Huntsville Association of Technical Societies (HATS)

HATS held their 19th Annual HATS Professional of the Year Celebration on Thursday, October 3, 2024, in the Speakeasy at Straight to Ale, 2610 Clinton Avenue West, Huntsville, Alabama. This event provided member societies with the opportunity to recognize their “best of the best” technical professionals for their contributions to their respective organizations and the community. This was HATS first in-person event since the pandemic forced us to use virtual events, so HATS hosted the awards celebration in a more informal environment and format than in previous years. Mike Feltman hosted the ceremony, and Jessie Widner provided musical entertainment. Other presenters included Bill Roark (YPOY), Allison Rhen (SOY), and Debbie Batson (POY). Photo Captions Allison Rhen with POY nominees Dr. Kurt A. Polzin, Dr. Fola Michael Ayokanmbi, and Craig Seabrook YPOY Nominees Sarah Smith, Jaden Flint, and Mallorie Edwards with Allison Rhen SOY Nominees: NDIA-SMDWG, HASBAT, WID-TVC, and AFCEA Huntsville Chapter Moquin (POY) Award winner Dr. Kurt A. Polzin with Debbie Batson and Mike Feltman Roark (YPOY) Award winner Mallorie Edwards with Bill Roark and Mike Feltman SOY Award Winners, AFCEA Huntsville Chapter, with Allison Rhen

Our Science and Technology Education and TRAINing (STEDTRAIN) Committee is accepting proposals for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Seed Grant programs to be executed in K-12 schools in Jackson, Madison, Marshall, Morgan, and Limestone Counties in Alabama and Lincoln County in Tennessee during the 2024-25 school year. Since the STEDTRAIN program's founding in 1988, we have awarded 620 STEM Seed Grants totaling more than $673,336. We award Seed Grants for innovative, hands-on projects that stimulate the student’s interest in science and technology. The standard Type I Seed Grant ranges from $200 to $1000. The enhanced Type II Seed Grant requires additional information from the teacher and ranges from $1500 to $2500. The two grant types cannot be combined to make a $3500 Seed Grant. Proposals must involve hands-on activities by the students, and can be either in-class or extracurricular in nature. Seed Grant Proposals must be submitted through the STEDTRAIN website. The deadline for submission is midnight, April 1, 2023. The school principal must approve the Seed Grant proposal by midnight, April 3, 2023. We will not accept late submissions and approvals. We expect to announce Seed Grant awards on or about August 5, 2023. Please check our website for other important dates and information about submitting a proposal. To make submitting a proposal easier for returning teachers, our online system now allows you to use a previously submitted Seed Grant proposal as the basis for a new proposal. This includes proposals that were not selected for funding in previous years. We respectfully and earnestly request that you announce this opportunity to everyone and encourage teachers, students, and parents to prepare proposals jointly for the award of a grant. We look forward to numerous innovative proposals, and we thank you for your attention, cooperation, and commitment to supporting the engineers and scientists of tomorrow. For more information and to submit a proposal, please visit our website at: https://stedtrain.org/rfp Col Michael (Mike) F. Baran (retired), Ph.D., Chair Mr. Paul Agarwal, Vice Chair HATS STEDTRAIN