MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics Department
enews Vol 3, #7
February 2007
In this issue:
- Honors and Awards
- Promotions
- Comings and Goings
- Get Well to Prof. Crawley
- SPHERES - The Motion Picture
- Funding Page Added to Web
- Alumni's Startup Explores Power-Generating Spacesuits
- Slashdotted!
- Make Sound Decisions When Editing Your Video
1. AWARDS AND HONORS
Professor Moe Win has been named a Wireless Educator of the
Year by the Global Wireless Education Consortium. The award, to be
presented in March, recognizes "programmatic and individual
contributions to wireless engineering, communications, systems and/or
technology education."
The National Space Club http://www.spaceclub.org/ has awarded its
2007 Dr. Robert H. Goddard Scholarship to MIT Aero-Astro junior Joseph
Yurko reports administrative assistant Mark Prendergast. The honor
will be presented at the 50th Annual Dr. Robert H. Goddard Memorial
Dinner to be held in the Washington Hilton Ballroom on Friday, March
23, where John Glenn will be the featured speaker. http://www.spaceclub.org/gmd07.html Professor Debbie Nightingale is Joe's advisor.
2. PROMOTIONS
It has been announced that Professors Jon How http://web.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/aeroastro/people/how.html and Brian Williams http://web.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/aeroastro/people/williams.html will be promoted to Full Professor. Also, Professor Emilio Professor
Emilio Frazzoli http://web.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/aeroastro/people/frazzoli.html will be promoted to Associate Professor Without Tenure. The promotions
become effective in July.
3. COMINGS AND GOINGS
Welcome to Jacques Mathieu, our new department systems administrator,
who is now an official MIT employee. Jacques' primary role is to
work with academic-related IT issues - he's at work now ramping up
our new server room, carved out of the old "way-back room." Jacques'
office is 33-218 and you can reach him at mathieuj@mit.edu Phyllis
Collymore continues as the main contact for administrative issues.
Lori Martinez, former assistant in the Gas Turbine Lab, has left
the Institute. We wish her the best.
4. A GET WELL TO PROF. CRAWLEY
Word has reached us that Professor Ed Crawley's http://web.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/aeroastro/people/crawley.html emergency gall bladder surgery March 1 went well and he is expected
back on campus as early as next week. You can send him a get well
note at 3 Meadow Way, Cambridge, MA 02138. The Department has sent
him a gift with a reminder that the "O" in CDIO does not
stand for this type of "Operate."
5. SPHERES - THE MOTION PICTURE
Coming soon to a monitor near you, it's the SPHERES
movie. Aero-Astro sophomore Ashley Micks has assembled a movie about
SPHERES, the Space Systems Labs' distributed satellite system, which
began life as a CDIO capstone project and is now being tested aboard
the International Space Station. The movie includes some great NASA
footage of the SPHERES in action on the ISS. You can see the movie
at http://web.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/aeroastro/news/spheresmovie.html,
read more about SPHERES at http://web.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/aeroastro/news/magazine/aeroastro-no2/2005millerd.html and
visit the SSL Web site at http://ssl.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/index.html .
6. FUNDING PAGE ADDED TO WEB
A page, "Funding Your Graduate Program" was
recently added to the Admissions section of Aero-Astro Web site.
The page includes information on assistantships and fellowships,
and identifying funding sources. Thanks to Student Services Coordinator
Beth Marois for providing the material. Visit the page at http://web.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/aeroastro/admissions/grad/funding.html .
7. ALUMNI'S STARTUP EXPLORES POWER-GENERATING SPACESUITS
Alumni Matt Silver, who received his MS in Aero-Astro and
is now a doctoral candidate in ESD, lets us know that New Scientist
has published a story on a his Cambridge-based startup, IntAct Labs,
and its development work on applying motion-sensitive proteins to
space suits to generate power from the astronauts' movement. Read
the article at
http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn11158-motionsensitive-spacesuits-could-generate-power.html .
8. SLASHDOTTED!
Posters on the Web site Slashdot ("News for Nerds")
http://slashdot.org/ caught wind
of the Aero-Astro Mars Biosatellite Project's fundraising activity
where, for a modest fee, anyone can have almost anything emblazoned
on the side of the group's planned space vehicle. The Biosat folks
were promoting the scheme as a great Valentine's gift for one's significant
other. One of project spokesperson Rosie Combs-Bachmann's postings
is the one by individual who has determined that "People who
would pay for something like this are geeks; geeks are mostly males;
and most males are attracted to women. Ergo, the project is spearheaded
by a team of scientists with STRONG MARTIAN CONNECTIONS" who
are "collecting the names
of hundreds--maybe even thousands--of EARTH WOMEN!" The poster
continues, "That's right-- MIT IS HELPING MARTIANS STEAL EARTH
WOMEN!" The Biosat Project has collected some thousands of dollars
through the promotion. Info at http://www.yournameintospace.org/ .
9. MAKE SOUND DECISIONS WHEN EDITING YOUR VIDEO
A great way to inform people about your project
is to produce a video and make it available on the Web. And, with
the myriad of video and audio software editing tools available -
from iMovie to Audacity - it's ever-easier to add effects, titles,
cuts and dissolves, and background music. However, the latter can
cause serious problems - if you haven't obtained license to use the
music. Ripping sound from a CD or the Web, adding it to your film,
and posting it on the Web often means you've violated copyright protection
and you, as well as MIT, are liable for civil and possibly criminal
prosecution. MIT and Aero-Astro have pulled a number of otherwise
great videos because the creators didn't get license to use the music.
It's as serious an offense as plagiarizingng text for a paper - and
with music companies new-found aggressiveness (and the perception
MIT is a deep pocket) it can have even more dire consequences. MIT
will launch a collective video site in the near future that will
be a sort of YouTube for the Institute, featuring our projects and
activities, and Aero-Astro has volunteered to help prototype it.
(More on this later). So, don't disqualify your production by ripping
Tom Petty's "Learning to Fly" (probably the song used most
to augment Aero-Astro videos) for your video. If you'd like help
obtaining copyright-free music, contact Bill Litant at wlitant@mit.edu.
More on copyright at http://web.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/ipcounsel/copyright.html
If you know of 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!
