CASE STUDY:

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) has over 30,000 members worldwide and is dedicated to shaping the future of aerospace. Their purpose is to ignite and celebrate aerospace ingenuity and collaboration and its importance to our way of life.

The Problem

With the rise of COVID-19 in early 2020, AIAA wanted to understand and monitor the global pandemic to the greatest extent possible to make sure that they continued to deliver value to members of all levels and in all locations. AIAA needed to understand how the virus was affecting both their members’ health and employment to determine whether any organizational responses might be appropriate, such as adjustments to certain membership renewal models. 

The Solution

The goals of AIAA’s project with Nucleus were to determine the impact of COVID-19 on all categories of membership in all locations and determine whether assistance in forms such as membership extensions might need to be offered to those residing in severely impacted countries or regions. AIAA used Nucleus to compile COVID-19 data based on demographics such as location or age with data that they had about their own members to project which demographics are most at risk and which might need a three-month extension on their membership in order to retain it.

Pathway to success

Danielle Deane – Membership Manager, AIAA provides an overview of the data analytics challenge and solution:

AIAA leadership asked for rapid delivery of COVID-19 and membership data to make informed decisions about membership, future events, and potential new services offerings. The Nucleus team quickly created a feed of per capita infection rates (automatically updated daily), aligned against the number of AIAA members in each locality. There was also a requested predictive component. The predictive aspect was based on an algorithm that factors in daily reporting and testing data, updated in near-real time to maximize accuracy and provide AIAA leadership with the best possible information.

It became an important input into the AIAA COVID action plan to help members financially by extending memberships or discounting services. It will help with planning virtual conferences and meetings to keep people safe and at home.

Projected Positive Cases among AIAA Membership, All Types

The data includes positive cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in the different locations of interest to keep a wide lens on the pandemic as a whole, including how members families might be affected.

The overall conclusion was that although the aerospace industry is struggling, AIAA members are largely able to work from home, lessening the impact of COVID-19 on AIAA members – much to the relief of all. The action chosen by AIAA was to reach out to members in the areas identified as hardest hit and initiate a dialogue.

Life with Nucleus

AIAA leadership continues to monitor key indicators and is able to look back on the first half of 2020 knowing that they were proactive in understanding the needs of all different member levels in all different locations and making sure their membership renewal protocols continued to be aligned and appropriate.

The rapidity and ease of this initiative and its demonstration of the power of analytics also lays the groundwork for additional data-driven decision making in the future.