IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - March 2013 - 103

first issue in March 1994. Rosalyn Snyder contacted potential advertisers from
book publishers and robotics manufacturers and suppliers.
The last hurdle was getting the final
approval for the new magazine, which
was granted at the June 1993 meeting of
the IEEE Board of Directors. Work on
the first issue went into high gear to
meet the IEEE magazine Production
Department's deadline, which was no
easy task given that manuscripts were
still submitted by post or courier and
not everyone, even in the academic
community, had access to e-mail.
The First Issue of RAM
Finally, the March 1994 issue appeared
with a bright cover featuring a graphical
interface from Sandia National Laboratories that enabled operators to see and
review robotic programs before they
were implemented. The 48 pages
included three technical articles,
"PPA-A Precise Data-Driven Component Tool" by David C. Loose and James
C. Colson, "Robotica: Mathematical
Package for Robot Analysis" by Mark W.
Spong and John F. Netherly, and
"Review of the Robotica Software Package for Robotic Manipulators" by Dean
L. Schneider. John Canny and Ken
Goldberg contributed a "Research
Forum" column titled "A RISC
Approach to Robotics." In addition to
letters from Editor-in-Chief Leahy and
new RAS President Richard Klafter, columns included "Conference Reports,"
"Student Scene" (featuring a description
by Robert Michelson of the Aerial
Robotics Competition), a new product
review by Robert Kelley, Ph.D.
Abstracts, (Ole Jacob Sordalen and
Zhen-Lei Zhou), a report from the Society's seven technical committees, a profile of Jill Crisman, the first female RAS
AdCom member, and "Society News,"
reporting the results of the AdCom election and the RAS-members-elected
IEEE Fellow. The first issue also featured
three cover advertisements and several
inside advertisements. By the next issue,
there would be additional advertisements, with a waiting list for cover spots
to come open. Although the magazine
was not intended for publishing

scholarly papers, articles were cited by
others often enough to rank among the
top four or five robotics publications
listed in Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Reports.
Improvements in RAM
In 1998, another RPI graduate,
Kimon Valavanis from the University
of Southwestern Louisiana, took the
helm of RAM. His term saw steady
increases in the number and diversity
of submissions. He was followed in
2006 by Stefano Stramigioli, of the
University of Twente, The Netherlands, who streamlined the submission and review process by moving to
the Paper Plaza Web-based submission and review system. Stramigioli
also led a major overhaul of the RAS
Web site that had been originally
established in 2000. The new site featured a PHP-based interactive site,
which had many new features including online access to the RAS member
directory and the transactions and
magazine submission pages, direct
links to conference Web sites, Society
minutes, and reports.
In 2009, Stramigioli became the
RAS vice president elect for Member
Activities, and Peter Corke from
Australia's CSIRO, and later the
Queensland University of Technology,
became the fourth RAM editor-inchief. Corke, whose 1997 RAM article,
"A Robotics Toolbox for MATLAB,"
continues to be among the magazine's
most frequently downloaded features.
He oversaw a redesign of the magazine
layout that included photographic
front covers and digital delivery, introduced many new columns, and has
established a close working relationship with some of IEEE Spectrum's
writers. See pages 104-108 for pictures
of all the covers from 1994-2012.
After Rosalyn Snyder retired in
2012, Rachel O. Warnick took on the
role of editorial assistant for the magazine, and RAM is still going strong
with more to come.
More About the Past Editors
Michael Leahy is currently the chief
architect for Northrop Grumman

Aerospace Systems Advanced Programs and Technology Division. He
is responsible for establishing the
architectural framework standard to
ensure a consistent and competitive
level of design, development, and
transition for each capability. Prior to
joining Northrop Grumman, he had
a distinguished 27-year career with
the U.S. Air Force and made significant contributions to the advancement of aerospace technology and
advanced systems before retiring as a
colonel in 2007. He has received
numerous honors, including the
AIAA 2010 Hap Arnold Award and
the Association of Unmanned Vehicles 2000 International Pioneer
Award.
Kimon Valavanis is currently a professor and chair of the Electrical and
Computer Engineering Department
at the University of Denver and is
also a guest professor at the University of Zagreb, Croatia. His other
positions have included the University of South Florida (2003-2008),
the Technical University of Crete
(1999-2003), where he was a professor and director of the Laboratory of
Intelligent Systems and Robotics,
University of Southwestern Louisiana
(1991-1999), where he held the
A-CIM/[TC]2/Regents Professorship
in Manufacturing, and the director of
the Robotics Laboratory at Northeastern University (1987-1990). He
has published over 300 book chapters, technical journal papers, and
refereed conference papers and has
coauthored several books. He is currently editor in chief of the Journal of
Intelligent and Robotic Systems.
Stefano Stramigioli is an associate
professor at the Drebbel Institute of
Mechatronics of the University of
Twente, The Netherlands. His main
interests lie in the geometrical
approach to physical systems and
control and in particular robotics.
He is the author of Modeling and
IPC Control of Interactive Mechanical Systems, Springer 2001, and
coordinator of the European-sponsored project GeoPlex (http://www.
geoplex.cc).

March 2013

IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

103

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