September Educational Outreach

AIAA AV supported two big educational outreach events this month.

Last Friday (the 21^st), Kia, Jinu, John, and members of the AIAA AV Educational Outreach Committee (EOC) staffed a booth at the Salute to Youth career fair for AV pre-college students. AIAA AV was able to reach out to several thousand local students about the career opportunities available for them in aerospace, as well as the benefits of AIAA student membership. We made connections with students, educators, and community leaders in education, contacts which will serve us well in future outreach activities. The number of American students entering math, science, and engineering fields over the past few years has been drastically short of the number of professionals eligible to retire within the same time period. It is our duty as an engineering professional society to ensure that the future supply of bright young talent is secure, and this event was a great step in that direction. Salute to Youth was the first event for the EOC, and they really came through... great job! I'm looking forward to seeing more of what you have planned. (photo: Dick Albright).

Earlier this evening I visited the Antelope Valley College in order to speak to pre-engineering students about what it is to be an engineer and how to become one. The AVC is partnering with CSU Bakersfield and CSU Fresno to bring 4-year accredited engineering degrees to the Antelope Valley for the first time. AIAA AV is proud to be playing a key role in making this plan happen by supporting educational events for prospective students. This event was specifically designed to reach out to students thinking about working towards careers in engineering, and to help guide them along in making the right decisions to achieve that goal. The Antelope Valley has long needed local 4-year engineering and technical degree programs, and AIAA AV is helping to make this become a reality.

If you are interested in joining the EOC committee, which I believe is 7-10 strong at the moment, send an email to aiaa.av@gmail.com. You do not have to be an AIAA member to join… we welcome the support and ideas of engineering professionals, educators, local community and civic leaders, and anyone else with a stake in the future of math, science, and engineering education in the AV.

RAC-VI Update

The Regional Activities Council, Region VI (RAC-VI) met last Saturday. This is a quarterly meeting of the Regional Director, the Deputy Directors, and the Section Chairs from all over our region; we meet to discuss issues we have been having, ideas for new programs, and to get the update from AIAA National.

First off, mad props (highest compliments, for the older crowd) to Kia for setting up an awesome new website and getting this blog working. We have received many compliments from the Regional and National level for being the first AIAA Section to explore this medium of communication. I would like to see a gradual transition to having this blog serve three functions that were previously separate: updates, newsletter, and forum. I will continue to send out updates via email, but they will also be posted here for easy reference later. Articles and such that would normally go in a newsletter can be posted here by any officer (or member, just email us), and anyone us free to post comments under each thread, serving the forum function.

Our updates:

Our membership is at 286 as of September 1st. This is great, but I think we can do better! Think of the thousands of aerospace professionals and related personnel in the AV... I think that maybe they do not see a value in being a member, or just don't know about us. So, my two top goals this year: 1. generate value to members, 2. create a sense of community within AIAA through strong and relevant communication. I think that these tasks must precede any other.

Those of you watching the numbers will notice that the budget I submitted this year cuts funding to areas like educational outreach and local community programs. My reasoning behind this is that we need to get the membership involved and participating in AIAA AV first, through generating that member value, and then later (maybe next year) we can use our built-up human capital to make more of a difference in the local and education community that we could by plugging along at the existing low levels of participation. So my number one budget priority this year is to provide events and programs that are often enough and quality enough for YOU to value your AIAA membership, and thus feel inclined to participate more in our activities. John and Scott have been helping me immensely in this regard, I don't don't how I could accomplish this task without them. And I always welcome YOUR ideas, please look me up in the AIAA member directory or send an email to aiaa.av@gmail.com.

These restructured budget priorities are not to say we are ignoring education completely... our Educational Outreach Committee (EOC), led by Jinu has assembled quite the task force of engineers, educators, and local leaders to address educational issues in the AV and sponsor what events we can. I've been very pleased with the way things are going with the EOC, and the Deputy Director for Pre-College Outreach had some high praise for our Section's efforts. Great job EOC team, keep it up! My long term plan is to provide the EOC with increased capability and funding as our core membership strengthens.

Thanks for everyone's kind contributions to the Scaled Family Support Fund. The tragedy at Scaled Composites affects us all as neighbors and colleagues. AIAA AV was able to to send a consolidated check for $225.00 to the fund thanks to your help.

We are still proceeding with our plan to host an "AV-ation History Symposium" this year, though logistics have pushed us to delay it until National Engineers Week in February. This will allow us more time to acquire speakers and work with other organizations (such as SFTE, SWE, the AV 99's, and EAA) in the planning efforts. Jeff has been spearheading this effort (along with his many other functions) and I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops. I hope we can start a new annual tradition here!

That's all for now, stay tuned.

Upcoming events

I've had many requests to balance Palmdale/Lancaster events with events held further north, so here are two:


1. A quick reminder that we will be having an informal happy hour and social at Coach's in Rosamond this Thursday the 13th from 4:30pm onwards in the back room. Relax over a pint and/or some pub food, and meet some of your AIAA officers and colleagues. I hope to see you there! No RSVP necessary. (AIAA is not buying).


2. Also, and I apologize for the short notice, but our VC for Events and Programming, John, has put together a great dinner meeting for us next week. On the evening of Thursday, Sept. 20th, we will be hosting Charles Pooley at a location TBA in Rosamond. Price will obviously depend on the location, but I would expect it to be quite reasonable. I will send out a flyer with more information and the location as soon as they are available. Please RSVP to aiaa.av@gmail.com with the subject line "Dinner RSVP".

About the talk:

"Microlaunchers: The Case for Very Small Spacecraft"

Presently the business of space exploration is characterized by
very large, expensive systems in which there is limited opportunity
for participation by more than a few. Even the recent entrepreneurial
efforts tend to involve investments on the order of tens to a hundred
million dollars.

Launches are so infrequent that there is little opportunity to
increase the scale of involvement.

Drawing on the history of computers of "The Mainframe Era" and what
suddenly happened in the 1970's, Pooley describes a pathway that
could in a manner analogous to that of the advent of the microcomputer
lower the cost of entry by development of tiny frequently launched
vehicles and spacecraft.

Microlaunchers is intended to create an evolutionary pathway that can
stimulate new industries and involvement of a much wider population
than now possible.


About the Speaker:

Charles Pooley is self employed as a consultant and designer with forty
years experience in electronics and electro-optics. His background
ranges from two years at sea on an oceanographic ship, involvement
in startups, patents, to the design of a sounding rocket.

As president of Pacific Rocket Society he designed and with a
small group tested the propulsion for a sounding rocket. Presently
located in Mojave, California he is involved with the startup
Microlaunchers.

For the past ten years he has been studying issues involved in space
entrepreneurism, and the impediments to its development.