2010 AAAS
Engineering Section Meeting
9:00AM – 12:30PM, Friday February 19, 2010
San Diego Marriott and
Hotel and Marina,
San Diego, CA
Room: Solana
MINUTES
1. Introductions: Dr. Robert Nerem, Section Chair,
called the meeting to order at 9:00 AM.
He asked those present to introduce themselves. The attendance list is
included in Appendix A.
2. Approval
of Minutes: Dr. Nerem asked for comments and
possible changes to the draft minutes of the Section Business Meeting held on
February 13, 2009. The draft minutes were posted on the Section website http://www.eecs.ucf.edu/aaas-m
shortly after the 2009
3. Announcements:
Dr. Nerem announced that the
Section Steering Committee has voted unanimously to have
Dr. Nerem also announced
that 48 members affiliated with the Engineering Section were elected Fellows of
AAAS in November 2009. A list of the
names of the new Fellows was distributed and is attached as Appendix B. The Newly elected Fellows were invited to
attend our business meeting and 17 were able to attend. Dr. Nerem
welcomed them, and thanked them for attending the meeting. He also encouraged the new Fellows to be
active in the section by contributing to the technical program of the AAAS
Annual Meetings, nominating qualified members for the grade of AAAS Fellow, or
serving as an officer in the section.
4. Fellow
Nomination Process: Dr. Nerem asked
For Fellow nominations by members of the Steering
Group (method 1), he mentioned that each nomination must include a completed
Fellow nomination form and either a letter of recommendation by the nominator
or a detailed C.V. with a list of publications (although a C.V. is an essential
piece of the required documentation). He
encouraged members of the Steering Group to submit both. Information on the nomination process by a
group of three Fellows (method 2) and a copy of the nomination form can be
found on the AAAS main website. A link
to that website can also be found on our section Website (http://www.eecs.ucf.edu/aaas-m). Dr. Simaan also mentioned that the deadline
for Fellow nominations by a group of three Fellows is May 14, 2010. By the end
of May 2010, all members of the Steering Group will receive from the AAAS
Executive Office copies of the nomination materials for all nominees, including
those nominated by a group of three Fellows, and by the Chief Executive
Officer. They will also receive a voting
sheet that they will need to fill and return to him by the specified deadline. Marwan will then forward all votes to the
Executive Office. The newly elected
Fellows will be notified upon formal election of the slate of all approved
nominees by the AAAS Council.
Dr. Simaan mentioned that the number of Fellows
elected through nominations by the Steering Group is subject to a section quota
which is 15 for this year (there is no quota for those elected through
nominations by three Fellows or by the Chief Executive Officer). He also mentioned that in all three methods,
a successful candidate must receive no less than five yes votes and no more
than two no votes.
While the discussions were taking place, Dr. Alice
Huang, AAAS President-Elect and Chair of the 2011 Program Committee joined our
business meeting for a brief period of time and gave an introduction to the
theme for the 2011 AAAS Annual Meeting to be held in Washington, DC February
17-21, 2011. The theme is “Science without Borders”. Dr. Huang noted that the theme integrates the
practice of science both in teaching and research that utilizes
multidisciplinary approaches. It also
takes into consideration the diversity of investigators and students. She encouraged the section to submit
proposals that relate to the theme of the meeting. The deadline for submission
is Tuesday April 27, 2010, 11:59pm.
Decisions will be announced in July.
At the end, the ideas were grouped into six important
topics that would encompass many symposia that could be planned and sponsored
by our section. A summary of these
topics is given below.
5.1 Global Health Care: Advances and Challenges
Organizer: Metin Akay
(makay@uh.edu),
Recent advances in medical
technology have significantly improved the human health in developed countries.
However, these advances remain out of touch for much of the world’s population.
We still face unprecedented healthcare challenges in the 21st
century. The prevalence of major diseases today, from the global AIDS pandemic to
antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis, cuts across the healthcare, political,
economic, social, and biomedical disciplines: These diseases will continue
affecting the world unless major measures are taken to develop comprehensive
prevention and treatment programs. Thus, biomedical engineers are expected to
play a critical role in developing novel and affordable medical technology and
drugs to solve global healthcare problems, especially in the developing
countries.
The objectives of this special
symposium are to discuss the healthcare systems, financing, delivery and
management in the world, recent advances in information technologies in
healthcare and their use in diagnosing, treating, and preventing diseases,
using novel technologies to develop new drugs, technology regulation, and
ethical issues surrounding the use of novel technologies. A tentative list of the speakers and topics
includes:
a)
Smart Global Healthcare Policy, The Honorable
Jeanne Shaheen, US Senator.
b)
Global Health Challenges and Opportunities, Susan Blumenthal, MD,
MPA, Former US Assistant Surgeon General, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at
Georgetown School of Medicine and Tufts University Medical Center.
c) New Perspective on Global Health and Science,
Harold Varmus, MD, President
and Chief Executive, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; Former Director of
the NIH; Nobel Prize Recipient.
d) The Role of Universities in Global Health,
Elizabeth Bradley, PhD, Professor of Public Health, Division of Health Policy and
Administration; Director, Health Management Program; Director, Global Health
Initiatives, Yale School of Public Health.
e)
The Coming Revolution in Global Public Health, Jeffrey Sachs, Director of Earth
Institute at Columbia University; Quetelet Professor
of Sustainable Development, Professor of Health Policy and Management, Columbia
University; Special Advisor to Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban
Ki-Moon.
5.2 Panel: New Technologies for Global Healthcare
Moderator: Metin Akay
(makay@uh.edu),
University of Houston
Panel Members:
Low Cost Bioinstrumentation for Global Health, Robert Malkin, PhD, PE, Professor
of Practice of Biomedical Engineering Director, Duke-Engineering World Health,
Duke University.
Biomedical Engineering for Global
Healthcare, Rebecca Richards-Kortum,
PhD, Stanley C. Moore Professor of Bioengineering, Rice University.
5.3 The
University of the Future
Organizer: Robert Nerem (robert.nerem@ibb.gatech.edu),
Georgia Tech and Section M Chair
As we move further into the
21st century there could be profound changes in higher education in the U.S.
and globally. It is in fact hard to believe that the university
of the future will look like institutions today. There are many factors
that will drive this change in higher education. This includes the
globalization of higher education; however, there are many other factors as well.
There thus are many questions. For example, as a university more and more takes
on the character of a business, how do we keep a focus on education,
particularly at the undergraduate level? With the continuing advances in
electronic technology, how do we preserve the professor-student relationship?
How do we communicate to the public what a university really is? This concept
of a programmatic idea could be a single 180 minute symposium with speakers
such as Jean-Lou Chameau (Cal Tech), Mary Ann Fox (UCSD),
Gordon Gee) Ohio State), Susan Hockfield (MIT),
Richard Levin(Yale), James Wagner(Emory), and Mark Yudof
(UC System). There also could be the heads of institutions from other
countries. This also could be a major series of sessions organized to include
sessions on undergraduate education, graduate education, diversity in higher
education, as well as a "big picture" session with a panel of
university presidents such as described above.
5.4 Globalization and Sustainable Manufacturing
Organizer: Ram D. Sriram,
(sriram@nist.gov), NIST
Manufacturing is having a
significant impact on global sustainability.
According to a recent report from the University of Cambridge (http://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/sis/industrial_sustainability_report.pdf)
“the industrial system can account for 30 % or more of greenhouse gas
generation in industrialized countries.”
This statement reflects only a part of the total impacts on the
environment. Energy consumption and waste production are other major factors
contributing to the sustainability problems. Engineers of successful global
enterprises are confronted with the challenges of designing sustainable
products, processes, and services. This can be achieved through the practice of
sustainable manufacturing principles. We can view sustainable manufacturing as
a systems approach for the creation and distribution (supply chain) of innovative
products and services that minimizes resources (inputs such as materials,
energy, water and land), maximize the use of renewable resources, eliminates
toxic substances, and produces zero waste that in effect reduces carbon
(including carbon equivalent) intensity across the entire lifecycle of products
and services. Interlinked pathways of interaction at various levels
characterize such systems. These levels span technical, economic, ecological,
and societal issues. The interactions within and across these levels are
critical to the fundamental understanding of sustainable design and
manufacturing, because tackling any one of the issues in isolation could result
in unintended consequences. The objective of this session to
explore the various technical, social, and environmental issues in sustainable
manufacturing within the context of a global networked economy.
5.5 Perspectives on Employment for / from Persons
with Disabilities
Organizers:
Angela Forman (alfnts@rit.edu), Rochester Institute of
Technology and Amy Sharma (amy.sharma@gtri.gatech.edu),
Georgia Tech Research Institute.
This symposium will focus on the perspectives of
persons, specifically engineers, with disabilities and their experiences in the
engineering workforce. We believe it is
a perfect match to the theme of “Science Without Boarders” as this will promote
diversity in the workforce. Engineering creates assistive technology and is a
perfect potential employment field for persons with disabilities.
This session will provide an opportunity to
disseminate the data from a 2009 AAAS Workshop (funded by the NSF) entitled
“Problem Solving” that provided an opportunity to review 1) employment issues;
2) accommodations from an engineering perspective (technical limitations); and
3) assistive technologies. Topics presented at this symposium will evolve to
reflect the information and lessons learned from the workshop (which will be
compiled later this spring).
Potential topics to be covered will include both
employers’ and employees’ viewpoints: Employers’ best practices for fostering
an inclusive workforce including the creation of a welcoming environment and
the full incorporation of employees with disabilities into all aspects of the
organization. Employees’ perspectives will
include a discussion of self-perceived limitations (such as travel) and the
impact on their willingness to apply for technical positions. Additional topics
include the lack of knowledge about accommodation practices and the fear of
asking.
Potential Speakers: Representatives from Merk and Northrup Grumman. Virginia Stern, Director,
Science, Technology and Disability at AAAS has offered to provide support in
identifying potential speakers from companies that have successful programs and
practices and also individuals with disabilities who have successful
careers.
Potential audience: employers, potential
employees, veterans and policy makers.
Possible
joint funders:
- National Science Foundation (supported by
Ted Conway, Program Director, Research to Aid Persons with Disabilities,
Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems
Engineering, Engineering Directorate).
-
Possible joint sponsors: AAAS Committee on Opportunities in Science
(COOS)
5.6 Globalization
of Science through the International Space Station
Organizer: Peter Bainum
(pbainum@fac.howard.edu),
The International Space Station (ISS) will
become operational during 2010. It is proposed to convene a 90 minute symposium
to be coordinated by a key official from the NASA Space Station program office,
and involve scientists from the US, Japan, and Europe who would describe
various experiments planned for the ISS. Engineering, Section M proponents:
Dr. Nerem encouraged all
those who have suggested these ideas to develop them further and submit them on
the AAAS proposal submission website before the deadline of April 27, 2010.
5.7 Plenary and Topical Lectures: Dr. Nerem asked for
suggestions for Plenary and Topical lectures speakers. The following are some of the names that were
suggested.
For Plenary Lectures the following names were
suggested:
a) Chuck Vest, NAE President. Topic: Grand Challenges for the 21st
Century.
b) Steve Jobs, Apple CEO. Topic: Future of the
Electronic World.
For Topical Lectures the following names were
suggested:
a) Steven E. Koonin, Undersecretary for Science,
b) Bernard Amadei,
c) Theodore W. Berger, Biomedical Engineering,
d) Rebecca Richards-Kortum,
Bioengineering Department,
6. Other
Items:
Gail Marcus, our section’s representative on Council,
asked the section to support her efforts in requesting that AAAS cover the hotel
expenses for council representatives for four nights instead of two nights at
the Annual Meetings. This will allow the
council representatives to be able to attend both the section business meeting
which is typically on Friday morning and the council meeting which is typically
on Saturday afternoon. A motion to support Dr. Marcus’ request was made,
seconded and passed unanimously.
7. Adjournment: The meeting was
adjourned at 11:40 AM. Lunch was served.
Submitted by:
Marwan A. Simaan
Section Secretary
February 23, 2010
Appendix
A
Attendance List
1.
Robert Nerem, Section Chair
2.
Marwan
Simaan, Section Secretary
3. Duncan Moore, Chair-Elect
4. Vincent Poor, Chair Elect Elect
5. Priscilla Nelson, Retiring Chair
6. Cristina Amon, Past
Chair
7. Christine Maziar,
Member-at-Large
8. Gail Marcus, Council Delegate
9. Jim Merz, Council Delegate
10. Anice Anderson, Section P
Secretary
11. Stan Bull, Section P
Retiring Chair
12. David Lubman,
Representative, Acoustical Society of America
13. Peter Bainum,
Representative, American Astronautical Society
14. Robert Gibrou,
National Society of Prof. Engineers
15. Raphael Lee
16. Amy Sharma
17. Angela Lee Foreman
18. Ishwar Puri
19. C. Chen, Newly Elected Fellow
20. Chai Toh, Newly Elected
Fellow
21. Gang Bao, Newly Elected
Fellow
22. Ibrahim Hajj, Newly Elected Fellow
23. Kalliat Valsaraj, Newly Elected
Fellow
24. Katherine Ferrara, Newly Elected Fellow
25. Metin Akay, Newly Elected Fellow
26. Moe Khaleel, Newly Elected
Fellow
27. Mubarak Shah, Newly Elected
Fellow
28. Ram Sriram, Newly Elected
Fellow
29. Roger Kamm, Newly Elected Fellow
30. Sankar Basu, Newly Elected Fellow
31. Seeram Ramakrishna, Newly Elected Fellow
32. Sunil Saigal, Newly Elected
Fellow
33. Tirumalai Srivatsan, Newly Elected
Fellow
34. Viktor Prasanna, Newly
Elected Fellow
35. Walid Najjar, Newly Elected
Fellow
36. Yildiz Bayazitoglu, Newly Elected
Fellow
Appendix B
New AAAS Fellows elected
in November 2009
Engineering Section
Newly elected Fellows affiliated with section
M (Engineering) are:
·
Metin
Akay, Arizona State Univ.
·
Gang Bao, Georgia Institute of Technology
·
Sankar
Basu, National Science Foundation
·
Yildiz
Bayazitoglu, Rice Univ.
·
C. Philip Chen, Univ. of Texas, San Antonio
·
Gang Chen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
·
William Cluett, Univ. of Toronto
·
Narendra
B. Dahotre, Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville
·
Gordon W. Day, Retired
·
Nader Engheta, Univ. of Pennsylvania
·
Katherine Whittaker Ferrara, Univ. of California, Davis
·
Gary C. Gimmestad, Georgia Institute of Technology
·
Ibrahim N. Hajj, American Univ. of Beirut
·
Qing Hu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
·
Roger D. Kamm, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
·
Bryan Karney, Univ. of Toronto
·
Michael E. Kassner, Univ. of Southern California
·
Susan Kauzlarich, Univ. of California, Davis
·
Moe A. Khaleel, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
·
Rajinder
P. Khosla, National Science Foundation
·
Akhlesh
Lakhtakia, Pennsylvania State Univ.
·
Jerry Y.S. Lin, Arizona State Univ.
·
Vladimir Mitin, Univ. at Buffalo, SUNY
·
Javad
Mostaghimi, Univ. of Toronto
·
David R. Myers, Sandia National Laboratories
·
Walid
A. Najjar, Univ. of California, Riverside
·
Shrikanth
Narayanan, Univ. of
Southern California
·
Charles C. Nguyen, Catholic Univ. of America
·
Lukas Novotny, Univ. of Rochester
·
Arogyaswami
Joseph Paulraj, Stanford Univ.
·
Viktor K. Prasanna,Univ. of Southern California
·
Seeram
Ramakrishna, National
Univ. of Singapore
·
Ravi Ravindran, Ryerson Univ.
·
Jeffrey Allen Reimer, Univ. of California, Berkeley
·
Debra R. Reinhart, Univ. of Central Florida
·
Sunil Saigal, New Jersey Institute of Technology
·
Mohammad Samimy, Ohio State Univ.
·
Edward H. Sargent, Univ. of Toronto
·
Peter Searson, Johns Hopkins Univ.
·
Mubarak Shah, Univ. of Central Florida
·
Ram D. Sriram, National Institute of Standards and
Technology
·
Tirumalai
S. Srivatsan, Univ. of Akron
·
Chai Keong Toh,
ALICO Inc., USA
·
Kimon
P. Valavanis, Univ. of Denver
·
Kalliat
T. Valsaraj, Louisiana State Univ.
·
Dionisios
(Dion) G. Vlachos, Univ.
of Delaware
·
Mark R.
Wiesner, Duke Univ.
·
Denis Wirtz, Johns Hopkins Univ.