (October 6 to 12, 2024) is an opportunity to draw attention to the educational and economic benefits of metric system measurements, formally known as the International System of Units (SI). The Office of Weights and Measures (OWM) Metric Program and the U.S. Metric Association (USMA) collaborate to promote Metric Week celebrations in classrooms and communities around the country. U.S. K-12 public, private, and homeschool educators, as well as informal education outreach ambassadors, are invited to use NIST SI educational classroom resources.
|
 New NIST OWM Contacts System is Open for Business
The Office of Weights and Measures (OWM) Contacts System customer portal is open for business. NIST OWM officially launched the new online portal for the OWM Contacts System on September 3, 2024. The new portal is the primary hub for requesting OWM products and services, including OWM publications, training classes, and full access to your training history.
Latest Updates on EPOs for Electrical Energy and Hydrogen Vehicle Fueling
OWM is pleased to announce the latest inspection and test procedures for two alternative vehicle fueling applications: Electrical Energy (EVSE for Vehicle Fueling Systems) (EPO 30) and Hydrogen Gas (Vehicle Fueling Dispensers) (EPO 29), as well as the updating of the field examinations of a wider range of device-types covered in NIST Handbook 112. EPOs serve as a step-by-step "shorthand” guide for the specific code requirements within NIST Handbook 44, which weights and measures officials can easily use in field inspections and testing of devices to legal metrology standards.
|
Welcome Mike Stocker!
NIST OWM is happy to have Mike Stocker from NIST’s Sensor Science Division joining us to work across our programs to jumpstart the development of OWM’s EVSE metrology training content and workshop activities. Mike is working with the OWM team in Applied Electrical Metrology to build fundamentals of electrical metrology and DC traceability for laboratory and field reference meters into the material. He also will be developing a 5-day EVSE training curriculum with classroom lectures and hands-on components designed for state metrology laboratories, state weights and measures regulatory officials, and other key industry stakeholders. Mike will also contribute to core activities of the laboratory metrology program, including laboratory recognition and fundamentals of metrology training efforts.
Mike is a physical scientist and dimensional metrologist with expertise in forensic firearm tool mark analysis, SRM development for semiconductor and forensic applications, and optical microscopy methods. He also has a background in computer science and electrical engineering and served as an electronics technician with the surface and nanostructure metrology group in years past.
Welcome, Mike, and we are looking forward to working together in OWM!
|
OWM Welcomes Ombati Wilson Nyang’au as NIST International Associate
NIST OWM is pleased to welcome Dr. Wilson Ombati Nyang’au as a new NIST Associate and a mass metrology expert from the Kenyan Bureau of Standards (KEBS), where he has worked as a metrologist since 2011. Dr. Nyang’au is currently the head of the Mass Metrology section of the Kenyan Bureau of Standards (KEBS), which is responsible for mass standards, solid density, weighing instruments, and moisture measuring instruments. He joined OWM as a NIST International Associate for a one-year term starting this past August 2024.
Ombati will be working with the Laboratory Metrology program at OWM to develop a multifaceted mass metrology training program that includes in-person classroom and hands-on instructions, access to online and hybrid course modules, and availability to mobile laboratory training components that can be deployed to train metrologists across the Intra-Africa Metrology System (AFRIMETS) and, eventually, the Inter-American Metrology System (SIM) communities. Together with the OWM staff, Ombati will develop and execute a NIST OWM mass proficiency testing and interlaboratory comparison plan with the inclusion of NIST, KEBS, U.S. Regional Measurement Assurance Program (RMAP) laboratories, and other national laboratories within AFRIMETS. Participation in the interlaboratory comparisons will be used to encourage capacity building and knowledge transfer to the individual metrology institutes, supporting metrological traceability, and ensuring the credibility and acceptance of laboratory measurements amongst the participating economies.
|
 2024 NIST Internship Reflections
During the summer of 2024, the NIST Physical Measurement Laboratory’s (PML) Office of Weights and Measures (OWM) hosted two undergraduate students through the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) and Professional Research Experience (PREP). These and other programs facilitate collaborations between NIST and universities to offer work experience opportunities under the mentorship of a NIST scientist or engineer.
 |
|
Weights and Measures in the News
|
Sonoma County District Attorney
Santa Rosa, CA
September 16, 2024
CNN
By: Ramishah Maruf
September 14, 2024
|
California County Weights and Measures officials ensure the trust and transparency of everyday consumer transactions, from buying bulk produce to fuel at the pump.
Farm Progress
By: Todd Fitchette
September 10, 2024
|
The U.S. Sun
By: Debbie White
August 16, 2024
|
ENRNewYork
The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE) is frequently used by overweight trucks.
By: Marigo Farr
August 1, 2024
|
|
