2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Aerospace engineering has seen a resurgence in popularity in recent years, with major advancements being made across a broad spectrum of space exploration and technology. This interest spans various age groups and professions, from school students participating in science fairs to professionals in the aerospace industry. NASA’s efforts in returning to the moon and in visiting Mars have redoubled the interest in our youth for learning about rocketry, satellites, and related aerospace technologies. Likewise, the success of private space companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin has also sparked a renewed interest in this field.

Due to strong and consistent student demand for aerospace education opportunities, UNIVERSITY has initiated a new Aerospace Engineering bachelor’s degree program, effective fall semester 2023. Even in its infancy, this program has already been well received by prospective students, current students, and faculty. There are only about 80 aerospace engineering programs across the country at this time. The popularity of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), and the international interest in US aerospace programs focusing on lunar habitation and Mars exploration have caused a strong resurgence in aerospace programs. UNIVERSITY is well positioned to take advantage of this movement, with only a very small investment needed to create a major academic program and opportunities.

Unfortunately, most colleges often do not possess an organic aerospace engineering program or other formal means of implementing interdisciplinary engineering at the program level. UNIVERSITY, like many other small schools, initially lacked the resources to offer an aerospace engineering degree, and instead needed to thoughtfully and incrementally build such a program over a period of time utilizing the basic building blocks at its disposal.

With the goal of eventually providing an aerospace engineering degree, UNIVERSITY first sought student input to develop a series of courses and capstone/research experiences at the graduate and undergraduate level that provided an aerospace flavor to their education and distinguished them as such in their transcripts. Building upon that, UNIVERSITY then introduced an aerospace engineering minor, consisting exclusively of the courses that had been constructed to that point. To satisfy graduate student interest in achieving a similar level of aerospace experience in their education, UNIVERSITY introduced aerospace engineering certificate programs.

Alongside the academic programs, interested students actively sought senior capstone courses with aerospace interdisciplinary projects available, as well as (in many cases, follow-on) graduate student research projects. In addition, students also enthusiastically joined aerospace related clubs and worked on efforts such as NASA’s cubesat program and AIAA UAS competitions. As student interest continued to peak, their call for an aerospace engineering degree was eventually heard and approved.

UNIVERSITY’S aerospace engineering degree offers several tracks responsive to student desires. These include a track with traditional aeronautical engineering focus (aircraft design and performance), a track focusing on astronautical/space systems engineering (satellites, rockets, communication and guidance systems), and a track emphasizing UAS design and operations. The program also can be tailored toward other aerospace-related interests and goals.

This paper is intended to serve as motivation in providing aerospace experiences by faculty and institutions with limited resources. It will detail UNIVERSITY’s new aerospace program elements and opportunities, how it was purposely grown in response to student desires and to provide increased academic and research opportunities within limited personnel/resources, how existing academic courses and design team opportunities were leveraged to satisfy student interests, and how this program satisfies UNIVERSITY, STATE, and federal needs in developing a vibrant and sustainable STATE aerospace ecosystem supporting arctic research, industry, and national defense. The paper is authored by UNIVERSITY’s faculty lead for developing the aerospace engineering program and contains insights and motivations of students who have been a part of this program, past and present.