Responding to the Challenges and Opportunities of Aircraft Design Education in Graduate Programs

Hernando Jimenez, Dimitri Mavris
2009 47th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting including The New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition   unpublished
The relationship between industry and academia has historically been a delicate one, characterized by the gap between what workforce employers want and what academia delivers. Despite significant efforts, only in recent years have tangible advances been made regarding the role that future employers have on the academic formation of engineering students. The development of a solid knowledge base, as well as analytical and non-technical skills, have been repeatedly identified as highly desirable
more » ... ttributes. Efforts to steer academic programs in this direction have traditionally focused on undergraduate education, particularly on capstone senior design projects. Graduate aircraft design programs have received marginal attention in this regard, even when they feature unique characteristics that translate to challenges and opportunities of particular interest. This paper examines said features of graduate aircraft design programs and presents a curriculum that has been matured over several years to meet the aforementioned needs of employers. An assessment of the curriculum's success based on student surveys is presented.
doi:10.2514/6.2009-1624 fatcat:qf2p7dqelnbttoag3ircpk6nwq