Aerospace Engineering

undergraduate program

Aerospace engineers focus on the design and development of aircraft, spacecraft and other nonterrestrial vehicles and their systems. Those who work with aircraft are called aeronautical engineers, and those working specifically with spacecraft are astronautical engineers.

Aerospace engineers develop new technologies for use in aviation, defense systems and space exploration, often specializing in areas such as structural design, guidance, navigation and control, instrumentation and communication, or production methods. They also may specialize in a particular type of aerospace product, such as commercial aircraft, military fighter jets, helicopters, spacecraft, missiles and rockets.

These engineers use sophisticated computational tools to design and analyze state-of-the-art, aerodynamically efficient wings and surfaces in the pursuit of optimally efficient vehicles. They invent and design lightweight composite materials and structures and highly efficient propulsion devices such as autonomous, intelligent control systems, and become experts in aerodynamics, thermodynamics, celestial mechanics, propulsion, guidance or acoustics.

Our faculty and students conduct innovative research in all of the traditional core areas of aerospace engineering with applications to some of society’s most pressing problems in energy, the environment, human health and transportation. State-of-the-art laboratories and computational facilities support the research and educational missions. 

Aerospace engineering (aeronautics), B.S.E.: this branch of aerospace engineering is concerned primarily with the design and construction of aircraft structures and power units, and with the special problems of flight within the Earth’s atmosphere. Major map (PDF)

Aerospace engineering (astronautics), B.S.E.: is the branch of aerospace engineering that deals with the science and technology of space flight and the machines designed to exit or work entirely beyond the Earth's atmosphere. Major map (PDF)

Accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, 111 Market Place, Suite 1050, Baltimore, MD 21202-4012, telephone: (410) 347-7700.

School of Mechanical, Aerospace, Chemical and Materials Engineering >