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Aerospace Engineering – Design Across the Curriculum C. D. Hall, N. Hovakimyan, W. H. Mason, and M. Patil Project Description Undergraduate Aerospace Engineering (AE) curricula are continually evolving, frequently in response to perceived changes in the industry’s needs. However, most AE curricula continue to reflect the well-established paradigm of first establishing a foundation of engineering science skills, and only then introducing the professional skills required of practicing aerospace engineers. This finishing typically takes place in the senior year capstone design course, where students work in teams to design aerospace vehicles. This course covers many of the most important skills our graduates require, such as communications, multidisciplinary interactions, critical thinking, and teamwork. Many universities, including Virginia Tech, now incorporate many of these topics into the freshman year through a common first-year curriculum. However, the sophomore and junior years remain focused on the engineering science elements of the curriculum and most students are not involved in any project-oriented education during these two years. The goal of this program is to prepare a detailed plan to distribute the introduction of these project-oriented concepts throughout the curriculum by incorporating team design projects in every year of the undergraduate curriculum. The plan will include a specific assessment plan intended to determine the effectiveness of the implementation. The Current AE Curriculum At present the AE curriculum is a 136-credit four-year program including a common engineering freshman program administered by the Department of Engineering Education. Students declare their AE major in the Spring semester of the freshman year, and begin the AE curriculum in the Fall semester of the sophomore year. The specific courses in the curriculum are shown in Fig. 1, excluding the elective courses. In the figure, each vertical column denotes one semester, beginning with Fall semester of the sophomore year. The horizontal groupings are organized as follows: the top group includes general courses, culminating in the senior capstone design course; the second group includes all the engineering science courses in the fluids area; the third group includes the courses in the structures area; and the fourth group includes the courses in the dynamics and control area. This figure illustrates the courses taken by AE students intending to complete an aircraft capstone design project; a slightly different track is followed by students intending to complete a spacecraft capstone design project. Reference 6 describes the aircraft design program in detail, and Ref. 4 describes the spacecraft design program. During the freshman year, students complete at least one significant team project each semester. In the second semester, some students are permitted to participate in an AE senior design project in lieu of the usual project with their classmates. There are typically about 10-15 freshmen participating in the 6-10 senior design projects along with the approximately 90 seniors. We have observed that approximately 50% of these freshmen

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are women, whereas the female enrollment is significantly less than 50%. Furthermore, these students typically maintain a high level of interest in extracurricular activities throughout their undergraduate program. For example, they might participate in projects such as the Aircraft Design-Build-Fly competition, for which no course credit is received. When these students become seniors, they are frequently the leaders of their respective design teams. This integration of freshmen into senior design teams is usually the only vertical integration that occurs. Sophomores and juniors do not usually participate in senior design teams. However, there is some horizontal integration in AE senior design, through the admission of seniors from the Industrial, Mechanical, and Systems Engineering curricula into the AE capstone design course. This horizontal integration is relatively easy to achieve, as these programs also include a capstone design course. Integration of Electrical and Computer Engineering students into these projects is more difficult, as these programs do not include capstone design projects. However, we have had some success with EE students participating for technical elective credit. Details of our experience with these integrated design teams are provided in Ref. 6.

Figure 1. Virginia Tech Sophomore – Senior AE Curriculum. C=Control & Dynamics, F=Fluids, G=General/Design, S=Structures. Arrows denote prerequisites.

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The AE capstone design course has evolved into a catch-all for the non-engineering science topics expected of graduating aerospace engineers. The relevant material has been enumerated in several sources, including ABET1, The Boeing Company2, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s CDIO initiative3. The Boeing Company’s list is illustrative, and is reproduced here in Table 1. Table 1. Desired Attributes of an Engineer2

• A good understanding of engineering science fundamentals. o Mathematics (including statistics) o Physical and life sciences o Information technology (far more than "computer literacy")

• A good understanding of design and manufacturing processes. o (i.e., understands engineering)

• A multi-disciplinary, systems perspective. • A basic understanding of the context in which engineering is practiced.

o Economics (including business practices) o History o The environment o Customer and societal needs

• Good communication skills. o Written, oral, graphic and listening

• High ethical standards. • An ability to think both critically and creatively - independently and

cooperatively. • Flexibility. The ability and self-confidence to adapt to rapid or major

change. • Curiosity and a desire to learn for life. • A profound understanding of the importance of teamwork.

The engineering science elements of the curriculum address the first set of attributes, and to some degree other attributes are addressed, at least informally, in these courses. However, only the freshman year and the capstone design course are specifically designed to engage students in these areas. As one example of how we incorporate industry-standard practice into the senior design courses is illustrated in Fig. 2. This diagram depicts the matrix organization used in many aerospace engineering companies, and is used in the Spacecraft Design course. At the beginning of the senior year, students are “hired” into our company, and are assigned to one of the four Functional Divisions shown in the figure. These functional divisions spend several weeks working as teams to establish the basic skills required to design spacecraft. Later in the semester, Design Teams are established, drawing on the Functional Divisions for the required expertise for the specific spacecraft design projects. Students gain experience in the Functional Divisions relevant to the specific disciplines, and gain multidisciplinary experience in the Design Teams.

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Figure 2. Matrix Organization for Spacecraft Design Teams Successful Elements of the Current Curriculum The advantages of the current curriculum are numerous. One important benefit is that students master appropriate engineering sciences, which is especially important for preparing students for graduate studies. Another successful component is the vertical and horizontal integration of freshmen and other engineering seniors into these design projects. We specifically note that the vertical integration of freshmen has been effective at introducing women engineering students to the aerospace engineering field. Finally, we want to point out that our senior design program has been successful in many ways: students have won national and international design competitions; design projects have led to funded research programs; design projects have led to implementation of specific aerospace vehicles. For example, a 2002-2003 design project led to the construction of a high-altitude sounding rocket payload, which was expected to launch from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on March 14, 2005. Reference 8 provides further examples of joint Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering design projects, illustrating the importance and impact to students of actually having to build and fly an airplane. We do not intend to diminish the role of engineering science in the curriculum, but rather to enhance other elements, especially vertical and horizontal integration, and the realization of selected designs of aerospace vehicles.

Dynamics and Control

Team 1 Team 2 Team 3

Communications and C&DH

Power, Thermal, & Environment

Structures & Launch Vehicle

Team 4

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Towards A Studio Approach to Undergraduate Aerospace Engineering Education In Colleges of Architecture at Virginia Tech and elsewhere, a studio approach to teaching design is standard. Students begin working in a studio environment as freshmen, and continue through graduate school. Studio approaches have been developed for engineering curricula as well; Ref. 12 describes a successful studio approach for large-scale design projects. The Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate (CDIO3) approach developed at MIT includes studio elements. An extreme restructuring of the AE curriculum might implement an architecture-like approach; however, the immediate requirement for sufficient workspace is likely to be a significant obstacle. Our goal, then, is to begin with this extreme restructuring concept and to determine what modifications and what resources are required for implementation here at Virginia Tech. Two important objectives are that 1) there is a significant team-based design project in each year of the curriculum; and 2) there are more opportunities for freshmen to participate in AE-specific design projects. Furthermore, we intend to expand vertically integrated projects so that teams are comprised of students from all four levels, and to expand as much as possible the horizontal integration to include other majors within these projects. There is currently a proposal within the College of Engineering to implement College-wide senior design projects in lieu of the current curriculum-specific projects. Successful implementation of this internal proposal will significantly enhance our ability to achieve horizontal integration in all projects. The department has in place an extensive assessment program designed both to satisfy ABET requirements and to assist in our curriculum revision efforts. We intend to use the currently available assessment results in planning for this restructuring, and we will develop new assessment instruments to help us characterize the effectiveness of the revised curriculum. Project Schedule The proposal team is in place and has begun the review of the literature necessary to plan the new curriculum. We will commit approximately half of the summer to this project and will continue our efforts during the academic year. If appropriate, we will prepare an implementation grant proposal in approximately one year, and we will submit a Final Report in Summer 2006. References 1. Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET), Criteria for

Accrediting Engineering Programs: Effective for Evaluations During the 2000-2001 Accreditation Cycle, 2000 (http://www.abet.org)

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2. The Boeing Company, Desired Attributes of an Engineer: Participation with Universities, 1996 (http://www.boeing.com/companyoffices/pwu/attributes/attributes.html)

3. E. F. Crawley, The CDIO Syllabus: A Statement of Goals for Undergraduate Engineering Education, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge MA, 2001 (http://web.mit.edu/aeroastro/www//cdio/cdiodocuments/CDIO.pdf)

4. C. D. Hall, “Laboratory Instruction in Undergraduate Astronautics,” 1999 American Society of Engineering Education Annual Conference, Charlotte, NC, Jun 20–22, 1999

5. P. M. Larochelle, J. J. Engblom, and H. Gutierrez, “An Innovative Introduction to Mechanical Engineering : A Cornerstone Design Experience, ” 2003 ASME Curriculum Innovation Award Honorable Mention, (http://www.asme.org/education/enged/awards)

6. J. F. Marchman III, and W. H. Mason, “Freshman/Senior Design Education,” International Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 13, No. 2, 1997, pp. 143-152

7. W.H. Mason, “Aircraft Design at Virginia Tech: Experience in Developing an Integrated Program,” AIAA Paper 95-3894, 1st AIAA Aircraft Engineering, Technology, and Operations Conference, Los Angeles, CA, Sept. 19-21, 1995

8. W. H. Mason, H. Robertshaw and D. Inman “Recent Experiments in Aerospace and Design Engineering Education,” 42nd AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, Reno, NV, AIAA Paper 2004-0415, Jan. 5-8, 2004

9. J. H. McMasters and R. M. Cummings, “Challenges for Education in Aerospace & Engineering for the 21st Century,” The Bent of Tau Beta Pi, Summer 2004, pp. 12–19

10. S. Newman, D. Whatley and I. Anderson, “Engineering Design Education – The Integration of Disciplines,” Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 75, No. 1, 2003, pp. 18–26

11. E. C. P. Ransom and A. W. Self, “The Origins of Aerospace Engineering Degree Courses,” Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 74, No. 4, 2002, pp. 355–364

12. B. E. Thompson, “Studio Pedagogy for Engineering Design,” International Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 18, No. 1, 2002, pp. 39–49