ASME NEWS
Society Addresses AI, Famed Inventor Discusses New Venture
A roundup of recent events.
ASME POSITION STATEMENT ON THE USE OF AI
ASME Executive Director/CEO Thomas Costabile recently released the Society’s AI Position Statement on the development of external content. “These documents establish requirements and expectations for accountability and disclosure of the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and technologies by ASME constituents,” he said in a statement published in March on ASME.org.
“AI presents exciting opportunities for us to unlock growth for ASME, therefore it is critical that you take the time and ensure your understanding of ASME’s position on the use of AI,” Costabile explained. Included in this statement is the important note ASME intends to convert the Position Statement for the use of AI for External Content into a full ASME Policy in the near future.
ASME staff have already started to set up presentations with volunteer sectors to introduce the position statement and describe the policy roadmap. Additional instruction is also planned for business units and individuals who have responsibility for providing guidance to volunteers and other constituents surrounding ASME policies.
At the end of last year the 118th Congress released the "Bipartisan House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence" that outlined guiding principles, forward-looking recommendations, and policy proposals to “ensure America continues to lead the world in responsible AI innovation.”
You can find ASME’s Condensed AI Position Statement here. And find ASME’s Full AI Position Statement here. Please direct all questions on Policy Content to the AI Review Committee at aipolicy@asme.org.
JOHNSON JOINS COSTABILE ON UNCONVENTIONAL ENGINEERING
Lonnie Johnson, an inventor with over 100 patents—most notably, the Super Soaker water toy—recently joined ASME Executive Director/CEO Thomas Costabile and STEM Ambassador Jay Flores, on an episode of ASME's Unconventional Engineering.
Guests from across the world of mechanical engineering join the podcast and offer interesting and unconventional ways to use skills to solve real world problems and advance engineering for the benefit of humanity.
On this episode, Johnson, president and founder of Johnson Research and Development and its affiliates Johnson Energy Storage and JTEC Energy, discussed his life’s work that included time spent working at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and NASA and stints with the U.S. Air Force.
During the podcast, Johnson explained his current work and described his latest innovation, which has the potential to efficiently scavenge common heat sources to produce electricity.
The solid-state device, the Johnson Thermal Electrochemical Converter, uses an efficient process involving hydrogen as a working fluid. “My motivation for developing the tech was to get away from fossil fuels and things that were destroying the environment,” Johnson said in “Super Soaker Inventor Lonnie Johnson Takes on Green Energy With JTEC.”
Lonnie Johnson holding a Super Soaker and its U.S. patent while sitting on the grass outside his home, June 1992. Photo: Lonnie Johnson
TSAI EARNS PRESTIGIOUS AWARDS
Stephen W. Tsai has been awarded the Spirit of St. Louis Award and the Daniel Guggenheim Medal for his series of pioneering innovations revolutionizing design and simplifying manufacturing processes of composites. The research professor emeritus at Stanford University is set to receive the award at the ASME Aerospace Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference and the medal at the AIAA Awards Gala.
ASME awards the Spirit of St. Louis Medal for meritorious service in the advancement of aeronautics and astronautics. The Daniel Guggenheim Medal honors innovators who make notable achievements in the advancement of aeronautics. Past recipients of both are some of the greatest names in aerospace, including Holt Ashley, James Doolittle, and Charles Stark Draper.
“Steve Tsai is a visionary scientist and advocate for innovation through his practical and easy to interpret problem solving approach,” said Ajit Roy, principal materials research engineer at the Air Force Research Laboratory. Born and raised in Beijing, Tsai earned a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Yale University in 1961. He began his work in composites at Ford/Aeronutronic, continued onto Washington University in 1966, the Air Force Materials Laboratory in 1968, and has been with Stanford University since 1990.
Since his retirement, his work led to single parameters for laminate stiffness in Tsai’s modulus, and von Mises area in laminate failure envelopes. Materials and laminates can then be ranked and scaled. He also discovered double-double lamination that is rapidly replacing the legacy Quad. Tsai is the founding editor of the Journal of Composite Materials and he co-authored the textbook, Introduction to Composite Materials.
© 2025 The American Society of Mechanical Engineers. All rights reserved.