2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

On the Fly: The Development of a Hands-On, Projects-Based Aerospace Engineering Major at West Point

Presented at Aerospace Division (AERO) Technical Session 1 - Experiential Learning

West Point has included limited aeronautical sciences in its curriculum since 1918, graduating leaders who would play foundational roles in both the Army Air Corps (later US Air Force) and NASA. Today, the increasing integration of air, space, and ground domains has given West Point the impetus to expand its aerospace engineering curriculum. The faculty at West Point are currently in the process of developing the Academy’s first Aerospace Engineering major and find themselves in a unique position of building it “on the fly.” To create a major from inception while simultaneously enrolling the first graduating class into the program, they must develop and gain approval for each subsequent year’s curriculum only a year ahead of the students taking the courses. This paper will be the first in a series documenting and exploring the development of the new Aerospace Engineering major at West Point over the next four years. It will provide a brief history of aerospace engineering at West Point and summarize the current program within the Mechanical Engineering major. It will define the current 47-month core cadet experience and highlight its unique constraints on the available credit hours for the aerospace engineering curriculum. It will discuss how and why the faculty converged on the final Aerospace Engineering Curriculum informed by benchmarking against peer institutions. It will explore how the fledgling department will leverage both new aerospace engineering courses and existing mechanical engineering courses for curriculum and faculty optimization. The desired end state is a program that both satisfies ABET Accreditation requirements and maximizes high-quality instruction, with projects-based, hands-on learning leveraging flight laboratories in the department’s aircraft, a new wind tunnel (under construction), summer internships with DoD and industry partners, and culminating in a sponsored capstone design project.

Authors

Col. Steven Chene Chetcuti United States Military Academy [biography]

COL Steven C. Chetcuti is an Assistant Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He has taught undergraduate courses in statics, mechanics of materials, thermal-fluid systems, and aerodynamics.
Brodie Hoyer United States Military Academy [biography]

Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Hoyer was commissioned as an Engineer Officer from the U.S. Military Academy in 2003, where he majored in Mechanical Engineering. Since graduation, LTC Hoyer has served in operational assignments at Fort Bragg, Fort Drum, and most recently as the Executive Officer for the 2nd Brigade Engineer Battalion at Fort Bliss, Texas. LTC Hoyer earned a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University in 2013 and recently completed a PhD from the University of Colorado at Boulder. LTC Hoyer previously served as an Instructor and Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering from 2013-2016 and has had the opportunity to teach classes in a variety of subjects including Design, Manufacturing, Dynamics, and Mechanics.
Col. Aaron T Hill Jr. P.E. http://orcid.org/https://0000-0002-2441-4094 United States Military Academy [biography]

Colonel Aaron Hill is the Deputy Department Head and Professor U.S. Military Academy in the Department of Civil & Mechanical Engineering, responsible for teaching, scholarship, and leadership at the Academy and Department levels. He was commissioned as an Engineer Officer from the U.S. Military Academy in 1997, where he majored in Civil Engineering. He has served in a variety of assignments around the world, including Afghanistan, the Sinai Peninsula, Bosnia, and Croatia. COL Hill served in the department from 2006-2009 and from 2016 to the present. Along the way, he earned Master’s degrees in Engineering Management (Missouri S&T) and Civil Engineering (Virginia Tech) and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering (The University of Texas at Austin). He has taught several courses in the civil engineering curriculum ranging from structural engineering and steel design to infrastructure systems and construction management. Each spring, he co-teaches Project Management Professional prep classes to the Department of Defense community. His research interests include topics in structural engineering and engineering education. He serves as the Chair of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Committee on Education Chair and the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) Partners in Education Committee Vice Chair. Additionally, he serves as the Head Officer Representative for Men’s Basketball. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in Virginia and a Project Management Professional.
Drew Alan Curriston

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