About AIAA

The nonprofit American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is the principal society and voice serving the aerospace profession. Its primary purpose is to advance the arts, sciences, and technology of aeronautics and astronautics and to foster and promote the professionalism of those engaged in these pursuits. Although founded and based in the United States, AIAA is a global organization with nearly 31,000 individual professional members in 66 professional sections, 5,000 student members in 145 student branches, over 50 corporate members, thousands of customers worldwide, and an active international outreach with student branches in Austraila, Belgium, Canada, China, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Russia, and Turkey. AIAA is the U.S. representative on the International Astronautical Federation and the International Council on the Aeronautical Sciences.

Origins

AIAA is the largest professional society and information resource devoted to the progress of engineering and science in aviation and space, with 66 professional sections throughout the nation. It all started with the formation of two societies, the American Interplanetary Society (AIS) later known as the American Rocket Society (ARS) founded in 1930 and the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences (IAS) founded in 1932. Due to remarkable advances in aeronautics and astronautics both societies broadened the scope of their missions. Eventually, the overlapping areas of technical background between the two societies paved way for their merger in 1963, becoming the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics(AIAA). Since this time, there have been numerous prominent figures in the feild. It is impreesive to know that every major achievement in flight since 1963 was made by at least one of AIAA's members.

Publications

Since publishing the first edition of the American Interplanetary Society's monthly Bulletin in June 1930, AIAA has earned an international reputation as the primary publisher of innovative aerospace literature, and the top resource for tapping into the industry's archives, dating back to the early 1900s. Over the past 65 years, AIAA and its predecessor organizations have published more than 350 books and 250,000 technical papers. Current publications include six journals, two magazines, more than 40 standards, an increasing number of electronic products, and a Web site.

Accreditation

Through its affiliation with the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc., AIAA is responsible for providing Aerospace Engineering Accreditation teams to review the aerospace engineering curricula nationwide.

USC Branch

The University of Southern California AIAA Student Branch received it's re-charter in 1981. The USC Student Branch regularly attends dinner meetings of the Orange County and Los Angeles Professional Sections of AIAA as well as participate in special tours at Boeing Aircraft-Long Beach, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics-Palmdale, NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards AFB and other aerospace/aeronautics firms in Southern California.

AIAA is open to and welcomes members from ALL MAJORS. Don't think that Aerospace Engineering is the only major in the Aerospace Industry. Many diceplines are required to design, fund, aquire, build, test, and sell multi-millon dollar aircraft or satellites to companies and governments around the world. Some of these include:

• Accounting
• Business/Management
• Engineering
• Mathmatics
• Physics
• and many more....

The list of Trojan AIAA conference participants is many. During the last decade:

• In 1993 USC won 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes at the Western Region Student Conference
• In 1994, Steve Vargo won 1st place at the Western Region Student Conference and in the same year won the national competition for his paper "The Deflection of Liquid Metal Droplets for Net-form Materials Synthesis".
• In 2000 Amy Green won 1st place, and Al Knight won 2nd place at the Western Region Student Conference
• In 2001 Amy Green won the national competition for her work.
• In 2002 Brian Bjelde and Brian Eccles won 1st place at the Western Region Student Conference.
• In 2003 James Parle won 1st place, and Sonya Collier and Cheryl Ham won 3rd place at the Western Region Student Conference
• In 2007 Sina Golshany won 3rd place in the AIAA Individual Aircraft Competition.

What's in it for me?

The USC Student Branch along with other local student chapters and professional sections offer numerous opportunities for advancement and knowledge in the Aeronautics/Astronautics field.

Nationally, AIAA provides various publications including Aerospace America and the Online Student Journal, competitions, scholarships and award opportunities, resume posting, student conferences as well as over 35 national technical meetings per year free of charge.

Local AIAA student branches and profesional sections provide chances to attend dinner meetings, exclusive tours, and lectures which allow for valuable "face to face" networking to occur forming contacts making it easier to get their "foot in the door" for internships and a carear.

AIAA offers priceless exposure to a field where where the sky is no longer the limit.

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Email: aiaa@usc.edu

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