AIAA Structures Technical Committee Minutes of the SciTech Meeting January 16, 2014 The AIAA Structures Technical Committee (TC) conducted its spring meeting at the 55th SDM Conference as part of the SciTech Forum in National Harbor, MD on Wednesday evening, January 16, 2014. Dr. Jeanette Domber, Structures TC Chairman, called the meeting to order at 7:05 PM. The meeting followed an agenda prepared and distributed to the TC in advance of the meeting. The following paragraphs summarize the meeting discussion by agenda topics. Presentations can be found at the TC website: https://info.aiaa.org/tac/adsg/STRTC/default.aspx. The attendance sheet is attached. 1. State of the TC, Dr. Jeanette Domber After attendees introduced themselves, Jeanette gave an overview the night’s agenda. Since this was the first year of the combined conferences (SDM, ASM, GN&C, etc) into the SciTech Forum, Jeanette shared with the TC that the traditional timing of the ASM is first full week of January, not the second as this year. Therefore, next year’s SciTech will be January 5-9, 2015. Jeanette then introduced the new Members, Associate Members and Friends of the Structures TC. New member applications are evaluated at the end of each calendar year. Our new members were selected earlier in the day from 13 applications (5 of which had been submitted in 2013 and rolled over). New Members are: Rani Sullivan, Mississippi State University; Troy Mann, NASA-Langley Research Center; Ho-Jun Lee, NASA-Johnson Space Center; D. Scott Norwood, Lockheed Martin; and Alex Selvarathinam, Lockheed Martin. Additionally, the TC has two new International Members, Craig Merrett of Carleton University and Sahasini Gururaja of Indian Institute of Science, as well as a new associate member: Pavana Prabhakar, University of Texas, El Paso. The TC also welcomes new Friends: Larry Foster, Pratt & Whitney; Seetha Raghavan, University of Central Florida; and Julien van Campen of Delft University. Thank you to the 2 members, Dave Wieland and Steve Engelstad, who agreed to move to the Friend category so that others could become members. Due to the strong applicant pool, the TC is requesting one more member to rotate to Friend status so that the TC can accommodate all of the folks listed above and still stay within AIAA requirements. Please let Steve Russell know if you are willing to do this. [After the meeting, Steve Clay agreed to transition to Friend so that we meet the AIAA imposed restrictions.] The Structures TC uses the “Friend” category to introduce newcomers to the TC and retain corporate memory. Committee membership is limited by AIAA to approximately 35 Members (not a hard number), and up to 15 other members (international, associates, etc.), so long standing Members of the TC are returned to Friend status on an annual basis to make room for new Members. Before the inclusion of the new members and friends, the Structures TC included 33 Members, 5 International Members, 6 Associate Members, and 59 Friends for a total of 103. Welcome new friends and members. Thank you to those who have served. Jeanette also provided some statistics on TC membership based on the roster as of January 1, 2014. The TC is about evenly split between industry, academia, and government. AIAA officially recognizes 3 year terms that are renewable once, though the Structures TC does not keep this practice. Therefore, 13 of our members have been on the TC from 1-3 years, 8 are in the 3-6 1 year category and 19 are beyond the second term. Four additional folks have been on the TC for more than 10 years as members. Nominations for TC positions are accepted yearly starting August 1st and ending November 1st. Decisions are made by January 31. Applications not accepted in the first year are automatically rolled over to the next year. Terms officially run May 1st to April 30th, though the SciTech meeting is in practice the term start and finish. AIAA has some serious financial issues (one of the main reasons for combining the SDM with ASM into the SciTech Forum), therefore there is a 1 year suspension of TC discretionary funds. Jeanette encouraged the group to check the AIAA website to see the schedules for other forums. The Structures TC is expected to provide the 2015 student papers chair and the 2016 technical chair for SCiTech. More on this below. Nominations for the elected position of AIAA Director of the Design and Structures will be open soon. The annual report is due Jan 31. Per discussions last year, the out-going TC Chair (Jeanette) is responsible for this to give the in-coming Chair (Steve Russell) time to acclimate to the position. The fall meeting, which may become the Mid-Year meeting, has not been scheduled but needs to be (more below). Membership on the Sunday Night Meeting Agenda subcommittee has dwindled. A quick poll showed that about 2/3 of the attendees wish to continue to hold the Sunday night meeting at SciTech, though possibly think about changing the time. Topics suggested for this meeting included: Outreach, social networking, technical talks on structures, other organizational invited speakers, certifications, new initiatives and directions in industry. In other news: - There is a job opening at AFRL Wright Patterson AFB in composite structures research. See Steve Clay if interested. - Nominations for the Crichlow Prize are due 3/15/14. The structures TC needs to nominate at least one person. - The Spirit of Innovation is looking for judges - Nominations for the IAF award are due by 2/12/14. See Jeanette or the AIAA website for more information. 2. 55th SDM Conference Organizing Committee, Mr. Ali Najafi Ali Najafi, Structures TC representative to the 55th SDM Conference Organizing Committee, summarized the development of the Structures program for the conference. During the open submission period of April 1, 2013 through June 5, 2013, the Structures track received 114 abstracts out of 610 received for the full SDM conference (the Forum received 2064). Due to this short time frame, Ali did allow 2 week extensions in some cases. Thirteen (13) of the 114 were eligible for the student paper awards. There were 130 potential reviewers, 91 accepted, 6 declined and 33 didn’t respond. There were 576 review assignments with 511 completed. The joint session with Survivability gave us a few more people to complete the reviews. One- 2 Hundred and two (102) of the structures abstracts were accepted papers and 4 more were accepted for a special session, providing papers for 21 sessions. Fifteen of the total received was rejected: 8 didn’t follow the submittal rules and 7 were rejected for quality. This equates to an 86% acceptance rate. The average score was 69, with a minimum of 55 and a max of 97.While there was a decline in submittals, there was also a decline in withdrawals. Three (3) special sessions were run; In Memory of Charles Rankin, Open Source Software, and Composite Laminate Optimization. A fourth special session on Survivability was joint with the Materials TC. ScholarOne was greatly improved this year, though some reviewers were assigned many papers because all TCs can assign to anyone. Thanks to Ali for his exceptional service to the conference and committee, especially with less preparation time than normal! 3. Update on the New Event Model and Discussion of the First SciTech The New Event Model includes 5 new forums (SciTech, Defense & Security, Aviation & Aeronautics, Propulsion & Energy, Space & Astronautics). The 2014 SciTech Forum General chair was David Throckmorton. The ASM Conference Technical Program Chair was Robbie Robertson and the ASD Conference Technical Program Chair is Carlos Cesnik, who also acted as the SDM General Chair. Jeanette showed the TAC organization chart (located on the AIAA and Structures TC websites). The Structures TC is under Carlos Cesnik as Deputy Director for Structures, which is under Kathleen Atkins, Director, Aerospace Structures and Design AIAA membership was 30,000 people at its height but is now 24,898. Therefore, revenues are declining. Only about 6000 people attend conferences, even though conferences are the main revenue source for AIAA. AIAA has been taking a loss for several years and the Executive Committee decided that 2014 needs to have a balanced budget, which was a major driver for eliminating TC discretionary funds. The organizational chart for the SciTech Forum is still being worked. The SDM conference had the best documented practices and will be considered for use in future SciTechs. Over 2700 registered for SciTech. Both the Long Range Planning Committee and the Strategic Directions Committee were disbanded for this year until the Forum process is better understood. Jeanette then went over some of the advantages of SciTech as well as the known problems. These are listed in her charts which are posted to the TC website. She then opened the floor for constructive criticism and ideas that can be taken back to the TAC. These ideas included the following: -The huge program book was overwhelming; perhaps have separate programs for each conference? Or separate the big book into sections based on the individual conferences. Use color coding? Especially separate the SDM-specific keynotes (many people didn’t even know they were still there). -The conference has good facilities and lots of people but there was a significant drop in papers. Is there a quota? (Jeanette’s response: decisions about limiting sessions will not be based on this year’s performance due to the tight timeline) -The Executive committee should consider moving the Forum to a different time of year. A week after the holidays is difficult. (Also has impacts on due dates; e.g., manuscript submission during university finals week, session planning during fall holidays, etc.) -Don’t sign contracts with hotels without polling members as to time and place. 3 -There is still a concern that the SDM identity is being lost within SciTech. It is making travel approvals more difficult to get. Don’t compromise SDM identity. -While combining conferences into one Forum may make financial sense for AIAA, the affordability for attendees is reduced. The facility and town are expensive. Students and government employees will have a harder and harder time coming unless location selection can be tempered. (Also has impacts on due dates; e.g., manuscript submission during university finals week, session planning during fall holidays, etc.) -A full week is difficult for people. Can conference sessions be condensed into fewer days? (Condense by individual collocated conference?) -Student papers should be moved to Monday without making students present at 10:00 PM. Since everything is computerized, empty slots due to withdrawals should be used to accommodate the students. (A straw poll showed that only 10 people used the mobile app or ScholarOne this year) (More general comment: Student paper competition procedures are still broken and need to be readdressed.) -The conference was better than expectations -Can the TC see budgets pre- and post – SciTech to see how expenses changed? Is AIAA really saving money? Are attendees? -There was some confusion during the abstract submittal process. Recommend separate links for submittal to individual conferences. -Coffee/sodas were far away from session rooms and people ended up missing the beginnings of afternoon sessions -The Facility lay out was good. Members appreciated having structures sessions in one area. It was also noted that extra tickets for the reception and awards luncheon have always been given to students but that the TC would take an active role in making sure extra tickets are distributed. 4. Planning for the 56th SDM Conference – Mr. Alex Selvarathinam Abstracts for the 56th SDM (SciTech 2015) will be able to be submitted from March 17, 2014June 2, 2014. All abstracts will be reviewed by July 1st. Sessions will be set by July 29th. If you are interested in a special session, let Alex know soon as they need to be decided on by January 29th. Three special sessions have already been suggested; Open Source Software, Educating the 21st Century Aerospace Structures Engineer, and ICME structures and materials (as a joint session with the Materials TC). A plea to stick to deadlines was given. Sunny Wicks mentioned that the Materials TC also wants to do a joint session on additive machining. Contact Brian Wardle if you are interested. 5. Message from Aerospace Design and Structures (ASD) Directorate Carlos Cesnik and Kathleen Atkins visited the meeting to discuss the SciTech Forum and answer questions and receive feedback on SciTech 2014. Surveys will be sent to attendees, so fill them out. Without prodding, Kathleen mentioned some of the things that will need to be improved next year. The paper program was daunting and it was hard to find SDM specific material. There was also a lack of recognition for technical chairs, despite comments on this topic from previous meetings. Mike Hyer requested that AIAA share data from pre- and post –SciTech planning. Kathleen did say that the ASM numbers were down as well as SDM and GN&C, as expected. All sessions that were short were so due to withdrawn papers; originally all sessions had 5-6 papers. The 4 executive committee tried to consolidate these sessions but scheduling was much harder than previous SDMs. The SDM conference accounted for about 20% of the papers at the forum. Steve Engelstad suggested we go back to Hawaii to solve that problem! Apparently, that idea had been discussed in the TAC. Kathleen also said that the timing of the forum has always been controversial, even when it was just the ASM conference. Since we are locked into dates for the next 4 years, the timing discussion will be reopened in 2 years. Patience and help is appreciated. 6. Board Elections Candidates for Vice-Chair, Rob Taylor and Dawn Phillips, were each given a few minutes to address the TC. Dawn thought the position would be fun, that she would be good at it, and that she is grateful to help the TC. Rob said he is grateful for opportunity to work with committee and serve. He wants more emphasis on the effort to reach out and inspire the next generation and look for ways to extend to educational areas. Per the TC handbook and AIAA procedures only full Members (international and Associate Members are excluded) participated in the vote. Rob Taylor was selected as the new TC ViceChair. Dawn was immediately appointed as the Student Chair for SciTech 2015. Mike Wolff, the lone candidate for Secretary, was elected with no objections. 7. Structures TC Representative to the 55th SDM Conference (2014) Jeanette Domber opened the floor for nominations for the position of Structures TC representative to the 57th SDM Conference in 2016. Peter Gustafson said he is anxious to do more for the TC as he is drawn to this community. Wenbin Yu said he has been involved with the TC since 2003 but wants to do and serve more. Pete was selected by a slim margin. Congratulations to all and thank you for your commitment. 8. Subcommittee reports a. Report on Student Paper Sub-Committee, Dr. Mary Mahler Roybal Mary Roybal reported on the Student Paper Sub-committee. Thirteen (13) Structures Student papers were reviewed. Scores for the paper judging ranged from 91 to 63. Top 5 were 91-89 (next highest score was 83) and presentation scores were 91-89. The Lockheed Martin Award went to Andrew Thurber (Virginia Tech) and the Hilton Award went to Broderick Coburn of the University of Bristol. The way student paper awards are done needs a significant overhaul. One student had to present at 10:00 PM and did not do a great job. There were plenty of reviewers to do the reviews in the 1 week available. Rob gave a special thank you to Mary for stepping in while he was on vacation. Thanks to Mary, Rob and everyone who participated! b. Report on Awards Sub-Committee, Dr. Vipul Ranatunga Brett Bednarcyk was unable to attend the conference so Vipul gave the sub-committee report. This sub-committee is an advocate for membership upgrades and awards and also organizes special sessions. Applications for Senior Membership are rolling. Nominees should have 8 years of experience and can be self-nominated. Applications for Associate Fellow are due April 15 and require 12 years of experience. These can also be self-nominations but references for other associate Fellows or Fellows are needed. Applications for Fellow are due June 15 and 5 require nomination by a different person. Applicants are eligible once they have been Associate Fellows for 12 months. Log onto MyAIAA and click link to complete nomination. This year’s conference included a special session in memory of Dr. Charles Rankin who passed away last year. Next year will feature a special session to honor Dr. Harry Hilton, who has been with AIAA for over 60 years. The sub-committee also administers the Collier Research HyperSizer/AIAA structures best paper award. This award recognizes a from the structures track (non-student). The award itself is given the year after it is presented at SDM. The 2013 winner was K. Chauncey Wu, Bret K. Stanford, Glenn A. Hrinda, Zhuosong Wang, Robert A. Martin (NASA LaRC) H. Alicia Kim (University of Bath, UK), for their 2013 SDM Paper entitled “Structural Assessment of Advanced Composite Tow-Steered Shells”. Vipul encouraged session chairs to read the written papers so that award selection is easier. This subcommittee also helps with nominations for other awards. Most awards have minimum number of nominations in order for the award to be awarded. The sustainability of awards is in question due to few nominations, so we need to keep up nominations. Nominations for the Crichlow award are due 3/15/14 and for the Sperry award are due 7/1/14. The next Starnes award will be given in 2017. c. Report on Education Sub-Committee, Mr. Michael Wolff Mike gave an overview of this past year’s 1st annual design competition. The winner was Klein for the “HELP aircraft”. This paper and the others have been uploaded to the TC website Mike also shared some lessons learned and then solicited ideas for the next competition. Ideas from the TC included: glider (ie take out engine); 3d printed wing; lightweight design of a drone; wind turbine blade, a launch vehicle, and a hang glider. Mike had planned to follow the Structural Dynamics TC’s lead for an outreach event associated with SciTech 2014 but they were unable to put it together and there was no time for the Structures TC to recover. Additionally, now that Mike will be the TC secretary, a new subcommittee chair is needed. Mike can provide lots of feedback. d. Report on Procedures Sub-Committee, Dr. Troy Mann The Structures TC Guidebook has been updated to reflect the NEM and new schedule. Troy recommended putting a cross referenced schedule in it so that as things change, an update can be done quickly. 9. Special Presentation: Enhancing student relationships with AIAA, Dr. Tom Lacy Mississippi State has set up a college-wide initiative to get undergraduates to participate in professional societies. The College is funding 100% of memberships in AIAA. They currently have 94% participation. In addition, research and travel funds are offered. The goal is to get AIAA into the classroom setting, by tying in with senior seminars, class activities. Tom asked for help from the TC to establish priorities for student engagement starting early in junior year. Mike Hyer suggested the school should include real life experiences, including plant trips, campus visits, design teams, highlights in Aerospace America. Make it fun! Other ideas included: Use real world items, incorporate social networks, ask students what they’d like to see 6 AIAA doing for them. (What benefits would they like?), engagement of regional groups with students, give access to papers and let them find the value by research (instead of being preached to). 10. Materials TC Liaison Report Sunny Wicks presented for Brian Wardle, who is the Structures TC representative to the Materials TC, and provided a liaison report on the activities of the completed and on to publishing. The Materials TC would like to have joints sessions with the Structures TC on the topics of lightweight structures, additive machining, and ICME structures and materials. Anyone who is interested should contact Brian Wardle. 11. Structural Dynamics TC Liaison report Jeanette presented Bruce Willis’ chart submission. See the charts on the TC website. 12. Spacecraft Structures (formerly Gossamer PC) TC Liaison report Jeanette presented Sergio Pellegrino’s charts. See the charts on the TC website. 13. Aerospace America Year-End Technical Highlights Article Harry Hilton got up to do his annual “song and dance” request for inputs to the Aerospace America Article. Free publicity! Harry will compile and edit the structures highlights article for the year-end edition of Aerospace America. He will send timely reminders to us to ignore as previous activity has shown. No TC reports or SDM activities articles are allowed by Aerospace America. Similar to last year, Harry asked for contributors to send him links to pertinent articles and news stories for the summary article. The article has a firm maximum length of 600 words and 1 illustration. No TC reports or SDM activities articles are allowed by Aerospace America. Harry will send email reminders of due dates to TC members and friends as deadlines approach. The initial deadline for submittal is in July 10 to Harry. Harry will send a draft to AA by 7/27 and final comments will be incorporated by 8/2. Extensions will not be granted. 14. TC Board Transition With TC business coming to a close, Jeanette handed the Chairmanship over to Steve Russell. Steve presented her with a plaque for her efforts and the TC gave her a standing ovation. Thank you, Jeanette for all your hard work and service. Steve began his term by telling the committee about his work methods. He expects any changes to be incremental. He prefers a personal approach to leadership; management by consensus, open and frequent communication, and a big tent policy. He expects to be a facilitator for members and friends of the TC and continue being a filter for e-mails and contacts. At present, the current sub-committee structure will stay intact, though there may be some change to the Steering Subcommittee. He will reach out to Subcommittee chairs individually to discuss future plans and plans to have telecons rotating through the Subcommittees to keep communications open. He would also like to add a strategic planning subcommittee. Steve also pointed out that the transition to NEM not finished. It still needs some fine tuning and the TC will be a part of that. Contact Steve if you are interested in any of these. Steve laid out two long term goals he has for this year: Support of short course development, and interactions with other industry working groups. Short term goals include decided on where and when to have the mid-term meeting, as well as Aerospace America contributions. He suggested seeing if your organization has pre-written ideas about your company for submission. Please keep ITAR and publication rules in mind when sending ideas. 7 Steve’s new contact information is: Triumph Aerostructures – Vought Aircraft Division 1401 Nolan Ryan Expressway Arlington, TX 76011 817-804-9400 x 5566 sgrussell@triumphgroup.com In addition, Jeanette (and writes this in now for Lisa) sent out an email the morning after the meeting: Sent: Thu, 1/16/14, 9:14 am EST Subject: AIAA Structures TC missed Thank You! Message Content: Thank you to all of you who could attend last night and your great contributions to our discussions about SDM at SciTech, AIAA engaging university students, and the future plans of the Structures TC. I made a huge oversight last night in not publically thanking Lisa Hardaway, who has been our diligent secretary for the last 4 years. We have an engaged and enthusiastic committee, so that is a lot of note taking. In addition, Lisa has been a valuable sounding board as part of our steering subcommittee. Please join me in thanking her for her service to the AIAA and our committee. Thank you Lisa. Slides from last night’s meeting will be sent for website posting next week. I leave you in the capable hands of Steve Russell. Thank you, Jeanette 15. Mid-year meeting A suggestion was made to combine the mid-year meeting with ASC Composites 2014 in San Diego in September 2014. Please check with your organizations to determine if this would help or hinder your travel approvals. 16. Adjournment With no further business, Steve adjourned the meeting at 9:59 PM. Author’s note: As I come to the end of my second term as secretary, I’d like to thank the TC for allowing me to serve you and for your support and friendship. The connections I have made have been enriching and I look forward to keeping in touch with all of you in the future. Respectfully submitted, Lisa Hardaway, PhD. Secretary, AIAA Structures Technical Committee Associate Fellow AIAA January 20, 2014 8 Attendees NAME, LAST NAME, FIRST ORGANIZATION Phone EMAIL ADDRESS Aoki Takahira University of Tokyo 81-3-5841-6620 aoki@aastr.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp Belvin Keith NASA Langley Research Center 757-864-4319 w.k.belvin@nasa.gov Bisagni Chiara Politechnico di Milano (Italy) 39-02-2399890 chiara.bisagni@polimi.it Clay Steven Air Force Research Laboratory 937-904-5399 stephen.clay@wpafb.af.mil Demasi Luciano San Diego State University 619-594-3752 ldemasi@mail.sdsu.edu Domber Jeanette Ball Aerospace 303-939-7530 jdomber@ball.com Engelstad Steven Lockheed Martin Aeronautics 770-494-9714 steve.engelstad@lmco.com Gustafson Peter Western Michigan University 269-276-3432 Peter.Gustafson@wmich.edu Hardaway Lisa Ball Aerospace 303-939-4335 lhardawa@ball.com Hilton Harry University of Illinois (retired) 217-333-2653 h-hilton@illinois.edu Hunt Jim U.S. Naval Academy 301-342-8509 james.p.hunt@navy.mil Hyer Michael Lacy Tom Virginia Tech Mississippi State Univ. 540-231-5372 662-325-2754 hyerm@vt.edu lacy@ae.msstate.edu Mabson Gerald Boeing 206-662-3840 Gerald.e.mabson@boeing.com Mahler Roybal Mary Raytheon Mann Troy NASA Langley Research Center 757-864-9515 t.mann@nasa.gov Merrett Craig Carleton University 613-520-2600 x8497 Craig_merret@carleton.ca Min James NASA Glenn Research Center 216-433-2587 Mohaghegh Michael Boeing 425-260-7776 Michael .Mohaghegh@oeing.com Najafi Ali AlphaStar Corp 662-617-1790 ali.najafi@alphastarcorp.com Norwood Scott Lockheed Martin Phillips Dawn NASA Langley Research Center 256-544-4211 dawn.r.phillips@nasa.gov Raju Ivatury 757-864-9272 Ivatury.s.raju@nasa.gov Ranatunga Vipal NASA Langley Research Center Miami Univ 513-727-3448 ranatupv@muohio.edu Rassaian Mostafa Boeing 206-544-7543 Mostafa.Rassaian@boeing .com Russell Steve Triumph Aerostructures 972-946-5566 sgrussell@triumphgroup.com Schultz Marc NASA Langley Research Center 757-864-5193 marc.r.schultz@nasa.gov Selvarathinam Alex Lockheed Martin Sensmeier Mark Embry-Riddle Aero University mmahler@Raytheon.com james.b.min@grc.nasa.gov scott.norwood@lmco.com alex.selvarathinam@lmco.com 9 928-777-3847 Mark.sensmeier@erau.edu Smeltzer Stan NASA Langley Research Center 757-864-3120 stanley.s.smeltzer@nasa.gov Sullivan Rani Mississippi State University Tamijani Ali Embry Riddle University 540-553-1301 Ali.tamijani@erau.edu Taylor Rob Optimal Structures 817-372-8464 rob@optimalstructures.com TerMaath Stephanie University of Tennessee 865-974-7711 stermaat@utk.edu Wanthal Boeing Boeing Wegge Brandon Boeing 314-232-2933 Brandon.h.wegge@boeing.com Wicks Sunny MIT 601-447-0910 swicks@mit.edu Wieland Dave Southwest Research Institute 210-522-3869 dwieland@swri.edu Wolff Michael Gulfstream Aerospace 912-965-8729 michaelwolff1@gmail.com Yu Wenbin Purdue University Zhupanska Olesya The University of Iowa 319-335-5678 ozhupans@engineering.uiowa.edu Zipay John NASA Johnson Space Center 281-483-8886 John.j.zipay@nasa.gov steven.wanthal@boeing.com 765-494-5142 10 wenbinyu@purdue.edu