AISC has released a new standard, Certification Standard for Steel Fabrication and Erection, and Manufacturing of Metal Components (AISC 207-16). Available for free at www.aisc.org/newcertstandard, this standard brings together provisions from four existing standards related to steel building fabrication, steel bridge fabrication, steel erection and metal component manufacturing. 

Congratulations to our winners! They are: Ranjit Singh, enterprise integration leader at Douglas Steel Fabricating Corporation, Lansing, Mich.; Derek Hoffman, detailer/designer at SWF Industrial, Inc., Wrightsville, Pa. (an AISC member and certified fabricator and erector); and Nep Viajar, civil/structural engineer at Fluor Corp., Houston.    

The 2018 NASCC: The Steel Conference is set to take place April 11-13 in Baltimore.

Confidence in the commercial construction industry is strong, despite significant concerns around job-site efficiency and labor productivity, according to the Q4 2017 USG Corporation + U.S. Chamber of Commerce Commercial Construction Index. Released yesterday, the Index shows that optimism remains high in the commercial construction industry, with 57% of contractors expecting to hire in the next six months and a large majority reporting stable or increased revenue expectations in the next year.

Chippewa Valley Technical College (CVTC) in Eau Claire, Wis., installed a 1.5-ton steel teaching sculpture on the grounds of its Energy Education Center last week. The sculpture, standing nine feet tall and eight feet deep and wide, consists of a series of galvanized steel beams connected in varying angles with varying connection methods.

AISC is offering several new resources that complement the 15th Edition Steel Construction Manual, released this past summer. Included are the v15.0 Design Examples, v15.0 Shapes Database, v15.0H Historic Shapes Database, Basic Design Values Cards and Interactive Reference List. All these resources are available for free download at www.aisc.org/manualresources.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Applied Technology Council (ATC) invite the engineering and construction community to participate in the prediction of the seismic response of deep, wide-flange structural steel beam-columns.

ArcelorMittal USA (an AISC member) is offering grants to local schools to further science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. The steelmaker is pledging $275,000 to schools in areas near many of its U.S. facilities to teach the Project Lead The Way (PLTW) curriculum. The hope is to interest local K-12 students in future careers in engineering.

AISC and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) have released a new report and a video presentation on steel and timber research for mid- and high-rise residential buildings, available for free at www.aisc.org/timberresearch.

Modular steel construction enables an efficient energy export endeavor on the Gulf Coast.