AIAA ROCKY MOUNTAIN SECTION (RMS) NOVEMBER UPDATE
VICE CHAIRMAN, NORTHERN SECTION: DONNA GERREN
(11/2/2014)
1.
Friday, October 10th, the CU Boulder student branch of AIAA partnered with CU
Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (CU SEDS) for Engineering Days (EDays). AIAA and SEDS had planned to hold an “astronaut obstacle course”, where students
would put on a “flight suit” with boots, gloves and helmets and try and do certain tasks (like run
around a course and pick up/throw objects on the way) as fast as they could. This was an EDays event 2 years ago and was very popular.
However, due to strong winds that day, the Dean’s Office cancelled all outdoor engineering
society events except the Egg Drop (hosted by Theta Tau) and the Rocket Launch (hosted by
Sigma Gamma Tau). All other societies were allowed a table in the entrance hall of the
Engineering Center, but AIAA and SEDS didn’t have sufficient space to hold their event in this
location so it was cancelled.
2.
That same day (October 10th) the CU Boulder AIAA Chair, Matt Slavik, and I “attended” a
national collegiate AIAA telecom hosted by Rachel Andino, Coordinator of Student Programs,
from the national office in Reston, Virginia. The intent of the telecom was to inform all student
branches of the AIAA resources available to them, from “swag” to scholarships. The meeting
was useful, as Matt and I both learned something from it. The meeting minutes from Ms.
Andino are attached to this report.
3.
Tuesday, October 21st, the branch co-hosted 2 speakers from Sierra Nevada Corporation
(SNC) with the Flying Club at CU. Mark Donohue and AJ Olson, two CU alums from SNC,
discussed aircraft crash investigation and how the lessons learned from each incident influence
the requirements of aircraft. The three accidents presented were:
American Airlines 587, November 12, 2001 (rudder-induced oscillations)
American Eagle 4184, October 31, 1994 (wing icing)
Aloha Airlines 243, April 28, 1988 (in-flight structural failure)
Mark is an aerodynamicist with SNC responsible for the development and certification of
multiple aircraft programs for the United States and foreign governments. AJ is an
aerodynamicist and multi-disciplinary technical lead at SNC working primarily on single-engine
turboprop ISR aircraft.
The talk was extremely interesting and well-attended, with a large showing from both AIAA and
Flying Club. A flyer from the meeting is attached to this report.
4.
The Design, Build, Fly (DBF) club at CU Boulder was notified October 29th that they had
been accepted to participate in the 2014/2015 DBF event in Tucson, Arizona, from April 10-12,
2015. Although the deadline for entry was October 31st, the 100 team limit had already been
reached. The University of Colorado, Colorado Springs was also accepted. The entire 100 team
list is attached to this report.
5.
On Tuesday Nov. 18th, the local chapter of AIAA at UC Boulder will be hosting several
engineers from the Lockheed Martin Orion program. There will be a presentation on the EFT-1
flight coming in early December followed by a Q&A session with the engineers. This is designed
to give students a perspective on what engineering is like in industry. There will be a talk from a
systems engineer, analyst and designer. This will be followed up by recruiting.
6.
Thursday, December 4th, the final event of the semester will be an AIAA internship
night/end of the year party. Faculty, students and recent alum are invited to the mixer,
representing their current companies or companies they had internships with, to help
underclassmen find and apply for summer internship opportunities. This will not be posted on
the Rocky mountain Section website, as it is a CU event only.