2021 AAAS Engineering Section Business Meeting

Tuesday February 9, 2021, 6pm-8pm (virtual)

DRAFT MINUTES

Section Chair, Nicholas Abbott called the virtual zoom meeting to order at 6:00 PM. He welcomed everyone to this first virtual business meeting of the Engineering Section.

Dr. Abbott mentioned that copies of the draft minutes of our Section’s business meeting held on February 14, 2020, in Seattle, WA were posted on our Section’s website http://www.ece.ucf.edu/aaas-m shortly after the meeting. He asked for a motion to approve the minutes. A motion as made and seconded. He then asked for comments or changes to the minutes. None were suggested. The motion passed.

Dr. Abbott provided an update on issues related to the section activities. He mentioned that AAAS is going through a process of governance modernization which will impact our section and its operation. This process will take some time to complete and in the interim, AAAS will be providing updates on the progress of this process.

Dr. Abbott mentioned that because of the governance modernization process, there has been no election of new officers this year. Consequently, after this year’s annual meeting, two members of the Steering Group will be retiring, and the group will then consist of the remaining six members. Jennifer Curtis will become the section chair, and he will be the retiring chair. Marwan Simaan will remain as section secretary, and Ilona Kretzschmar, Anne Robinson, and Pramod Khargonekar will be our section’s three Members at Large. Sankar Basu’s term as our council representative will end after the annual meeting and Jacqueline Chen will remain as our section’s council representative.

Dr. Abbott also announced that this year 44 members of our section were elected Fellows of AAAS. A list of names and citations of the newly elected Fellows appeared on the AAAS website and has been posted on our section’s Website (http://www.ece.ucf.edu/aaas-m). Dr. Abbott welcomed the newly elected fellows who were in attendance and thanked them for attending the meeting.

Marwan Simaan, section secretary, briefly reviewed the AAAS Fellow nomination process. He mentioned that nominees for Fellow must have been AAAS members in good standing for the four consecutive years prior to the time of nomination. He added that there are three ways a AAAS member can be nominated fr Fellow: by a member of the Steering Group, by a group of three Fellows, or by the AAAS Chief Executive Officer. For Fellow nominations by members of the Steering Group, he mentioned that this method is subject to a quota which depends on the number of members in the section. The quota for this year is 22. Information on the nomination process by a group of three Fellows and a copy of the online 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 23, 2021, and that there is quota for those elected through nominations by this method equal to the Steering Group Quota (22 for this year).

Sankar Basu, our section’s representative on council, provided a brief 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. 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.

The 2022 AAAS Annual Meeting will be held in Philadelphia, February 14-17, 2022. The meeting theme is “Empower with Evidence”. The deadline for the 2022 session proposal submissions is Thursday April 17, 2021, at 11:59pm PT. Dr. Abbott encouraged the attendees to consider submitting proposals and mentioned that those who are interested should check the proposal submission website: https://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2022/symp90/cfp.cgi for instructions about the submission procedure and proposal requirements. Dr. Abbott stressed the fact that to be successful the proposal must be newsworthy and must follow the format in the guidelines. He then asked for ideas and suggestions. A discussion followed with everyone present contributing ideas for possible proposals.

Dr. Abbott asked the attendees if there is any new business. In the absence of new business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:00pm.

Submitted by:

Marwan A. Simaan

Secretary, Engineering Section (M)

February 18, 2021