Fire Protection And Safety Management: Two Partnership Programs
- Conference
- Location
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Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Publication Date
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June 22, 2008
- Start Date
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June 22, 2008
- End Date
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June 25, 2008
- ISSN
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2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Engineering Technology
- Page Count
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14
- Page Numbers
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13.612.1 - 13.612.14
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--3097
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/3097
- Download Count
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438
Paper Authors
Alberto Gomez-Rivas University of Houston-Downtown
Alberto Gomez-Rivas is Professor of Structural Analysis Design. Dr. Gomez-Rivas received Ph.D. degrees from the University of Texas, Austin, Texas, in Civil Engineering and a Ph.D. from Rice University, Houston, Texas, in Economics. He received the Ingeniero Civil degree, with Honors, from the Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia. He also served as Chief of Colombis Department of Transportation Highway Bridge Division. Dr. Gomez-Rivas has published over 40 journal articles and is a Registered Professional Engineer.
George Pincus University of Houston-Downtown
George Pincus is Dean of the College of Sciences and Technology, and Professor at the University of Houston-Downtown (1986-date). Prior service includes Dean of the Newark College of Engineering and Professor, New Jersey Institute of Technology (1986-1994). Dean Pincus received the Ph.D. degree from Cornell University and the M.B.A degree from the University of Houston. Dr. Pincus has published over 50 journal articles, 2 books and is a Registered Professional Engineer.
Edward Sheinberg University of Houston-Downtown
Edward R. Sheinberg is Associate Professor of Engineering Technology and Coordinator, Safety and Fire Engineering Technology program, University of Houston-Downtown. Professor Sheinberg received the Master of Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Houston. He is a Registered Professional Engineer and has extensive industrial consulting experience with NASA and other engineering firms.
Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract
Fire Protection and Safety Management: Two Partnership Programs
Abstract
Two four year engineering technology programs were recently developed and implemented at our university: 1) Safety and Fire Protection and 2) Safety Management. Safety and Fire Protection is a Bachelor of Science in Engineering Technology degree (BSET) degree while Safety Management is a Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences degree (BAAS). The BAAS degree was developed to allow community college graduates holding an Associate of Applied Science (AAS) degree rather than the Associate of Science (AS) degree the opportunity to continue their college education and earn a 4-years bachelor degree.
Introduction
This paper describes two engineering technology programs that were recently developed and implemented at our university: 1) Safety and Fire Protection and 2) Safety Management. Safety and Fire Protection is a four-year Bachelor of Science in Engineering Technology degree (BSET) while Safety Management is a four-year Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences degree (BAAS). The Safety and Fire Protection program was designed to satisfy the need for scientific and engineering knowledge in all aspects of fire in order to avoid human and physical losses due to the destructive nature of fire. In the United States and more specifically in the State of Texas, there is an immense deficiency on technical training in fire. In a recent fire conference in Beijing, China, there were hundreds of representatives from Europe, Asia and the Australian continent but only a handful from the United States. There are only five university programs in the field of fire protection in the U.S. Recent losses due to fire in the United States (12,000 lives and $11 billion dollars) are described in the report by The National Commission on Fire Prevention and Control, “Burning America”, Washington DC, 1973.
Safety Management deals with the development and implementation of procedures to avoid accidents in the workplace. The United States is a world leader in the field due to organizations that develop procedures and establish obligatory standards such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which is the main federal agency charged with the enforcement of safety and health legislation in the workplace.
The two programs are concerned with losses to society but their methodologies are completely different. Fire Protection is based on the application of the scientific principle to the study of fire phenomena while Safety Management deals with the application of laws and regulations to the prevention of human losses in the work place.
The State of Texas Legislature concerned about lack of training in fire protection established a tuition aid program for university students in the field of fire science. The Chief of the Houston Fire Department considering the scarcity of fire protection engineers in the Houston Area
Gomez-Rivas, A., & Pincus, G., & Sheinberg, E. (2008, June), Fire Protection And Safety Management: Two Partnership Programs Paper presented at 2008 Annual Conference & Exposition, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 10.18260/1-2--3097
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