National Institute of Standards and Technology – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) seeks comments concerning U.S. technical participation in the 14th Conference of the International Organization of Legal Metrology (OIML). This conference is held once every four years and was last held in 2008. Interested parties are requested to review and submit comments on the 24 OIML Recommendations and Documents on legal measuring instruments that will be presented for ratification by the Conference. Comments may also be submitted on other issues relevant to the Conference.

The Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office (AMNPO), housed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), announces the third workshop in a series of public workshops entitled ``Designing for Impact: Workshop on Building the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation.'' This workshop series provides a forum for the AMNPO to introduce the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI) and its regional components, Institutes for Manufacturing Innovation (IMIs), and for public discussion of this new initiative that was announced by President Obama on March 9, 2012.\1\ The discussion at the workshop will focus on the following topics: Technologies with Broad Impact, Institute Structure and Governance, Strategies for Sustainable Institute Operations, and Education and Workforce Development.

This notice announces changes to the existing provisions of the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Alternative Personnel Management System (APMS) published October 21, 1997. NIST is implementing direct-hire authority on a permanent basis for all Nuclear Reactor Operator positions in NIST's Scientific and Engineering Technician (ZT) career path at the Pay Band III and above, and for all positions in NIST's Scientific and Engineering (ZP) career path at the Pay Band III and above except for the Information Technology Management, 2210 series; the General Engineering, 801 series; and the General Physical Science, 1301 series.

This notice lists the membership of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Performance Review Board (NIST PRB) and supersedes the list published on September 9, 2011.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is forming a Work Group (WG) to develop proposed requirements for commercial electricity-measuring devices (including those used in sub- metering electricity at residential and business locations and those used to measure and sell electricity dispensed as a vehicle fuel) and to ensure that the prescribed methodologies and standards facilitate measurements that are traceable to the International System of Units (SI). This work is not intended to address utility metering in the home or business where the electricity metered is consumed by the end purchaser.

Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended, 5 U.S.C. app., notice is hereby given that the Panel of Judges of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award will meet on Wednesday, August 29, 2012. The Panel of Judges is composed of twelve members prominent in the fields of quality, innovation, and performance management and appointed by the Secretary of Commerce, assembled to advise the Secretary of Commerce on the conduct of the Baldrige Award. The purpose of this meeting is to review applicant consensus scores and select applicants for site visit review. The applications under review by Judges contain trade secrets and proprietary commercial information submitted to the Government in confidence.

The Department of Commerce, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announces the Revised Draft Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) Publication 201-2, ``Personal Identity Verification of Federal Employees and Contractors,'' for public review and comment. The draft standard, designated ``Revised Draft FIPS 201-2,'' is proposed to supersede FIPS 201-1. NIST will hold a public workshop at NIST in Gaithersburg, Maryland, to present the Revised Draft FIPS 201-2. Please see admittance instructions in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below.

This is a notice in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 209(e) and 37 CFR 404.7(a)(1)(i) that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (``NIST''), U.S. Department of Commerce, is contemplating the grant of an exclusive license in the United States of America, its territories, possessions and commonwealths, to NIST's interest in the invention embodied in U.S. Patent No. 7,709,807 (Application No. 12/ 116,522), titled ``Magneto-Optical Trap Ion Source,'' NIST Docket No. 07-015 and U.S. Patent Application No. 13/369,008 titled ``Charged Particle Source from a Photoionized Cold Atom Beam,'' NIST Docket No. 11-018 to LoTIS Technologies LLC, having a place of business at 18026 Royal Bonnet Circle, Montgomery Village, Maryland 20886. The grant of the license would be for the field: Devices that produce or include a focused beam of electrons and/or ions.

This is a notice in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 209(e) and 37 CFR 404.7(a)(1)(i) that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (``NIST''), U.S. Department of Commerce, is contemplating the grant of an exclusive license in the United States of America, its territories, possessions and commonwealths, to NIST's interest in the invention embodied in U.S. Patent Application No. 13/346,999 titled ``Chirped-Pulse Terahertz Spectroscopy for Broadband Trace Gas Sensing,'' NIST Docket No. 11-016 to TerBAT Inc., having a place of business at 2400 Trade Centre Ave, Longmont, CO 80503. The grant of the license would be for the field of use of medical diagnostic devices and environmental/industrial monitoring devices.

The 97th Annual Meeting of the National Conference on Weights and Measures (NCWM) will be held July 15-19, 2012. This notice contains information about significant items on the NCWM Committee agendas which will be considered at the meetings, but does not include all agenda items. As a result, the items are not consecutively numbered.

NIST invites proposals from eligible proposers for funding projects that provide manufacturing extension services to primarily small- and medium-sized manufacturers in the United States. Specifically, NIST seeks proposals for projects to establish MEP centers in Arizona, Maryland and Rhode Island.

This notice contains the list of National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) documents opening for Public Input, and it also contains information on the NFPA Revision Process. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is publishing this notice on behalf of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) to announce the NFPA's proposal to revise some of its fire safety codes and standards and requests Public Input to amend existing or begin the process of developing new NFPA fire safety codes and standards. The purpose of this request is to increase public participation in the system used by NFPA to develop its codes and standards.

The Department of Commerce, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

The Department of Commerce, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

NIST announces the Cloud Computing Forum & Workshop V to be held on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, June 5, 6 and 7, 2012. The format is a two-day forum followed by a one-day hands-on workshop. This workshop will provide information on the U.S. Government (USG) Cloud Computing Technology Roadmap initiative. This workshop will also provide an updated status on NIST efforts to help develop open standards in interoperability, portability and security in cloud computing. This event is open to the public. In addition, NIST invites organizations to participate as Exhibitors as described in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below.

The NIST-hosted Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office (AMNPO) invites interested parties to provide input on a new public- private partnership program, the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI or Network). The proposed Network will be composed of up to fifteen Institutes for Manufacturing Innovation (IMIs or Institutes) around the country, each serving as a hub of manufacturing excellence that will help to make United States (U.S.) manufacturing facilities and enterprises more competitive and encourage investment in the U.S. This program was proposed in the President's fiscal year (FY) 2013 budget \1\ and was announced by the President on March 9, 2012.\2\ The NNMI program will be managed collaboratively by the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of Commerce's NIST, the National Science Foundation, and other agencies. Industry, state, academic and other organizations will co-invest in the Institutes along with the NNMI program. For purposes of this notice, ``co-invest'' means that non-federal entities will contribute financial and other resources to the Institutes to complement federal investments.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) invites interested parties to attend a pre-consortium meeting on ``Developing Standard Requirements for Fatigue Performance of Transvenous Cardiac Pacing and Defibrillation Leads.''

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) invites all interested parties, including U.S.-based manufacturers, U.S. industry and trade associations and federal government agencies, to submit recommendations and suggestions for workshops covering specific sectors and targeted countries or regions of the world where training in the U.S. approaches to development and use of standards, including assessment of conformity to standards, may facilitate trade, increase U.S. exports, and/or benefit U.S. industry. Standards in Trade (SIT) workshops are designed to introduce U.S. stakeholders to emerging standards and conformity assessment issues in other countries and regions; identify regulatory information and market access issues; and provide timely information to foreign officials on U.S. practices in standards, metrology and conformity assessment. Interested parties must consider Administration priorities outlined in the current National Export Strategy. NIST will offer a limited number of workshops each year. Most workshops will be scheduled for a 3 to 5 day period at NIST in Gaithersburg, Maryland. NIST will evaluate all recommendations and may use the suggested topics in planning its workshops, subject to the availability of resources. Additional guidance is available on the NIST Standards in Trade (SIT) workshop program Web page. This notice is not an invitation for proposals to fund grants, contracts or cooperative agreements of any kind.

NIST announces that the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Advisory Board, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will hold an open meeting on Sunday, May 6, 2012, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office (AMNPO), housed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), announces the first of a series of public workshops entitled ``Designing for Impact: Workshop on Building the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation.'' The workshops will provide a forum for the AMPNO to introduce the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI) and its regional components, Institutes for Manufacturing Innovation (IMIs). The workshops will also provide a forum for public discussion of this new initiative, which President Obama announced on March 9, 2012. The discussion will focus on the following topics: Technologies with Broad Impact, Institute Structure and Governance, Strategies for Sustainable Institute Operations, and Education and Workforce Development.

The Advisory Committee on Earthquake Hazards Reduction (ACEHR or Committee), will hold a meeting via teleconference on Friday, April 27, 2012 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern Time. The primary purpose of this meeting is to review the Committee's draft annual report to the NIST Director. Any draft meeting materials will be posted on the NEHRP Web site at https://nehrp.gov/. Interested members of the public will be able to participate in the meeting from remote locations by calling into a central phone number.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is forming a Work Group (WG) to examine alternative methods for testing the accuracy of commercial measuring devices including, but not limited to retail motor-fuel dispensers. The WG will investigate the current methodology and standards (e.g., neck-type volumetric field standards and associated test procedures) widely used by weights and measures officials and service companies to test commercial measuring devices as well as proposed alternatives to ensure that the methodologies and standards facilitate measurements that are traceable to the International System of Units (SI). WG membership is open to any interested party. This notice also summarizes key issues to be considered by this WG.

The U.S. Department of Commerce's (DOC) National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will hold a free public workshop titled ``Conformity AssessmentApproaches and Best Practices'' on Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at 9 a.m. Eastern Time (ET) at NIST in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The purpose of the NIST public workshop is (1) to examine current approaches to conformity assessment among Federal agencies and the private sector and (2) to provide a forum for discussion with NIST on conformity assessment practices, challenges and the means by which these challenges are being addressed.

This notice announces the Secretary of Commerce's approval of Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) Publication 180-4, Secure Hash Standard (SHS). FIPS 180-4 updates FIPS 180-3 by providing a general procedure for creating an initialization value, adding two additional secure hash algorithms to the Standard: SHA-512/224 and SHA- 512/256 and removing a restriction that padding must be done before hash computation begins, which was required in FIPS 180-3.