2020 AAAS Engineering Section Business Meeting

 

Friday February 14, 2020

 

Seattle, WA; Sheraton Grand Hotel, Room: Aspen

 

MINUTES

 

1.   Introductions: Section Chair, Sarah Rajala called the meeting to order at 9:45 AM after around 15 minutes of networking with coffee and snacks being served.  She welcomed everyone and then asked those who are present to introduce themselves. The attendance list is included in Appendix A.

 

2.   Approval of Minutes: Dr. Rajala mentioned that copies of the draft minutes of our Section’s business meeting held on February 15, 2019 at the Washington, DC meeting were posted on our Section’s website http://www.ece.ucf.edu/aaas-m shortly after the 2019 meeting and that copies of the draft minutes were also distributed to those present at the meeting.  She asked for a motion to approve the minutes.  A motion as made and seconded.  She then asked for comments or changes to the minutes. None were suggested.  A vote was taken and the motion passed unanimously.

 

3.  Section Chair Remarks:  Dr. Rajala provided an update on issues that were discussed at the General Meeting of the Section Officers held earlier in the morning. Sudip Parikh, new AAAS CEO, indicated that that he and the Board of Directors would be conducting a review and update of the AAAS governance, which had not been done since the 1950s. Section leadership will be kept updated and asked to participate in review of proposed changes. Marietta Damond provided an update on a Member Survey and a Fellow Survey that were recently conducted. Based on the data collected in the Member Survey, approximately two-thirds of the AAAS membership is male. However with the recent focus on diversity, equity and inclusion, the most recent new member data includes 47% female, 51% male and 2% other. The Fellow survey indicate that Fellow status is an important peer recognition and there is strong support for AAAS’ commitment to promoting ethics and diversity. Ed Aboufadel, Chair, Subcommittee on Fellows, gave an update on the work of the committee. A major focus recently, has been the development and implementation of the revocation policy for Fellow status. Finally, Sudip Parikh shared with the group that the theme for the 2021 AAAS conference will be Understanding Dynamic Ecosystems. He urged each of the sections to submit at least five session proposals.

 

4.   Announcements:  Dr. Rajala announced the results of the 2020-21 AAAS elections:

 

For the General Elections: Susan G. Amara (National Institute of Mental Health) was elected President-Elect; Cynthia M. Beall (Case Western Reserve University) and Alondra Nelson (Social Science Research Center/Institute for Advanced Study) were elected to the Board of Directors; and Marlene Belford (University at Albany, SUNY), John G. Hildebrand (University of Arizona), Michael Prather (University of California, Irvine) and Esther Takeuchi (Stony Brook University/Brookhaven National Laboratory) were elected to the Committee on Nominations.

 

For the Engineering Section: Jennifer Sinclair Curtis (University of California, Davis) was elected Chair-Elect; Pramod P. Khargonekar (University of California, Irvine) was elected Member-at-Large; Lynette D. Madsen (National Science Foundation) and Georgia Gina Tourassi (Oak Ridge National Laboratory) were elected members of the Section Electorate Nominating Committee, and Jacqueline H. Chen (Sandia National Laboratories) was elected as Council Delegate.  The term for all those who were elected starts on Monday, February 17, 2020.

 

Dr. Rajala thanked all the officers whose terms will end at the last day of this Annual Meeting:  Deb Niemeier as Retiring Chair, Nadine Aubry as Member -at-Large, Ian Robertson as Council Delegate, and Sheryl Ehrman and Rodney Priestley as Members of the Electorate Nominating Committee. 

 

On February 17, 2020, Dr. Rajala will become the Retiring Chair and in that capacity she will serve on the AAAS Council and will also be a member of the Electorate Nominating Committee. 

 

Dr. Rajala also announced that this year 39 members of our section were elected Fellows of AAAS. A list of names and citations of the newly elected Fellows was distributed at the meeting and is attached as Appendix B.  The Newly elected Fellows were invited to attend our business meeting and eight were able to attend.  Dr. Rajala welcomed them, and thanked them for attending the meeting. She also asked each of them to say a few words about their research that lead to their election as AAAS Fellows. 

 

5.   Fellow Nomination Process: Dr. Rajala asked Dr. Simaan, Section Secretary, to review the AAAS Fellow nomination process.  Dr. Simaan mentioned the new rule that was implemented beginning four years ago, which mandates that a nominee for Fellow must have been a AAAS member in good standing for the four consecutive years prior to the time of nomination.  This means that for the upcoming election, a member must have been a continuous member in good standing since December 31, 2016. He also mentioned that each section is allowed one exception to this rule in that it can nominate only one outstanding member who has not met the 4-year rule.

 

Dr. Simaan then described the Fellow nomination process. There are three ways a AAAS member can be nominated:

 

1)      By a member of the Steering Group (method 1),

2)      By a group of three Fellows (method 2), and

3)      By the AAAS Chief Executive Officer (method 3).

 

For Fellow nominations by members of the Steering Group (method 1), he mentioned that this method is subject to a quota of no more than 0.4% of the section primary membership.  Our primary membership this year is 5,542 which resulted in our quota being 21 for this year.  Information on the nomination process by a group of three Fellows (method 2) and a copy of the on line nomination form can be found on the AAAS website (http://www.aaas.org/fellows)   A link to that website can also be found on our section Website (http://www.ece.ucf.edu/aaas-m).  Dr. Simaan mentioned that the deadline for Fellow nominations by a group of three Fellows is April 24, 2020, and that there is quota for those elected through nominations by this method equal to the Steering Group Quota (21 for this year).   He concluded by saying that in both methods, a successful candidate must meet the quota and receive no less than five “Yes” votes and no more than two “No” votes from the Steering Group.

 

6.  Update on AAAS Council Issues of Interest to Section M:  Dr. Sankar Basu our section representative on council provided a report on issues that council has considered that are of interest to our section.  The first issue mentioned was the revocation policy, which has already been implemented and also mentioned in the chair’s remarks. The second issue relates to the Statistics section’s request to change its name to Statistics and Data Science.   Dr. Basu mentioned that after considerable discussion, Council decided to table the issue indefinitely. 

 

7.  Planning for the 2021 Annual Meeting:  The 2021 AAAS Annual Meeting will be held in Phoenix, AZ, February 13-16, 2021. The meeting theme is “Understanding Dynamic Ecosystems”. The deadline for the 2021 session proposal submissions is Thursday April 16, 2020 at 11:59pm PT.  Dr. Rajala mentioned that those who are interested in submitting proposals should check the proposal submission website: https://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2021/symp90/cfp.cgi for instructions about the submission procedure and proposal requirements. Dr. Rajala mentioned that the goal of the program committee is to have at least 5 submissions per section. She stressed the fact that to be successful the proposal must be newsworthy and must follow the format in the guidelines. She then asked for ideas and suggestions.   A discussion followed with everyone present contributing ideas.  A list of the topics suggested is given below:

 

1.       Understanding the future of our Energy Systems

2.       Resilience of Infrastructure

3.       The future of work

4.       Solutions and unintended consequences of food production

5.       Robotics

6.       Human-Machine teaming

7.       Design and manufacturing for the future world

8.       Synthetic biology and the ease of manipulating DNA

9.       Manufacturing in space

10.   Ownership of data

11.   Engineering a better gut

12.   Waste and recycling 

 

Additional details were provided on the following suggested topics:

 

Title: Challenges of Green Circular Economy: Scaling the small

Proposed by KC Morris, NIST,   Eswaran Subrahmanian, CMU, and Bjorn Johansson, Chalmers University of Technology

 

Summary:  The industrial revolution capitalized on economies of scale that were the hallmark of mass production. ??Future manufacturing systems will be more nimble supporting more localized and customized markets. ??The push towards circular economies where products are fed back into the production ecosystem, combined with the trend towards lower volume, higher customization in manufacturing systems should allow us to create more robust manufacturing ecosystems that are capable of filling needs of a localized economies.??

In this talk we may provide examples of some of capabilities that support these new ecosystems. ??Additive manufacturing, biofuels, process intensification in process production, modular micro reactors.?? We will look for a speaker from each US, EU, and India that could talk to how the idea of circular economies is evolving locally in each of these continents. ??Can we provide examples of localized practices being integrated into the mainstream by first integrating into a local circular economy.

 

 

Title:  Repair in Dynamic Complex Systems

Proposed by: Guruprasad Madhavan

 

Summary: This session will aim to engage historians and STS scholars, innovation policy analysts, design theorists, and engineering practitioners to look at the current state, future needs and critical role of repair, as well as necessary capabilities for repairability of existing systems in the circular economy.

 

 

Title: Human-Centric Future of Work

Proposed by: Rachuri Sudarsan

 

Summary: The technology disruptions is both an opportunity and challenge for the current and next generation workers across all sectors. A systems thinking is imperative to address the issues in job losses, new jobs creation, and completely redefining the concept of work. This symposium will create a dialogue to better understand policies, workforce development, investment in training and education, lifelong education, and the role of industry. 

 

Title: Dynamic, Adaptive Materials for Improved Efficiency of Engineering Systems

Proposed by: David Cahill

 

Summary: Whereas the vast majority of synthetic materials are static’, defined as having only a single form and one specific function throughout the performance lifespan, nature relies on dynamic materials with highly evolved mechanisms for achieving efficient transport not typically observed in synthetic systems. Inspired by these natural systems, adaptive materials that dynamically change form and function in response to environmental stimuli offer the possibility of transformative advances in the efficiency of manufacturing, chemical separations, and information technology.

 

 

Title:   Robotics Address the Area of Dynamic Ecosystems.

Proposed by: Christina Davis and Rosemarie Wesson

 

Summary: Ecosystems are controlled both by external and internal factors. Research in the area of robotics is multidisciplinary, involving engineering, science, social and behavioral interactions and policy.  Results from the disciplines are interconnected and iterative to influence the final outcome of the research.  We brainstormed a number of potential sessions ranging from: Defense Applications (autonomy and trust), Human Health, Materials, Infrastructure, and Rehabilitation

 

Potential speakers include:

 

Autonomy and Trust

 Sanjay Joshi UC Davis

Jim Overholt Air Force Research Laboratory (autonomy lead for the US Air Force)

 

Rehabilitation/Human Interaction

Hao Su (CCNY) Rehabilitation

Robert Shephard Cornell

 

Human Health

George Lauder Harvard

David Gracias Johns Hopkins

Ellen Roche MIT

 

Materials

Rebecca Kramar-Botiglio Yale

Aaron Dollar Yale

Daniel Inman University of Michigan

 

Infrastructure

Sridhar Kota University of Michigan

Tim Kowalewski University of Minnesota

 

 

8.  Adjournment:  Dr. Rajala asked the attendees if there is any new business.  In the absence of new business, the meeting was adjourned at 11:45AM.  Lunch was served.

 

 

Submitted by:

Marwan A. Simaan

Secretary, Engineering Section (M)

February 18, 2020

 

Appendix A

 

List of Attendees

1)      Sarah Rajala, Chair

2)      Marwan Simaan, Section Secretary

3)      Nicholas Abbott, Chair-Elect

4)      Jennifer Curtis, Elected Chair-Elect

5)      Anne S. Robinson, Member-at-Large

6)      Norma Alcantar, Member-at-Large

7)      Sankar Basu, Council Delegate

8)      David Cahill, Newly Elected Fellow

9)      Cristina Davis,  Newly Elected Fellow

10)  Piotr Grodzinski,  Newly Elected Fellow

11)  Sheldon Howard Jacobson, Newly Elected Fellow

12)  Guruprasad Madhavan, Newly Elected Fellow

13)  Gopal R. Rao, Newly Elected Fellow

14)  Sharon L. Walker, Newly Elected Fellow

15)  Rosemarie D. Wesson,  Newly Elected Fellow

16)  Andrea Aw

17)  Bjorn Johansson

18)  Moe Khalil

19)  Alie Khonsary

20)  Marwan Khraisheh

21)  Ratnesh Kumar

22)  Gail Mattson

23)  K. C. Morris

24)  Larry Nagahara

25)  Sudarsan Rachuri

26)  Ned Sauthoff

27)  Vijay Srinivasan

28)  Ram D. Sriram

29)  Eswaran Subrahmanian

 

 

 

 

 

Appendix B

 

Fellows affiliated with Section M (Engineering) Elected in 2019

 

Douglas E. Adams, Vanderbilt University: For extraordinary research contributions in experimental nonlinear dynamic systems with societal impacts in energy, national security, and manufacturing sectors, and for influential academic leadership.

 

Avinash Kumar Agarwal, Indian Institute of Technology (India): For outstanding contributions to Internal Combustion engines, alternate fuels, optical diagnostics, laser ignition, emissions and particulate control, lubricating oil tribology, and industrially relevant technologies.

 

Andrew G. Alleyne, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: For distinguished contributions to the theory and practice of automatic control, particularly for precision motion control enabling advanced fabrication and control of transient thermal systems.

 

Andrea Alù, City University of New York: For distinguished contributions to the field of electromagnetics and photonics, particularly for the modeling and applications of artificial materials and metamaterials.

 

Rajeevan Amirtharajah, University of California, Davis: For distinguished contributions to the field of electronics design and engineering, particularly for developing integrated circuits and embedded systems that harvest energy from the environment.

 

Arthur B. Baggeroer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology: For outstanding contributions to underwater acoustics signal processing.

 

John Ballato, Clemson University: For distinguished contributions to the field of optical fiber and optoelectronic materials; most notably the development of semiconductor and crystal-derived optical fibers.

 

Ravi Bellamkonda, Duke University: For contributions to neural engineering through the use of materials for nerve and spinal cord repair and brain tumor therapies, and for innovations in engineering education.

 

Robert H. Bishop, University of South Florida: For pioneering research and exceptional development of spacecraft guidance and navigation systems, advancing the field of control systems, and distinguished leadership in engineering education.

 

David Cahill, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: For pioneering contributions to the thermal sciences, the concept of minimum thermal conductivity and transient optical measurement techniques.

 

Ashutosh Chilkoti, Duke University: For distinguished contributions to field of biomedical engineering, particularly in the development of novel methods to deliver biotherapeutics and develop surfaces that resist protein interactions.

 

George Chrisikos, EvoNexus: For distinguished contributions to the field of information sciences, particularly for advanced technology development focused on communication systems and algorithms for wireless and mobile applications.

 

Cristina Davis, University of California, Davis: For distinguished contributions to non-invasive chemical and biological sensing tools, algorithms, and applications for human and agriculture diagnostics and monitoring.

Matthew Delisa, Cornell University: For solving complex problems in biology and medicine by engineering the protein machinery of bacteria.

 

Dan Fleetwood, Vanderbilt University: For distinguished contributions to the field of microelectronics reliability, particularly for enhancing the understanding of defects, radiation response, and low-frequency noise.

 

David H. Gracias, Johns Hopkins University: For distinguished contributions to three-dimensional micro- and nanoscale assembly, particularly the development of methods to self-fold strain engineered materials.

 

Piotr Grodzinski, National Cancer Institute/NIH: For exceptional contributions to research programs on the development of novel bioengineering and biotechnology targeting nanotechnology solutions for improved prevention, detection, and therapy of cancer.

 

Carol Klein Hall, North Carolina State University: For distinguished contributions to the field of thermodynamics, particularly using statistical methods and computer-simulation methods to solve engineering problems involving macromolecules and complex fluids.

 

Wesley L. Harris, Massachusetts Institute of Technology: For research advances in aerodynamics, shock wave structure and blood flow modeling, and leadership in developing government strategic programs and policy in aerospace engineering.

 

Tony Jun Huang, Duke University: For distinguished contributions to the field of acoustofluidics, particularly for developing acoustic tweezers that are capable of precisely manipulating bioparticles in complex fluids.

 

Sheldon Howard Jacobson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: For distinguished contributions to the field of operations research, particularly for advancing operations research theory and applications, and for communicating his research to the public.

 

David C. Jiles, Iowa State University: For distinguished contributions to the field of magnetism and magnetic materials, particularly for theory of ferromagnetic hysteresis and modeling of magnetic materials.

 

Alexander H. King, Iowa State University: For distinguished contributions to the science of interfaces and interfacial junctions in solids, and for implementing effective research approaches to the challenges of critical materials.

 

Thomas Lee, University of California, Davis: For distinguished contributions to the field of statistics, particularly for inference, noon-parametric and high dimensional problems and interdisciplinary collaborations.

 

Y.A. Liu, Virginia Tech: For excellence in design teaching, pioneering textbooks and creative scholarship in sustainable engineering, and global leadership in implementing energy/water savings and CO2 capture.

 

Guruprasad Madhavan, National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine: For distinguished contributions in applying systems engineering principles to inform health policy and for enhancing public appreciation of engineering through books and lectures.

 

Vinothan N. Manoharan, Harvard University: For his exceptional contributions to the field of condensed matter and biophysics, especially to elucidate how systems and materials organize themselves in three dimensions.

 

Radenka Maric, University of Connecticut/UConn Health: For distinguished contributions to the field of nano-catalysis for clean energy, particularly for pioneering novel materials and synthesis approaches to achieve an optimized electrochemical interface.

 

Eyad Masad, Texas A&M University/Texas A&M University at Qatar (Qatar): For distinguished contributions to the field of infrastructure materials and systems, particularly computational modeling and predictions of impact of material microstructure on performance of roads.

 

Clare McCabe, Vanderbilt University: For sustained excellence and novel contributions to molecular theory and simulation, and for distinguished service to the field of chemical engineering.

 

Achille Messac, Howard University: For distinguished contributions in the field of multidisciplinary design optimization and notable achievements in the engineering education administration, particularly in challenging socio-technological settings.

 

Randolph L. Moses, The Ohio State University: For distinguished contributions to the field of signal processing, with applications to spectral analysis, array signal processing, and radar imaging.

 

G.R. Odette, University of California, Santa Barbara: For outstanding contributions to understanding and predicting the microstructural evolution and mechanical property changes of structural materials in challenging nuclear, chemical, and thermal environments.

 

Gopal R. Rao, Materials Research Society (MRS): For distinguished contributions to the fields of materials science-&-engineering, particularly for the worldwide dissemination of subjects that help society to understand innovation and impactful technology.

 

Asok Ray, Penn State: For innovations in machine learning and real-time control of smart machines and autonomous systems, and for popularizing their usage in both defense and commercial applications.

 

Rob A. Rutenbar, University of Pittsburgh: For distinguished contributions to tools for the design of

custom integrated circuits and systems, and novel architectures for curricula in computer science and engineering.

 

Sharon L. Walker, Drexel University: For distinguished contributions to environmental engineering, particularly for contaminant fate and transport and nanoparticle implications, and for strong advocacy of diversity in engineering education.

 

Lihong Wang, California Institute of Technology: For pioneering 3D photoacoustic microscopy, functional photoacoustic computed tomography, and the world’s fastest camera (compressed ultrafast photography).

 

Rosemarie D. Wesson, The City College of New York: For seminal contributions to the field of numerical analyses of polymer crystallization kinetics, technology, service to society, and support to education, women, and underrepresented minorities.

 

Yang Yang, University of California, Los Angeles: For extraordinary contributions to organic and hybrid electronic materials and interface processing, leading to highly efficient solar cells, digital memory, and organic displays.