Branch Officer Nominations Due Sunday
Posted 5-02-2008 by Gerard Toribio

There are many opportunities for you to get involved as an officer on UCLA AIAA's executive committee. The core group of the committee is composed of the typical officers found in a student organization. Additional, auxilliary officer positions may be created as needed or desired to carry out Branch activities. In other words, being an officer is what you make of it!

Don't forget: being an officer on UCLA AIAA's executive committee does confer some benefits:
--it looks good on your resume
--it offers the chance to build practical leadership and teamwork skills
--it provides many networking opportunities in the aerospace industry
--it is a good way to meet new people

To nominate someone (yourself and your friends, included) for an officer position, please e-mail Gerard Toribio (gtoribio428@gmail.com) with the following information about the nominee: name, e-mail address, phone number, and recommended officer position. Please be sure to tell the nominee of your recommending him/her as an officer. Please submit your nomination by 11:59 p.m. Sunday night (May 4). Nominees will have until Wednesday, May 7, to accept or decline the nomination. Elections will be held the following Monday.

Primary Officer Positions

Chair
--Coordinates the executive committee
--Serves as main point of contact for the Branch
--Aids the officers wherever necessary
--Provides the direction for the executive committee

External Vice-Chair
--Responsible for industry outreach efforts
--Builds relationships between Branch and aerospace companies
--Responsible for arranging events related to those companies (e.g. info sessions, tech seminars conducted by industry reps)

Internal Vice-Chair
--Responsible for campus outreach and member recruitment efforts
--Builds relationships with other student groups on campus
--Builds relationships between the Branch members
--Charged with arranging events related to accomplishing the above (e.g. socials, community service events)

Secretary
--Responsible for adding to and maintaining Branch records
--Writes and sends general correspondence (e.g. e-mails to Branch members about events, communications to other student groups)

Treasurer
--Responsible for recruiting sponsors
--Charged with writing sponsorship proposals
--Responsible for tracking income and expenses of the Branch (for student projects and Branch activities)

Webmaster
--Responsible for keeping the Branch website updated
--Also charged with updating other online Branch information (e.g. Facebook group)

Auxilliary Officer Positions

Historian
--Responsible for adding to and maintaining photo logs of Branch events for the academic year

Publicity Chair
--Responsible for advertisement efforts for the Branch
--Charged with creating correspondence specifically related to advertising Branch activities (e.g. flyers, e-mail, Facebook events)

New Branch Officer Openings
Posted 1-04-2008 by Gerard Toribio

Looking for a way to get involved with UCLA AIAA? Want to make an impact on the UCLA aerospace engineering community?  Taking an active role as a Branch officer is one way to do just that! The Branch is looking to add a few new positions to its executive committee. Take a look below to see if one might be a good fit for you.

Activities Chair: networks with other engineering student groups (to help with scheduling of UCLA AIAA events), assists the External Vice-Chair with expanding industry and faculty contacts as well as with planning and arranging events

Community Outreach Chair: assists the Internal Vice-Chair with Branch and event publicity (sending e-mail notices, updating facebook, making and posting flyers) as well as with brainstorming, planning, and arranging social and community service events

All we ask of potential officers is your commitment to the job (and to be a national member of AIAA, of course). Branch officers typically spend only one or two hours per week to attend to their responsibilities. (That's probably less than half the time most engineering students spend puzzling over their homework for one class!) In return, being an officer affords you tremendous networking opportunities--in school and in the aerospace industry--and offers you the chance to develop leadership experience in college.

To apply for any of the three positions above, e-mail Chairman Gerard Toribio (gtoribio428 at gmail.com) with the following information:

• name
• e-mail address and telephone number
• the officer position(s) of interest
• major and year in school
• a few paragraphs (fewer than 300 words) answering the following prompt: "Please describe yourself."

You may also be asked to meet with the Branch Chairman for a brief interview. You will receive a confirmation e-mail once your application has been received.

Just remember: UCLA AIAA is what you, its members, make of it!

New Officers for 2007-2008
Posted 09-18-2007 by Gerard Toribio

The new AIAA officers for 2007-2008 were elected during the End-of-Year Review meeting in May 2007.

Chairman: Gerard Toribio
External Vice-Chair: Will Hourigan
Internal Vice-Chair: Sara Wales
Secretary-Treasurer: Jon Nguyen
Historian: Matt Wong

UAV Team Takes Ninth at 2007 AIAA Design/Build/Fly
Posted 09-18-2007 by Gerard Toribio

Two years in a row, the UCLA team for the Design/Build/Fly contest was forced to employ the so-called “Swiss Cheese” method of cutting out weight from the aircraft.  Such unusual modifications, while sometimes aesthetically displeasing, become absolutely necessary when the alternative is abandoning the competition entirely.  Fortunately for the students of this year’s UCLA team, the Los Blue Angeles, this field work was limited to taping vertical fins to the tail. 

In fact, those additions made it possible for the team to achieve the best DBF finish in the UCLA team’s history.  The Los Blue Angeles, placed 9^th of 36 teams at the 2006-2007 Design/Build/Fly fly-off in Tucson, Ariz., the weekend of April 20.

The DBF is an annual competition, hosted by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), Cessna Corp., and Raytheon Missile Systems, that provides undergraduate students with the opportunity to engage a real-world design problem.  Student teams from across the globe must design and manufacture a radio-control airplane to meet performance specifications given by the contest rules. 

This year’s rules demanded that teams design an aircraft capable of carrying each of two payloads, both mockups of systems that one may see on a military surveillance drone:

• an air sampler tube with a 3-pound, 8” x 8” x 8” box
• a camera ball with a 5-pound, 4” x 6” x 15” box

The rules set additional restrictions on the size of the aircraft, the placement of the cargo, and the propulsion system.  In particular, the air sampler tube must be the most forward part of the aircraft.  When disassembled, the airplane must also fit inside a 4’ x 2’ x 1.5’ box.  Propulsion systems are also limited to commercially available electric motors.

In addition, the aircraft must complete each of four missions:

• Speed: the aircraft, with air sampler, flies two timed laps as quickly as possible
• Endurance: the aircraft, with camera ball, must stay aloft for four minutes
• Deployment: timed assembly of the aircraft from its storage container
• Reconfiguration: timed swap of the camera ball with the air sampler

Final scoring is based on the team’s score for a 60-page design report multiplied by the flight scores, which is divided by a “Rated Aircraft Cost.”  This year’s RAC was equal to the airplane’s empty weight in pounds multiplied by its wing span in inches.  Thus, the scoring favored designs that were both light and had wings with small aspect ratios.

UCLA’s solution to the proposed problem was a tail-dragger biplane with a pusher propeller; an inverted v-tail was mounted on twin booms extending from the lower wing.  With a wingspan of 3.75 feet and an aspect ratio of 5 for each wing, the aircraft took on a stubby appearance.  Unlike previous UCLA entries, the Los Blue Angeles saw minimal use of composites.  The 6.2-pound structure was built from balsa wood while the flight surfaces were foam-cut.  Monokote gave the exterior a glossy finish.

The Los Blue Angeles’s lighter construction was instrumental to its 9^th place ranking, the best finish a UCLA DBF team has ever had in the contest.  Equally critical to the team’s success was its design report, which ranked 11^th among the 36 teams that completed tech inspection at the contest.  Last year, UCLA finished 24^th overall with a report score ranked 20^th of a field of 49.

The DBF project, given its scale, required the combined effort of several people.  The UCLA team was comprised of 15 freshmen, sophomores, and juniors.  Such a project also requires a significant amount of funding.  The team raised about $5300, used mostly for construction supplies and tools. 

Extensive test-flights conducted the week before the competition exposed two major problems with the aircraft.  First, the aircraft tended to sideslip during turns.  Second, the fuselage design obstructed much of the airflow to the propeller; the motor was operating as if it was in dead air, significantly reducing battery longevity. With four days remaining before the team departed for Tucson, the team was able to devise solutions to these difficulties.  In particular, vertical fins were taped to the booms, increasing the side area in the aft section of the airplane.  The team also replaced the batteries with heavier, but longer-lasting, packs from last year’s entry.

After a rough start at the contest, a result of insufficient time for the contest-provided pilot, Mr. Robert Rippey, to familiarize himself with the aircraft, the team completed the air sampling flight mission, with a time of 105 seconds in its fifth run.  However, an attempt to complete the endurance mission revealed that the aircraft was underpowered for the take-off limit.  The ground missions, on the other hand, proceeded without any major problems.

Although this year’s top-ten finish is impressive, the team still has room to improve.  At the top of the list is better performance prediction, motivated by a grave underestimation of the pusher system’s inefficiency with the airflow obstructed by the fuselage.  Better adherence to a rigorous, but careful, design schedule will also be key to improvement.

Nevertheless, this year’s success is encouraging and indicative of the team’s growth.  Indeed, the bar has been set high for next year’s UCLA DBF team.  With 12 of this year’s 15 team members expected to stay on next year, the 2007-2008 DBF should yield even greater success for UCLA.

DBF 2006-2007 Core Team Members: Kevin Archibald (Jr), Gaurav Bansal (Fr), Alex Capecelatro (Fr), Eric Chrisman (So), Will Hourigan (Jr), Jerry Huang (Jr), Jeff Jonokuchi (So), Alex Kroll (Jr), Sarah MacMillan (Fr), Viet Nguyen (Jr), Ian Schultz (So), Gerard Toribio (So), Sara Wales (Jr), Matt Wong (Jr), Tom Wiltse (So)

DBF 2006-2007 Alumni Advisor: Anthony Eng

DBF 2006-2007 Sponsors: the Los Angeles Section of AIAA, Lockheed Martin Corp., the UCLA Engineering Alumni Association, the UCLA MAE Department, the UCLA Dean of Engineering

Special Thanks to: Mr. John Lett

Check out the project page for more information, including photographs and videos.