Archives 2002 - 2004
07/10/04
Well, I hope everyone is enjoying their summer vacation, and congrats to everyone that graduated this semester! As a quick note of business, here are the newly-elected officers for the 2004-2005 school year:
President: Mark Brill (mbrill@wam.umd.edu)
Chairman: Sam Trepp (trepp@umd.edu)
Treasurer: Jared Grauer (jgrauer@wam.umd.edu)
Secretary/Webmaster: Victor Ling (vling@wam.umd.edu)
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Alison Flatau (aflatau@eng.umd.edu)
Maryland Day Co-Chairs: Carl Diaz (carldiaz@hotmail.com) and Chris Benic (spacepod@wam.umd.edu)
04/26/04
Hey all, there's been a slight change in plans. The third general body meeting will be held this month on MONDAY APRIL 26 at 5:30pm in EGR 1202. Why is the meeting being rescheduled, you might ask? Well, Luke, your wonderful Chairman, has managed to book a very special speaker: Mrs. Rebecca Griffin! Ms. Griffin is president of the National Space Club, and has been chairman of the National Capitol Section of AIAA twice. She also has 20+ years of experience in the aerospace industry. She is very enthused about speaking with us, and we would like to have a large turnout, so tell your friends! :) We will be serving pizza (Papa John's!) after the meeting; as usual, free for members and $5.00 for nonmenbers.
At the meeting we will also be having nominations for the officer elections, scheduled for Monday May 3rd at 5pm in the Aero lounge. If you'd like to run for office -- President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, MD Day chair or co-chair -- please talk to one of the current officers and/or come to the meeting and let us know! :)
In other news, the 11th Annual Aerospace Awards Banquet is coming up soon, and we need RSVPs very very soon. It'll be held this year at the Holiday Inn on Route 1 up by the IKEA, Thursday, May 6th starting at 6pm. Anyone can attend, and tickets are only $20 for AIAA and SGT members. Check back for more updates soon, or email Matt Hughes at mhughes1682@hotmail.com if you have any questions.
03/24/04
The information sheets for the first and second general body meetings are here and here. We've had a great turnout at the meetings so far; let's keep it up! :)
I hope everyone's having a good spring break, and will come back refreshed and ready for another bout with classes. Check back here for updates soon on the third general body meeting and the spring banquet at the end of the semester.
The new version of the membership form has been posted to the website as well; you can access it here. If you haven't filled one out yet this semester and turned it in, please do so -- these serve as our local records as well as national signups, so we need you to turn these in to us sans national dues if you've signed up independently, thank you!
We've had a changing of the guard: Luke has taken over as acting Chairman, and Chris Benic has stepped down -- please welcome Abe Daiub as our new Treasurer!
02/16/04
Welcome back! I hope the semester's going well for you all so far and that the break left you rested and ready to learn. The first AIAA general body meeting of the semester is this Wednesday, February 18, at 5:30pm in EGR 1202. We will be serving pizza after the meeting -- free for members, $5 for nonmembers. We hope to see you there!
This semester, AIAA general body meetings will be held the third Wednesday of every month in EGR 1202 at 5:30pm. We will also be selling hotdogs every other week on Thursdays from 11am-2pm, starting next Thursday; if you help out for an hour or more there's a free lunch involved:)
If you are going to be attending or presenting a paper at the AIAA Student Conference at Virginia Tech on April 16-18th, please let me know by this Friday, thank you.
11/30/03
Apologies for the lack of updates to the website, but being in a time crunch as of late I had opted for emails over website updates.
The next Brown Bag with a Professor will be held Wednesday December 10 at 12:00 pm in the Aerospace Conference Room as usual. Pizza will be served. An email will go out once our speaker has been finalized.
T-shirt sales unfortunately did not happen this semester, but we are still planning on having them! Keep your ears open for advertisements next semester.
The Maryland Delaware Rocketry Association (MDRA) is having a rocket launch on December 13 and 14 from 9 am to 5pm. These guys are pretty hard-core and have to get permission from the FAA before flying their rockets, and they all do it without help from NASA. If you think rockets are cool, check out their website for directions and more information:)
We are planning on having free food over finals, so please use the lounge to study:)
Also, we are tentatively planning a Christmas Party. More news on that as plans are hashed out more fully.
And, for those of us who have lots of finals and can't make it to Kitty Hawk, the College Park Aviation Museum is going to host their own 100th Anniversary of Flight celebration on Wednesday December 17, from 10am til 5pm. They'll also be airing live coverage of the events at Kitty Hawk, so you won't miss out.
From the website: On the 100th anniversary of flight, join us for give-aways, prizes, movies, and great photo opportunities with our own Orville and Wilbur impersonators. Our gallery will carry live coverage of the Centennial of Flight events taking place at historic Kitty Hawk, North Carolina and around the world.
10/26/03
We will be decorating the lounge for Halloween tonight (10/26!) at 8 pm. If you're not busy and want to help spookify the place up right proper, come on by!
We're having hotdog sales again this Thursday (10/30) from 11am-2pm. The signup sheet is on the bulletin board.
The AIAA in conjunction with the SGT is hosting a Movie Night this Thursday, October 30, at 6 pm in EGR 1202. Pizza will be served. Top Gun showing! Kick up your feet for an hour or two and enjoy a good movie with your fellow classmates:)
The AIAA will he holding a Tailgate party on November 1 on Lot XX in conjunction with the Alumni Association. ...More details on times/events as we plan them (much of this relies upon what time the game will be held).
The Engineering Fall Ball is coming! The event will be held November 14th at 7:00 pm in the Grand Ballroom of Stamp Student Union. Tickets are $25 for students and $35 for faculty, and will be on sale through November 7 in the main lobby of the engineering building. There will be 40 tables at the event, 10 people per table: you can pick where you want to sit when you buy your ticket. Dress is black-tie optional. Ballroom at MD will be giving free salsa dancing lessons for the first hour; dinner and dessert will be served, and entertainment will be provided by a DJ. ...I can say from personal experience that it is a good time, and definitely worth attending if you can. Plus, the dessert is to die for;)
If anyone is interested in attending the 100th Anniversary of Flight at Kitty Hawk(Wednesday, December 17), please email me at cmcghan@wam.umd.edu and we'll try to set it up.
We have found our two MD Day co-chairs! If you're interested in helping out with the MD Day festivities, please contact Dan Kim and Jason West.
We are still looking for an E-Week chair to help coordinate with the ESC. If you're interested and would like more information, please email me.
10/21/03
Brown Bag with a Professor is on for this Wednesday from 12pm-1pm -- Dr. Sanner, our friendly controls guru, will be presenting:) Swing on by EGR 3164 and see what all the excitement is about!
Brown Bag with a Professor is a new biweekly event this year. While our general meetings will serve as a peek into the current aerospace industry, these informal lunchtime meetings will focus on the aero department faculty here at Maryland and their current research. If you would like to learn more about the research that goes on here at the university and get to know the faculty, this is for you!
10/14/03
The second AIAA general body meeting is this Thursday, October 16, at 5:30pm in EGR 1202. Our guest speaker will be Ed Yarbrough, the Director of Technology Programs for Honeywell Defense and Space in their Washington DC office, and he will be presenting on Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAV's). If you missed his presentation at the banquet last year, come on down and see what you missed! We will be serving pizza after the meeting -- free for members, $5 for nonmembers. There will also be door prizes for members as well. If you haven't renewed your membership yet, don't worry! -- we will have forms at the meeting:)
We will having hotdog sales again this Thursday, October 16 from 11-2pm in the main lobby of the engineering building. We need people to help sell, and also to buy:) The signup sheet is in the lounge. Free lunch for anyone who helps out for an hour or more!
10/14/03
The information handout from the first general body meeting is available here.
The results of the Votes of Interest from our last meeting were:
Get a foosball table for the lounge? -- NO
Interest in scheduling movie nights (Right Stuff, Top Gun, Two Towers, etc.) -- YES
Interest in scheduling a Wallops Island daytrip to watch a launch -- YES
Fundraiser interest, business cards -- "eh"
Fundraiser interest, MD Engineering/MD Aero hats -- YES
Keep having door prizes at general body meetings? -- YES
Gym lockers, buy more from TerpTrader if necessary? -- YES
Redecorate/redmodel the lounge? -- "mixed"
Hotdog sales are every other Thursday from 11am 'til 2pm, starting Thursday October 2.
09/24/03
The first AIAA general body meeting has been rescheduled for tomorrow, Thursday September 25, at 5:30pm in EGR 1202. Our guest speaker will be Dr. Ella Atkins, an aero professor in the department, who will be giving a PowerPoint presentation on her current research entitled "Plan construction and repair for complex flight." Her work spans both the aero and astro fields, so there will be something for everyone. Anyone interested in seeing what a more formal version of the Brown Bag meetings is like should attend:) ...We will be serving pizza after the meeting (free for members, $5 for nonmembers). We will also be giving out door prizes, $5 gift certificates to food establishments in the area (Chipotle, etc.).
There will be several events, fundraisers, and other issues that we will be taking votes of interest on, and not just the normal announcements, so please come and have your voice be heard!
09/19/03
Well, it looks like Isabel's causing some major problems all around. I would've posted yesterday that the first general body meeting was cancelled since campus was closed as well, but they turned off WAM and GLUE, so I couldn't send email or update the website:( ...Once the current madness is over, we'll reschedule the meeting and send out information over the mailing list as well as post it here. And for anyone interested in locker assignments or the T-shirt design competition, we will be extending the deadlines for those, so don't fret:)
09/09/03
The AIAA fall picnic will be held on Friday September 12th at 4 pm at the Acredale Community Park. Everyone is welcome to come and enjoy the fun! For more information and directions to the park, click here!
09/09/03
The website has received a major update. Check out the Calendar and the new Misc. Other page. Also, Dr. Mary Bowden has graciously donated the use of her Aero Quiz, which made its debut at the grad school picnic this summer. Think you know the aero faculty and staff? Take the quiz and find out!
09/09/03
Brown Bag with a Professor is a new biweekly event this year. While our general meetings will serve as a peek into the current aerospace industry, these informal lunchtime meetings will focus on the aero department faculty here at Maryland and their current research. If you would like to learn more about the research that goes on here at the university and get to know the faculty, this is for you! For more information on specific meeting dates and professors, check out the Calendar.
08/09/03
More revisions have been made to the website, mostly to make updating easier. The meeting dates for next semester have been added to the Upcoming Events section below. Also, I'm working on resurrecting the old vehicle, reference, and research pages that were a work-in-progress before. If you have any ideas for additions to these pages, or links and info. that you'd like to share, please let me know!
07/28/03
Well, the website is going through some updates currently; nothing major, but check back for changes over the next few days. If you have questions, comments, and/or ideas for the coming year, we're interested in hearing them, so please contact one of the new elected officers for the 2003-2004 school year:
President: Dan Proffen (dproffen@glue.umd.edu)
Vice President: Luke Twarek (twarek@wam.umd.edu)
Treasurer: Chris Benic (spacepod@wam.umd.edu)
Secretary/Webmaster: Catharine McGhan (cmcghan@wam.umd.edu)
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Mark Lewis (lewis@eng.umd.edu)
Maryland Day Co-Chairs: Dan Kim (danheum@wam.umd.edu) and Jason West (jwest687@hotmail.com)
05/07/03
The speaker at tomorrow's banquet is Ed Yarbrough. He is an Associate Fellow of the AIAA and a member of the National Capital Section Council. He has been in the aerospace business for over 25 years and has been involved in the business development aspects of space programs, advanced aeronautical systems and technology programs. He is currently the Director of Technology Programs for Honeywell Defense and Space in their Washington DC office. Ed was previously their Director of Space Programs from 1996-2002. Prior to his employment by Honeywell and its predecessor AlliedSignal, Ed spent over 18 years with McDonnell Douglas Corporation as a leader in technology, advanced systems, and space business development in St. Louis, Dayton, Washington DC, San Diego, and Huntington Beach. Ed has been involved with AIAA since his college days at Purdue University, and has served as Purdue Student Branch Chairman, AIAA Dayton Cincinnati Section Chairman, and served on the AIAA San Diego Section Council. Ed was selected to be a member of Sigma Gamma Tau in his junior year at Purdue and was the recipient of the Sigma Gamma Tau Outstanding Undergraduate Award in 1976 for Purdue, the Great Lakes Region, and the nation.
Tickets are still on sale; see Maryann for details.
04/28/03
We won! That's right, the Aerospace display got "Best Overall" in the ESC Maryland Day design contest! Awesome job, and thanks to everyone who participated!
04/14/03
Tickets are on sale now in the lounge for the annual aerospace department banquet. It will be on Thursday, May 8, at 6 pm at the Holiday Inn on Rt. 1. Price is $20 for local memebers, $25 for students and student's guests, and $30 for Faculty/Staff, Alumni, and their guests. Award ballots are also in the lounge. Note that the banquet is NOT at the 94th AeroSquadron this year.
04/04/03
AIAA student conference! Here! Next weekend! Click on the pretty link to the left and register! And then attend and have fun!
02/21/03
Welcome back, everyone! We're finally getting started for the semester. Our first meeting will be next Tuesday, February 25, in ENG 1202 from 5:30 to 7:00 pm. There will be a marine recruiter speaking, and we have a little bit of business to discuss. There will, of course, be free pizza and sodas after the meeting. See this flyer for information about the speaker.
02/21/03
There are some lectures at NASM this semester that we're planning to attend. For descriptions, see http://www.nasm.edu/nasm/pa/lectures/lectures.html. We will be getting 10 tickets each to the Mars lecture on March 6 at 7:30 and the Apollo 17 lecture on March 18 at 8. We will be leaving for the metro station from the lounge an hour and a half before each event, and half an hour before we leave there will be free pizza (5:30 on the 6th and 6:00 on the 18th). If you wish to attend any of the other scheduled lectures, or if we run out of tickets for these two, tickets are available for free either at the museum or from tickets.com.
01/13/03
Hopefully everyone did well on finals and is ready for the new semester. Remember that the student conference and Maryland Day are coming up in April, along with other oppurtunites to present your work, like Undergrad Research Day. Also, if any of you still have unresolved dues issues, contact an officer. Dues and membership forms were all sent to the national office in November.
01/12/03
These two messages were sent to the email list within the past month or so:
Hi my name is Les and I'm an engineer here at the Glenn L. Martin Wind Tunnel. I'm writing to let you know that the wind tunnel is looking for co-op students to fill the position of our tunnel operator. Since this is a co-op position, the contract spans for one year and full time. It is possible to take one or two classes during the year but that's decided case by case. The wind tunnel works mainly with the industry and provide aerodynamic evaluations for our clients' new products. Some of our clients include Navy, Army, NASA, FORD, GM, National Weather Service, America's Cup race teams, U.S. Bobsled Federation, NASCAR race teams and many more. As an operator, you will be depended heavily on the success of the experiment, from the beginning part of setting up the model to recording the data, and interact with the client engineers to give them what they needed. The position starts in January of 2003 and last to December 2003. Send me an email at: cy30@umail.umd.edu for all other details. Thank you.
Hi my name is Chris an I am aerospace Maryland Day Chairman. The first Maryland Day meeting is this Wednesday at 4:00p.m. in the AIAA lounge. If anyone would like to help out in any part (ideas, design, building, hosting...) please come to the meeting or email me at spacepod@wam.umd.edu. From what I have been told, there has to be a wind tunnel and a Wright flyer in it, but everything else is fair game.
11/14/02
We are going to the lecture by General Thomas P. Stafford at the National Air and Space Museum Saturday, November 16, at 8 pm. The lecture is free. We will meet in the lounge at 6:00 pm and leave for the metro station by 6:30. If you are still interested in tickets, email Katy (katycat@wam.umd.edu), or show up at the lounge on Saturday; we'll probably have some left.
11/14/02
Early next week, we're going to mail the national membership forms and dues for this year to the national office. If you don't have your membership forms or your money turned in yet, now is the optimal time to do so. National forms are available in the lounge, and local forms can be found on this website - there's a link on the "about" page.
11/14/02
Website news: I decided I'd never get a vehicle, research, or reference section up, and have taken down the links to the left. If they still show up on any pages, or if I deleted the wrong link anywhere, let me know so I can fix it. Complaints are always welcome too. -- Katy
10/24/02
The tickets to the Space Station 3D IMAX will be distributed by raffle. We have 15 tickets to give away. The show is at 3:05 next Saturday, Nov. 2, at the National Air and Space Museum. Transportation will probably be similar to the carpool/metro that happened for Yeager's lecture. If you would like to be entered in the raffle, which will be held on Monday Oct. 28, email Katy (katycat@wam.umd.edu) by Sunday night. Note: if you are chosen in the raffle, you are responsible for your ticket - you will have to pay for it if you bail out on us.
10/24/02
If you're interested in joining the (coed!) AIAA team for flag football, email Jarrett (jarbot_usmc@hotmail.com).
10/06/2002
AIAA is thinking about starting a tutoring program. If you're interested in tutoring a freshman or sophomore ENAE student, or being tutored, contact an officer so we can begin to take stock of interest in the program.
9/12/2002
We're beginning to plan trips to attend lectures by Yeager and Stafford as well as the Space Station 3D IMAX film at the National Air and Space Museum. The Yeager lecture is on 10/10 at 7:30 PM, the Stafford lecture is on 11/16 at 8 PM, and the date/time of the IMAX show are still up in the air (no pun intended). The lectures are free, the IMAX is $7.50 or $6 depending on the size of our group. If you're interesting in attending any of these, let an officer know.
9/12/2002
Local membership forms are now available online here or on the About page. Remember that renewing members should fill out both local and national forms and give the full $25 dues to an officer.
9/11/2002
We can no longer save files to the computers in the Aero Design Lab. If you're doing important work on them, be sure to save it to a remote account or a separate disk. To this end, AIAA will be selling floppy and Zip disks in the lounge.
9/11/2002
The AIAA fall picnic will be held on September 13 at 4:00 PM at Paint Branch Park. All interested students and faculty are welcome to attend!
7/27/2002
The forum is up and working now. Enjoy!
7/23/2002
The new webpage is up! As you can see, it's expanded a lot, though most of the long paragraphs were taken from the old site. I plan to update it often & regularly as the year goes on. You'll notice that a lot of the sections depend heavily on participation - Research, Featured Vehicle, Discussion Board. Also, I'll take whatever comments, input, or suggestions you have. This may be overly optimistic on my part; I have delusions of people liking this site enough to want to come back often and submit to it. We'll see how that plays out.