Woke up excited for three  things: another day of NAE meeting,  the grand opening of the BETA Manufacturing building back in VT, and Max and Becky’s arrival in VT. It’s a big day all around 🙂 

The NAE meeting began at 8:30 today. THe big item today wasan excellent presentation and panel on the engineering challenges posed by climate change. The main sppaker was Prof Arun  Mujumdar , The Director of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. He gave an excellent fact filled talk on the engineering priorities posed by climate change. What I enjoyed most was his ability to quantify the relative impact of various human systems as they related to green house gas accumulation. He also did a great job laying out the technical challenges and costs of a variety of mitigation proposals, Aruns talk was  followed by a great interactive panel of other experts on the subject. I was very impressed by the panelists command of their subjects and their ability to answer the many questions they got from this very smart  audience.  Often climate talks leave me with a sense of hopelessness due to the size of the problem.. this time I came away with a more realistic understanding of the challenges and a bit more hopeful sense of all that was going on to mitigate their impact.. Here a re a few of the many quantifications in Prof Majumdars talk

I’m goign to see if I can share the slides… I’ll let you know if I can get them and if I can share them.

After the pannel there were soem major awards given out.. then we broe for lunch. 

I had a great lunch with my friend Neil and two new friends from the National academy of Science(NAS)  abdnd NAE. Anne is with the NAS and is the WEExecutive Director of the Sceince and  Entertainment Exchange.

which is a collaberation between  the National Academy of Science and the enterntainment energy. THe goal is to to provide sceince and domain experteise to things like Hollywood movies. The exchange ahs been instrumental in giving expert advise to movies you’ve seen.. eg  Minority Report .

The exchange is being extended to include the National Academy of Engineering.. and I’m one of the new members of that consortium.   I’ve done a fair bit of science consulting for reality shows and such.. would love to do more !

 

From there we went to our section meetings. I’m in sectios 7.. the Electronics and communications group. As I said last night,.  I’m very impressed with our new group leadership.   We had a good meeting. It always starts on a bit of a solemn note where we review the folks in the section who have passed away in the last year.. Attending members can offer stories and thoughts abotu the people they new. I’m always surprised abotu how connected this group is. NAE membership is for life.. and many of our members are older and wiser.. so it comes woth the territory. Here’s the  list for this year. .. Some very well knwn and well loved names on there

 

I grew up using textbooks by Gummel and Hodges.. and we all use Ziv’s compression algorithms everyday and Gordon Moore was an icon in our  industry who  gave us “Moores Law”.. As sad as it is to discuss the loss of these folks. the stories people tell of working with these folks are really funny and inspiring. 

Most of the rest  of the discussion was  brainstorming about how to get more diversity in our group. Diversity here means more people from Industry. more women, more bipac, more LGBTQ, more differently abled folks. I know that DEI can be just a buzword exercise.. but here we thrive on diversity of thought.. and for that you need people from different backgrounds and experiences.  We also discussed how to better connect our group.. It will be a challenge to do that but it will be worth the effort, I think 

I had to leave a bit early to catch my plane home. at the airport I ran into my freinds Jose and Manuela.. a husband and wife team who are both NAe members. I really like them both. 

 

.. The flight howm was uneventful.. so I’ll tell you about another  amazing thing from the day. Today was the grand openign of the BETA manufacturing building in VT. at 188,500-square-feet   the largest net zero energy building east if the mississippi  .. and the first large scale manufacturing plant for electric aircraft in the world.   I was sad to be out of town for the opening. but I was able to watch the live stream durign breaks in the NAE memeting. It was an amazing day with Gov Scott , Rwetired Snator Pat Leahy, Both current Senators Sanders and Welch and the Mayor of BTV Miro W. . Our leaderr Kyle did a fantastic job of introducign the building  and its impact. nearly the whole company was there in Beta shirts to celebrate the opening.. At the end, 2 F35 flew over.. then Alia SN1 flew over.. the F35s  were earsplitting (as always).. while ALia made a beautifully soft hum.. It was really impressive. Here are some screen clips from the day.

I was really proud to be part of this team. its great for BETA, great for Vermont, Great for the US. and great for the climate of the world.. 

 

OK.. back to the eveing. I got to the airport just al little after Max and Becky landed. I came down and foudn them in the airport.. . .It was so exciting to see them. / Diane picked us up and we drove home.. happy , tired and excited for the week ahead.

 

what a day !

More fun tomorrow. 

 

nite all, nite sam

-me

I just love the annual meeting of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).. It is the biggest nerd-fest you could imagine. Each year we get together to welcome new members and see old friends. THere are great talks.. and super great networking. 

I started the day with a run down to the mall.. I ran by the National Academies Building just to be sure I could find it.

The NAE shares the building with the National Academy of Science )NAS) and the  National Academy of Medicine (NAM).  The combined organization National Academy organization  was created by President Lincoln  in 1863 Its mission is to ” advance the welfare and prosperity of the nation by providing independent advice on matters involving engineering and technology,” ..What I love about the NAE is that it brings together engineers of all sorts pf disciplines.. civil engineers , mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, chemical engineers,  environmental engieers, computer engineers, power system engineers, ., aerospace engineners.. you name it .. from all walks of life.. from academia, from industry and from the government and military. .Its full of inventors, professors, CEO’s , Generals and many other interesting and fun people. Most of the oidy is from the US.. but we also have many international members..

I ran back to the hotel and tool a shower.. .. Is it just me or does this shower control look sad ?

at 10 we all lined up and caught a bus to the  venue. THe fun conversations staerted as soon as I got on the bus. I sat next to a a very interesting Material Sceince Prof  from RPI..  it was going to be a fun day of interactions like this..   My first meetign was a group of us that are workign to increase the diversity of the NAE… Its a predominantly male and white organization. thought its gotten much more diversi in recent years. I’m part of a committee to hep find a more diverse set of candidates to stand for election. I’m looking forward to helping if I can. 

AFter that meetign and a little more mingline, we all filed in to the great ha;; to meet the new members elected this year. I had several freinds elected this year  including my friends Anirudh,. Neil. Kerrie,  Adalio and Bill. I was super happy fr all of them . 

We rhten  had an excellent talk from MIT prof Sandy Pentland on the importance of using sociology data to improve AI data analysis on everything from the spread of diseases to the planning of cities. He made a complelign cad  how Large Language Models liek GPT might be used to help  middle wage workers advance by allowing them to leverage the expertise captured in thos e models to broaden their thinking and improve their productivity. 
 

THen more mingling ( i love the wingling) . I ran into Rod P.. a freind of my brothers.. He staretd tellign a freind about Billys magic tricks.. that was fun !

AFter luch there was a very moving tribute to one of the former NAe presidents Bill Wulf. I didn’t knwo bill.. but it was really great to hear so many tributes.. and fun stories abotu a guy who hlped build the NAE into the org it now is. He was a brilliant, humble ad funny man.. I was moved by all I heard of him.. I particually loved hearng from Bills daughters who gave a warm and funny trbute to their famous dad.. callign him the ‘inventor of the dad joke’.. .. eg. “Dad.. are you alright ?! .. No… I’m, not.. I’m half left”..    groan.. now thats a real leader.. a guy who can argue with the president of the usa .. and still tell a good dad joke !

 

THere was a great reception..t hen we all headed out to section dinners. I’m in section 7.. (ELectroica, communiocatiosn and information systems ) dinner. I’d never been to one of the section dinners.. and I really enjoyed it. I got to speak more with our new Sec 7 president Bernd G .. and talk to other members. I sat next to Tsu-Jae King Liu, the Dean of Engineering at UC Berkley.. It was great speaking with her and the other folks at our table.. 

 

From there we all walked hoem to the hotel.. .. Its’ great walkign aroudn DC at night. We saw a ‘birthday cake’ on the lawn of the white house celibrating immy Carters 99th birthday !  Happy birthday Jimmy !

 

 

On my way up to my room I ran into my friend Neil and his wife Laura.. Neil is a propf at mit who is the fatehr o the fablab movement.. he teaches a class called how to make just about everythign that is famous on campus.  I love talign to neil.. he’s so funny and so smart.. really one of my heros. He came up to see me at BETA last year. we’re plannign another meet up in Vermont later this year.  Here’ is Neil usine Lara to illustrate  a robotic mechanism one of his students had worked on.. 

Great day !  More tomorrow 

 

nite all,. nite sam

-me

We spent the mornign workign aroudn the house in prep for Max, Becky, Gabe and freidns arrival starting next Monday. In prep we’ve installed new wood working, painted the front entrance way, helped build a new wood shed, and cleaned every room in the house,   today we worked in the yard until the moment I had to run for a plane. I’m heading down to DC for the National Academy of Engineering Annual Meeting . It’s. a meeting I really enjoy.. full of great talks and fantastic networking.   I admit that feel guilty being gone for two days while diane continues to prep the house for the coming week… The house looks great.. but I know  it will look even better by the time I get back on Monday..  

 

nite all, nite sam

-me

TOday was really fun. It was the first day of this year’s BetaLabs. It’s a program my freind Tyler came up with that brings high school kids tofgether to work on projects with Beta and the Generator makerspace. Two places I love. Last year we did it with a single school: Spaulding High School in Barre. This year we worked with our grat partner LaFran (aka Michelle LaFrancis)  to pull in kids from other schools thrugh their school to work programs.  THrough the year these students will learn abotu the sceince of electric flight then work with us to design and build a techcnial project aroudn those sceinces. Last year we really enjoyed seeing what the students came up with.. and helping them design-break-redesign and build.   This year looks even more fun with more students… 

 

Can’t wait !

nite all, nite sam

-me