State of the Structures TC
Steven G. Russell
Structures TC Chair
January 5, 2016
Standing Officers
• Steve Russell – Chair
• Rob Taylor – Vice Chair, Chair Elect
• Mike Wolff – Secretary
STRTC Goals for 2015 (1 of 2)
• Strategic planning
 Process strategic planning survey data collected from TC members and
friends
 Update mission and vision statements, goals and objectives
 Produce draft strategic plan for approval at annual business meeting
• Support standing subcommittees and recruit new subcommittee
chairs as needed
• Facilitate stand up of new subcommittees
• Provide TC support as needed to ensure a successful SDM at
SciTech 2016
3
STRTC Goals for 2015 (2/2)
• Continued higher participation from the TC members
 Each TC member should serve on 1 subcommittee
 Friends (especially those wanting to become members) are highly
encouraged to serve on subcommittees and can even chair them
 Several new subcommittees are forming and are awaiting your input and
contributions
 Formation of other relevant subcommittees is always welcome
– Just come talk to me about what you would like to do or directly to
subcommittee chairs
4
Joint STRTC/SCSTC Mid-Year Meeting
• Mid-year meeting took place on
Tuesday June 2 at the NASA Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena, CA
• Greg Davis of JPL (SCSTC Vice
Chair) did a great job hosting
the meeting and guided us
through a very nice tour of JPL
• Professor Sergio Pellegrino of
Caltech provided an informative
tour of his labs and hosted an
evening reception before the
meeting
• Meeting minutes are available
on-line at the STRTC website
Structures TC Membership
• Structures TC Membership includes:





38 Members
7 International Members
4 Associate Members
63 Friends
112 Total
• Affiliation breakdown: 35 Academia, 30 Government, 41 Industry,
6 Unknown
• The Structures TC uses the “Friend” category to introduce
newcomers to the TC
• Committee membership is limited by AIAA to 35 members, so
longstanding members of the TC are returned to friend status on
an annual basis to make room for new members
Standing Subcommittees (1/3)
• Steering
 Advises chair, reviews membership applications
 Past TC chairs, current TC officers
 Current membership applications under review
• Education (Craig Merrett, Chair)
 Concentrating on undergraduate design competition
 Looking at ways to do outreach at future conferences
• Awards (Brett Bednarcyk, Chair)
 Helps find and complete nomination packages for AIAA awards in
Structures TC disciplinary areas
– Vipul Ranatunga, Olesya Zhupanska represented STRTC on 2016 SDM Award
Selection Committee
 Chooses Collier Best Structures Paper Award
 Helps TC members apply for membership upgrades
7
Standing Subcommittees (2/3)
• Agenda (Grant Henson, Chair)
 Determines topics for the informal TC meeting usually held before the
start of SDM at SciTech (the Sunday night meeting)
• Student Paper Awards (Pavana Prabhakar, Chair)
 Determines winner for Hilton Best Structures Student Paper Award
 Determines winner for Lockheed Martin Best Structures Student Paper
Award
 Requires close coordination with the SDM Student Papers Chair
(Dawn Phillips for SciTech 2015 & 2016)
• Strategic Planning (Keith Belvin, Chair)
 Drafting long range strategic plan (5 to 10 year horizon) to guide future TC
initiatives and activities
8
Standing Subcommittees (3/3)
• Continuing Education (Alex Selvarathinam, Chair)
 Developing and organizing short courses and other
educational opportunities for future meetings and
conferences
• Procedures Subcommittee (Troy Mann, Chair)
 Updated Structures TC Guidebook based on new calendar
associated with co-locating at SciTech
 Updated Guidebook available at TC website
 Further updating may be required over the next several years
as new precedents are established for organizing SDM as
part of the SciTech forum
9
Liasons and Other Tasks
TC Web Editor: Cristina Beldica, Univ. Illinois
Aerospace America Editor: Harry Hilton, Univ. of Illinois
Liaison with Materials TC: Brian Wardle, MIT
Liaison with Structural Dynamics TC: Bruce Willis, Boeing
Integrated Defense Systems
• Liaison with Space Structures TC: Sergio Pellegrino
• Liaison with ASC: Michael Hyer, Virginia Tech
• Liaison with ASME: Olesya Zhupanska, Univ. of Arizona
•
•
•
•
10
STRTC Participation on SciTech Organizing Committees
• Structures Discipline Representatives
 Alex Selvarathinam, 56th SDM 2015, Kissimmee, FL
 Peter Gustafson, 57th SDM 2016, San Diego, CA
 John Zipay, 58th SDM 2017, Grapevine, TX
• 58th SDM Conference at SciTech 2017 in Grapevine, TX
 January 9 - 13, 2016
 Aerospace Design & Structures Technical Chair is
Ben Thacker
 Structures Technical Representative is John Zipay
Future SciTech Information
• 2016 AIAA Science and Technology Forum and Exposition
4-8 January 2016
Manchester Grand Hyatt
San Diego, CA
• 2017 AIAA Science and Technology Forum and Exposition
9-13 January 2017
Gaylord Texan
Grapevine, TX
• 2018 AIAA Science and Technology Forum and Exposition
8-11 January 2018
Gaylord Palms
Kissimmee, FL
12
TAC News
• Achille Messac is the new Director of the Aerospace Design and
Structures Group
 Achille is Professor of Aerospace Engineering at Mississippi State
University, AIAA Fellow, ASME Fellow
 He succeeds Kathleen Atkins as Director, was previously Deputy Director
for Design
• Norm Wereley (U. of Maryland) is the Deputy Director for
Structures in the Aerospace Design and Structures Group
 Norm is Professor and Department Chair of Aerospace Engineering at the
University of Maryland; he is an AIAA Fellow with many honors and
awards, and he served on the SDM Long Range Planning Committee for
many years
13
TAC Organization (Partial)
14
Other News (1 of 2)
• Associate and alumni members now have voting privileges on
technical committees (TCs) and program committees (PCs)
• AIAA Board has been studying governance reform to make the
institute more nimble, strategically focused and relevant to the
profession
• The Structures TC has a positive cash balance of funds that can
support future activities – TAC is evaluating ways in which TCs
and PCs can request financial assistance and will provide future
guidance
• Sandy Magnus, AIAA Executive Director, put together a very
good “State of the AIAA” presentation in April 2015 – available
upon request
15
Other News (2 of 2)
• Steve Russell developed short course material for materials and
structures for hypersonic air-breathing propulsion
 Short course coordinated by Dora Musielak, Hypersonic Air-Breathing
Propulsion TC Chair
 Presented at 2 day short course prior to the AIAA Propulsion and Energy
Forum in Orlando, FL in July 2015
 Approximately 20 course attendees
 Course honorarium donated to the Structures TC
16
17