New Member Welcome Kit for Software
Technical Committee ( SOFTC)
Rao Mannepalli
Chair, SOFTC
Jan 31, 2011
Welcome
• Congratulations on your Membership of the TC.
• This presentation will help you to get started and
make your tenure a mutually rewarding and
pleasant experience.
AIAA TC Membership Guidelines (From TC Chair Handbook)
“Although the normally accepted term of membership on a TC
is three (3) years for actively participating members, each
member technically serves for three consecutive one-year
periods.
If a member actively participates on the committee, he/she
should automatically be considered for a second and third oneyear term of membership, provided AIAA affiliation has been
maintained.
Inactive members may be dropped from the TC after their first
or second year of membership.”
Bottom line: You are going to be here only for a limited time. Please make most of it.
Mission Statement (a.k.a. Sales Pitch)
SOFTC (Software TC) is looking for active members who want to be part of an
authoritative and respected voice in all things aerospace software. It is interested in all
facets of software. This includes but not limited to, Software, Software Engineering,
Architectures, Tools, Techniques, Technologies, Processes, Standards, Education and
Public Policy issues.
SOFTC wants to have an international character and appeal by being relevant and
attractive to all aerospace faring nations (India, China, Brazil, Russia, Korea, Israel, France
and Germany etc.) and organizations (like Google, Cisco, Microsoft, ISRO, ESA, NASDA,
NAL, InfoSys) because the aerospace systems developed for/by US DOD are no longer the
prime movers of state-of-the art in our field. It actively cooperates with IEEE and ACM. Most
of our members are also active members in them.
SOFTC has an active “Angels” program, where deserving members (including
international members) are encouraged and helped to advance their membership and win
major awards. It also provides the mentoring opportunities (as both mentors and mentees).
SOFTC uses the modern communication technology to make it possible for the
members to make significant and meaningful contributions without disturbing their other
responsibilities.
What does it mean in practice?
"When word of a crisis breaks out in Washington, it's no
accident that the first question that comes to everyone's lips is:
‘’Where's the nearest carrier?’”
-- President Bill Clinton
March 12, 1993
aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt
We strive to make the SOFTC that carrier. Whenever AIAA thinks of software - either during a
crisis (e.g., Cyber Attacks on Silicon Valley, Shutting down the internet in Egypt, or Highjacking
the internet traffic for 18 minutes during April 2010, or Stuxnet) or while looking into the Blue
Skies (e.g. Air Force Technology Horizons for 2010-2030”, NASA’s Draft Space Technology
Roadmap Overview) - the first thing that should come to the minds in AIAA, “Where are the
SOFTC members”.
(As an example: Recently Ben Calloni and I participated in the preparation of AIAA position paper on “Cyber”)
Your Entry point to TC
• AIAA Share Point for SOFTC is the entry point.
• It is located at: https://info.aiaa.org/tac/ISG/SOFTC/default.aspx
• You should have received a message with login details. If not, please
contact me softc.aiaa@gmail.com (main) or raoym@ieee.org (mobile)
• The screen shot of the page is included in the next page.
• Note: You need to sign in only to edit documents. Most of the content
can be browsed without signing in. Sign-in is at the top right hand
corner
Please make sure that your details are up to date in AIAA database.
They are used for auto updates to TC Roster.
TC Share Point Main Page
Sign-in
Bios/Profiles
• One of the best ways to let people know about you is to post your
profile and photo on our share point. All universities mandate it for
their professors. NASA has this for some key people. LinkedIn is
another example.
• Only about 50% members have done it so far in our TC.
• Please note that most of the people do not know much about other
members. This is an opportunity to know other members better.
• Liquid rockets TC has an excellent page for this. We need to emulate it
• If you do not have a profile, please feel free to post your CV/resume.
• If you need any help, please contact me
Your Bio/Profile
• Upload your Bio to Membership -> Bios
• There are some samples available. Use any format you prefer. Please
make sure that your photo is also available
• Please treat this as sort of your “LinkedIn” page
• Please add your other memberships (Most of our members are active in
IEEE and ACM. Having these details in your profile help other members
connect better.
• Also include your areas on interest (Among the areas our TC covers).
This will help while TC is looking for reviewers for papers etc.
Join Subcommittee(s)
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Then select one or more subcommittees to join. Each member should join at least
one subcommittee
You are a full fledged member of the TC. Don’t think that just because you are new,
you need to serve as a member before becoming the Chair or Vice Chair of the
subcommittee (for that matter Chair of TC). Only requirements: (1) Have a vision (2)
Have the will to implement it
Actively and aggressively seek the leadership roles. One indication of the health of
the TC is having elections for each leadership role.
While on the topic of leadership, please note that the chair serves for a term of 2
years (and members at most 3 years)**.
I am planning to conduct an election for TC chair in the last quarter of 2011. New
chair takes over on May 1st, 2012. I want to encourage each and everyone to think of
running for the TC Chair. Articulate your vision for the TC and seek the job
**2011-12 is my 2nd year as TC Chair and last year as TC Member. I will roll off from the TC completely by May 1st, 2012.
Functioning of subcommittees
• Most of the TC work is done at the
Subcommittee (Or Technical Working Group)
Level**
• There are no hard and fast rules except the
following:
1.
Anything not prohibited by AIAA is permitted
2.
It should produce something useful and notable
3.
The experience to the members should be
challenging, rewarding and fulfilling
**Asynchronously and remotely, like the editorial board of a magazine
Guidelines for Subcommittees
• Each Subcommittee will have a Chair and Vice Chair
• The subcommittee chair will send out a welcome note to
the members
• The subcommittee will decide the best and most
effective form of communication . Use your imagination**.
• The subcommittee will come up with the objectives (for
this year and long term (next 3 years)
• It will have its own sub-folder in our SharePoint
• It will post its vision in that folder
• The status/accomplishments will be updated at least once
a month. This will be used to provide the status to AIAA
** FYI TCP/IP was implemented using Pigeons
(“RFC 1149 - Standard for the transmission of IP Datagrams on avian Carriers 
Face to Face Meetings
Face to face meetings
• AIAA suggests 2 face to face meetings per year**
• One meeting is always at the Infotech@Aerospace conference (which
is sponsored by us).
• My experience is: These are poorly attended (approximately less than
35% of total TC membership), Mostly due to the new-reality where
travel for conferences (let alone for committee meetings) is restricted.
• Please note that you are welcome to attend if possible. But you can
also call in (if possible).
** I agree that this was essential before the invention of telephone . But I am not sure of its usefulness in these days of
internet, e-mail, Face Book, Twitter, or iPhone (FaceTime). I have seen an interesting letter from the CEO of Nokia about
the need for change. For example it costs a big company about $ 6K - $7.5K to send a senior engineer for a 4 day
conference. But what is the return on the investment (ROI)?
Face to face meetings (contd.)
• Please note that the way TC functions (at least during my tenure as Chair)
is not dependent on your attending the face to face meetings or
conference calls.
• Buy the way, the response for our latest face-to-face meeting at ASM -2011
in Orlando was as follows:
· Physical attendance
: 4 (~ 14% )
· Call-ins
: 6 (~20%)
· No response
: 20 (~66%)
• The complete information of the TC will be available on the web so that
you can look at it at your convenience.
• Moreover our TC functions in an asynchronous way where you can
contribute whenever it is convenient for you.
Conference Calls
• Each subcommittee may decide to have the conference calls (e.g.
Preferably in the first half of every month)
• There will be a conference call for the complete TC (in the latter half of the
month)
• The subcommittee chairs will present their updates on their committees
• The Technical Working groups also will present their updates
• All members can call in to the TC meeting
• As already mentioned, attending the conference calls is also optional.
• The complete status (Agenda, Meeting minutes, Accomplishments etc.)
will be available online at any time.
• You can read it (and update it) at any time convenient to you from
anywhere.
Free Conference Call Service
• If you want to have your own tele-conference bridge, you
could register and use Free Conference service.
• I have used it
• It is really free
• Quality is good
• You can schedule the conference using web
• You can send notices and monitor the acceptances,
rejections etc.
Communication
• Don’t depend on e-mail alone. Use any technique that is efficient (not
for the sender alone but for also for the recipient).
• Use the AIAA SharePoint (post the news, announcements,
discussions, voting, Blogs).
• It reduces the clutter in the inbox
• Avoids the confusion caused by having different versions on different
devices
• Can be accessed from anywhere with any device
Communications (Contd.)
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However much I like to have a team spirit in our TC, I am not for operating our TC as a (not my term. I
have borrowed from F P Brooks) “Hog butchering team”.
I believe in allowing each Subcommittee/Working group to have the autonomy, authority and
accountability to operate as an independent and cohesive entity with targeted communication of their
choosing. I have created the e-mail groups for each subcommittee. Please feel free to use them or any
other means you feel required.
Please note that not everyone is interested in everything going on in the TC. Members have signed up
to the subcommittees based on their interest. Let us respect it.
I agree that blasting an email with attachments to all the people all the time is the easiest thing for the
sender. But is it effective?
Blind mails to entire group are discouraged. Please have a targeted communication. Create your own email alias and use it . To protect the privacy think about using Mail merge or use BCC. If you want the
details for your target group, please let me know
I suggest the following:
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Please do not send any attachments**.
Upload them to the share point.
If you want to initiate a discussion, please start a new discussion thread.
Send the emails only to the people who have expressed explicit interest.
Blog
**Some members indicated that they may not be able to visit the SharePoint often (in particular when they are travelling). I have a list of
them. Please to sends the attachments to them
Change in Culture
• Earlier the whole TC functioned like a single team
• I want the TC to work more like a collection of independent and autonomous
sub-Committees and Technical working groups with little or no bureaucratic
overhead (and without big bang communications)
• One example comes to my mind is the Departments in Bell Labs
Fundamental Research where members are mostly on their own with one of
the members designated as a supervisor (part time responsibility to
shoulder the unavoidable administrative chores) and the members are
almost entirely self directed and driven by the desire for accomplishments
Technical Activities
• Technical activities are the raison d'être of any TC including our TC.
• I am sorry to report that we have not yet made any improvement in
that direction.
• We need to seriously consider that. Please see the sales pitch for our
TC given earlier
• My proposal is:
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Select a topic close to your heart.
Run it through Heilmeier checklist (Given later). Please also see letter from TC
Chair ,June 2010 for more details)
At the minimum, it should be significant, relevant and useful for AIAA.
Get other interested members (My experience: 2 or 3 at most).
You can also include non-TC and even non-AIAA members.
Technical Activities (contd.)
• Have a deadline
• Open a folder in our Share Point
Guidelines for forming Technical Working Groups
Any member can take the lead in forming a working group.
The suggested steps are:
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2.
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Select an area/topic which benefits the AIAA
Survey the landscape
Write a brief description (what is the problem we are trying to solve? The
prior art. Why we need to solve it?
4. Please let me know (for reporting to AIAA)
5. Enroll interested members from the wider world (Other TCs, outside AIAA,
IEEE, ACM,..)
6. Open a folder in our SharePoint
7. Include a .ppt with (at the minimum), Topic, Members, Justification, Expected
end product, Due date
8. Update the status and accomplishments as needed (at least once a month)
9. When finished, write a report and post it in the same folder
10. Once the draft is ready we can review it and send to AIAA for further action
11. Some of the topics I suggest are listed in the next slide. Please feel free to
add your favorites, be a champion of it and see it through the end.
12. I would like to see our work products comparable to ACM’s Assessment of
SWBOK Efforts in terms of quality and significance
Some of the suggested topics
• Software (Proving the correctness of software, The art and Science of Software)
• Software Engineering (Requirements management, IV&V, Quality, Productivity, Software engineering : an
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idea whose time has come and gone)
Architectures (Embedded systems, Real-time systems, SOA, Cloud Computing, GPUs, Software for Super
computing)
Tools (Programming languages, Real-time Java, Real-time COBRA, COTS, Database Management systems,
Knowledge management systems (e.g.: used in DDG-1000) Software development environments (IDKs), Ravenscar
C++ /Embedded C++/Safety Critical C++)
• Techniques (Model based Software architectures, UML, Automated code generation, Round trip engineering,
Automatic translation of Legacy systems into modern languages)
• Technologies (Software development in Multi CPU, multi-core systems, GPGPU (General Purpose Programming
using GPU, Distributed systems)
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Processes (Software development methodologies,
Standards
Education (K-12) (Computer Science for high school students going into Science & Engineering, STEM)
Education (Higher learning) (e.g. Computer Science Curriculum, Teaching Information sciences for
Aerospace Majors, STEM)
• Public Policy issues (Certification of Software Professionals, Impact of Air-force Technology Vision for 20102030 on our field: Analysis, Strategies and action plans, Ethics, Affordability , Software Engineer shortage in
Aerospace(Myth/reality, Cross Training, Curriculum Changes, For/against certification): please see an article in the
folder “interesting articles)
• Security (Cyber Security,
Trusted Computing, Working with EAL 6+ systems, MLS, Stuxnet aftermath)
Angels team
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We have established an Angels team. Several accomplished people have kindly agreed
to be part of this. Their names are not on public email. As long as I am the TC chair I
will be the interface to them (and hand it over to the next TC chair)
As of now the team consists of 1 AIAA Honorary Fellow, 8 AIAA Fellows, 6 AIAA
Associate Fellows, 3 IEEE Fellows, 1 ACM Fellow, 1 ACM distinguished Scientist
I am happy to inform you that we have either completed or in the process of completing
the following:
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1 nomination to International von Kármán Wings Award (by CalTech)
2 nominations to AIAA Honorary Fellow
3 nominations to IEEE Fellow
3 nominations to ACM Distinguished Engineer/Scientist
6 AIAA Associate Fellows
3 AIAA Sr. members
1 AIAA Aerospace Software Award
3 AIAA sustained service awards
I request all of you to look for opportunities to nominate deserving for upgrades
You could also:
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Nominate a colleague for an award
Nominate a colleague for Membership Upgrade (in AIAA, IEEE, ACM, other)
Connect to other members in LinkedIn
Look for opportunities to review AIAA papers (journals, conferences, Student
papers, etc.)
Serve as session chair at a conference
Participate in the panel discussion at a conference
Write a review of the book you have read
Select one or two areas close to your heart, keep an eye for the latest
developments, when you find an interesting article post it on our share point,
Blog, initiate a discussion
You could also (contd.):
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Run for an AIAA Office
Nominate a colleague for an AIAA Office
Look for opportunities to serve on the editorial boards of AIAA publications
(and others like IEEE)
Soon there will be two places in the discussion board. “Do you know” &
“Would it not be nice”
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In the first one, you could post interesting information
In the second one, you could post your wish list (e.g. How to send an automatic alert to select
members when you post an item of interest on our share point)
List of items on my Vision statement (dated Dec 2009) for TC
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15.
16.
Make SSTC as active as Solid Rockets TC, which is one of the biggest and most active TCs. People wait in line for joining
that.
Separate SSTC from CSTC.
Have full 30 – 35 members and another 30-35 non-voting members
Encourage and recruit members from other aerospace faring nations outside USA (India, China, Brazil, Russia, Korea,
Israel, France and Germany etc.). I want to use my contacts in those countries to get members
Move SSTC from the Software Engineering process centric (which is mostly sterile) approach to Actual Software Systems
centric (Mostly creative (some thing Similar to IEEE Software)) focus.
Use the modern multi-media communications in-lieu of face-to-face meetings (which are the first on the chopping block in
these days of tight travel/training budgets)
Make it possible for people to call in and/or e-mail.
Form sub-committees (again like Solid Rockets Subcommittee)
Make the work of the subcommittees equal in quality to that of Congressional fellows of AIAA
Collaborate and cooperate more with IEEE (I have become an Editor of ,IEEE Aerospace and Electronics Systems (AESS)
magazine) and ACM. In fact AIAA and IEEE-AESS are co-sponsors of a joint conference.
Make it appealing and interesting for Academics and Industrial Researchers (Google, CISCO, Microsoft, ISRO, HAL, NAL,
InfoSys, Wipro etc.)
Bring an international character.
Arrange lectures by distinguished people. Coordinate with the efforts like Lockheed Martin-IEEE webinar Series for
Software and Systems Initiative. I want to work with other such efforts from Boeing, Raytheon, GD, ING, Google etc.
Start an “Angels Program” similar to the one existed in Bell Labs where deserving members will be encouraged and helped
to advance their memberships in AIAA and other sister professional Societies, and win Awards.
Start an effective Mentoring/Networking program.
Make SSTC a catalyst for collaborative Research efforts (e.g. smart Grid, Cyber Security etc.)
Heilmeier's Checklist
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5.
6.
7.
What are you trying to do? Articulate your objectives using
absolutely no jargon.
How is it done today, and what are the limits of current practice?
What's new in your approach and why do you think it will be
successful?
Who cares? If you're successful, what difference will it make?
What are the risks and the payoffs?
How much will it cost? How long will it take?
What are the midterm and final "exams" to check for success?
A word about the name of the TC
• The official Name of the TC : Software Systems TC
• Official short form : SOFTC
• We proposed to change the name of the TC from “Software Systems
TC” to “Software TC” in June 2010 to reflect the new focus of the TC.
• It is still winding its way through the red-tape.
• Hope it sees the light some time before May 01, 2012
• You will also see “SSTC” used as an acronym for our TC.
** Move SSTC from the Software Engineering process centric (which is mostly sterile) approach to Actual Software Systems
centric (Mostly creative (some thing Similar to IEEE Software)) focus. (#5 on the Vision Statement)
Additional Information is available at:
Vision Statement
Letter from TC Chair (June 2010)
Letter from TC Chair (August 2010)
Letter from TC Chair (November 2010)
Changing the name of the TC from “Software Systems TC” to
“Software TC”
• Bios/profiles
• Training Materials
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Interesting Letter from Nokia CEO
My favorite line in the letter:
The Chinese OEMs are cranking out a device much faster than, "the
time that it takes us to polish a PowerPoint presentation **."
** That is the reason why I have not polished this presentation 
A page from history