Our Meeting was called to order by President-Elect Margaret Reese

 

We began with an a cappella singing of “America the Beautiful” and “Smile”.

 

President-elect Margaret reminded the assembly that only four more days remained to make a donation to the annual food drive.

Rtn. Kelli Drowne noted that next week’s meeting would feature this year’s RYLA/World Affairs Seminar participants who will discuss their respective experiences through both programs.  She also solicited sponsor memberships ($500) which are needed to fund student participants’ costs. Please contact KD for details.

Rtn. Usha Balakrishnan invited members to this Saturday’s (8/13) CARTHA-singing and facility tour at 11am at Rotary Music Park in Monticello, IA. 

 

Rtn. Vern Folkmann invited members to join him in the Polio Society annual membership program.  Membership is available for $100 per person, and qualifies for 2X matching funding from the Gates Fdn.Rotary Minutes 8.11.22

 

Watch today's meeting here:  (Ooops!  Not today, sorry--technical glitch.)

 

Our Meeting was called to order by President-Elect Margaret Reese

 

We began with an a cappella singing of “America the Beautiful” and “Smile”.

 

President-elect Margaret reminded the assembly that only four more days remained to make a donation to the annual food drive.

Rtn. Kelli Drowne noted that next week’s meeting would feature this year’s RYLA/World Affairs Seminar participants who will discuss their respective experiences through both programs.  She also solicited sponsor memberships ($500) which are needed to fund student participants’ costs. Please contact KD for details.

Rtn. Usha Balakrishnan invited members to this Saturday’s (8/13) CARTHA-singing and facility tour at 11am at Rotary Music Park in Monticello, IA. 

Rtn. Vern Folkmann invited members to join him in the Polio Society annual membership program.  Membership is available for $100 per person, and qualifies for 2X matching funding from the Gates Fdn.

Rtn. Kelli Drowne completed a podium hat trick by introducing today’s speaker, Dan McGeehe. Dan is Director of the UofI’s National Driving Simulator.  Prof. McGeehe has earned an international reputation as leading researcher in the fields of vehicle automation and driver safety. 

 

Dan explained that the $80+ million Driver Simulator if the largest of its kind in the world (almost) and is focused on reducing the 1-million traffic accident deaths that occur worldwide each year.  The Simulator is made up of three life-size driving labs and functions as the central node of a global network of up to eighty smaller installations which share research designs and data and which can work together in real time to provide broader-based simulation of real world situations.

 

The Center focuses on seven broad areas to organize its research: To and fro control handoffs between human and machine operators, development of an automated driving system usable in rural areas, drowsy-driving, road safety for agricultural equipment, teen driving accident patterns, the effects of cannabis and other drugs on driver behavior and performance, and the longer term effects of COVID on driving.

 

Dan distinguished between automated driving assistance programs and tools and full-on automation.  The latter may someday become a reality, but current tools assist drivers rather than substituting for them.  Next generation tools and techniques will see this proposition flipped, with drivers assisting the systems.  At some point in the distant future, once policies can be developed and implemented to support the technology, the age of full automation can be reached.

 

 

Visiting Rotarians: Jasmine Sanasinh, IC PM Satellite.

 

Guests:  Russell Brooks (Clyde Seery); Matt Kuster (Kelli Drowne); Marc Abel (Verne Folkmann); Kim Bergen-Jackson (Ann Parker); Tom Davies (Ryno); and Brevin Buster (Shelly Maharry

 

Program: Devin van Holsteijn; Attendance: Nancy Droll