FORUM Planned

On October 30th, at the Ideas Team Meeting, a proposal was presented to create a FORUM sponsored and operated by the Engineers Club for member and non-member participants.

The FORUM has a dual purpose.

The first is to promote the Engineers Club most valued asset, the combined knowledge and experiences of the membership and create a point of access to these resources not only to Club Members but also to the Dayton community. It is to say, the FORUM is to take networking to a higher level in a structured setting and provide a foundation for mentoring.

The second purpose of the forum is to highlight and demonstrate the benefits of the Engineers Club. It can be considered to be a model of the Engineers Club which will encourage membership growth, new professional and personal relationships, and an increase in participation in Engineers Club programs.

Other purposes can be summed up as creating solutions to various membership and growth challenges the Engineers Club has faced for decades.

Here are two examples.
1. People do not join because the value of membership is an unknown quantity and quality and very hard to realize without experiencing it. The forum, being a micro sample will demonstrate the value of the Engineers Club at every meeting.
2. People do not join because it requires a long-term commitment – and the value of the return on commitment investment is unknown. The forum provides a 12 week commitment where the return on the time investment will result in opportunities for structured networking, personal and professional growth, and new relationships.

The FORUM will meet weekly for 12 weeks sessions, twice per year. Each meeting will consist of 6 short presentations.
1. Report from a Engineers Club committee head or representative
2. Presentation from a Dayton area non-profit organization
3. Three presentations by FORUM members
4. Presentation by the FORUM’s Sponsor for that evening

The presentations by FORUM members will be based on 5 basic topics.
1. Ice-breaker, a personal introduction
2. A personal interest
3. An inspirational Biographical presentation focusing on a challenge that was overcome
4. A historical look at technological changes
5. Vision – Technologies and social changes to come

This concept is given to a small committee to evaluate. We want to make sure that each aspect effectively serves the dual purpose of the FORUM.

We will provide more information as the plan comes together.

Glen Miranker Speaks to Barn Gang

From the November Report by John Bosch

By any measure an expert would claim that it was virtually impossible to solve the Nazi secret code.
Glen Miranker, VP Research, Ret. for the Apple Corporation gave a comprehensive technical presentation of The Enigma Machine: How Dayton Cracked the Code. Glen began by talking about the origin of the Enigma machine as a commercial product in the late 1920’s from which several models were developed for the German military. The M4 (model 4) with an additional forth cyphering wheel was the most sophisticated and was used by the German navy. To put some perspective on the task of solving the problem, Glen mentioned that the number of solutions possible for breaking the German code in a single message would exceed the number of atoms in the universe. With the staggering losses of ships early in 1942 meetings were set up between the English and the United States to review the status of code breaking. On September 4, 1942 NCR was given a cold start to design and build code-breaking machines with Joe Desch in charge. Incredibly, the first machines were shipped just eight months later in May 1943. They weighted 5000 pounds and were 10’ wide, 7’ high and 2’ deep. A total of 96 were built. The machines worked extremely well and gave the allies the benefit of decoding German messages soon after they were sent. Debbie Anderson, daughter of Joe Desch, made the introduction.

For more information - click on the Link to Dayton Code Breakers website as well as blog.

Ropewalk receives Award

The Engineers Club of Dayton Foundation received a 2008 Award of Excellence in History Outreach from the Ohio Association of Historical Societies and Museums (OAHSM), for the documentary film, "Ropewalk: A Cordage Engineer's Journey Through History". An enthusiastic group of 10 attended the awards luncheon at the Ohio History Center on October 4, 2008. Bill Hagenbuch and filmmaker Steve Fetsch accepted the award on behalf of the Engineers Club of Dayton Foundation. Film collaborators Chuck Buchanan, Lyric Rillera, Mikki Hearsum, Mark Martel, and Kate Hagenbuch represented the Engineers Club. Greene County Public Library Head Archivist Deanna Ulvestad lent her support, as well as Club members Chuck & Betty Martel.

The OAHSM History Outreach Awards, presented annually since 1959, recognize projects that have educational content, that have contributed to the promotion and understanding of local and state history, and that have had an impact on the community.

The Engineers Club of Dayton Foundation has pledged to donate 500 Ropewalk DVD’s free of charge to libraries, museums, historical societies and schools. This helps fulfill the educational mission of the Engineers Club of Dayton Foundation, for historical preservation and education in science and technology.

Dayton Art Institute Director, Jan Driesbach Speaks to Barn Gang

The Dayton Art Institute, founded in 1919 celebrates the greater Dayton community's connection to fine art from around the world.

Janice Driesbach, Director (right) addressed the Barn Gang today with an excellent presentation of the history, current educational programs, special exhibits, plans for Octoberfest, and future exhibits for 2009.

Ms. Driesbach also reached out to club members for help in solving structure and physical plant maintenance problems at the institute which was built in 1930.

Thanks to Debbie Anderson (left) for arranging the event.

Visit the Dayton Art Institute website for more information.

Col. Greg Johnson, Astronaut

A small slide show of last night's event with guest, Col. Greg Johnson, an Astronaut and Space Shuttle Pilot of Mission STS-123.

View Album

Get your own

Excerpt from Col. Johnson's Bio

NASA EXPERIENCE: Selected by NASA in June 1998, he reported for training in August 1998. He completed Astronaut Candidate Training in 2000. Following initial training and evaluation, astronaut candidates receive technical assignments within the Flight Crew Operations Directorate before being assigned to a space flight. In 2000, Johnson was assigned as a Technical Assistant to the Director, Flight Crew Operations Directorate (FCOD). In conjunction with that position, Johnson was assigned to the Shuttle Cockpit Avionics Upgrade (CAU) council – redesigning cockpit displays for future Space Shuttle missions. His design and evaluation work with CAU has continued to the present.

In 2001, Johnson was reassigned from FCOD to the Space Shuttle Branch, where he’s held various positions including direct support to the crews of STS-100 and STS-108, chief of shuttle abort planning and procedures for contingency scenarios, and ascent procedure development. He also was a key player on several “tiger teams” during the investigation into the cause of the Columbia accident in 2003. Johnson was the astronaut representative to the External Tank (ET) foam impact test team that eventually proved that ET foam debris on ascent could critically damage the shuttle’s leading edge thermal protection system. In 2004, Johnson was designated as the Deputy Chief of the Astronaut Safety Branch, focusing on all aspects of Space Shuttle, ISS, and T-38 safety, with special emphasis on improving specific operational procedures and techniques to make astronauts safer in all three vehicles. In 2005, Johnson was appointed as a crew representative supporting the design and testing of NASA’s newest spacecraft, the Crew Exploration Vehicle. In early 2007, Johnson was selected to pilot Endeavour on the STS-123 mission that launched in March 2008. On that mission, he logged over 378 hours in space.

SPACE FLIGHT EXPERIENCE: Johnson was pilot of STS-123 Endeavour (March 11-26, 2008) which completed both launch and landing at night. It was the 25 th Shuttle/Station assembly mission. Endeavour’s crew delivered the Japanese Experiment Logistics Module – Pressurized Section, the first pressurized component of JAXA’s Kibo Laboratory, and the final element of the station’s Mobile Servicing System, the Canadian-built Dextre, also known as the Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator. In addition to pilot duties aboard Endeavour, Johnson was a primary robotic arm operator, employing both the Space Shuttle and ISS robotic arms in support of numerous tasks throughout the mission. The STS-123 crew performed a record five spacewalks while docked to the station. The crew also delivered Expedition 16 Flight Engineer Garrett Reisman, and returned to Earth with ESA’s Léopold Eyharts. The mission was accomplished in 250 orbits of the Earth, traveling over 6 million miles in 15 days, 18 hours, 10 minutes and 54 seconds.

Thanks, Col. Johnson, for a great time.

Events Calendar

We have an events calendar with a temporary home. It's located at the bottom of this page and is provided to the Engineers Club free through Google Calendar.

Notice that the Barn Gang events are loaded through September and we hope to have the committee meetings schedule on this in short order.

If you need - you can create your own Google calendar and while viewing your calendar, you can overlay the Engineers Club Calendar over your own to make sure that you can avoid creating schedule conflicts.

If you are a committe head and need to collaborate on the calendar, drop me a note at pfarrier@paraklesisconsulting.com

Greg Johnson, Astronaut

Fairborn, Ohio native and Astronaut, Greg Johnson, the Pilot of the Space Shuttle "Endeavour" on the Shuttle Mission STS-123 this past March 11 - 26 will be speaking this Thursday evening on August 7, 2008.

Arrive early and enjoy Hors D'Oeuvres and Cash Bar in English Room.

A Link to his Bio

Barn Gang - This Tuesday

July 29
Planning New Systems for the USAF

presented by:
Joe Lusczek, Jr., Technical Director
Aerospace Systems Design and Analysis - WPAFB

Introduction by Walt Hoy

3D Digital Model

So far...

a work in progress.

Dr. Michele Wheatly to Speak on STEM

Science - Technology - Engineering - Math

An excerpt from Dr. Wheatly's speach given in September of 2007 provides some insight as to what will be presented at the Barn Gang on July 21.

There has been a growing national and regional
awareness that STEMM, long acknowledged for providing post WWII economic
prosperity, has become threatened by the STEMM competitiveness of other nations.
There is now serious concern about the lack of preparation and lack of interest
in students at all levels going into STEMM fields. This has been sensationalized
in both the popular press, for example, Thomas Friedman's best seller, "The
World is Flat" and the National Academies "Rising Above the Gathering Storm".
Technological and social shifts have leveled the economic world, enabling less
developed nations to compete with the United States for corporate investment and
jobs. For the first time since the Sputnik era, STEMM has become the focus of
the national agenda and conversation with The America Competes act authorizing
$43 billion dollars over 3 years for a plethora of math and science education,
research and development initiatives.
Following suit, the Ohio General
Assembly has recently made a historic investment in higher education,
appreciating that Ohio's competitiveness in the global economy is directly
related to the knowledge skills and creativity of our workforce. It is
anticipated that eighty percent of the students in Ohio who pursue higher
education will be educated in our public universities. WSU, therefore, is poised
to play a major role in growing the knowledge economy in the Dayton region
through State initiatives such as Turnaround Ohio, Third Frontier and most
recently "House Bill 119", better known as "the Ohio Innovation Partnership".
This latter program is a $250 million dollar investment in the next biennium to
make an unprecedented commitment to statewide STEMM education spanning from the
early childhood classroom to the university research laboratory. These
initiatives all point to the impetus to grow research in fields that will lead
to economic development, and to graduate more Ohioans with higher education
degrees particularly in the STEMM fields. Over the next few months Ohioans will
be galvanized by the media attention to these initiatives, and nowhere is this
more needed than the greater Dayton region.

The additional M is for Medicine.

Engineers Club in 3D on Google Earth

A 3D digital model of the Engineers Club is being created and will have multiple uses. One use is to place on Google Earth so a quality and proper representation can viewed along with the satellite image of Dayton.

Other uses can be in designing and presenting landscaping ideas. There is serious discussion of placing banners on or around the building to promote what the Engineers Club stands for in the community. We can actually place these banners in 3D and look at them from several angles.

This is a work in progress - and you can see the development of the model take place and the final installation on Google Earth.

This service is being provided free of charge.

John Fleischman to Speak July 24

John Fleischman -- Science Writer
Aviation Heritage Speaker Series
July 24, 2008, 7:00 pm

John Fleischman, who likes to write about science and has made a career out of it, will talk about his most recent book, Black & White Airmen: Their True History, at the Engineer s Club, 110 East Monument Avenue, Dayton, Thursday, July 24th at 7:00pm.

The Engineers Club s Cyber Pub will be open to the public prior to the presentation. Plan on an entire evening out by starting with dinner before hand. The evening menu consists of pub food such as mini burgers, turkey club and chicken wings. No reservations are required for the pub.

His newest non-fiction book for older children is titled Black & White
Airmen: Their True History, published last June. Fleischman says, It is about flying, WWII, segregation, and friendship. And it has a happy ending. Copies of this book will be for sale at the talk, and Fleischman will be available for booksignings.

Fleischman s first non-fiction book for older kids, Phineas Gage: A Gruesome But True Story About Brain Science, won many awards such as the Notable Children s Book and Best Book for Young Adults. Fleishman is working on his third nonfiction book for older children about animals that have won the Nobel Prize in Medicine (You thought only people won them?).

For more information about this talk and other future speakers coming to the Engineer s Club call Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park at 937.225.7705.

The Speakers Series is designed to offer the public a variety of knowledgeable speakers addressing topics related to aviation history through engaging discussion and often first-hand accounts. It is sponsored by the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park and the Engineers Club of Dayton. The Engineers Club is located at 110 East Monument Avenue, Dayton. This event is free and open to the public and seating is on a first come, first served basis.

Vision and the Wrights

The following is from an article I read in the Fall of 2003.

It is difficult to imagine the incredible changes that lay before the world
100 years ago at the outset of human flight. A taste of that time and of the
mental gymnastics through which it took a man’s mind were recorded in, of all
places, a beekeeping magazine. In the January 1, 1905, issue of Gleanings of Bee
Culture, Amos Root gave his account of the startling sight of an airplane in
flight:
“When it first turned that circle and came near the starting point, I
was right in front of it; and I said then, and I believe still, it was one of
the grandest sights, if not the grandest sight, of my life. Imagine a locomotive
that has left its track, and it is climbing up in the air right toward you—a
locomotive without any wheels, we will say, but with white wings instead. . . .
Well, now imagine that locomotive, with wings that spread 20 feet each way,
coming right toward you with a tremendous flap of its propellers, and you will
have something like what I saw. . . . I tell you friends, the sensation that one
feels in such a crisis is something hard to describe” (reported in Air &
Space/Smithsonian, March 2003).
Today, a century after those preliminary
flights of the Wright brothers’ Wright Flyer, the sight of an airplane hardly
turns a head. A dream that might have been dismissed over the millennia with the
assertion that “if God had meant man to fly, He would have given him wings,” has
become our commonplace reality.

From: "A Wright Mind", Vision Magazine, Fall - 2003

Thanks to Paul

Thanks Paul for setting up this blog. We should invite members of the various committees to participate as well as our current "communication writers" Hap Cawood, Dick palmer and Ben Graham. Perhaps each committee can have a sub blog. We also need a plan to roll this capability out to all memebers in conjunction with the club runner plan

Barn Gang

The Citizens Motor Car Company, a Packard dealership presented a 1931 Packard and Al Hounshell as the speaker for Tuesday's meeting.

Mr. Hounshell, a guide at America's Packard Museum and a Chauffeur, gave us a historical look at Packard as the manufacturer of one of the finest automobiles produced in the first half of the 20th century.

After the presentation, our group was invited to the museum that houses over 40 historical cars. The museum is located on South Ludlow, just south of the downtown area.

Weblog Launch

As a companion to the Club's new website and Club Runner program, a weblog or "blog" as some folks call it can serve a unique and valuable service in communicating ideas, activities, and news.

All committee chairpersons and other assigned volunteers are able to contribute postings as they desire. The latest posting is always on top.

Within the postings, they may include photos, drawings, sound clips, and videos. The blog is immediately updated with each new posting or other feature that is added to the blog site.

Feeds can be created so that an individual can be alerted to any updates.

Although you may read and contribute, I believe a review of how to post and do many other things can help make this a powerful program in informing and energizing the club.

Before I go, at the bottom of each post, you will see the word "comments". When someone wants to comment on that particular posting, all they have to do is click on that word and they will be able to write in their comment. Writing a new posting in response to a previous post is discouraged. Use the comment section for that.

And one more thing. As one is writing their post, they will see at the bottom of the window, "Labels for this post:" Labeling helps index and makes it easy to find when doing a search for an older posting.

Your ideas and comments are welcome.

That's it for now.