Our search of press releases this week uncovered an announcement from Think Global Flight (TGF) about a meeting it arranged between a Colorado public school student and astronaut Buzz Aldrin. The two spoke about the importance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. The student urged her school system to join in TGFs international STEM educational program and monitoring of its upcoming flight around the world. We were interested to see news that the president of Aspen Avionics, John Uczekaj, testified before the U.S. House Small Business Committee regarding the challenge faced by general aviation manufacturers in working with the FAA to bring new, safety-enhancing products to market. Uczekaj said, To be successful, businesses, and in particular small businesses, need to clearly understand the tasks and be able to expect the FAA to respond in a timely fashion.
We also learned that Cokie Roberts will be the keynote speaker at the May 14-16, 2014 conference of WTS International, the association for professional advancement of women in transportation in Portland, Ore. Director of the WTS conference Margaret Mullins said, Cokie Roberts epitomizes our associations guiding mission of attracting, retaining and advancing women in transportation, an industry with very few women in top roles and few young women focused on STEM studies or entering this important industry. Finally, we saw that Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Worldwide, is offering a two-day course for professionals looking to gain a better understanding of the emerging unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) industry. It will be held in Las Vegas, Nev., on Feb. 27 and 28 and will cover such topics as impact of UAS, UAS designs, legislation, certification and regulation.
