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NASA/DoD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project: Report 43: The Technical Communication Practices of U.S. Aerospace Engineers and Scientists: Results of the Phase 1 Mail Survey -- Manufacturing and Production Perspective

The U.S. government technical report is a primary means by which the results of federally funded research and development (R&D) are transferred to the U.S. aerospace industry. However, little is known about this information product in terms of its actual use, importance, and value in the transfer of federally funded R&D. To help establish a body of knowledge, the U.S. government technical report is being investigated as part of the NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. In this report, we summarize the literature on technical reports and provide a model that depicts the transfer of federally funded aerospace R&D via the U.S. government technical report. We present results from our investigation of aerospace knowledge diffusion vis-a-vis the U.S. government technical report, and present the results of research that investigated aerospace knowledge diffusion vis-a-vis the technical communication practices of U.S. aerospace engineers and scientists who were members of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers.

Pinelli, Thomas E.↗

NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Report 31: The technical communications practices of US aerospace engineers and scientists: Results of the phase 1 SME mail survey

The U.S. government technical report is a primary means by which the results of federally funded research and development (R&D) are transferred to the U.S. aerospace industry. However, little is known about this information product in terms of its actual use, importance, and value in the transfer of federally funded R&D. To help establish a body of knowledge, the U.S. government technical report is being investigated as part of the NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. In this report, we summarize the literature on technical reports and provide a model that depicts the transfer of federally funded aerospace R&D via the U.S. government technical report. We present results from our investigation of aerospace knowledge diffusion vis-a-vis the U.S. government technical communications practices of U.S. aerospace engineers and scientists affiliated with, not necessarily belonging to, the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME).

Pinelli, Thomas E.↗

NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Report No. 36: The Technical Communications Practices of US Aerospace Engineers and Scientists: Results of the Phase 1 NASA Langley Research Center Mail Survey

The U.S. government technical report is a primary means by which the results of federally funded research and development (R&D) are transferred to the U.S. aerospace industry. However, little is known about this information product in terms of its actual use, importance, and value in the transfer of federally funded R&D. To help establish a body of knowledge, the U.S. government technical report is being investigated as part of the NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. In this report, we summarize the literature on technical reports and provide a model that depicts the transfer of federally funded aerospace R&D via the U.S. government technical report. We present results from our investigation of aerospace knowledge diffusion vis-a-vis the U.S. government technical report, and present the results of research that investigated aerospace knowledge diffusion vis-a-vis the technical communications practices of U.S. aerospace engineers and scientists who were assigned to the Research and Technology Group (RTG) at the NASA Langley Research Center in September 1995.

Pinelli, Thomas E.↗

NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Report 23: The communications practices of US aerospace engineering faculty and students: Results of the phase 3 survey

The U.S. government technical report is a primary means by which the results of federally funded research and development (R&D) are transferred to the U.S. aerospace industry. However, little is known about this information product in terms of its actual use, importance, and value in the transfer of federally funded R&D. To help establish a body of knowledge, the U.S. government technical report is being investigated as part of the NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. In this report, we summarize the literature on technical reports and provide a model that depicts the transfer of federally funded aerospace R&D via the U.S. government technical report. We present results from our investigation of aerospace knowledge diffusion vis-a-vis the U.S. government technical report, and present the results of research that investigated aerospace knowledge diffusion vis-a-vis U.S. aerospace engineering faculty and students.

Pinelli, Thomas E.↗

NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Paper 21: Technological innovation and technical communications: Their place in aerospace engineering curricula. A survey of European, Japanese, and US Aerospace Engineers and Scientists

Aerospace engineers and scientists from Western Europe, Japan, and the United States were surveyed as part of the NASA/DoD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Questionnaires were used to solicit their opinions regarding the following: (1) the importance of technical communications to their profession; (2) the use and production of technical communications; and (3) their views about the appropriate content of an undergraduate course in technical communications. The ability to communicate technical information effectively was very important to the aerospace engineers and scientists who participated in the study. A considerable portion of their working week is devoted to using and producing technical information. The types of technical communications used and produced varied within and among the three groups. The type of technical communication product used and produced appears to be related to respondents' professional duties. Respondents from the three groups made similar recommendations regarding the principles, mechanics, and on-the-job communications to be included in an undergraduate technical communications course for aerospace majors.

Pinelli, Thomas E.↗

NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Paper 61: The Technical Communications Practices of ESL Aerospace Engineering Students in the United States: Results of a National Survey

When engineering students graduate and enter the world of work, they make the transition from an academic to a professional community of knowledge. The importance of oral and written communication to the professional success and advancement of engineers is well documented. For example, studies such as those conducted by Mailloux (1989) indicate that communicating data, information, and knowledge takes up as much as 80% of an engineer's time. However, these same studies also indicate that many engineering graduates cannot (a) write technical reports that effectively inform and influence decisionmaking, (b) present their ideas persuasively, and (c) communicate with their peers. If these statements are true, how is learning to communicate effectively in their professional knowledge community different for engineering students educated in the United States but who come from other cultures-cultures in which English is not the primary language of communication? Answering this question requires adequate and generalizable data about these students' communications abilities, skills, and competencies. To contribute to the answer, we undertook a national (mail) survey of 1,727 student members of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). The focus of our analysis and this paper is a comparison of the responses of 297 student members for whom English is a second language with the responses of 1,430 native English speaking students to queries regarding career choice, bilingualism and language fluency, communication skills, collaborative writing, computer use, and the use of electronic (computer) networks.

Webb, John R.↗

NASA Aerospace Flight Battery Program: Generic Safety, Handling and Qualification Guidelines for Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion) Batteries; Availability of Source Materials for Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion) Batteries; Maintaining Technical Communications Related to Aerospace Batteries (NASA Aerospace Battery Workshop)

This NASA Aerospace Flight Battery Systems Working Group was chartered within the NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC). The Battery Working Group was tasked to complete tasks and to propose proactive work to address battery related, agency-wide issues on an annual basis. In its first year of operation, this proactive program addressed various aspects of the validation and verification of aerospace battery systems for NASA missions. Studies were performed, issues were discussed and in many cases, test programs were executed to generate recommendations and guidelines to reduce risk associated with various aspects of implementing battery technology in the aerospace industry. This report contains the Appendices to the findings from the first year of the program's operations.

Manzo, Michelle A.↗

NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Paper 38: Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) and the communication of technical information in aerospace

This paper discusses the use of computers as a medium for communication (CMC) used by aerospace engineers and scientists to obtain and/or provide technical information related to research and development activities. The data were obtained from a questionnaire survey that yielded 1006 mail responses. In addition to communication media, the research also investigates degrees of task uncertainty, environmental complexity, and other relevant variables that can affect aerospace workers' information-seeking strategies. While findings indicate that many individuals report CMC is an important function in their communication patterns, the research indicates that CMC is used less often and deemed less valuable than other more conventional media, such as paper documents, group meetings, telephone and face-to-face conversations. Fewer than one third of the individuals in the survey account for nearly eighty percent of the reported CMC use, and another twenty percent indicate they do not use the medium at all, its availability notwithstanding. These preliminary findings suggest that CMC is not as pervasive a communication medium among aerospace workers as the researcher expect a priori. The reasons underlying the reported media use are not yet fully known, and this suggests that continuing research in this area may be valuable.

Murphy, Daniel J.↗

NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Paper 41: Technical communication practices of Dutch and US aerospace engineers and scientists: International perspective on aerospace

As part of Phase 4 of the NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project, studies were conducted that investigated the technical communications practices of Dutch and U.S. aerospace engineers and scientists. The studies had the following objectives: (1) to solicit the opinions of aerospace engineers and scientists regarding the importance of technical communication to their professions, (2) to determine the use and production of technical communication by aerospace engineers and scientists, (3) to investigate their use of libraries and technical information centers, (4) to investigate their use of and the importance to them of computer and information technology, (5) to examine their use of electronic networks, and (6) to determine their use of foreign and domestically produced technical reports. Self-administered (mail) questionnaires were distributed to Dutch aerospace engineers and scientists at the National Aerospace Laboratory (NLR) in the Netherlands, the NASA Ames Research Center in the U.S., and the NASA Langley Research Center in the U.S. Responses of the Dutch and U.S. participants to selected questions are presented in this paper.

Barclay, Rebecca O.↗

NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Paper 28: The technical communication practices of Russian and US aerospace engineers and scientists

As part of Phase 4 of the NASA/DoD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project, two studies were conducted that investigated the technical communication practices of Russian and U.S. aerospace engineers and scientists. Both studies had the same five objectives: first, to solicit the opinions of aerospace engineers and scientists regarding the importance of technical communication to their professions; second, to determine the use and production of technical communication by aerospace engineers and scientists; third, to seek their views about the appropriate content of the undergraduate course in technical communication; fourth, to determine aerospace engineers' and scientists' use of libraries, technical information centers, and on-line databases; and fifth, to determine the use and importance of computer and information technology to them. A self administered questionnaire was distributed to Russian aerospace engineers and scientists at the Central Aero-Hydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI) and to their U.S. counterparts at the NASA Ames Research Center and the NASA Langley Research Center. The completion rates for the Russian and U.S. surveys were 64 and 61 percent, respectively. Responses of the Russian and U.S. participants to selected questions are presented in this paper.

Pinelli, Thomas E.↗

NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Report 30: Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) and the communication of technical information in aerospace

This research used survey research to examine the use of communication media in general and electronic media specifically in the U.S. aerospace industry. The survey population included 1,006 randomly selected U.S. aerospace engineers and scientists who belong to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Survey data were compared with qualitative information obtained from 32 AIAA members in telephone and face-to-face conversations. The Information Processing (IP) model developed by Tushman and Nadler and Daft and Lengel constituted the study's theoretical basis. This research analyzed responses regarding communication methods of U.S. aerospace engineers and scientists who create use and disseminate aerospace knowledge and explored selected contextual environmental variables related to media use and effective performance. The results indicate that uncertainty is significantly reduced in environments when levels of analyzability are high. When uncertainty is high there is significantly more use of electronic media. However no relation was found between overall effectiveness and media use in environments stratified by levels by analyzability or equivocality. The results indicate modest support for the influences of uncertainty and analyzability on electronic media use. Although most respondents reported that electronic networks are important for their work the data suggest that there are sharply disparate levels of use.

Murphy, Daniel J.↗

NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Paper 16: A comparison of the technical communications practices of Russian and US aerospace engineers and scientists

As part of Phase 4 of the NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Project, two studies were conducted that investigated the technical communications practices of Russian and U.S. aerospace engineers and scientists. Both studies have the same five objectives: first, to solicit the opinions of aerospace engineers and scientists regarding the importance of technical communications to their profession; second, to determine the use and production of technical communications by aerospace engineers and scientists; third, to seek their views about the appropriate content of an undergraduate course in technical communications; fourth, to determine aerospace engineers' and scientists' use of libraries, technical information centers, and on-line data bases; and fifth, to determine the use and importance of computer and information technology to them. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to aerospace engineers and scientists at the Central Aero-Hydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI), NASA ARC, and NASA LaRC. The completion rates for the Russian and U.S. surveys were 64 and 61 percent, respectively. The responses of the Russian and U.S. participants, to selected questions, are presented in this report.

Thomas E Pinelli↗

NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Report 17: A comparison of the technical communication practices of Dutch and US aerospace engineers and scientists

As part of Phase 4 of the NASA/DoD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project, two studies were conducted that investigated the technical communications practices of Dutch and U.S. aerospace engineers and scientists. Both studies have the same seven objectives: first, to solicit the opinions of aerospace engineers and scientists regarding the importance of technical communications to their profession; second, to determine the use and production of technical communications by aerospace engineers and scientists; third, to seek their views about the appropriate content of an undergraduate course in technical communications; fourth, to determine aerospace engineers' and scientists' use of libraries, technical information centers, and on-line data bases; fifth, to determine the use and importance of computer and information technology to them; sixth, to determine their use of electronic networks; and seventh, to determine their use of foreign and domestically produced technical reports. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to aerospace engineers and scientists at the National Aerospace Laboratory (NLR), and NASA Ames Research Center, and the NASA Langley Research Center. The completion rates for the Dutch and U.S. surveys were 55 and 61 percent, respectively. Responses of the Dutch and U.S. participants to selected questions are presented.

Barclay, Rebecca O.↗

NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Report 29: A comparison of the technical communications practices of Japanese and US aerospace engineers and scientists

As part of Phase 4 of the NASA/DoD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project, two studies were conducted that investigated the technical communications practices of Japanese and U.S. aerospace engineers and scientists. Both studies have the same seven objectives: first, to solicit the opinions of aerospace engineers and scientists regarding the importance of technical communications to their profession; second, to determine the use and production of technical communications by aerospace engineers and scientists; third; to seek their views about the appropriate content of an undergraduate course in technical communications; fourth, to determine aerospace engineers' and scientists' use of libraries, technical information centers, and on-line data bases; fifth, to determine the use and importance of computer and information technology to them; sixth, to determine their use of electronic networks; and seventh, to determine their use of foreign and domestically produced technical reports. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to aerospace engineers and scientists in Japan and at the NASA Ames Research Center and the NASA Langley Research Center. The completion rates for the Japanese and U.S. surveys were 85 and 61 percent, respectively. Responses of the Japanese and U.S. participants to selected questions are presented in this report.

Pinelli, Thomas E.↗

NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Paper 60: Culture and Workplace Communications: A Comparison of the Technical Communications Practices of Japanese and US Aerospace Engineers and Scientists

The advent of global markets elevates the role and importance of culture as a mitigating factor in the diffusion of knowledge and technology and in product and process innovation. This is especially true in the Large Commercial Aircraft (LCA) sector where the production and market aspects are becoming increasingly international. As firms expand beyond their national borders, using such methods as risk- sharing partnerships, joint ventures, outsourcing, and alliances, they have to contend with national and corporate cultures. Our focus is on Japan, a 'program participant' in the production of the Boeing Company's 777; the influence of Japanese culture on the diffusion of knowledge and technology in aerospace at the national and international levels; those cultural determinants-the propensity to work together, a willingness to subsume individual interests to a greater good, and an emphasis on consensual decisionmaking-that have a direct bearing on the ability of Japanese firms to form alliances and compete in international markets; and those cultural determinants thought to influence the information- seeking behaviors and workplace communication practices of Japanese aerospace engineers and scientists. In this paper, we report selective results from a survey of Japanese and U.S. aerospace engineers and scientists that focused on workplace communications. Data are presented for the following topics: importance of and time spent communicating information, collaborative writing, need for an undergraduate course in technical communication, use of libraries, use and importance of electronic (computer) networks, and the use and importance of foreign and domestically produced technical reports.

Pinelli, Thomas E.↗

[NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Report 3:] Technical communications in aeronautics: Results of an exploratory study. An analysis of profit managers' and nonprofit managers' responses

Data collected from an exploratory study concerned with the technical communications practices of aerospace engineers and scientists were analyzed to test the primary assumption that profit and nonprofit managers in the aerospace community have different technical communications practices. Five assumptions were established for the analysis. Profit and nonprofit managers in the aerospace community were found to have different technical communications practices for one of the five assumptions tested. It was, therefore, concluded that profit and nonprofit managers in the aerospace community do not have different technical communications practices.

Pinelli, Thomas E.↗

[NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Report 2:] Technical communications in aeronautics: Results of an exploratory study. An analysis of managers' and nonmanagers' responses

Data collected from an exploratory study concerned with the technical communications practices of aerospace engineers and scientists were analyzed to test the primary assumption that aerospace managers and nonmanagers have different technical communications practices. Five assumptions were established for the analysis. Aerospace managers and nonmanagers were found to have different technical communications practices for three of the five assumptions tested. Although aerospace managers and nonmanagers were found to have different technical communications practices, the evidence was neither conclusive nor compelling that the presumption of difference in practices could be attributed to the duties performed by aerospace managers and nonmanagers.

Pinelli, Thomas E.↗

The Globalstar mobile satellite system for worldwide personal communications

Loral Aerospace Corporation along with Qualcomm Inc. have developed a satellite system which offers global mobile voice and data services to and from handheld and mobile user terminals with omni-directional antennas. By combining the use of low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites with existing terrestrial communications systems and innovative, highly efficient spread spectrum techniques, the Globalstar system provides users with low-cost, reliable communications throughout the world. The Globalstar space segment consists of a constellation of 48 LEO satellites in circular orbits with 750 NM (1389 km) altitude. Each satellite communicates with the mobile users via the satellite-user links and with gateway stations. The gateway stations handle the interface between the Globalstar network and the OSTN/PLMN systems. Globalstar transceivers are similar to currently proposed digital cellular telephones in size and have a serial number that will allow the end user to make and receive calls from or to that device anywhere in the world. The Globalstar system is designed to operate as a complement to existing local, long-distance, public, private and specialized telecommunications networks. Service is primarily designed to serve the rural and thin route communications needs of consumers, government users, and private networks.

Wiedeman, Robert A.↗