ANSI Announces Winners of 2014 Student Paper Competition

NEW YORK, Aug. 26, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American National Standards Institute (ANSI), coordinator of the U.S. voluntary standardization system, and its Committee on Education (CoE) are pleased to announce that Lu Hao of Washington, DC's Georgetown University is the first-place winner of the annual ANSI student paper competition. Second place has been awarded to Justin Carone of Pennsylvania's Drexel University. The contest is part of an ANSI-led effort to raise awareness about the strategic importance of standards and conformance among U.S. undergraduate and graduate students.

Entrants in this year's competition were asked to submit papers examining the role played by standards and conformity assessment in addressing emerging business challenges. The contest was open to students of any discipline currently enrolled in an associate, undergraduate, or graduate level program at a U.S. academic institute of higher learning.

Ms. Hao's paper, titled "The Good, the Bad, and the Ambivalent: Equivalence Standards Program in Agricultural Trade," examines the ways in which equivalence standards for food safety can be used to facilitate trade and assure safety in an increasingly global economy. The paper focuses on the U.S. broiler industry's Equivalence Determinant Program.

The second place–winning paper, "Standards as Social Design Practice: From the Americans with Disabilities Act to the Accessible Icon Project," looks at how social concerns affect the development and subsequent enforcement of standards. In the paper, Mr. Carone uses the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the redesign of the International Symbol for Accessibility as jumping-off points for an in-depth look at this complex issue.

Both winners will receive a cash prize for their winning paper as well as a certificate for themselves and their schools. 

For more information about the ANSI Committee on Education, please contact Lisa Rajchel ([email protected]).

About ANSI
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a private non-profit organization whose mission is to enhance U.S. global competitiveness and the American quality of life by promoting, facilitating, and safeguarding the integrity of the voluntary standardization and conformity assessment system. Its membership is made up of businesses, professional societies and trade associations, standards developers, government agencies, and consumer and labor organizations. The Institute represents the diverse interests of more than 125,000 companies and organizations and 3.5 million professionals worldwide.

The Institute is the official U.S. representative to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and, via the U.S. National Committee, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

About the ANSI Committee on Education
The ANSI Committee on Education (CoE) oversees all Institute initiatives related to standards and conformity assessment education and outreach, fulfills the objectives of the United States Standards Strategy (USSS), and responds to other issues that may be delegated by the ANSI Board of Directors, Executive Committee, or the National Policy Committee.

SOURCE American National Standards Institute