SpaceVision2005 Declaration
From SEDSWiki
Background: On Wednesday, November 16, Kirk will be presenting information about SEDS to the American Astronautical Society Executive Board at their national conference. There will also be a presentation made during during the main part of the conference. Your job is to add the missing information and organize the presentation so that we can represent a broader voice.
Contents |
Presentation Goals
- Convince the AAS and the companies represented at the conference that today's students are worth serious investment--whether that should mean money, time, or equipment. Convince them that the students of SEDS (both the individual chapters and the national organization) have big plans, big ambition, and the passion to back them up. Convince them that they will directly benefit if today's students become better educated and better informed via serious projects.
- Get committments from the above-mentioned individuals to support SEDS projects in any (or all of the following ways):
- Attending a "SEDS Projects" workshop to help SEDS select major undertakings (e.g. pursuit of the NASA Centennial Challenge prizes)
- Assigning competent staff from a variety of fields to help SEDS with preliminary planning and design of the above mentioned project (possibly during the same conference)
- Contributing the use of resources like teleconference lines
- Financial support of travel and logistics for future SEDS-USA meetings
- Convey the hope and enthusiasm that today's students have for the industry. Let them know that SEDS members are ready and eager to pick up the gauntlet, and to show that the scientists and engineers of the 2010s and 2020s can be just as good as the Apollo Generation.
--Wpomerantz 17:32, 14 November 2005 (PST)
Presentation outline
- Overview of SEDS conference
- (# of attendees)
- (schools in attendance)
- (list of guest presenters)
- Overview of SEDS-USA
- (list of chapters--add chapters that aren't listed yet: Purdue University, University of Illinois)
- What does SEDS Do?(Overview of types of projects SEDS engages in(?): techincal, professional development, space awareness/advocacy)
- Mentorship program
- Use the knowledge and experience that is within Corporate as a resource to improve the ideas we college students are working on. --McQuirk 20:34, 13 November 2005 (PST)
- establish an official SEDS liason within relevant companies, agencies. The liason will be kept up to date on SEDS activities and will oversee communications and projects involving SEDS. They will also serve as the contact for conferences, sponsorship inquiries, etc.
- State initial goal of one mentor per chapter and final goal of a one to one ratio of mentors to members
- Project/challenge ideas
- Strategic projects--projects that are useful and relevant
- Technical Projects: Centennial Challenges, the Zero-G Flight in March/ April, Mars Desert Research Station
- Educational Outreach: Space Day, SEDS Academy
- Student Travel Fund
- Liz's letter idea, NOVA
- Credibility (?) -- projects that will bolster SEDS as a credible group.
- Non technical (possibly technical) project that can add to SEDS Credibility - Given the "demographic split" in age ranges in the aerospace industry, knowledge management is a known critical need for industry. SEDS could pair up a student, an industry mentor, a knowledge management professional if needed, and a project to capture the technical corporate knowledge for. The student will learn a great deal about industry, and satisfy a defined need for an industry sponsor. ( submitted by B. Powers, also at AM meeting 314A Illini Union 11/13/05 before I had to leave to catch my plane)
- What can SEDS DO FOR YOU? (list of benefits that being a SEDS sponsor can bring?)
- Strategic projects--projects that are useful and relevant
- The first step - tell them what they can do now
- Establish the first mentors: take names of people, corporations and locations, and provide a place for people to submit them when they get home
- Tell them where they can donate to SEDS (SEDS in general, the Travel Fund, maybe for specific projects?)
- I almost think that 3 and 4 should be switched - tell them what the projects are and then how they can get involved --Jess 23:32, 14 November 2005 (PST)
Information to find
- average age of space industry
- I've researched this and found a fairly wide spread of ages, depending on who exactly you want to consider to be part of the space industry, and how many categories you want to look at to find averages. I'll list some of the typical ones here with references. --Wpomerantz 05:44, 15 November 2005 (PST)
- "Average age of production workers is 44 in the Commercial Sector and 53 in Defense. BLS estimates 20-30% of the engineering and production workforce will retire within five years." See [1]. --Wpomerantz 05:44, 15 November 2005 (PST)
- "Several studies show an approximately 20 percent decline in the number of undergraduate and doctoral degrees awarded in aerospace science and engineering over the last ten years. As 60 percent of NASA's 18,800 civil service employees are scientists and engineers (S&E), the agency's workforce is adversely impacted by these larger national trends and the shrinking talent pipeline of aerospace scientists and engineers. Within NASA's S&E workforce, the over-60 population outnumbers its under-30 population by nearly 3 to 1. While the average age today of NASA's S&E employees is 46 years old, the average age of NASA S&E employees during the Apollo era was 39 years old." See: [2]. --Wpomerantz 05:44, 15 November 2005 (PST)
- percentage leaving industry by certain dates.
- According to Congressman Vernon J. Ehlers (R-MI), " 27 percent of the aerospace manufacturing workforce will become eligible for retirement during the next three years, while U.S. students currently rank near the bottom of industrialized countries in mathematics and science test performance." See: [3]. Actually, it might not be a bad idea to speak with Congressman Ehlers himself! --Wpomerantz 05:33, 15 November 2005 (PST)
- Furthermore, the Bureau of Labour Statistics has noted that: "the decline in [aerospace] degree production has reached the point that the number trained in aerospace engineering may not be adequate to replace the large numbers of aerospace engineers who are expected to leave the occupation, especially due to retirement, over the 2002-12 period." See [4]. --Wpomerantz 05:44, 15 November 2005 (PST)
- SEDS chapter projects
Anecdotes
- "don't let your 30 years of work go to waste"
- mentors get more out of relationship than mentees--mutual relationship
