Aerospace Engineering

BS in Aerospace Engineering

Concentration in Aerospace Engineering

Department of Mechanical Engineering

For students who matriculated prior to January 2009, the BS in Aerospace Engineering focuses on the technologies and sciences involved in transportation systems, including flight through the atmosphere and space as well as transport across the ocean and over the ground. Engineers trained in this discipline have potential employment opportunities in the aircraft industry, the commercial and governmental use of spacecraft, the turbomachinery industry, the automotive and ship-building industries, and a multitude of other industries that make use of fluid flows and moving structures. The program prepares students to work in these diverse areas by providing a strong foundation in aerodynamics, aerospace materials, structures, propulsion, flight mechanics, and stability and control.

The Aerospace Program is one of three undergraduate programs offered by the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The program prepares students for technically sophisticated careers in a wide range of aerospace engineering fields, including aerodynamics, aeronautics, propulsion, aerospace structures, and astronautics, in both industry and government organizations.

The program strives to develop in students skills for lifelong learning and encourages multidisciplinary research in selected focus areas. Our graduates are successful in their professional lives and capable of becoming leaders in tomorrow’s world.

Students who matriculate after September 2009 can pursue Aerospace Engineering as a concentration added to a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering. These students will receive the best of both worlds: an accredited degree in one of the broadest and most marketable disciplines in engineering combined with specialized training in aerospace engineering.

Students completing the undergraduate program in aerospace engineering will have developed competence or acquired knowledge in a variety of areas, including science and mathematics, current software tools, communication skills, modeling and formulation of engineering problems, design, professional ethics and business practices, aerospace and aeronautic systems, laboratory experimentation, and computer usage.

Curriculum

The aerospace engineering curriculum is closely related to the mechanical engineering curriculum, with additional emphasis on fluid dynamics, propulsion, and autonomous control. Students begin aerospace courses in their sophomore year with introductory courses in aircraft and spacecraft performance. During the sophomore and junior years, students take two first-level courses in the fluid and thermal sciences, an advanced-level course in aerodynamics, and four first-level courses concentrating on structures and mechanics. In the senior year, students take advanced courses in compressible flow and propulsion, and flight mechanics. They also choose two upper division technical electives.

The curriculum allows students to gain design experience starting in their sophomore year, during which one engineering science course per semester requires a design project. In the junior year, the design expectations increase, and students take two special courses that introduce them to formal design methodologies, the use of CAD systems, and the professional aspects of engineering, including safety considerations and professional ethics. The design experience continues in the context of aerospace engineering, with required design projects in both structures- and mechanics-related courses as well as within the senior instrumentation course; it culminates in the two-semester senior design course, ENG ME 409/410 Flight Vehicle Design, in which students work in small groups to design an aerospace vehicle. As part of the design experience, communication is emphasized in the form of several written and oral reports.

Students in the Aerospace Engineering Program also gain experience in laboratory experimentation from experiments associated with all of the natural science courses (in the freshman and sophomore years) and with many engineering science courses (in the sophomore and junior years). Laboratory experience culminates in the senior year, with an intensive mechanical measurements and instrumentation course.

Aerospace engineering students begin working with computers in the freshman introductory computer course. Computer usage is then mandated throughout the curriculum, being required for some homework, projects, and laboratories in most engineering courses. Students gain experience programming in MATLAB; using commercial software packages for CAD, aerodynamics analysis, spreadsheet analysis, finite element analysis, and technical computing in general; and using menu- and graphical-interface-driven laboratory systems for data acquisition, data analysis, and instrument control.

A total of 136 credits is required for graduation.

Required Courses

Freshman

First Semester (16 credits)

• CAS CH 131 Principles of General Chemistry 4 cr
• CAS MA 123 Calculus I 4 cr
• CAS WR 100 Writing Seminar 4 cr
• ENG EK 100 Freshman Advising Seminar
• ENG EK 127 Engineering Computation 4 cr

Second Semester (16 credits)

• CAS MA 124 Calculus II 4 cr
• CAS PY 211 Physics I 4 cr
• CAS WR 150 Writing and Research Seminar 4 cr
• ENG EK 130/131/132 Introduction to Engineering 4 cr

Sophomore

First Semester (18 credits)

• CAS MA 225 Multivariate Calculus 4 cr
• CAS PY 212 Physics II 4 cr
• ENG ME 201 Introduction to Aircraft Performance 2 cr
• ENG EK 301 Engineering Mechanics I 4 cr
• Social science/humanities requirement 4 cr

Second Semester (18 credits)

• CAS MA 226 Differential Equations 4 cr
• ENG ME 202 Introduction to Spacecraft Performance 2 cr
• ENG EK 307 Electric Circuit Theory 4 cr
• Social science/humanities requirement 4 cr
• Natural science elective 4 cr

Junior

First Semester (18 credits)

• ENG ME 311 Engineering Design Using CAD 2 cr
• ENG ME 400 Engineering Mathematics 4 cr
• ENG ME 303 Fluid Mechanics 4 cr
• ENG ME 305 Mechanics of Materials 4 cr
• Social science/humanities requirement 4 cr

Second Semester (18 credits)

• ENG ME 307 Flight Structures 4 cr
• ENG ME 312 Fundamentals of Engineering Design 2 cr
• ENG ME 421 Aerodynamics 4 cr
• ENG ME 302 Engineering Mechanics II 4 cr
• ENG ME 304 Energy and Thermodynamics 4 cr

Senior

First Semester (16 credits)

• ENG ME 409 Flight Vehicle Design I 4 cr
• ENG ME 403 Atmospheric Flight Mechanics 4 cr
• ENG ME 425 Compressible Flow and Propulsion 4 cr
• Technical elective 4 cr

Second Semester (16 credits)

• ENG ME 310 Instrumentation and Theory of Experiments 4 cr
• ENG ME 410 Flight Vehicle Design II 4 cr
• General education elective 4 cr
• Technical elective 4 cr

Related Courses

Technical Elective

This elective is intended to provide additional depth or breadth in either aerospace engineering science or another advanced-level technical or professional subject. Students must select two courses that are on the list of acceptable courses found on the student’s program planning sheet.