5-9-2013 meeting of the Rotary Club of Chickasha

The May 9, 2013 meeting of the Rotary Club of Chickasha opened with a prayer, pledge and rousing rendition of the Air Force song.

President-elect Greg Elliott filled in for an absent President Cody White.

Guests included Ann Fairburn and Kyle Abrams.

Prayer concerns include Karen Zeisest, whose mother passed this week.

Kory Kirkland said all hands are needed at the May 18 Rotary Run. A volunteer list is being passed around. Kory also said Run T-Shirts have arrived. If you didn't request a size, you will have to fit into an XS.

Greg asked for help in getting names of high school students to be nominated to attend RYLA camp this coming summer.

He also read and displayed the certificate the club received at the recent district convention in Norman for "Outstanding Achievement for Membership Development." The club had the largest percentage growth among larger clubs.

Mayor Hank Ross was the Rotarian of the Day. He introduced former USAO professor and scientist Dr. John Johnson as our guest speaker.

Dr. Johnson, who is director of Creative Cluster at Oklahoma City University, spoke to the club several years ago about an autonomous robotic vehicle project he directed while at USAO.

Johnson also was one of the engineers that helped design he payload doors for the space shuttle program and helped develop the Air Force's  Target Recognition System.

He and a team of four scientists are currently working on on software that will accurately read surveillance digital images for the Air Force.

There was a lot he couldn't talk about because he'd have to kill us.

The new software must have a minimum accuracy percentage of 90 percent.

Challenge he faces include images are made up of pixels, images are not necessarily focused and often taken in adverse conditions.

He said the current rate of accuracy is 87-90 percent but false positive readings of 85-180 percent, which he said is not acceptable.

But, Dr. Johnson said he is confident the research will prove successful and be used by the Air Force and will be wanted for a hefty price by other agencies.

The meeting adjourned after recitation of the Rotary 4-Way Test.