NEXT MEETING ____________________________________________

Monday, October 22:

TOPIC: Adventures in Computers, Engineering and Space

Dr. Claire McCullough, UTC

As the demand for engineers, computer scientists and other technically trained professionals grows in our increasingly technological society, the problem of attracting and retaining members of under-represented groups to these fields is becoming critical. To address this issue, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, in partnership with Girls Incorporated of Chattanooga and the UTC Challenger Learning Center, plans to conduct a program entitled Adventures in Computers, Engineering, and Space (ACES). The program is designed to encourage girls to consider careers in these fields, and to continue their education in science and mathematics.

Dr. Claire McCullough, Associate Professor of Engineering at UTC will provide us a review of the program and describe some of its salient features. She says the program begins with a residential summer workshop for twenty-four girls entering seventh and eighth grades. The workshop provides space-related activities at the UTC Challenger Learning Center and hands-on activities in computer science and electrical, mechanical and industrial engineering. During the school year, follow-up activities will include design projects that encourage originality in solving problems with constraints. To widen the influence of the project, an ACES Fair, featuring hands-on engineering, computer, and space activities, will be conducted at selected elementary and middle schools, and community centers. The project is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Invocation: Jay Floyd

Fellowship: Bernard Cheatham

Entrée du jour: Chopped Sirloin w/ Grilled Onions

OUR PREVIOUS MEETING, October 15 ________________________

Fred Schramm of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) described some of the technologies that have been transferred from NASA to the public sector over the past several years, technologies that owe their beginnings to research and development efforts performed for the space program. Fred sited examples such as photo-dynamic therapy (a LED tuned to a specific wave length to treat certain types of cancer), and nano-technology (super small operating devices intended, for example, to do their work while traveling through the blood stream). The enthusiastic and interested audience kept our speaker quite busy in answering the many questions put to him. Fred is the manager of the MSFC Director’s Discretionary Fund, a program for some of NASA’s most advanced research, in the Technology Transfer Department at MSFC.

FUTURE MONDAY MEETINGS __________________________________

October 29: Field trip. Chattanooga Wastewater Treatment Facility – Moccasin Bend.

The November meetings are hosted by the ASME

November 5: "The Chandra X-ray Telescope". This earth-orbiting telescope is changing our perception of the universe. Dr. Martin Weisskopf, Marshall Space Flight Center.

November 12: To be announced.

November 19: "Implications of Inter-basin Water Transfers from the Tennessee River"

Tenn. Dept. of Environment and Conservation.

November 26: "Efforts to Meet the Water Requirements of the Sequatchie Valley", ARCADIS G&M

WHERE WE MEET ___________________________________________

All of our presentation meetings are held at the Cellar Restaurant at Union Square Downtown, Chattanooga from 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m. Our meeting room and luncheon service are open by 11:40 a.m. Lunch buffet is available for $10 per person. No reservation is required. Free parking is available for these occasions at the Days Inn Motel (on Carter St. and MLK Blvd), courtesy of the Days Inn management.