Meeting Minutes
TAC New Initiatives Subcommittee
January 2010 AIAA 48th Aerospace Sciences Meeting & Exhibit
Tuesday, January 6th, 2010 2 to 6 PM
Chair: Mark Melanson
Vice-chair: Allen Arrington
Attendance:
James Afarin / Selma GoldsteinTony Williams / Dale Pitt
Peter Montgomery / Thomas Mensah
Ian Halliwell / Jeff Zweber
Betty Guilie / Grant Anderson
Jim Rankin / George Lesieutre
Elisabeth Klein-Lebbink / KC Niedermeyr
Bill West / Carlos Cesnik
Jim Keenan / Achille Messac
David G. Lilley / Tom Beutner
Discussion:
2009 Workshop with Education - Closeout (Halliwell)
· Engineers need training on how to present to students.
· Resistance within AIAA on delivery of materials to teachers.
o Host the material on a website.
o eFluids website has a lot of great information. http://www.efluids.com/
§ AIAA would not even post a link to e-fluids website.
o Develop materials at the TC level then distribute through TAC to RSCA down to the local sections and out to the teachers.
§ Sections should have personal contact to local teachers
o Need to make allowances to make aero engineering available to teachers who do not have direct access due to lack of industrial base in the area.
o NASA material is well received by teachers.
§ Target to a grade level and the subject matter of the grade level.
· Material taught varies with grade level, so engineering related training may not fit into the training plan for each grade.
· Material varies across states for a given grade level as there is not consistency from state-to-state.
§ Tailor to the teacher; give them the material and background to become comfortable with the material so that the teacher can incorporate the material in to their classrooms.
o Need to coordinate the efforts across TCs (rather than each working as an island).
o Recent trend shows an increase in aero engineering enrollment.
§ US citizens?
o Need a list of AIAA members willing to work with Educator Affiliates.
§ Security issues with getting into schools.
§ “Speaker’s bureau” type system for engineering willing to with with educators.
· Searchable database?
· Check with TCs for activity in education.
o Share with VP Education.
o Share with TCs to provide ideas across TCs.
· TCs develop material, but VP Education or staff needs to create web links for repository of educational material.
· Need liaisons to TAC from PCO and Student Activities.
· ACTION PLAN:
o Identify TC with activity in education and POCs for each
§ Goal improved communication between TAC (TC to TC) and Education/PCO
o Provide list to TCs and Education Subcommittee
§ Possible overlap with annual report and metrics (TBD) : add to metrics questions
o POC: Bill West
2010 Workshop (Arrington)
· Arrington will continue to be the lead and POC to SEC.
· Beutner and West will support the 2010 Workshop activities.
· ACTION PLAN:
o Arrington is the Identify lead for work with SEC, with Beutner and West assisting
o Collect all of the information from the workshop and share with the participants (Arrington).
o Team with SEC lead to identify items that we want to work and responsible parties.
o Look at both the set of top issues and for other actionable items.
o Form plan of attack for TAC-related actions
o Lead work to completion.
o Report out at Summer 2010 meeting (NIS and TAC)
o Other items
o Provide feedback in 2011 on 2010 results
§ One slide on results for directors/groups briefings (communication results)
TC Metrics (West)
· Drop PC metrics for now and focus only on metrics for TCs in order to get the scope in place.
· Division of metrics:
o Directors use them for health of TCs.
o TAC uses metrics to highlight how well TC aligns with TAC goals.
o TCs can use metrics to get ideas/lessons learned from other TCs (new things to try and areas to improve)
· ACTION PLAN:
o Complete draft of TC metrics
2011 Workshop Plans
· If there is not workshop next year, then have the Deputy Directors attend the TC chair training as a refresher on TC operations.
· Also, skipping the workshop in 2011 will give us a break and will allow us to apply resources on closing out the 2010 and earlier workshops.
· ACTION PLAN: Melanson/Arrington to formalize plan for 2011 Workshop (or not) by May Inside Aerospace Conference
TC annual report
· Add a statement as to why report is needed and how it will be used.
· ACTION PLAN: Nancy Anderson to complete draft and roll out to Engineering and Technology Management Group for initial implementation and feedback
o Check for possibility of online submittal using sharepoint list features
TAC/NiS documentation and web storage organization (Melanson)
· Volunteers to support this effort
o Anderson – public policy
o George L. – Awards
o Cesnik – Publications
o Williams – wherever needed.
o Nancy Andersen – wherever needed
o Jeff Z. – TC/PC
o Tony Gross – PC
· ACTION PLAN:
o Melanson to make TAC docs available to all volunteers
o review materials for inconsistency and consolidations (each subteam will look at one “category” of docs as identified in cross reference material in NIS meeting charts
o Additional web organizer volunteered
o Review Goals
§ Identify and document minor and significant inconsistencies
§ Significant changes will require NIS/TAC concurrence
§ Propose modifications that resolve issues
o Provide draft material to web editors for incorporation
o Participate in periodic telecons (Melanson to organize)
o Have initial draft of Process and Procedure materials on a website by Aug. 2010
Structured Programming Study (Arrington)
· Arrington provided a short status of the project. This was the same update to the Academic Affairs Committee (AAC) on Monday evening.
· Basically done with data collection and analysis and a report on the study has been drafted. Review of the report is underway (West and D. Krausche and provided comments). AAC will review. Need a couple reviewers from NIS. The following folks volunteered:
o David Lilley
o Carlos Cesnik
o Jim Keenan
· Conclusions and Recommendations is the key:
o The primary conclusions from the surveys are:
§ The employers are looking for structured programming skills in new aerospace engineering graduates.
§ As it turns out, the schools are providing this educational background as part of the AE curriculum,
§ But the students may be missing the importance or relevance of these skills with respect to aerospace engineering.
o The recommendations call for tweaks, note whole scale changes:
§ The schools need to tie the structured programming more closely with the mainstream courses so that the students understand why the skills are needed and learn how to apply the skills to the real world problems.
§ Employers need to do a better job communication their requirements to the schools.
· ACTION PLAN:
o The plan for completing the project consists of two primary deliverables:
§ Allen to provide volunteers with preliminary report for review
§ We need to complete the project report and publish as some sort of AIAA document (maybe a conference paper or a Special Project Report).
§ We also need a one- to two-page white paper to send to the AE Department Chairs (rather then send them a 35-page report that they may not read). Arrington requested that someone else make the first pass at the white paper. David Lilley volunteered to take the first crack at the WP.
o Also suggested that the white paper is sent to the students as well.
o The title of the report and paper should clearly denote aerospace engineering.
Life Sciences TC Charter:
· LSTC updated their charter. Most of the changes were administrative and operational, but they also modified their scope and requested that the change be approved by TAC/NIS.
· Overall, there were no major issues with the changes to the LSTC scope.
· There was one minor question on wording (“space life sciences” was identified specifically after a more general definition was established in the charter. This needs to be clarified with the LSTC Chair.
· Also, it seems that the process should be to run the updated charter past all the other TC Chairs to ensure that there is no overlap with other TCs.
· ACTION PLAN:
o Melanson to get DRAFT to TC chairs for review of any potential overlap (only); no editorial review (assistance from Guille)
o Melanson to resolve any issues that arise
o TAC Exec vote as soon as all issues are resolved.
Ethical Standards Document Review:
· Will limit review to recent changes to the document, since the document had been previously reviewed.
· ACTION PLAN:
o Email document for review by NIS members per description above (MELANSON/Guille)
o Email vote for approval (majority required)
TC Application Form: Updated form approved by NIS. Ready for TAC.
· ACTION PLAN
o Minor editing required based upon TAC comments
o TAC Exec Vote once edits are completed
Workshop Request Form: Passed by NIS as modified during the meeting. Ready for TAC.
· ACTION PLAN
o Reviewed and Approved by TAC on 1/7/10
A/V Equipment for TC subcommittee and working group meetings: Issue is that not all meetings have A/V (not so much an issue at ASM, but has been a problem at the summer conferences).
· Work this with Betty and KC.
· Can TAC Funds be used to rent A/V equipment?
Tracking member activities: Balu Sekar (HyTASP Liaison, ABP TC) submitted a question about tracking member activities like arranging panel sessions, reviewing abstracts, chairing sessions, etc. as service to AIAA. Information like this will be helpful in member upgrades (and service awards)
· Dale Pitt indicated that this information would be captured with the new database system.
Action Items assigned:
Item / Assigned to: / Due Date: / Status:Email TAC Ethical Standards document to NIS for review and email vote. Review substantive issues and concerns only; refrain from minor editorial comments please / Melanson Email doc and vote request / 11-Jan-10
2009 Workshop Closeout: o Identify TC with activity in education and POCs for each; Communicate information within TAC and to Education SC and PCO / Bill West (lead)
Ian Halliwell / 12-May-10
Execute ACTION PLAN from 2010 Workshop teamed with Standards. See details in minutes / Arrington (lead)
West
Beutner / 26-Jul-10
TC (only) Metrics DRAFT complete / West / 12-May-10
Finalize 2011 Workshop plan / Melanson
Arrington / 12-May-10
Finalize draft TC Annual report / N. Anderson / 12-May-10
Execute TAC Processes ACTION PLAN / Melanson
Process Team / June 2010 / Goal: Draft website for TAC initial review
Complete ABET ACTION PLAN / Arrington
Lilley
Cesnik
Keenan / 12-May-10 / Arrington emailed draft report to other participants
Life Sciences TC Charter review and approval / Melanson
Guille / 12-May-10
TC Application Form and vote / Melanson
Beutner / 17-Mar-10
Submitted by: Allen Arrington and Mark Melanson