Chattanooga Engineers Club upcoming events

CEC Tour - KIA Plant in West Point, Georgia (5 May 2026)

Tue, 05 May 2026 17:15:00 GMT

About Kia:

In 2006, Kia made one of the biggest single foreign investments in the history of Georgia by establishing a state-of-the-art production facility in West Point. Since then, along with suppliers, Kia have helped create more than 14,000 jobs and produced more than 4.6 million vehicles.

With an annual capacity of more than 350,000 vehicles, Kia Georgia is home of the Telluride SUV, Sorento SUV, Sportage SUV and the all-electric EV9 and EV6 SUVs. This advanced manufacturing facility represents a $3.2 billion investment on a 2,200-acre site, operating 24 hours a day.

Some news items:

April 24th, 2026 -Vehicle Protection Structures (VPS), in partnership with Kia Georgia, today announced the completion of a large-scale hail protection and solar canopy system at Kia’s West Point manufacturing facility with an official ribbon-cutting ceremony. Spanning 3.2 million square feet and generating 10 megawatts of on-site solar power, the installation is among the largest projects of its kind in the Southeast and represents a significant investment in operational resilience and renewable energy.

Nov. 20, 2024 – Saturday was a historic day for Kia Georgia as the plant commemorated 15 years of production since becoming Kia’s first North American manufacturing facility.

Dec. 17, 2021 – Kia Georgia, Inc. announced the retirement of its President & Chief Executive Officer, Jangsoo (Jason) Shin, effective December 31, 2021. Shin has led the Georgia facility since 2017, overseeing the inaugural launches of the brand’s Telluride and K5 models, as well as the latest generation of its first model, the Sorento.

At the same time Kia Georgia also announced that Chief Operating Officer, Stuart Countess, will be President and Chief Executive Officer, effective January 1, 2022. Countess joined the company in 2008, as the senior manager of assembly and has witnessed the operation’s development from ground-breaking to a world class automotive manufacturing complex. He has held positions in manufacturing and quality, as well as human resources & administration, serving as Chief Administrative Officer prior to his current position.

Countess holds BS in Electrical Engineering from University of Alabama and MBA from LaGrange College.

CEC/IEEE - Determination of Off-site Power Grid for Nuclear Power Plants (8 Jun 2026)

Mon, 08 Jun 2026 16:00:00 GMT

The presentation will be on a research collaboration between the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and the Tennessee Valley Authority.

The UTC-TVA research team’s paper, “Offsite Power Grid Strength Determination for Nuclear Power Plants: Improved Calculations and Practical Implementation” was co-authored by Dr. Abdel Karrar, professor of electrical engineering and associate dean of the UTC College of Engineering and Computer Science; UTC undergraduate students Andrew Adams and Julio Gonzalez; and Mark Bowman, senior program manager of Power System Analysis at TVA.

The project stemmed from a long-running research partnership between UTC and TVA. The research addressed a significant challenge in the nuclear power industry: how to measure the strength of the electrical grid—technically known as grid impedance—when real-time visibility is lost due to severe weather or emergency conditions.

The research was conducted using the College of Engineering and Computer Science’s Smart Grid Lab and its real-time digital simulator, which mimics the behavior of an actual nuclear power plant auxiliary power system under a variety of grid conditions. (if interested, a tour of the lab can be provided after the presentation).

About our two speakers:

Dr. Abdel Karrar, professor of electrical engineering and associate dean of the UTC College of Engineering and Computer Science.

Dr. Karrar received his BS and MS in Electrical Engineering from University of Khartoum, and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Loughborough University, UK.

Mark Bowman, senior program manager of Power System Analysis at TVA.

CEC Tour - Mueller (Kimball, TN) (15 Jun 2026)

Mon, 15 Jun 2026 18:00:00 GMT

Mueller factor tour in Kimball, TN!

Maximum attendees is 20, so register early.

Please note this plant operates on ET!

Tour Content/Dress
Tours are conducted in an industrial active foundry area and involve walking, some on steel grating, and climbing stairs.

Only steel-toe leather shoes will be allowed for tour. Anyone not wearing required footwear will not be allowed to tour. Bring and wear safety glasses. If you do not have safety glasses, Mueller has some that we can wear. They have safety vests for us to wear. DO NOT wear metal rings. Hair shoulder length or longer should be tied up. Dress code is business casual or jeans.