From the editor-in-chief FEBRUARY 2013

The Aerospace and Electronics Systems Society (AESS) magazine has a broad audience and we continually strive to bring you innovative topics that will peak your interest and keep you coming back for more. From an evaluation tool for the assessment of air traffic control systems which could impact our everyday travel plans, to a platform associated with speech recognition for personal hand held devices, to various challenges that must be overcome for the development of a radio astronomy facility that is being targeted for use in 2020, we have the gamut covered for diverse topics. In addition we have an excellent summary of our 3rd AESS Chapter Summit and an insightful book review for those of you interested in delving further into Computer Vision. I would also like to draw your attention to our call for papers for a future Special Issue of the magazine on Wide Area and Staring Synthetic Aperture Radar. Finally, the idea that David Crouse, a recent PhD graduate, chose sky diving to demonstrate his dedication to technology has inspired me to give it a try one day... maybe. Perhaps it will inspire you too, but either way, be sure to check out his photo! I hope you agree with me, this issue definitely does not lack variety.