What do people think about renaming the Computer Systems Workgroup to something like Avionics and Computer Systems Workgroup, or even just Avionics Workgroup? Electronics and Computer Systems Workgroup? Or, if not renaming the workgroup, at the very least changing the descriptions of the CWS around the place to make it clearly the place for general avionics concerns?
I have been thinking about this lately and there are many interesting and challenging design problems in the overall avionics system that are not strictly related to computer hardware, operating systems, networking etc., which are the things that CSW currently purports to be about. Currently a person could probably be legitimately confused as to whether things like deciding the flow of information and control between various subsystems belongs in Spacecraft Engineering or Computer Systems.
My intuitiion about Spacecraft Engineering has always been that it is about very physical, hardware related stuff – making sure the craft can endure certain forces and temperatures, provide adequate radiation shielding, are aerodynamically stable, etc. Stuff which is more conceptual and softwarey should belong somewhere else and this seems like the obvious place to do it.