PROCEDURES FOR ROBERT L. LICHTEN AWARD 

 

1.  Award Statement

 

The Robert L. Lichten Award was established to encourage AHS members who have not previously presented the results of their work at a national forum to begin through presentations at local and regional AHS meetings. Candidates for the Lichten Award are proposed by Regional Vice Presidents to the Technical Director and are judged by members of the AHS Technical Council to determine a national winner. Separate awards are given for the best technical presentation at each regional competition.

 

The award for the Lichten winner consists of a $500 honorarium made available from Bell Helicopter Textron, Inc., complimentary travel from anywhere in the U.S. to the Forum site, plus complimentary registration and lodging at the AHS Annual Forum. The award was established in 1975 to honor the memory of Robert L. Lichten, an outstanding rotary wing engineer and the Society’s 22nd president. Robert Lichten was a skilled and dedicated worker who spent much of his career championing early tilt-wing and tiltrotor concepts until his unfortunate death in an automobile accident. Many who knew him called him the “Pioneer of Tilt Rotor Technology.”

  

2.  Objectives

 

a) Encourage AHS members to begin making public the results of their work through presentations at the local level (with no requirement for a written paper prior to the initial presentation).

 

b) Stimulate interest in the AHS at the local level.

 

 3.  Eligibility for the Regional Competition

 

      The award is open to any individual who

 

a)       was a member of the AHS during the entire competition, 

b)      has not previously presented a paper at a national or international meeting of a technical society (e.g., the AHS Annual Forum, annual AIAA conference, AHS Specialists Meetings/Conferences, European Rotorcraft Forum).
[Presentations at local chapter meetings of a technical society, as well as presentations to local civic organizations, are exempt from this constraint. Co-authors of papers previously presented at national or international meetings are eligible provided they were not the principal author and did not make the presentation. The “principal” author is the sole author or the individual who performed the plurality of the work being reported, not the order of names in the paper citation.] 

            and  

c)       has not served as the principal author of a previously-published, co-authored technical paper.
[“Published” shall be interpreted to mean included in the proceedings of a meeting, forum, or conference of a technical society or organization (e.g., AHS, AIAA, SAE, ASME, ERF) which was conducted as a national or international event or in an archival Journal of such organizations.]

 

In addition,

 

·         The presentation must be new unpublished material. Written papers are not required prior to the presentation.  If the presenter is selected as the winner by the Region, a written paper must be composed for judging by the Lichten Award Selection Committee (a subset of the AHS Technical Council).

 

·         The technical presentation should be at least 20 minutes in length.

 

·         A single-authored presentation and subsequent paper is preferred, but co-authored presentations/papers may be eligible as long as the presenter has done the plurality of the work.

 

·         Non-AHS Forum papers are eligible provided the meeting is held after the last day of the AHS Forum during which the winner of the competition will be presented. Papers submitted for the current AHS Forum are also eligible provided they meet all of the aforementioned requirements.

 

·         Individuals entering the Lichten competition must submit a filled-in copy of the “Lichten Eligibility Statement”, which follows, to their AHS Regional Vice President.

 

Questions regarding eligibility or additional issues should be directed to the AHS Technical Director.

  

4.  Selection Process and Requirements for the National Competition

 

Candidate papers for this award will be proposed by the AHS Regional Vice Presidents. Each region can submit one paper. A Region’s nomination of its candidate paper must by received at AHS headquarters no later than February 15 to be eligible for consideration. Each region must conduct a selection process rigorous enough to produce candidates who will deliver oral presentations commensurate with the standards of the AHS Forum and who are willing to prepare a written paper on the same material that is suitable for possible publication in the Journal of the American Helicopter Society.

 

Although the preferred approach is to conduct the competitions at a Regional meeting with all the participants present, this is not mandatory. Remote chapter locations and special circumstances (such as travel restrictions) may preclude such a forum. In these situations, the Regional Vice President may work out an alternative solution at the discretion of the Technical Director (e.g., the use of video conferences or individual presentations.) The alternative solution must offer a real-time interactive venue with an audience.

 

The Region’s candidate paper should be selected using the criteria outlined below for final selection. The Regional Vice President shall attest to this fact when submitting the nomination and also to the fact that the written text submitted for consideration fairly represents the material (and visuals) presented at the regional meeting.

 

The AHS Technical Director shall form and chair a Selection Committee composed of members of the Technical Council to select the best paper from those recommended by the Regions. The Selection Committee should include at least one representative from each of the following:  Government, Industry, Academia.  Consideration will be given to the originality, technical content, relevance of the contribution, and organization and clarity. Each member of the Selection Committee will rank the papers according to the “Individual Rating System” (see chart below). The papers will then be ranked in simple numerical order. The overall winner will be selected by numerical addition of each judge’s ranking.

 

                                                              Individual Ranking System

Rating               Weighting Factor           Max

Originality/Creativity                   0 to 5                            6                        30

Technical Content                      0 to 5                            6                        30

Relevance of Contribution           0 to 5                            4                        20

Organization and Clarity             0 to 5                            4                        20

Total                                                                                                      100

 

To provide consistency of scoring between members of the Selection Committee, the following guidance is given for assigning a numerical score:

 

Each “Rating” should be an integer.  Reviewers should use the following table to assist them in assigning numerical ratings.  Note that the scale is only intended to be linear between 1 and 5, not between 0 and 1.  Any Element that could not be graded higher than a “C” should be rated zero. The scale is designed to have an adequate number of scores available to make distinctions between the best of the best.

 

  

5.   Support for the Winner

 

The AHS will cover travel expenses of the author who will be invited to present his/her paper at the Forum: this will include travel from a point within the United States; Forum registration, and hotel accommodation (excluding food). The winner will also receive a $500 honorarium from Bell Helicopter Textron, Inc. and a plaque. The paper should be submitted to the Journal of the American Helicopter Society Editor for possible publication.

  

6.  Lichten Award Deadline Checklist

 

a) Regional Vice Presidents’ Deadlines 

Call for Presentations September/October 

Abstracts Due for Regional Competition October/November 

Regional Competition(s) Held November/December 

Regional Nomination(s) to AHS HQ NO LATER THAN FEBRUARY 15

 

b) Nominations Forwarded to AHS Technical Director on February 15

 

c) Results from Technical Director to AHS HQ by March 15

 

NOTE: Since most participants in the Regional Competition will not have written their paper yet, it is advisable to hold the Regional Competition no later than early December. This allows ample time for the regional winner to write a paper for submission by February 15.

 

7.  Regional Vice Presidents’ Nomination Letter Checklist
 

a) Select a candidate for nomination.

 

b) In a nomination letter or email, attest that:

 

i. The candidate meets the eligibility criteria described in Section 3 (as evidenced by submittal of a signed Eligibility Statement)

 

ii. The author was selected in accordance with the process stipulated in this document.

 

iii. The written text submitted for consideration fairly represents the material and visual aids presented at the regional meeting.
 

c) Nominations must be accompanied by at least one copy of the paper.  Electronic submittal is preferred.

 

d) Nominations must be forwarded to AHS Headquarters and postmarked no later than February 15 to:

 

American Helicopter Society, International

ATTN:  Lichten Nomination

217 N. Washington St.

Alexandria, VA  22314

 

Phone: 703-684-6777

Fax 703-739-9279

E-mail:  staff@vtol.org

 

Lichten Eligibility Statement

 

Individuals entering the competition for the American Helicopter Society’s Lichten Award must meet ALL six of the following criteria to be eligible for the competition.  This form must be signed and submitted to your AHS Region to confirm eligibility. 

                                                                                                                                         

1.  I am a current member of the AHS.

2.  I have never previously presented a paper at a national or international meeting of a technical society (e.g., the AHS Annual Forum, annual AIAA conference, AHS Specialists Meetings or Conferences, European Rotorcraft Forum.  Presentations at local chapter meetings of a technical society, as well as presentations to local civic organizations, are exempt from this constraint.)

3.  I have never served as the principal author of a technical paper which has been previously published and/or presented at a national or international meeting of a technical society. A “principal” author is a sole author or (in the case of works with multiple authors) the individual of who performed the plurality of the work being reported.  The order of names in the paper/presentation citation is not the governing criteria.  “Published” shall be interpreted to mean included in the proceedings of a meeting, forum, or conference of a technical society (e.g., AHS, AIAA, SAE, ASME, ERF) which was conducted as a national or international event (vice a local or regional event), or an archival Journal of such organizations.

4.  I am the principal author of the work documented in the presentation and paper being submitted.

5.  This presentation is new unpublished material.

6.  The work performed has not been submitted for presentation consideration at a national or international meeting of any technical society, with the exception of the following:  Non-AHS Forum papers are eligible provided the meeting is held after the Forum closing date. Papers submitted for the current AHS Forum are also eligible provided they meet all of the aforementioned requirements.

 

For questions or issues with respect to the above eligibility requirements, contact the AHS Technical Director.                 

  

Entrant:

My signature below confirms that I meet ALL six of the eligibility requirements described above.

 

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Signature                                                                                                    Date

 

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