Announcements

  • AIAA New England - Introducing new officers for 2022-2023.

    First and foremost, I would like to thank the outgoing council officers - Allison Tsay (Vice-Chair) and Caroline Twomey Lamb (Secretary) for their outstanding services in 2021/2022. It was a pleasure working with you both! Thank you also to all volunteers and council members who have been supporting the activities and events in our section. It was possible to do what we achieved in 2021/2022 because of your generosity and commitment!

    As a section, we thrived through the continuing COVID situation and accomplished so many things. We continued to organize professional webinar sessions throughout the year. Presented 10 events and served 300+ audiences. 

    We put substantial efforts into expanding our outreach to promote STEM, DEI, and college branches. We have succeeded and delivered a significant impact. The Section supplied AIAA swag and replenished our supplies. 

    The following are some highlights:

    • Aerospace Robotics Competition New England: Our VC Allison Tsay has been championing the effort. ARC held 2nd annual competition at St. Anselm’s College (NH) in April 2022. Five teams competed year. Students undertook extra-curricular courses to learn how to program and fly drones to perform various missions in the competition.
    • MIT-Lincoln Laboratory (MIT-LL) Beaver Work Summer Institute – AIAA Cubesat Challenge was a joint effort with MIT-LL, Lockheed Martin, the National Society of Black Engineers, Women of Aero/Astro, and AIAA. We attracted 100 applications and 40 teams were selected to enter the program, prioritizing the groups from under-served communities in New England. The competition ran from Jan to May, and students have undertaken online courses to learn about spacecraft and systems engineering and built and programmed 1U CubeSat with the mission of detecting the pieces of plastic floating on the ocean. The program involved 200+ K12 students, ~40 educators, and 40 mentors (20 of them from AIAA, both professionals and young professionals).
    • In the DEI area, we continue to work with Mr. Cedric Turner, a teacher from Brockton High School, and the founder of Empower Yourself. Cedric was selected for Trailblazer Educator Award for 2022. We participated in their Lunch & Learn program, and most recently Kirsten Bowers and her team from the Worcester Poly Tech (WPI) presented their rocket and work to the students. The New England section donated recycled laptops and 2 drones to train two student teams to enter the ARC (the Brockton team came 2nd in the 2022 ARC). Cedric also organized a student team to enter BWSI Cubesat Challenge.
    • We sponsored three STEM Educators in New England through our Educators Associate Grants in 2022, recognizing and promoting their amazing works.
    • We continue to develop our college outreach activities, visiting four branches in person and one over zoom. We assisted Jet engine and rocket teams at WPI and a DBF at Middlesex Community College.

    In the upcoming 2022/2023 year, the AIAA-New England team and I are looking forward to adding some in-person events to the mix of activities. We also look forward to getting more college students and branches involved in our activities, while supporting their effort to re-group and reenergize coming out from the COVID lockdown. 

    In conclusion, I would like to introduce new officers and activity chairs who will be leading the section n 2022/2023 (see attached). We continue to work to expand our outreach and share our passion for Aerospace.


    https://higherlogicdownload.s3-external-1.amazonaws.com/AIAA/f4ad5700-e61b-1104-0891-d22b7b77bf51_file.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAVRDO7IEREB57R7MT&Expires=1656195868&Signature=rRfwLY8K6dtQqhxXOia17OguIo4%3D