A Message from the AESS President

Last January, when I became President of the Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society (AESS) for 2020-21, I had no idea that the future course of events would turn out so differently than what I expected.  Probably the same could be said for most of you.  The COVID-19 pandemic came suddenly, and it rapidly changed our lives for the time being in some ways and perhaps permanently in others.  Let’s examine what has changed and what we have learned from these circumstances.

Since mid-March, travel has been greatly restricted.  IEEE issued instructions that volunteers should not travel or make future travel reservations until further notice.  It is difficult to predict when these restrictions will be removed.  For now, we must rely on video conferencing, online meetings, and webinars to conduct most of our conferences, meetings, and other activities.  Your IEEE membership benefits include access to the IEEE Collabratec integrated, online community and its suite of productivity tools to facilitate collaboration and networking during this time of physical separation.  Now is a good time to try it out.

Face-to-face meetings and gatherings in large numbers are discouraged.  Consequently, IEEE meetings and conferences have either been cancelled, postponed, or converted to virtual events.  Fortunately, the Aerospace Conference took place in March at Big Sky as originally planned and the International Radar Conference quickly converted to a virtual event in April.  The Systems Security Symposium has been postponed until July/August and will be conducted as a virtual event.  AUTOTESTCON 2020 has been cancelled.  The IEEE Radar Conference is scheduled to be held in Florence, Italy in September.  DASC is scheduled to be held in San Antonio in October.  These and other future conferences could convert to virtual events if necessary.  Our favorable experience with virtual events thus far suggests that future conferences should consider blending some elements of remote participation.  Nevertheless, we look forward to the time that we can resume physical gatherings, as it lends to the conference experience.

During these trying times, AESS cares about you, our members.  Our focus is always on providing quality products and services that are useful to you.  We recognize that public health concerns and attempts to slow the spread of COVID-19 have caused businesses to close or revise operations, leading to job losses or furloughs for some and work-from-home assignments for others.  This disruption in employment has stimulated demand for job placement, training, and assistance in developing new skills to adapt to working remotely.  Over the last few years, AESS initiated several educational and professional development products and services to support our members in ways that are quite valuable right now.  These initiatives include our distinguished lectures, tutorials, short courses, professional networking and mentoring program, video lectures, and on-demand technical training available through the AESS Resource Center.  AESS received the 2019 IEEE Educational Activities Board Society Professional Development Award for our efforts to support to our members in the areas of lifelong learning, continuing education, and professional development.  I encourage you to take advantage of these valuable AESS member benefits to help you adapt and grow professionally.

If you are not currently a member of AESS, I invite you join.  Follow this link to a welcome message for a description of membership benefits and other reasons to join AESS.

I also hope that you remain safe and healthy.

Walt Downing, IEEE Life Senior Member, AESS President, 2020-2021

AESS Mission and Vision

The mission of the AESS is to provide a responsive and relevant professional society that attracts, engages, aids, and retains a diverse set of members (age, culture, community – theoretical, managerial and applications) worldwide in the areas of our fields of interest as defined in our constitution. AESS will accomplish this through technical, chapter and society activities in the areas of conferences, publications, education, technical operations, industry relations, and member services.

The vision of the AESS is to be essential to the worldwide technical community and be recognized for outstanding contributions in the fields of aerospace and electronic systems.

The IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society (AESS) provides a global professional home for engineers working in the electronic systems domain.

The Society offers a unique opportunity to become deeply connected with the three pillars of the Aerospace, Electronic and Defence sector: Industry, Institutions and Research Centers. Effective interaction between those pillars is the key element for the organization, design, development and operation of successful Complex Systems, which are the core of the AESS Field of Interest.

AESS Complex Systems cover the space, air, ocean and ground environments, including hardware, software, integration and many other aspects of the Engineering job.

AESS Conferences, Workshops, Transactions, Magazine and Educational tools enhance and disseminate the culture of Complex Systems through the global AESS community, bringing to a large and beneficial exchange of experience and achievements among our members.

Welcome Message in other languages

Chinese Japanese Spanish