Minutes of the Rocky Mountain Section Council of AIAA
James H LaRue Library, Highlands Ranch, CO
05 November 2014
Attendees
Chris Zeller – Chair
Paul Anderson – Chair-elect
Roger McNamara - Treasurer
Sue Janssen – Secretary
Donna Gerren – Northern Vice-Chair
John Eiler – Education
Rusty Powell – Honors & Awards
Jason Kuchera – Public Policy
Heather McKay - Programs
John Grace – Webmaster
Tyler Franklin – ATS 2015 Chair
Agenda
Chair
Northern Vice-Chair
Treasurer
Website
Public Policy
Professional Development
Young Professionals
Education
Programs
ATS 2015
Adjournment
Chair
Chris Zeller welcomed everyone and opened the council meeting at approximately 18:45.
All four of the Category III funding requests were approved. The section has an opportunity to try
several new things.
Two items of note from the RAC:
 The deadline for Engineer of the Year has been extended. Rusty Powell will submit a
nomination of section member.
 There are two positions open on the Region V council.
Chris offered his congratulations on a very successful ATS.
Northern Vice Chair
Donna Gerren asked when she could expect funding for the CU student branch. The funds will
be used for food at meetings, printing flyers and purchasing a plaque to be awarded to the
Outstanding Senior. The school does not provide any budget for the student branch meetings
and students do not pay dues, so if AIAA RMS does not provide any funding, the club will
dissolve.
Council members discussed how we want to support the student chapters (CU, UCCS, School of
Mines, and USAFA). Jason Kuchera proposed that support of student chapters is aligned with
the AIAA strategic objective of increasing membership. We have an opportunity to inspire
younger folks to join AIAA as students and transition to professional membership. Jason strongly
suggested the section annual report tie closely to the strategic plan.
[Secretary’s note - Strategic Goal from the 2011-2015 Strategic Plan: “Actively engage
prospective college graduates (while they are student members) to provide a seamless transition
to membership as young professionals; increase our student-to-professional member conversion
rate from 40% to 60%.”]
Ideas for support to student branches included financial support, and providing speakers for their
meetings. Rusty Powell will explore if/how the USAFA could accept any funding from AIAA RMS.
[Secretary’s note – The form and contact information for a USAFA gift has been uploaded to the
section website under “Private Section Documents.”]
The council agreed that reinvigorating CSU’s student chapter is a goal for this year. Rusty and
Paul will look for contacts at the school and find the faculty advisor.
Heather McKay made a motion that $1350 should be provided to the CU Boulder student chapter
for their activities. The student members and the faculty advisor will determine how to budget the
funding. Jason Kuchera seconded the motion. All were in favor. The motion passed.
Donna submitted the following report via email:
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 (E-Days). 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 E-Days 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 telecon hosted by Rachel Andino, Coordinator of Student Programs,
from the national office in Reston, Virginia. The intent of the telecon 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
Attachment 1.
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.
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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. A list of the 100
teams is given in Attachment 2.
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.
Chair-Elect
Paul Andersen offered his congratulation for an outstanding ATS. He thought the presentations
and panel sessions were a fabulous mix to topics. Attendees included students from many
universities and a “Who’s Who” from the local aerospace community. Merri Sanchez, Chief
Science and Technical Advisor, Headquarters Air Force Space Command, Peterson Air Force
Base, stayed for the whole event.
Roger McNamara reminded the council members that the original objectives for ATS (2012)
included 1 day, ease in presentation (no paper required), and inexpensive so there would be few
barriers to participate. We made a profit which will be used to fund section activities and be used
as seed money for ATS 2015.
Treasurer
Roger McNamara reported that three ATS sponsors have not yet sent the funding to the section.
He will provide a summary of financials at the next council meeting.
He has received the Category III funding check. The preparations for the four funded activities
should proceed.
Website
John Grace submitted the following report:
General

Please include an “expiration date” on entries for Announcements. Calendar entries
expire automatically.

Council members – You must use your email address that is on the council@aiaa-rm.org
list to send a message. Due to abundant SPAM, any message from a “non-member”
(any email address not on the list) is automatically deleted.

To add another email to the Council list, go to the Officers page, click the link at the top
and follow the instructions to subscribe to Council.
Support

Purged the email list of addresses of 1512 addresses (was 2684 after the 10/16 update)
folks that moved out of the area, dropped, etc on October 16. Each Email blast
generated several requests to UNSUBSCRIBE. This dropped the list total to 1171.

Finally found a way to delete members from the email list due to changes in membership
by comparing the current month with the previous month to prevent excessive growth of
the list. There were 7 drops from October 16. A non-AIAA member that SUBCRIBES
manually is NOT affected by this method.

Registration for ATS 2014 was 184 as of 10/24.
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 Registration for Army Space Command is 11 as of 11/5.
Updated the AIAA-RM email list (aiaa-rm@aiaa-rm.org) on October 16.

AIAA-RM now has 1183 email addresses (increase of 12 since October 16).
Public Policy
Jason Kuchera summarized preparations for CSBR (Colorado Space Business Roundup) on 10
December. Four RMS members will support: Brian Gulliver, Tracy Copp, Paul Anderson and
Jason Kuchera.
Jason is still considering who could be a media contact for AIAA RMS and how to send them to
“charm school.”
Professional Development
The first PD seminar is planned for 6 December at Colorado Technical University. Registration is
$10.
Young Professionals
Heather McKay is working on acquisition of “I Want to Be an Astronaut.”
Education
Mars Rover
Will be sending email to all participants to discuss
Survey of Mars Rover Training Event
Plan for creation of Mars Rover Capstone event in Denver Metro area early 2015
 Have $250 in CAT III funds allocated
State Science Fairs
Colorado
Need to make contact with organizers.
 POC Sam Bartlett, samuelbartlett@aol.com
April 9 - 11, 2015 in the Lory Student Center at Colorado State University in
Fort Collins
http://csef.colostate.edu/
Awards to 1 Senior High and 1 Junior High student
Awards TBD (ipad Mini, Telescope, …)
Wyoming
Need to make contact with organizers
 POC (TBD)
March 1-3, 2015 at University of Wyoming
wssf.sfiab.com
Awards to 1 Senior High and 1 Junior High student
Awards TBD (ipad Mini, Telescope, …)
Montana
Need to make contact with organizers
 POC (TBD)
March 16-17, 2015 at Montana State Univeristy
http://cas.umt.edu/mtsciencefair/fairInformation/
Awards to 1 Senior High and 1 Junior High Student
Awards TBD (iPad Mini, Telescope, …)
Calendar
Wyoming Science Fair – March 1-3, 2015
Montana Science Fair – March 16-17, 2015
Colorado Science Fair – April 9-11, 2015
Mars Rover Regional Competition – 1st Quarter 2015 (TBD)
Rocket Launch/Elementary Education Day - TBD
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Budget Verification
Baseline Budget
o $500 Mars Rover Education – COMPLETE
o $1000 STEM Activities
CAT III Funds
o $250 Mars Rover Regional Competition (CAT II Funds)
ATS Excess Funds
o $2000 State Science Fairs (4 iPad Minis (TBD) -2 per state)
John Eiler made a motion to allocate $1500 ($500 per state) to be used for science fair prizes.
Heather McKay seconded. The motion passed with all in favor.
John also requested name badges be made for the new council members.
Programs
Heather McKay announced the November program will be Army Space Command (location
TBD). Digital Globe is the January program. Also working with Michael Stoellinger on a program
in Wyoming.
ATS 2015
Tyler Franklin, ATS 2015 chair, is coordinating with the Colorado School of Mines on a date for
the next ATS. The Green Center is possibly available on 25 September, 9 October and 23
October.
Adjournment
Chris adjourned the meeting at approximately 20:40. The next council meeting is scheduled for
14 January.
Respectfully submitted,
Sue Janssen
Secretary, AIAA RMS
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Attachment 1
AIAA Student Branch Meeting Minutes
Friday, 10 October 2014
Speakers in Attendance: Cheryl Blomberg (Student Liaison to the Board), Steve Gorrell (VicePresident of Education), Rachel Andino (Student Programs Coordinator), Emily Springer (Region
Liaison), Chris Jessee (Region Liaison), John Rose (Public Policy Committee)
Regional Deputy Directors of Education: Ray Sedwick (Region I), Cassy Delinger (Region II),
Suresh Aggarwal (Region III), Gary Turner (Region IV), Barrett McCann (Region V), Oleg
Yakimenko (Region VI), Cees Bil (Region VII)
Student Branches in Attendance: UC Merced, University TN Space Inst, Naval Academy, Drexel
University, Vaughn College, Rose-Hulman, Wright State University, University of ColoradoBoulder, AFIT, Southern Polytechnic, University of Missouri, Weber State University, Virginia
Tech, Lawrence Tech, MIT, UCLA, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, George Washington
University, NJIT, University of New Orleans, Rowan University, Cal Poly-Pomona, University of
Oklahoma, LSU, UC Davis, Auburn University, Boise State University, UNLV, University of
Washington, Oregon State University, San Diego State University, New Mexico State University,
Brigham Young University, University of Kansas
I.
Local Region and Section Involvement-stay involved with your local section, work
with the section officers to take part in events, meetings, and other section activities
a. http://www.aiaa.org/RegionSectionMap.aspx?id=14958
b. AIAA Staff contact for information regarding your section is either Emily Springer
(emilys@aiaa.org) or Chris Jessee (chrisj@aiaa.org)
II.
TC Involvement-volunteer to work on a technical committee
a. http://www.aiaa.org/Secondary.aspx?id=458
i. Aerospace Design and Structures
ii. Aerospace Sciences
iii. Aircraft and Atmospheric Systems
iv. Engineering and Technology Management
v. Information Systems
vi. Propulsion and Energy
vii. Space and Missiles
III.
Undergraduate Scholarships and Graduate Awards-AIAA offers scholarships and
graduate awards
a. http://www.aiaa.org/Secondary.aspx?id=3199
b. Scholarship site begins to accept applications 1 October-31 January
c. Scholarship winners are announced July
d. AIAA staff contact Rachel Andino (rachela@aiaa.org)
IV.
Faculty Advisor Award-Has your faculty done an exceptional job and needs to be
recognized. Nominate him/her for an AIAA Faculty Advisor Award
a. http://www.aiaa.org/HonorsAndAwardsRecipientsList.aspx?awardId=67a86cdefc62-4f71-866b-d698cb5527b8
b. AIAA begins to accept nominations 1 October-30 June (nomination form can be
found on the sharepoint site)
Design Competitions- AIAA Staff Contact Rachel Andino rachela@aiaa.org
http://www.aiaa.org/Secondary.aspx?id=336
a. AIAA Foundation Competitions
i. Undergraduate Individual Aircraft Design Competition
V.
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VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
ii. Undergraduate Team Aircraft Design Competition
iii. Graduate Team Aircraft Design Competition
iv. Undergraduate Team Space Transportation Competition
v. Undergraduate Team Engine Design Competition
b. Design/Build/Fly (DBF)- http://www.aiaadbf.org/
c. CanSat Competition- www.cansatcompetition.com
CAT3 Funding-AIAA National does not provide funding to the student branches but a
request can be made through your local section/region. Please work with your
regional officers to request CAT3 Funding.
Regional Student Conferences-AIAA Staff contact Rachel Andino (rachela@aiaa.org)
https://www.aiaastudentconference.org/
a. Region I-VATech hosting in Blacksburg, VA 27-28 March 2015
b. Region II-University of Florida hosting in Savannah, GA 9-10 April 2015
c. Region III- Wright University hosting in Dayton, OH 17-19 April 2015
d. Region IV-TBD
e. Region V-TBD
f. Region VI-University of Nevada, Reno hosting in Reno, NV 28-29 March 2015
g. Region VII-AU-TBD
h. Region VII-EU Ecole hosting in Salon-de-Provence, France TBD
AIAA U.S. Congressional Visits Day (CVD)http://www.aiaa.org/Secondary.aspx?id=4343
a. AIAA Staff Public Policy Liaison will begin working with AIAA in November. His
contact information will be provided in November.
Student Branch Networking -AIAA staff contact Rachel Andino (rachela@aiaa.org)
a. Student Programs Facebook
b. Student Branch Activity Reports and Officer Contact Information
c. Student Datamaker- Now you can find all the students in your branch or section.
i. https://info.aiaa.org/Regions/Branches/Web%20Pages/StudentDatamak
er.aspx
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Attachment 2
This email acknowledges receipt of entries from the following universities as of 8AM CDT
Wednesday, Oct 29.
The 100 team limit has been reached.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
University Name
Alfred University
Anadolu University
Arizona State University
Atilim University
Auburn University
Beihang University
Bursa Technical University
Cairo University
California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo
California State University, Long Beach
Case Western Reserve University
Chulalongkorn University
Clarkson University
Columbia University in the City of New York
Cornell University
CUNY The City College of New York
Eastern Washington University
Ecole Superieur d'Ingenieur Leonard De Vinci ( ESILV )
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Daytona Beach Campus
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Prescott Campus
Erciyes University
ESKISEHIR OSMANGAZI UNIVERSITY
FAMU-FSU
FH Joanneum University of Applied Sciences
Georgia Institute of Technology
Ghulam Ishaq khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology
Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Indiana State University
Inonu University
Iowa State University
Istanbul Technical University
K.J.Somaiya College Of Engineering
KARABUK UNIVERSITY
Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research
Kocaeli University
Lehigh University
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38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
University Name
Maharashtra State Board of Technical Education
Manhattan College
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Michigan State University
Middle East Technical University
Military Institute of Science and Technology (MIST)
NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
National University of Singapore
New Mexico State University
North Dakota State University
Ohio State University
Oregon State University
Pennsylvania State University
Politehnica University of Bucharest
PURDUE UNIVERSITY
Rashtreeya Vidyalaya College of Engineering
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rice University
Rose-Hulman Intitute of Technology
Saint Louis University
Sakarya University
San Diego State University
San Jose State University
Southern Poly State University
SRM UNIVERSITY
Syracuse University
Tanta University
Tel Aviv University
TURKISH AIR FORCE ACADEMY
Uludag University
Universidad de San Buenaventura Bogota
Università di Roma “La Sapienza”
University of Alabama
University of Arkansas
University of Calgary
University of California Berkeley
University of California Irvine
University of California Merced
University of California San Diego
University of Central Florida
University of Colorado Boulder
University of Colorado Colorado Springs
University of Florida
University of Glasgow
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University Name
82 University of Illinois at Chicago
83 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
84 University of Kentucky Paducah
85 University of Ljubljana Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
86 University of Massachusetts Lowell
87 University of Nebraska Lincoln
88 University of Notre Dame
89 University of Southern California
90 University of Strathclyde
91 University of Texas Austin
92 University of Texas Pan-American
93 University of Washington
94 Virginia Tech
95 Wentworth Institute of Technology
96 West Virginia University
97 Western Michigan University
98 Wichita State University
99 Worcester Polytechnic Institute
100 Yildiz Technical University
________________________________
Director,
DBF Organizing Committee
www.aiaadbf.org
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