MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics Department
enews Vol 3, #1
September 2006

In this issue:

 

1. Honors and Awards
2. Comings and Goings
3. How's UAV Platform Featured
4. Landis Paper on Robo-Exploration Published
5. News from AA Headquarters
6. AA-Interested Freshmen on the rise
7. Murmans Send Thanks for Send-Off
8. Students: Tutorial Services Available. Tutors Sought
9. Seminar Looks into Rear-View Mirrors
10. Flying Club Raffle a Success
11. Events Calenards Now Chase You
12. MIT CDIO Conference Call for Papers
13. Faculty Bios now Online
14. Send Us Your Information

 

1. HONORS AND AWARDS

Professor and Department Head Wes Harris has been named to a prestigious National Academy of Engineering committee that will identify "the most important challenges and opportunities for engineering during the next century." NAE President William A. Wolf said that committee members were selected for their creativity, vision, technical expertise, and ability to engage public interest. To be chaired by former U.S. Secretary of Defense William J. Perry, the committee is expected to report its findings in the fall of 2007.

Professor Olivier L. de Weck has been elected an AIAA Associate Fellow. Fellows have accomplished, or been in charge of, important engineering or scientific work, have done original work of outstanding merit, or have otherwise made outstanding contributions to the arts, sciences, or technology of aeronautics or astronautics. They must be AIAA Senior Members with at least 12 years of professional experience. Professor de Weck will be honored at an AIAA dinner in January.

Professor Ed Crawley has been appointed Ford Professor of Engineering by School of Engineering Dean Tom Magnanti. "I am so pleased that the School of Engineering is able to honor your extraordinary achievements with this distinguished professorship," Magnanti wrote Crawley in announcing the appointment. Ford Professorships are awarded to outstanding faculty members who are recognized as leaders and innovators in their chosen disciplines in the School of Engineering. Most recently, the chair was held by Professor Earll Murman, who retired this year.

Professor R. John Hansman has been appointed T. Wilson Professor in Aeronautics. Department Head Professor Wes Harris said, "Our colleague John Hansman continues to distinguish himself as a leader in air transportation, an area that captures the intent and spirit of the Wilson Chair." Harris expressed his appreciation for Boeing's 1988 establishment of the chair in honor of its then retiring chairman Thornton A. Wilson. Previously, the chair was held by Professor Amedeo R. Odoni.

Fourth-year Aero-Astro student Sho Sato, who hails from Tokyo, has been named 2006 recipient of the Wings Club Scholarship Fund. Sho will be honored October 27 at the Wings Club annual dinner in New York. The principal purpose of the fund is to foster educational opportunities for people pursuing an education in aviation. Sho, and fellow Aero-Astro student Ruijie He, were co-recipients of a United Technologies Corporation prize for achievement in tdesigning, manufacturing, and testing a torque-free propulsion system for a nano-sized air vehicle. They are featured in an article on 16.62X appearing in the 2005-2006 issue of Aero-Astro http://web.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/aeroastro/news/magazine/aeroastro-no3/200616.62x.html, the department's annual review. Sho has been a teaching assistant for two undergraduate courses, and he has worked on a UROP for a Vertical Emplacement Vehicle. The Wings Club (http://www.wingsclub.org/) maintains an aviation meeting place in New York City to promote the advancement and development of aeronautics, provide a center for discussion of aviation matters, and offer members services and facilities to aid them in their aeronautical activities.

Col. Pete Young, the department's AIAA student advisor, reports exciting news: three AA students have won student awards for the 2006-2007 year. They are:

- Mardavij Roozbehani, AIAA Open Topic Graduate Award for his project, Safety Verification of Real-Time Software Systems.
- Lars Blackmore, AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Graduate Award
- Amy Brazin, AIAA Sophomore Scholarship

2. COMINGS AND GOINGS

Anne Maynard, Aero-Astro personnel manager, reports:
- Wes Harris invited Universita Roma Tre professors Umberto Iemma and Luigi Morino to join us for the fall term to participate in a structures course.
- Professor Juan Sanmartin from the Polytechnical University of Madrid is visiting Manuel Martinez-Sanchez through December.
- Missy Cummings welcomes several visitors: Professor John Lee from the University of Iowa; Professor Gilles Coppin from ENST, Bretagne, France; Assoc. Professor Duncan Campbell from Queensland University of Technology ; and Dr. Mark Ashdown, a research scientist from the UK who just finished a postgraduate research fellow's program at University of Tokyo
- Dr. Thomas Richter is a postdoctoral fellow from the University of Heidelberg, with Dave Darmofal
- Dr. Alessandro Arsie is a postdoctoral associate who moved to MIT from UCLA. Emilio Frazzoli is his supervisor.
- Dr. Gil Zussman is a postdoctoral associate with Eytan Modiano.

3. HOW'S UAV PLATFORM FEATURED

The work of a team led by Professor Jon How that's developed a landmark multiple-UAV test platform, is the subject of an article appearing on the front page of Tech Talk http://web.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/newsoffice/2006/flyingrobots.html and may soon be a feature article in a national newspaper. It has also appeared on NewScientistTech http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn10174-uncrewed-aircraft-swarm-together-indoors.html. How's research could lay the groundwork for an intelligent airborne fleet requiring little supervision. Pictures and animations of the project can be accessed at http://vertol.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/

4. LANDIS PAPER ON ROBO-EXPLORATION PUBLISHED

Professor Geoff Landis's paper "Robotic Exploration of the Surface and Atmosphere of Venus" is included in Acta Astronautica, the journal of the International Academy of Astronautics, Vol. 59, 7, 517-580 (October 2006). The paper may be read online at http://dx.doi.org.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/10.1016/j.actaastro. Professor Landis is the Ronald E. McNair-NASA Visiting Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

5. NEWS FROM AA HEADQUARTERS

Department head Professor Wes Harris has announced some realigned and new resources in Aero-Astro headquarters:
"When Ed Greitzer agreed to be Deputy Department Head, he did so with the understanding that an arrangement be made to enable him to continue his research. To assure this would be the case, we obtained a commitment from the Dean's Office to provide the department with a staff Executive Officer who would be responsible for some of the administrative tasks associated with the position of deputy department head. With the help of the Dean's office, we have been searching for a candidate to fill the Executive Officer position. Because it was important to have this individual in place at the term start, Donna Savicki, Assistant Dean for Administration in the School of Engineering since 1982 and a former Aero-Astro AO, has agreed to work part time with Ed, Lauren Gallant, and me as part of the department leadership team. Her primary role will still be that of Assistant Dean. Ed, Lauren, and I view her presence as a real asset, and we know you will join in welcoming her (back) into our community. Also, Lauren Gallant has agreed to return to a five day a week status for as much of the academic year as is deemed necessary. We thank Lauren for doing this."

6. AA-INTERESTD FRESHMEN ON THE RISE

Student Services Academic Program Administrator Marie Stuppard reports, "At the Institute-Wide Academic Exposition in Johnson Athletics Center on August 30, 139 incoming freshmen expressed interest in Course 16. This number is up from 115 in August 2005. These students signed up at our booth to keep in touch with the Aero Astro community during their freshman year. We'll notify them of UROP openings, special lectures and seminars, student-run activities, etc." Marie adds that anyone with an announcement who would like to reach these freshmen, should send it to her at mas@mit.edu and she'll be happy to forward.

7. MURMANS SEND THANKS FOR SEND-OFF

Rena Murman has sent a note to the department from her and her recently retired husband, Professor Earll Murman. Rena writes, "Thanks so very much to everyone in the Aero-Astro Department for the wonderful celebration and send-off for Earll and me. Afterwards, we decided it felt more like a commencement than a retirement. It was great to see so many old and dear friends: faculty, staff and students. I hope we got to chat with everyone. We were touched by all your warm wishes, kind words, and anecdotes from Earll's years at MIT. A special thank you to all for the stunning glass bowl you gave me. As it was made by a Vermont artist, it is a beautiful reminder of both the Aero-Astro Dept. and Vermont. Being connected with MIT has been a wonderful journey and I hope we'll see many of you in future years. Come see us in Port Townsend!"

8. STUDENTS: TUTORIAL SERVICES AVAILABLE, TUTORS SOUGHT

Dr. Sekazi K. Mtingwa, faculty director of Seminar XL and Tutorial Services, wants to let students know about the availability of academic assistance. Dr. Mtingwa says that, "while the service was originally for underrepresented groups, "We feel that many other MIT students could benefit from our services and are reaching out to all students to contact us if they are interested." He is also asking faculty to identify students who have demonstrated mastery in their classes who are interested in being tutors and instructors for the program. For their services, facilitators and tutors earn $13/hour for undergraduates and $15/hour for graduate students.
Seminar XL is a collaborative learning experience in which small groups of four to six students meet with a facilitator for two 90-minute sessions per week to discuss concepts and problem-solving methods related to a specific class. "We do not regard this as a remedial program, but one that both helps students to deepen their subject matter mastery and develop their problem-solving skills; hence, students are welcome regardless of academic standing in their courses, Dr. Mtingwa says. More information is available at http://web.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/tsr/www

9. SEMINAR LOOKS INTO REAR-VIEW MIRRORS

Chuck Oman invites all to the Man Vehicle Laboratory Research Seminar "Human factors of rear view car mirrors: planar, convex, aspheric or plainly vexing?" presented by Professor Dr. Heiko Hecht, Abteilung Allgemeine Experimentelle Psychologie, Psychologisches Insitut, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz. The talk is Wednesday, October 4, from 1-2 p.m. in 33-116.

10. FLYING CLUB RAFFLE A SUCCESS

Fred Gay, a fourth year aero-Astro student, reports that the MIT Flying Club's http://web.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/mitflying/ flying raffle was a tremendous success. Through the generosity of Philip Greenspun, who brought a Robinson Raven 1 helicopter to campus for the event, about 10 flights, each carrying three students, toured the airspace over Boston.

11. EVENTS CALENDARS NOW CHASE YOU

Don't have time to access the Institute or Aero-Astro online events calendars but still want to learn about specific Institute or department events? New features have been added to the events calendars that make events come to you!
email alerts - You can now have an email sent to you automatically - daily, weekly, or monthly - of events that interest you. Simply go the page https://events-mit-edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/prefs/edit.do (certificate-protected). Check/fill out the boxes in the form and click "Subscribe." That's all there is to it. So, let's say you want to be notified of anything posted on the calendar by GTL. Or, you want to know about any event that includes the word "astronaut." Or, you are interested in anything to do with music. You check off or fill in this info. The next time GTL posts one of its upcoming seminar on the events calendar, you'll get an email. If you're interested in all three topics and you ask for an email weekly, you will get one email that alerts you to all GTL, astronaut, and music events posted that week. (Or, if GTL sponsors an event featuring an astronaut playing the violin, you'll be notified.)
Custom RSS feeds - RSS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(protocol) is a way to subscribe to automatic updates of news and events, which appear in your internet browser. If you know how to use an RSS reader with your browser, this is a neat way to get calendar info. (as well as tons of other news and information) and it's actually easier to do than the way described on the MIT site. http://events.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/rsssearch.html If you need help setting up an RSS reader, contact Bill Litant wlitant@mit.edu
iCalendar - This feature allows users to add specific events to their personal schedules. Calendar clients vary widely in their implementation of the iCalendar standard, so this featured is currently offered in a beta version. This has been tested with the TechTime desktop client, Outlook (2003, XP) on Windows XP, Macintosh iCal on OS X 10.3 or above, and Evolution (Linux/Athena). To add an event to your personal schedule, access the event page in the Institute or Aero-Asto calendar, scroll to the bottom, and click "add to my calendar."

12. MIT CDIO CONFERENCE CALL FOR PAPERS

The Third International CDIO Conference, an event that brings engineering educators from around the world for a week of meetings, workshops, and presentations of papers on a wide variety of topics related to CDIO engineering education development and implementation will be hosted by Aero-Astro at MIT, June 11-14, 2007. The meeting theme is "Changing Contexts for Engineering Education." A Call for Papers is posted on the meeting Web site at http://www.cdio.org/meetings/jun07mit/index.html. The 2006 International Conference was held in Linköping, Sweden, and was attended by nearly 200 educators from North America, the UK, Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. For more information on the call for papers or the conference, contact Dr. Doris Brodeur dbrodeur@mit.edu or Dr. Diane Soderholm dhsoder@mit.edu.

13. FACULTY BIOS NOW ONLINE

All Aero-Astro Department professors now have their own biographical page posted on the department Web site. Most pages include contact information, specialization and research, teaching interests, positions held at MIT, other positions, and society memberships. The pages are accessed from the Web site "People" page or "Faculty" page by selecting a faculty member and then clicking the "view profile" icon beneath that person's name. The Aero-Astro Communications Office has also begun constructing personal complete Web sites for faculty who request that. Several examples of such sites are http://web.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/aeroastro/people/waitz/ , http://web.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/aeroastro/people/harris/, and http://web.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/aeroastro/people/hastings/ Any faculty member wishing a personal Web site is welcome to contact Bill Litant wlitant@mit.edu to discuss. The new pages were designed to both increase the department's online information availability, to improve appearance of some pages that were old and outdated, and to compliment the new Aero-Astro Web design unveiled last year.

14. SEND US YOUR INFORMATION

If you have events, honors, activities, or other information you'd like to see in the next issue of Aero-Astro enews, please send to wlitant@mit.edu - we'd be pleased to include it!!!!

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