Minutes of the SSP TM meeting on 2 October 1998 Place: PAS 569, SSP HQ The meeting began at 15:10 Present: W. Chen, E. Fasse, U. Fink, K. C. Hsieh, C. Lewicki, L. Schooley, H. Tharp, K. Thome, and W. Wing Absent: J. D. Carothers It was agreed that the tentative agenda be followed. 1. Last meeting's minutes approved. 2. Hsieh's report: a. Reminded the members of the description of the tasks and responsibilities of the two Co-Project Mentors. Emphasized the time-dependence of the tasks and the changes that may come. No suggestion for any changes was brought forth. b. Described the status of the preparation of the search for a new Project Manager with the expectation of the eventual establishment of a rolling management of Project-Manager Elect, Project Manager, and Past Manager at any given time. The draft of the AO by Hsieh is not to take away the work of the present Project Manager Lewicki, but to serve as a means to get things going along the Chinese saying: "To throw in a brick to harvest the jades." c. Mary Mellott just rejected the addendum on sprites. The requested HES integration budget has been sent. To complete the "Code S", we may have to submit our proposal to be reviewed by two other science programs - atmospherics and stellar. Fink will contact the stellar program and Krider of Atmospherics has been asked to find a contact in the atmospheric program. Meanwhile, the "Code F" is still being explored by Charles Eastwood at NASA HQ. d. In anticipation of the submission of a proposal to NSF's "Course, Curriculum, and Lab Improvement" (CCLI) program, each TM was given a copy of the program description. The deadline for proposal is 16 November 1998. All TMs are urged to send in ideas, big and small, on the emphasis of the proposal to Tharp or Hsieh before the next meeting. e. Scholarship fundraising awaits the "hit list" from Dorothy Finely. Meanwhile the first privately funded Carinoso scholarships are open for application with a deadline at 17:00 on Monday, 5 October. All TMs should encourage their students to apply if appropriate. Announcement and clarifications have been sent to all SSP students. f. On Thursday, 8 October, Tharp, Lewicki, Zinn, Hsieh and students from TTC and PGD will visit Allied Signal to explore potential partnership. (Schooley expressed interest to participate.) Another opportunity for potential partnership was announced, i.e. meeting with Chandru Mirchandani of Lockeed Martin on Saturday, 3 October. (Tharp intended to join Lewicki and Hsieh for this meeting.) Tharp will represent SSP at the GTEC meeting on 21 October, an invitation to Hsieh that he cannot honor due to a trip to the east coast. 3. Tharp's report: a. The PGD needs rebuilding. (Wing suggested the possibility of extending the design tasks to a wider application beyond UASat might attract more students.) b. There are now three students signed up for the paid attendance of the international conference on space telemetry in San Diego. c. In preparation for the NSF CCLI proposal, Tharp will review the proposal submitted by CoEM to avoid possible conflict or competition. The two seem to belong to two different categories and are of different funding periods. d. A meeting with Dean Peterson should take place before the next TM meeting. (See minutes of last meeting.) (At this point, Schooley recommended that the next TM meeting, 15:00 on 16 October, be held in ECE, since his class schedule prevents him from arriving in PAS at 15:00 on Fridays. It was agreed. The use of ECE 410C will be confirmed.) 4. Lewicki's report: a. The AO for the new Project Manager is being prepared and will be ready for the TMs for review by 9 October and for release thereafter. b. On the two issues raised by Wing -- job description for TLs and pay for deputy TLs , the former is under discussion among the TLs and the latter requires a review of the existing resources. (It was suggested and agreed that all paid participants should be paid according to signed time sheets.) c. The new computer with the LabView board is now in operation. It will be used by SCI until demand from other teams. It was paid for by funds from the UA's "Library" grant and the Research Corp. grant. (Fink reminded that all activities funded by the Research Corp. grant be documented in anticipation of the report in April 1999 and in the hope of a renewal.) d. The estimation on power is progressing. Graduate student Chu is presently the PGD. e. Three students taking Systems Engineering 554 are using UASat as their topical system. This maybe the beginning of SSP's Systems team. Mirchandani will be consulted on this matter. f. The launch of SEDSSat in three week's time will give the TTC a good exercise in real tracking, especially when Tucson fill "see" the satellite before Alabama and Florida. To facilitate the operation, the ground station in Old Engineering will require an Ethernet line and a phone. Requests will be submitted to ECE. g. Preparation for this year's Student Showcase is underway. Unlike last year's, some items for this year's exhibit will be available for future use. h. Tokens of appreciation for TMs and students will be designed and presented later. i. SSP student census is completed. Results will be on the web. 5. Wing led the discussion on whether to place expectation on TLs and all SSP students drew diverse views. It appeared that different teams have different ethos and different TMs have attitudes. Tharp proposed that as a start, for the next TM meeting each TM make his or her own job description, as the Co-Project Mentors have done and the Project Manager is now doing. Eventually, the TLs should describe their duties. Such an exercise would truly reflect the self- motivatedness of SSP. This suggestion was accepted. 6. There were no other business and the meeting adjourned at 17:10.