History: Bellman and Matranga

This photo Nalin and I found in the archive is that of Donald Bellman and Gene Matranga of NASA Flight Research Center (probably taken in the 1964-66 timeframe). Bellman was the PM and Matranga and Drake (not pictured) were engineers on the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV) project in 1964-65.

-Jeff Veselenak, AIAA AV Executive Advisor.


More info is at the Dryden Fact Sheet for the LLRV.

Do/did you know these two gentlemen? Did you work on or with the LLRV project? We'd love to hear your story. Please click below to leave your comments on this post.

Scaled Thank You Letter

Thanks to the generosity of AIAA AV members, we were able to donate a consolidated check for $225.00 to the Scaled Family Support Fund, which was set up to assist the families of those killed in the tragedy that befell the famous Mojave-based company some time back. We received the following from them:

October 16th, 2007

Dear Sir or Madam,

On behalf of the Scaled Family Support Fund, we would like to thank you for your generous donation to aid those affected by the explosion on July 26, 2007.

Your contribution has helped to alleviate some of the immediate needs for the families of Eric Blackwell, Todd Ivens, and Glen May. Your support will also aid those who were injured: Kieth Fritsinger, Gene Gisin, and Jason Kramb.

The families have expressed how astonished they are with the level of generosity, love, and support that has comforted them during this difficult time. Again, thank you for making it possible to help the members of our Scaled Family.

Sincerely,
The Scaled Family Support Fund

AIAA Student Member Benefits

Do you know about the numerous benefits that are provided by the AIAA to college level students who are members of AIAA (membership is only $20/year)? In addition to receiving Aerospace America, the students can attend many of the nationally sponsored conferences for a significantly reduced price. Additionally, the AIAA provides competitive scholarship funding at the undergraduate and graduate levels as well as the Abe Zarem Award for Distinguished Achievement. There are more details about each of the scholarships below and this year’s winners (2007) are listed in the attached press releases. Finally, there are eight different design competitions where there are monetary prizes ($2,500 win, $1,500 place, and $1,000 show) as well as bragging rights. Students can find the details of the competitions at

http://www.aiaa.org/content.cfm?pageid=210

Please take a moment to look over these scholarships, awards, and design competitions as well as the listings of this year’s winners.

UNDERGRADUATE SCHOLARSHIPS
AIAA provides yearly undergraduate scholarship awards that enable worthy students to further their education in fields compatible with the AIAA objective. The program awards $2,000 each to a total of 30 students in each of three undergraduate categories of sophomores, juniors and seniors. The deadline for the 2008/2009 academic year scholarship applications is 31 January 2008. For more details and an application form, contact AIAA Customer Service at 1-800-639-AIAA or complete the form from the AIAA web site at http://www.aiaa.org. In 2007, 5 Sophomores, 12 Juniors, and 13 Seniors received the award, yet only 2 appear to be from Region VI-western United States (although several were from Embry-Riddle and the exact campus was not mentioned so it could have been Prescott, AZ.).

GRADUATE SCHOLARSHIPS
The AIAA also provides annual scholarships awards to Master and PhD students studying topics encapsulated by the AIAA Technical Committees. Some of the awards are for very specific areas of study while others are open to students studying any topic to AIAA’s interests. The Orville and Wilbur Wright Graduate Awards are valued at $10,000 US and are available to any student in the world studying at an accredited university. The Guidance, Navigation, and Control Graduate Award and the Willy Z. Sadeh Graduate Student Award in Space Engineering and Space Sciences are also available to students throughout the world and are valued at $5,000 US. All other awards are valued at $5,000 US and are limited to students that are studying at an accredited school within the US. This year 14 awards were made and again, only 2 were from Region VI-western United States.

ABE ZAREM AWARD
Finally, there is the Abe Zarem Award for Distinguished Achievement, given to two mater’s students: one for aeronautics and one for astronautics. The award winners are given a distinctive bronze medals and a certificate as recognition of their technical excellence at the AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting (ASM). Additionally, the student will receive a travel stipend to present his/her work at the established biennial International Conference of the Aeronautical Sciences (ICAS) or the annual International Astronautical Congress. The technical work of the winners will also be submitted for publication in the professional media of aeronautics and astronautics, as well as announced in the media of all other professional societies. In addition to the student's award, the research advisor of the winning student is also recognized for his/her role in guiding the student.


L. Jane Hansen
AIAA Deputy Director, Education
Region VI - Western United States

AIAA Announces 2008 Associate Fellows

Reston, VA, 24 September 2007 - The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is proud to announce the 2008 Associate Fellows.

The 2008 Associate Fellow Grade Committee met in August 2007 and selected 172 members for upgrade to Associate Fellow. The Membership Committee approved all selectees.

The requirements for Associate Fellow as stated in the bylaws are as follows: Associate Fellows may be nominated by any AIAA member in good standing and shall be approved by the Membership Committee; a maximum of one Associate Fellow per every 150 voting members may be upgraded annually; nominees must be AIAA Senior Members and have at least 12 years professional experience; nominees must be recommended by three members in good standing of Associate Fellow grade or higher.

The 2008 Associate Fellows will be honored at the AIAA Associate Fellows Dinner on Monday, 7 January 2008. The dinner will be held at the Grand Sierra Resort (formerly the Reno Hilton Resort), 2500 East Second Street, Reno, NV 89595, in conjunction with the 46th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit.

Adjunct Profs Needed, CSU Fresno / LUC

Electrical Engineering (Course descriptions shown below)

1. ECE 136L (1 unit) (Laboratory - Spring 2007)
2. ECE 138L (1 unit) (Laboratory - Spring 2007)
3. ECE 186B (3 units) (2nd Part Senior Design Class – Spring 2007)

Design projects in electrical and computer engineering – involves problem solving, critical thinking, and oral and written communication.

4. ECE 128L (1 unit) (Laboratory – Fall 2008)

A sample syllabus for each of the classes 1, 2, & 4 is attached to the accompanying e-mail.

5. ECE 173 (3 units) – Robotics Fundamentals

Introduction to industrial robotics, forward and inverse kinematics, trajectory planning, sensors, microcontrollers, and laboratory experiments.

6. ECE 162 (3 units) – Analog Integrated Circuits and Applications

Analysis of monolithic operational amplifiers; case studies, Wilder and Wilson current sources, linear and nonlinear applications, multipliers, phase-lock loops, phase detectors, higher order active filters, all-pass equalizers, D/A and A/D converters, oscillators, function generators, mixers, modulators, regulators, and system design.

7. EE 259 (3 units) – Graduate Radar Design Class, Ph.D. preferred.

The nature and history of radar, the radar equation, PRF and range considerations, CW and FM radars, MYI and pulse-Doppler radars, tracking radars, radar power generation, antenna types and design considerations, receivers, detection of signals, propagation of radar waves, the effects of clutter, weather, and interference, and examples of radar system engineering and design.

Classes 5, 6, and 7 are potential offerings that will be based on student interest and instructor availability.

Laboratory and Senior Design classes are held at the Lancaster University Center (LUC) at 45356 Division Street in Lancaster, CA 93535 and are open to Antelope Valley students only.

Lecture classes are delivered via Interactive Television to students at the main campus in Fresno as well as to Antelope Valley students. Instruction is delivered using state-of-the-art Distance Learning class rooms at the LUC.

Please provide resumes via e-mail to:

ksantarelli@csufresno.edu

asteele@csufresno.edu

Resumes will be immediately submitted to the Department Chair for review.

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.