A E R O S PA C E E N G I N E E R I N G AT M I C H I G A N

Contents
A View Into the Future / 2 /

Pioneers of Innovation / 6 /

Our Department Today / 11 /

The Future of the Field / 21 /

our Nine Key Initiatives / 33 /

leading the way / 51 /

 T
he Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan has, since its inception,
been recognized as one of the leading members of the academic component of the aerospace
enterprise. Throughout its nearly 100-year history, the Departments entire educational and
a er o spac e at m i c h i g a n /

research activities have been organized around advancing and teaching the essential elements
of the aerospace enterprise, and especially the evolving engineering issues associated with air
and space vehicles, vehicle systems, and their associated technologies.

Todays aerospace engineers may take for granted the accomplishments of the field thus far, but a hundred years
ago these things were the stuff of science fiction. As we look ahead we can imagine what future innovations may
bring some of todays science fiction will surely become fact. Commercial high-speed flight will become
practical. Unmanned vehicles will become increasingly important, and in some cases their design may be inspired
by biological flyers. Safe and quiet vertical flight may enable direct air travel into city centers. Parts of the hub-and-
/ 2

spoke travel system may be replaced by new point-to-point models. Air routes will open up new corners of the
world and pose new challenges to aircraft designers. Satellite-based technologies will pervade our lives in ways we
cannot yet imagine.
 To accomplish these and other innovations, aerospace Tomorrows aerospace enterprise will continue to be a
engineers will increasingly work in interdisciplinary pillar of the U.S. and world economies, in part because
teams. International collaborations will be needed to of the broad impact that this field has on our society
enable ambitious and expensive projects. The com- and the continuing fascination it inspires in the most
plexity of aerospace systems may call for new modes innovative minds of each new generation. Along the
of analysis and design. Software-based tools may way, tomorrows aerospace engineering graduates from
replace some of yesterdays subject matter specialists. Michigan will continue to serve as leaders into this
Aerospace engineers, like those in other disciplines, future, making use of their strong backgrounds in the
may move more frequently from one employer to science and technologies on which the future will be
another. Many will adopt entrepreneurial careers. founded, and the abilities that we have instilled in them
to think independently, critically, and creatively.
The aging U.S. population and the large federal and
state entitlements through Social Security, Medicare,
and Medicaid will likely have major implications for
support of university research and education. Growing
concerns over energy and environmental sustainability
will drive basic research efforts, and aerospace
engineering will contribute to solutions such as better
a er o spac e at m i c h i g a n /

wind turbines, advanced propulsion systems, and more

efficient aerodynamic designs.

While it is impossible to predict the precise future of

the aerospace enterprise a decade or two from now,
it is clear what changes a leading academic depart-
ment must make to remain at the forefront of this field. Franois-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Building, home of the
In this document we envision the new challenges Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of
Michigan.
and opportunities that the aerospace engineers of
/ 4

tomorrow will face, and describe the key initiatives that

we have put in place at Michigan to prepare our
graduates and our research endeavors to succeed in
this future.
Todays aerospace engineers may take for granted the

accomplishments of the field thus far, but a hundred years ago

these things were the stuff of science fiction. As we look ahead

we can imagine what future innovations may bring some of

todays science fiction will surely become fact.

a v i ew i n t o t h e f ut ur e /
/ 5
 AerospAce Engineering At MichigAn

T
he University of Michigan started the
first collegiate aeronautics program in
the United States, in 1914, just 11
a er o spac e at m i c h i g a n /

years after the Wright brothers first

controlled, powered flights at Kitty
Hawk. The first course was taught by Professor Felix
Pawlowski, a talented engineer who had been a
student of Lucien Marchis at the University of Paris in
the earliest aeronautics course given anywhere, and
went on to build his own airplane. Since then, the
Department has graduated more than 4,000 aero-
The early years of the Department were filled with daring
nautical and aerospace engineers who have gone on
experimentation in balloons, gliders, and when available,
/ 6

to distinguished careers in essentially all areas of the powered airplanes, including a model B hydroplane built by
the Wright brothers.
aerospace enterprise, in related fields, in government,
and in academia. Five were astronauts who orbited the
Earth. Three went to the moon.
The Departments most prominent alumni include Clarence Kelly Johnson, B.S.E.
32, M.S.E. 33, widely considered one of Americas greatest aircraft designers. He
went on to establish the legendary Lockheed Skunk Works and created aircraft
such as the P-38, the F-104, the U-2, and the SR-71 (pictured above).
 Michigan Alumni Ed White (left) and Jim McDvitt (right) inside the
Gemini IV Spacecraft
Throughout its long history, the Department has been
an integral part of one of the nations great teaching
and research universities. The University of Michigan
a er o spac e at m i c h i g a n /
is among the most successful public educational
institutions, with a record of accomplishments that
can be matched by few. Formally a state university,
its founding in 1817 predates all but a handful of the
nations state universities, and since its inception it
has operated autonomously under the Michigan
constitution. The result is an exceptional institution
that has provided leadership in higher education
throughout its history.
/ 8
Today, the Department of Aerospace Engineering at
Michigan continues its two-fold mission of providing its
students with a strong foundation in the technical
disciplines that comprise aerospace engineering, and
Michigan alumnus, Clarence Kelly Felix Pawlowski, first professor of
Johnson Aeronautics at Michigan
conducting leading-edge research that seeks to
expand the existing knowledge in the field. At the
same time, the efforts required to fulfill that mission
are changing. The demands of the aerospace industry
and the science and technology basis needed to meet
its needs are undergoing dramatic transformations.
Key components of these changes are described
herein.
Building on its history, the Department has undertaken
an in-depth assessment of these changes and
implemented the specific initiatives described in this
document to adapt to them. In doing so, Aerospace
Engineering at Michigan has positioned itself and its
graduates to continue to succeed, extending its long
history of excellence and success in its teaching and
research mission well into the next decade and beyond.
Our graduates
include five
astronauts who have
orbited the earth.
Ed White (pictured
at left), made the
first spacewalk by
an American, and
three went to the
moon. Other Michigan
astronauts include
Jack Lousma, who
commanded Skylab
and piloted the
third Space Shuttle
flight; James McDivitt,
commander of Apollo
9, and James Irwin and

p i on eer s o f i n n o vat i o n /
Alfred Worden of
Apollo 15.

/ 9
Leading, Researching, Teaching

T
oday, the Department of Aerospace
Engineering at Michigan is a vibrant
place. Over the past two years we
have added six new faculty members
to our ranks, representing a quarter
of our total faculty. All are assistant or associate
professors, who have brought with them fresh expertise

l ead i n g , r e sea r c h i n g , t ea c h i n g /
that has added to our Departments strength in specific
strategic areas that we have targeted for development
and growth. We currently have searches underway
for new faculty members to continue our growth in
strategic areas. Among our faculty are fifteen Fellows
of major professional societies. Eleven are associate
editors or editors-in-chief of leading archival technical
journals. Many others serve on key national and
international panels and in various leadership positions
in their field.

We are also an integral part of an exceptionally strong

/ 11
College of Engineering, consisting of eleven top-ten
ranked and five top-three ranked academic depart-
ments. Together they contribute to an environment of
unsurpassed intellectual challenge and excitement that
is at the same time collegial and conducive to learning.
Our faculty has a high level of enthusiasm, accessibility,
and a strong dedication to excellence in teaching and
research at both the undergraduate and graduate
levels.
 Extracurricular team projects, hardware exposure, and Freshman level ENG 100 student blimp project.
hands-on experiences are critical components to complement
in-class teaching to help prepare future engineering talent.

Students students, and 20 PhD students annually. Metrics for

student satisfaction throughout the program are high.
Enrollments in our Department are strong at all levels.
ae r o spac e at m i c h i g a n /

We currently have more than 350 sophomore, junior,

Teaching
and senior undergraduate students in Aerospace
Engineering, of whom over 40% come from outside the Our Department places an exceptionally strong

state of Michigan and nearly 10% come from outside the emphasis on excellence in the teaching component of

U.S. to study in our Department. A sequential graduate/ its mission. All our faculty teach, and all courses are

undergraduate studies (SGUS) option encourages our taught by faculty teaching assistants hold additional

best aerospace engineering undergraduates to advance office hours and provide other assistance to students,

to masters degree studies in Aerospace Engineering. but they do not teach our courses. Three among the
Departments faculty hold Arthur F. Thurnau
We have a long tradition of drawing some of the best
/ 12

Professorships, a University honor for the highest

students from the U.S. and around the world into our accomplishments in teaching.
masters and doctoral programs. Our Department today
has more than 160 graduate students, the majority of The course catalog is rich in required and elective course

whom are U.S. citizens. They hold numerous National offerings at all degree levels. In our undergraduate

Science Foundation, Department of Defense, program, students choose at least four upper-level

Department of Education, and other national fellow- technical elective courses and two general electives,

ships. Aerospace Engineering at Michigan has in recent allowing them to specialize or broaden their aerospace

years graduated about 120 BSE students, 60 MS engineering education. In our graduate programs,
The University of Michigan Student Space Systems Fabrication Laboratory (S3FL) is a student group that provides opportunities
for undergraduate and graduate students to gain experience in real world, hands-on, space systems projects.

The principal feature of both our undergraduate and graduate programs is the
strong emphasis placed on understanding how to think, learn, and adapt. The
resulting ability to incorporate new theoretical discoveries and technological
advances allows Michigan graduates to grow and adapt rapidly as the
aerospace field evolves.
Since its inception, our Departments mission has been to provide
students with a solid foundation in aerospace engineering, and
to advance the existing state of knowledge in the field through
leading edge research.
students can pursue either the Master of Science in
Engineering (M.S.E.) or the Master of Engineering
(M.Eng.) degree. Those continuing to the doctoral
program take additional courses beyond their masters
degree. Our curriculum at all degree levels undergoes
continuous revision and renewal, with courses being
developed that reflect changes in aerospace engineering.
Research
Top students from around the U.S. and the world have
long been attracted to graduate studies at Michigan, in
part because of the breadth and quality of the research
being done across all major technical disciplines of the
field. Our research portfolio is distinguished by a strong
and sustained focus on fundamental research questions.
In recent years, research addressing engineering
systems and applications has extended beyond the
traditional boundaries of aerospace engineering
sciences, and allowed us to contribute to such contem-
porary topics as energy, environmental sustainability,
homeland defense, and large-scale computing. Much
of our research is organized around developing,
sustaining, and improving our internationally recognized
work in computational aerospace sciences.
Major Collaborative Research Centers
Our Department is home to several major research
centers in which broader groups of faculty and students
l ead i n g , r e sea r c h i n g , t ea c h i n g /
collaborate within the Department and with other
departments and organizations. Currently, these major
collaborative research centers include:
The Constellation University Institutes Program,
part of NASAs Constellation Program efforts to
return to the moon. In this second five-year phase,
we are leading nearly a quarter of more than 50
research efforts among 20 universities. Our research
focuses on thrust chamber assemblies, propellant
storage and delivery, reentry aerothermodynamics,
and structures and materials for extreme
/ 15
environments.
The Michigan-AFRL-Boeing Collaborative Center for
Aeronautical Sciences, a research effort addressing
high-speed flight and micro-air vehicles. Our
computational and experimental research targets
high-speed flows and shocks, shock-boundary layer
interactions, plasma flows, aerothermodynamics,
flapping wing aerodynamics, fluid-structure interac-
tions, and dielectric barrier actuators.
ae r o spac e at m i c h i g a n /

NASAs Ikhana, a civil version of the Predator B unmanned aircraft.

The Michigan-AFRL Collaborative Center in Control
Science addresses control of large numbers of
unmanned semi-autonomous fixed- or rotary-wing
craft or ground vehicles for such roles as persistent
urban intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.
/ 16
wings for optimal flapping flight of micro air vehicles.
Anisotropic structures as found in natural flyer
wings provide biological guidance for the research,
including passive shape control for lift enhancement.

The Center for Radiative Shock Hydrodynamics, a

It also explores controllability of air-breathing
large-scale research effort at Michigan with partici-
hypersonic vehicles using models that account for
pation by the Department, to advance computing
strong interactions between aerodynamics, airframe
and simulation. It uses large-scale computations to
elasticity, control effector deformations, heat
advance predictive science by understanding
transfer, and the propulsion system.
uncertainties and their sources in simulation results
The Air Force Office of Scientific Research and to improve predictive capabilities in complex
Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative to systems.
develop biologically-inspired, anisotropic, flexible
 The Vertical Lift Research Center of Excellence, in
which Michigan, along with our partner universities,
is one of two Army Centers of Excellence for Vertical
Lift Research. Work at Michigan is focused on
barrier issues in vertical lift technology, including
active flaps and microflaps for reduced rotor
vibration and noise, and active blades for vibration
and noise reduction.

The DARPA Flying Fish Program, a longer-term

effort to develop an ocean environmental monitoring
buoy. Flying Fish is a robotic pelican-inspired
electric-powered vehicle designed to drift at sea and
take flight autonomously when needed to maintain

l ead i n g , r e sea r c h i n g , t ea c h i n g /
its watch circle. Sea trials have demonstrated fully
autonomous take off, climb, cruise, descent, and
landing of a vehicle that is much smaller than the Diagnostics and prediction of flow fields in advanced gas
turbine combustors.
oceans surface wave environment.

The General Electric Aircraft Engines University

Strategic Alliance Program, part of a long-term
strategic alliance that involves universities from
around the world. Our research is directed at
improving the revolutionary GE-TAPS lean premixed,
prevaporized combustor, which promises to
significantly reduce emissions of nitric oxide and
carbon monoxide from the new GEnx engines.
Facilities
Nearly all of our Department is housed in the Franois-
Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Building, containing 91,000
square feet of modern classrooms, research laborato-
ries, and support space. Being located in one building
greatly facilitates a collaborative atmosphere and strong

/ 17
intellectual climate among our faculty and students.

The General Motors Collaborative Research Highly-dedicated clerical and technical staff assist in
Laboratory for Smart Materials and Structures our teaching and research missions by helping to meet
involves research on smart material maturity, smart students needs and maintain our instructional and
device technologies, and mechamatronic system laboratory facilities.
design methodologies. Results are applicable to
smart pumps and fuel injectors, smart latches and
locks, and smart air flow control devices for aero-
dynamic performance.
 Our Mission
Our goal is to provide internationally recognized
leadership in aerospace engineering education and
research by being a place that:
Educates students who are widely known for
exceptional strength in technical fundamentals
across all aerospace disciplines, who are cognizant
of modern aerospace technologies, and who are
sought after by top graduate schools and by
aerospace and related industries worldwide
Offers a variety of excellent degree programs
satisfying the needs of a diverse body of students,
with graduates who are of exceptionally high value
to aerospace and related industries worldwide
Supports vibrant and highly recognized research
programs that serve the educational goals of its
undergraduate and graduate degree programs, that
make major contributions to the knowledge base in
aerospace sciences and technology, and that are
turned to by industry, government, and academia
Creates an environment of unsurpassed intellectual
challenge and excitement that at the same time is
collegial and conducive to higher learning
Recognizes that aerospace engineering comprises
disciplines and technologies that are distinct in the
manner of their integration and application and must
be taught accordingly
Takes full advantage of the unparalleled breadth of
knowledge, technology, facilities, and resources of
one of the largest and most highly regarded
universities worldwide, the University of Michigan
New Challenges, New Opportunities

ne w c h a l l e n g es, n e w o ppo r t un i t i e s /
I
n the aerospace enterprise, the second century of flight will demand agility, flexibility, and innovation from
those who will chart the future of the field. We look ahead to the next decade and beyond to anticipate the
changes that academic departments must make to adapt themselves for the future, and to continue serving
at the leading edge of this field. Our goal has been to assess how our teaching and research missions can
be best positioned to ensure the continued success of our Department and our graduates.

Here we identify key challenges that will influence aerospace engineering over the next two decades. Rather than
making speculative predictions or assertions about which technical topic will become the next major focus of our
field, we have based our vision of the future on a rational, anticipatory, and forward-looking assessment of the
changes that will occur in the aerospace enterprise. In the next section, we describe the nine key initiatives that we
have implemented at Michigan to position ourselves to respond effectively to these new challenges and to take
advantage of the new opportunities they present.

/ 21

Left and center: Michigan is a leading university in electric propulsion

research. Right: Our ongoing effort in cavitation investigation is
aimed at improving liquid rocket propulsion design.
 Advanced carbon fiber textiles will be a key enabler for future
aerospace and other engineering structures.
One World:
Growing Internationalization
ae r o spac e at m i c h i g a n /
The engineering profession as a whole aerospace
engineering more than many other disciplines
is rapidly becoming a global enterprise. Markets for
aerospace products have traditionally been inter-
national, but now the profession itself is attracting
bright minds from all over the world.
Many countries already have substantial technical
capabilities in aerospace engineering, and many others
are seeking to build their capabilities. Emerging
/ 22
economies increasingly regard aerospace engineering
as having the capacity to make significant contributions
to their Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Some are
establishing the education infrastructure to promote
these new capabilities. The contributions these nations
make to the aerospace industry do more than lower
labor costs; they are helping to advance the field. In
many cases, these talented, new workforces rival those
in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere.
Hexagonal honeycomb made from superelastic shape
memory alloy corrugated strips will enable the development of
adaptive aerospace systems.
Tomorrows aerospace engineers will need to interact
with this global enterprise. This will require a broader
cultural awareness than has traditionally been the case
for most engineers. For many it will mean greater
international contacts and collaborations. Some may
see extended assignments to expatriate positions,
where they will work with engineers having substantially
different backgrounds. Professional advancement in
aerospace engineering will increasingly depend on the
ability to succeed in such international contexts.
Redefining the Engineer
Many analysis and design functions traditionally
associated with aerospace engineering are being
transformed into packaged software. Todays
commercial software offers substantial coupled
multi-physics simulation capabilities. Examples include:
finite-element analysis software for thermo-mechanical
modeling, computational fluid dynamics tools for fluid
flow analyses, and computer-aided design software for
Autonomous flight vehicles investigating collaborative control. U-Ms Flying Fish capable of take-off/landing on water.

solid modeling and fabrication, and computer software
for flight simulation and flight control design.
Companies that formerly needed dozens of experi-
enced engineers for these functions can now achieve
similar results more quickly with a far smaller staff.
Consulting houses can make these capabilities widely
available even to smaller companies on an as-needed
basis.
All engineers will still need to learn the underlying
principles. However, as classical engineering functions
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InnovAtion, Invention, And Venture
CapitAl
Major engineering companies once kept substantial
in-house research and development staff, but costs
have changed this model. Today, these firms acquire
the innovations they need by buying up small entre-
preneurial companies built around researching and
developing specific technology solutions.
In effect, large companies today buy the technologies
they need, pushing part of the cost and risk of develop-
ing them onto smaller entrepreneurial companies. The

/ 23
become more commoditized, successful engineers
growth of Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR)
will need a deeper understanding of system-level
programs over the past two decades has provided a
problems. They will require backgrounds in analyses-
tremendous boost for early-stage technology develop-
of-alternatives, balanced optimization, and similar
ment in the private sector. This has accelerated the
higher-level analysis approaches. The pedagogical
move toward reliance on such companies as a main
changes needed to accommodate this shift go beyond
development path for new technologies.
traditional curricular revisions. They may require us to
fundamentally rethink the skill set that defines an Universities often provide the basic research that
aerospace engineer. launches and drives these small companies. Many
Aerospace engineering will play a major role in the broader quest

for alternative energy and environmental sustainability.

small companies build on the stream of basic research

generated at universities, creating new opportunities for
targeted synergy. Tomorrows students will need a
deeper understanding of entrepreneurship, intellectual

ne w c h a l l e n g es, n e w o ppo r t un i t i e s /
property issues, and other aspects of the modern
technology development path.

going green
Even before the rapid rise in the cost of petroleum-
derived fuels, there has been strong emphasis on
The Next-Generation 737-700 sports Blended Winglets,
making aerospace systems use less energy and create which enhance range and fuel efficiency while lowering engine
a smaller impact on the environment. The importance of maintenance costs and noise. Copyright Boeing

fuel efficiency is well known in the commercial airline

market, where fuel costs today account for more than Improved energy efficiency and reduced carbon
30% of total airline operating costs. Even in the defense emissions can come in less obvious ways as well.
sector, fuel efficiency matters greatly. In 2003, the Air Lighter-weight structures and aerodynamic improve-
Forces fuel bill was $2.5 billion; by 2006 it had jumped ments such as winglets can significantly reduce fuel

to over $6 billion despite substantially lower fuel
consumption. Every $10 increase in the barrel price of
fuel costs the Air Force $0.6 billion more in annual fuel
costs.
The possibility of some type of carbon tax in the
foreseeable future drives airlines to look for possible
new sources of fuels, such as biomass-to-liquid
processes and even plant and algae-derived biofuels,
that can provide lower life-cycle CO2 emissions.
/ 25
consumption.
Aerospace engineering will play a major role in the
broader quest for alternative energy and environmental
sustainability. Advanced wind turbines rely on aero-
dynamic improvements and stronger lightweight
structures for much of their performance. Photovoltaics,
fuel processors, and fuel cells for hydrogen or hydro-
carbon fuels also involve aerospace-related
technologies.
 airplanes, rockets and beyond Increase in Complex Adaptive
Aerospace Systems
Aerospace engineering has always gone beyond
airplanes and rockets, and many of tomorrows Engineering systems today, and aerospace systems in

technology emphases will be in areas not traditionally particular, are becoming more complex and adaptive.

associated with aerospace engineering. Commercial Complexity itself is not new in aerospace engineering;

aircraft will see advances in such areas as lightweight the Space Shuttle has over a million individual parts,

composite structures, more efficient and quiet clean- and modern flight control software typically has about

burning engines, and blended wing-body designs. two million lines of code. However, the addition of high

However, these improvements will come as much from levels of adaptability and reconfigurability, such as by

in-flight system monitoring, model-based adaptation, coupling reconfigurable control effectors with an

and advanced network-enabled operations. In defense, integrated vehicle health monitoring system, is creating

engineers are shifting emphasis on higher-performance a new category of complex adaptive aerospace

air vehicle platforms to their payloads. The F-22, systems.

designed 25 years ago, achieved its air superiority with

Future air and space vehicles will take full advantage
supercruise and high-agility thrust vectoring; today the
of this functionality. Failure or degradation in one or
F-35 is placing greater emphasis on such functions as
more parts of the system will be compensated by
data fusion and electronic attack.
ae r o spac e at m i c h i g a n /

automatically reconfiguring the control software. The

In the future we may see small unmanned vehicles, reconfiguration is adaptive because it does not simply

perhaps inspired by biological flyers. Groups of robotic follow predetermined rules for a limited set of failure

or semi-autonomous fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft and modes. Instead, the system experiments with itself to

ground vehicles may operate over large areas, provid- gauge its degraded state and determine how to

ing persistent, cooperative, networked sensing and maximize its remaining functionality.

communication relays for intelligence, surveillance, and

Such systems create new challenges not only in their
reconnaissance.
design, but in their reliability. The number of possible
system states can make direct verification and
/ 26

Aerospace engineers have always worked on the

system as a whole as well as its parts, but in the future validation approaches impractical, requiring more

they will need a broader education to accomplish this. probabilistic approaches and adaptive concepts foreign

Academic departments must integrate traditional core to most engineers. Future engineers will need technical

aerospace disciplines with nontraditional subject areas. backgrounds in basic aspects of such systems and their
underlying theoretical concepts.
 ne w c h a l l e n g es, n e w o ppo r t un i t i e s /
Aerospace engineers have always worked on the system as

a whole as well as its parts, but in the future they will need a

broader education to accomplish this. Academic departments

/ 27
must integrate traditional core aerospace disciplines with

nontraditional subject areas.

 Engineering as a New Liberal Arts
Degree
Our technology-oriented society is convincing a
growing number of students to choose engineering as
a safe degree. For many who believe they can handle
the mathematics and science but are not sure what
their life goals are, engineering is becoming a popular
option.
Many elementary and high school students are
becoming exposed to engineering at an early age.
State education standards have mandated engineering
contents in Massachusetts since 2001, in New Jersey
since 2004, and in Texas since 2007. Intels
Engineering is Elementary curriculum is already being
used in more than 900 K-12 schools, up from just five
in 2003. More than 2,200 middle and high schools now
ae r o spac e at m i c h i g a n /
use engineering courses from Project Lead the Way.
Many of these students will choose aerospace engi-
neering as their major. Yet unlike the students of
previous generations, many lack the fundamental
intuition or understanding of the engineering that goes
into the mechanical, computing, or electrical systems
they use daily.
Engineering students in the next decade will be
/ 28
substantially different from past engineering students.
They may come to the field with different passions, skill
levels, and drive. We may increasingly see students
who are just kicking the tires and who may have no
intention of making their career in engineering after
graduation.
Rising Social Costs and Diminishing
Federal Support
The aging U.S. population and the large government
entitlements through Social Security, Medicare, and
Medicaid have begun an unprecedented drain on
federal and state budgets that will only worsen over the
next two decades. The first of 77 million retiring baby
boomers born between 1946 and 1964 became
eligible for Social Security benefits in January 2008.
Their numbers will grow at a rate of 4 million per year
through 2026, and they will continue to draw entitle-
ment benefits through 2050.
The Congressional Budget Office has calculated that
the cost of these benefits will grow from 8.4% of Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) today to 14.5% by 2030, and
18.6% by 2050. By comparison, the entire federal
budget today is just 20% of GDP. By 2049, these
benefits would consume every federal program except
interest on the federal debt. Even with proposed
reductions in entitlement benefits, the looming budget
pressures will be immense. Europe and Japan face
similar situations.
This will strain the federal governments ability to support
research and development, including basic research in
academia. The impact on the academic profession is
largely underappreciated. The major supporters of
research programs in aerospace engineering have been
NASA, the Department of Defense, the Department of
Energy, and the National Science Foundation. Their
combined research and development totals are just
under $111 billion. The basic research components that
fund most university research are about $30 billion.
While federal reductions in basic research spending will

Engineers of today and tomorrow will need to make technological advances while ensuring that societal and environmental
needs are being met.
affect all fields, aerospace engineering faces greater
hardship over the next two decades, because of its
greater reliance on federal funding.
Meeting Societys Needs
Federal research spending over the next two decades
will be directed toward meeting societal needs in areas
such as health care, energy efficiency, alternative
energy, environmental sustainability, and homeland
security. Several of these hold significant opportunities
for aerospace engineering. Other areas, such as
expanded low-cost air transport and improved air traffic
control systems, have obvious aerospace content and
are likely to see growth.
Earth observation systems to monitor effects such as
urban growth, deforestation, and water management
will become more important as environmental
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sustainability needs grow. These may include pilotless
aircraft and other unmanned aerial systems, as well as
satellite systems.
Other satellites for telecommunications, spaceborne
intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and other
applications ranging from low-Earth orbits up to
geosynchronous orbits may also become increased
priorities. Associated technologies to reduce launch
/ 29
costs, decrease failures associated with launches or
orbit insertions, and increase on-orbit reliability will
become more important.
Aerospace engineering will be called on to help our
society meet these new challenges. The engineers we
graduate and the research endeavors we undertake will
need to be positioned to successfully address these
needs.
 Provide greater opportunities for students to
participate in substantive international exchanges
and internships
Reduce commodity subject matter in courses;
increase education in system-level analysis-of-
alternatives concepts
Bring further nontraditional systems-related content
into the curriculum
Enable a broader and deeper understanding of
entrepreneurship and its role in the aerospace field
Accommodate a broader spectrum of different
types of students, including those who lack natural
engineering intuition
Adjust to looming decreases in federal research
funding and shifts in federal research priorities
Preparing for tomorrow
9
T
he challenges we have identified in this document have implications for the academic
component of the aerospace enterprise. They represent new opportunities for those academic

Pr epar i n g f o r t o m o r r o w /
departments that are prepared to adapt to these changes to stay positioned as leaders in
this field.

Accordingly, the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Michigan, along with the College of
Engineering and the University, has recently implemented nine key initiatives to prepare our Department and its
graduates to continue to succeed over the next decade and beyond in aerospace engineering.

/ 33

Advanced battery for future air and ground vehicles.

 1 Expanded Departmental
Research Thrusts
Beyond our existing research focus areas noted earlier,
our Department has further identified the major
research thrusts listed below. Each builds on strengths
already in the Department, and is being developed
through strategic targeted hires and larger collaborative
research efforts. They bring together teams of faculty
and student researchers to address key technical
issues in these areas.
These Departmental research thrusts and those that
span more broadly across the College and University
ae r o spac e at m i c h i g a n /
help place our research focus in areas that will be key
to the next two decades in aerospace engineering.
Computational Aerosciences
Computer-aided analysis and design tools are routinely
used to simulate and predict component and subsys-
tem performance, allowing dramatic reductions in the
need for costly and time-consuming physical testing.
Further advances in computational aero-
/ 34
sciences will allow entire aerospace vehicles to be
reliably designed in virtual environments. Development
of the numerical methods and software tools to
accomplish this plays a critical role throughout the
aerospace enterprise and will continue to be a major
research area over the next two decades.
Advanced computational aerodynamics utilizing Cartesian
grid and local adaptation to achieve desirable accuracy while
alleviating cost for mesh generation.
Our Department already has a strong reputation in
many key aspects of computational aerosciences. We
are expanding our activities in this area, building on
numerous on-going research efforts that involve federal
agencies and industry partners.
We plan to broaden our expertise and strong record in
advancing alternative numerical techniques such as
adaptive Cartesian grid methods, discontinuous
Galerkin methods, DSMC and hybrid DSMC/continuum
techniques, and simulation-based design optimization
and sensitivity evaluations. Experiments will provide
insights and data to guide development of physical
models and improved numerical techniques. Data
assimilation techniques will also be addressed to
effectively utilize data generated from computationally-
intensive methods, merging data with models to give
more useful estimates than can be obtained by either
one alone.
Vortex flow structures associated with a flapping wing during a stroke.

Unmanned Flight Vehicles anisotropic flexible wings for optimal flapping flight.

Unmanned flight vehicles are being rapidly developed Research is utilizing insights gained from biological

and deployed. Today these are primarily used for flight, while focusing on hovering and forward-flight

defense, but evolving civil airspace regulations will allow modes of micro air vehicles, with an emphasis on the

Pr epar i n g f o r t o m o r r o w /
broader uses of unmanned flight vehicles. Such intrinsically unsteady environment due to wind gusts

vehicles range from high-altitude long-endurance and flapping motions.

platforms with sizes measured in tens of meters and

In the future, we will address a wide range of essential
endurances measured in days or even years, to micro
technical issues associated with aerodynamics,
air vehicles a few centimeters in size that are designed
propulsion, structures, and control of individual
for several minutes of operation.
unmanned vehicles, as well as collaborative control of

Our Department has recently developed strong multiple vehicles and even large swarms of such

programs in both large and small unmanned flight platforms.

vehicles, which we will grow over the next two

Space Systems

/ 35
decades. A substantial portion of our research focuses
Our Department has a portfolio of space systems
on cooperative control of potentially large numbers of
research that we will cultivate further. We have played a
such semi- or fully-autonomous vehicles, coordinating
central role in NASAs 10-year, two-phase Constellation
their motion to provide persistent real-time services,
University Institutes Program (CUIP), a consortium of
autonomous fault management, and strategic-level
approximately twenty universities in the U.S. addressing
decision making. Our ongoing low-speed micro air
key technical challenges in NASAs Moon-Mars
vehicle research is also addressing biologically-inspired,
We have one of the most comprehensive and advanced spacecraft propulsion
research groups at any academic institution in the world, focusing on electric
propulsion development and engine-spacecraft interaction studies, as well as
hypersonic vehicle concepts for space access and reentry.

exploration endeavors. Our research includes investi-

gations of flow, mixing, and combustion in chemical
rocket engines, propellant delivery systems, reentry
aerothermodynamics, and hot structures and materials
for extreme environments.

We have one of the most comprehensive and

advanced spacecraft propulsion research groups at

Pr epar i n g f o r t o m o r r o w /
any academic institution in the world, focusing on
electric propulsion development and engine-spacecraft
interaction studies, as well as hypersonic vehicle
concepts for space access and reentry. This includes
development of computational models and highly-
coupled, control-oriented concepts for air-breathing
hypersonic vehicles.

Small satellite systems and satellite constellations are

another research area that we have targeted for growth
and where we will build on our existing strengths.

/ 37
Research topics include: integration of advanced
space sensors, computational algorithms and soft-
High-resolution flow field measurements of shock wave
ware, constellation setup and operations, as well as interactions with a turbulent boundary layer.
low-cost command and control processes that take
advantage of multi-element worldwide ground systems.
 2 Strategic New Aerospace
Faculty Hires

Recently, the Department has hired six new faculty members, representing nearly 25% growth in faculty size. All
are either assistant or associate professors and hold 100% appointments in the Department. More critically, each
of these new faculty members, as noted below, brings strong expertise to enhance one or more of our expanded
research thrust areas. We also have ongoing searches to add several more new faculty members to further enrich
our teaching and research portfolios.

Assoc. Prof. Ella Atkins multigrid solver for the discontinuous Galerkin finite
Professor Atkins research is on task and motion element method.
planning algorithms for autonomous systems under
Asst. Prof. Anouck Girard
various sources of uncertainties. This includes flight
Professor Girards research is in nonlinear control and
planning and guidance, autonomous unmanned air
systems engineering. Her work applies to control of
ae r o spac e at m i c h i g a n /

vehicle mission planning and adaptation, and human-

swarms of autonomous small and micro air vehicles
robot collaboration.
and/or ground robots that operate in formation. She
Asst. Prof. James Cutler works with hybrid, distributed, and embedded systems.
Professor Cutlers research interests include the
Asst. Prof. Matthias Ihme
development of distributed space vehicles optimized for
Professor Ihme works on computational modeling of
complex missions, advanced spacecraft software, the
reacting flows, radiation, emissions, and combustion-
robust use of commercial off-the-shelf hardware for
generated noise. He uses direct and large-eddy
satellite systems, and the development of global ground
simulations for turbulent reactive flows, mixing, and
station networking technologies. He has taught satellite
/ 38

aeroacoustics, and has made advances in flamelet

design, and developed small satellite systems and
progress variable methods.
robust ground station networks, including regular space
and near-space flights.
Asst. Prof. Veera Sundararaghavan
Professor Sundararaghavans research is on multi-scale
Asst. Prof. Krzysztof Fidkowski
computations for material design and optimization.
Professor Fidkowski works on computational methods,
He uses finite element homogenization, molecular
including a triangular cut-cell adaptive method to allow
dynamics, ab initio simulations, and statistical
high-order discretizations of the compressible Navier-
mechanics approaches, and has developed adaptive
Stokes equations. He previously developed a new
reduced-order optimization methods.
3 The FXB Flight Vehicle
Institute
The Association Franois-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) has
been extraordinarily generous in supporting our
Department over the years. To help further advance our
teaching and research missions, the Association has
recently pledged an additional $4 million to endow the
Franois-Xavier Bagnoud Fellowships, as well as the
research and educational initiatives in the Department.
This brings the Association FXBs total support to $13
million. Part of this support has been directed toward
establishing the Franois-Xavier Bagnoud Flight Vehicle
Institute.
The Institute is an integral part of our Department,
focusing on research and educational topics motivated
Students gather for a photo with Aerospace Engineering alumnus Jim McDivitt (the Commander of Apollo 9) in the Atrium of the
FXB Building.
by flight vehicles in an educational setting. It helps to
advance the strategic areas we have identified for
growth. Through the FXB Flight Vehicle Institute,
faculty, undergraduate, and graduate students work
together to advance the state-of-the-art in flight vehicle
research and teaching. Extracurricular projects at the
undergraduate level are being promoted. The Institute
will sponsor workshops, issue scholarly reports and
papers, and serve as a catalyst in the academic
community. The Institute also helps establish inter-
national as well as industrial collaborative activities,
Pr epar i n g f o r t o m o r r o w /
including guest lecturers, visiting researchers, and
students.
/ 39
 4 A New Major Energy Initiative

In response to the growing need for energy conversion and storage technologies, the University of Michigan has
established the Michigan Memorial Phoenix Energy Institute (MMPEI) with $11 million in building renovation and
an additional $9 million in initial funding. Our Department participates in this new initiative, and several members of
our faculty are involved in research supporting MMPEI goals.

Major thrusts of the Institute include energy conversion, storage and utilization, carbon-neutral energy sources,
energy policy, and economic and societal impacts of energy usage. It coordinates research across the University in
areas such as solar power, hydrogen technology, fuel cells, nuclear energy, battery research, and low power
electronics.

It brings together Michigans energy research activities to achieve maximum impact. MMPEI serves as a resource
to assist in developing funding and attracting faculty, managing facilities, engaging industry and providing a focal
ae r o spac e at m i c h i g a n /

point on energy research, policy, and education. It also established several new chaired faculty positions, and
several new graduate fellowships in energy.

This new energy institute gives our aerospace engineering students greater opportunities to learn about energy
issues and to become directly involved in research to help solve energy-related problems.
/ 40
This new energy institute gives our aerospace engineering

students greater opportunities to learn about energy issues and to

become directly involved in research to help solve energy-related

problems.

Pr epar i n g f o r t o m o r r o w /
/ 41
5 A New Environmental
Sustainability Center
In response to the growing concerns around environ-
mental issues, The Graham Foundation and the
University have recently created a new $10.5 million
Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute (GESI) to
develop solutions to complex environmental sustain-
ability issues, recognizing the need for balance between
societal needs and social responsibilities. Our
Department is a participant in this new sustainability
institute, and several members of our faculty are
involved in research that supports the GESI mission.
The Institutes goals are to increase the Universitys
multidisciplinary research and education in environmen-
tal sustainability and position Michigan as a global
leader in this field. The Graham Environmental
Sustainability Institute facilitates collaborative research
on environmental sustainability through financial and
administrative support. It leverages the Universitys
research and academic efforts, encourages innovative
academic programs that explore the complexities of
environmental sustainability, and emphasizes relation-
ships between ecosystems. The Institute also educates
communities and policy makers on how to economi-
cally and effectively achieve environmental sustainability.
The Institute is focused on areas of research where
knowledge is critical to reaching the goal of environ-
mental sustainability. These include energy, biodiversity
and global change, freshwater and marine resources,
Pr epar i n g f o r t o m o r r o w /
sustainable infrastructure, human health and environ-
ment, and environmental policymaking.
Through this new institute, undergraduate and graduate
students at Michigan have greater access to opportuni-
ties for learning about environmental sustainability and
for becoming involved in research to address related
issues.
Multi-scale simulation
methods are providing
/ 43
important new insights
into tailored materials
that can provide
environmentally-friendly
performance benefits.
 6 A New International Minor
for Engineers

In response to the growing internationalization of

aerospace and other engineering disciplines, a new
International Minor for Engineers program has recently
been instituted and made available to undergraduates
in Aerospace Engineering at Michigan. The College of
Engineering and the Department have also expanded
strategic partnerships with leading universities overseas
to facilitate student exchanges. The International
Programs in Engineering office has expanded its role in
connecting students with companies abroad seeking
engineering interns. Our students participating in the Paris Air Show (above) and
the University of Michigan/Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint
ae r o spac e at m i c h i g a n /

Institute Summer Program (below).

The minor seeks to prepare our engineering graduates to
succeed in a global society. It facilitates work in multina-
tional teams, creating products for a global marketplace,
and solving problems across national borders and
cultures. The minor officially recognizes not just foreign
language proficiency, but also understanding of other
cultures, study of engineering in a global context, and the
experience of living and working abroad.
/ 44

The 17-20 credit-hour engineering degree minor

requires four semesters of college-level foreign lan-
guage study, two courses on non-U.S. cultures or
societies, one course in business, humanities, or social
sciences with a comparative or global perspective, an
International Engineering Seminar that teaches global
trends in engineering and business as well as strategies
for working in multinational teams, and also requires at
least six weeks of study, work, research, or organized
volunteer work abroad.
This minor expands an existing global engineering
program that allowed students to add an international
component to their engineering education. The new
International Minor for Engineers increases the
requirements and acknowledges these with a formal
degree minor certification.
7 A New Engineering
Entrepreneurism Center

In light of the importance that entrepreneurship has for technology development, the College of Engineering has
recently established a new Center for Entrepreneurship with $1 million in initial funding.

Pr epar i n g f o r t o m o r r o w /
This new center is developing an entrepreneurship certificate program for engineering students taking courses in
innovation and business from professors or members of the broader entrepreneurial community. It also provides
grants for students to pursue their ideas, and connects current students with alumni from the College of
Engineering who work in the start-up community. The Center simplifies and clarifies student intellectual property
transfer, and advises the new entrepreneurship-focused engineering student group MPowered.

The Center is the latest initiative in a broad effort to further facilitate student entrepreneurship. It coordinates with
Michigans existing Zell-Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies, part of the Ross School of Business, to include
business courses in the engineering curriculum. This helps students bridge the gap between inventor and venture
capitalist.

/ 45
The Center for Entrepreneurship increases the ability of aerospace engineering students at Michigan to get
first-hand experience in entrepreneurial processes and the role that entrepreneurism plays in the aerospace
enterprise.
 8 Expanded Curriculum and
Design Opportunities

To further expand our students backgrounds beyond
traditional engineering analyses, our Department has
been enhancing its curriculum and encouraging student
involvement in extracurricular design-build-test
opportunities. We offer a highly successful first-year
engineering course that combines an introduction to
engineering with design-build-test projects. Students
design a Mars surveillance blimp that they then test via
Earth-scaled models. They learn by direct experience
and immersion in systems engineering issues. The
course has been supported in part by Boeing and
ae r o spac e at m i c h i g a n /
the Human Powered Helicopter team, the Michigan
Mars Rover team, the AeroDesign/MFly team, the
Student Space Systems Fabrication Laboratory, the Jet
Engine Club, the Model Airplane Club, and the
Michigan Aeronautical Science Association (MASA).
To increase opportunities for collaborative student team
design projects, the College has recently completed a
$3 million renovation of the Walter E. Wilson Student
Team Project Center, located adjacent to our
Department. This 10,000 square-foot center provides a
modern collaborative environment and team work-

Lockheed Martin, as well as the National Science

spaces for design, assembly, machining, and electron-
Foundation, the Air Force Research Laboratory, and the
ics. The Wilson Center allows student teams to
Department of Energy.
experience the practical application of engineering
Our students are highly engaged in extracurricular theories as well as hands-on development and
design-build-test activities involving collaborative fabrication in a team environment.
teams. Aerospace engineering student teams include
/ 46

Active student team activities include low gravity, flight-ready

equipment and solar cars.
9 100-Faculty Interdisciplinary
Hiring Initiative

The University has begun a $30 million Interdisciplinary Junior Faculty Initiative to add 100 new junior tenure-track
faculty positions in areas that advance interdisciplinary teaching and research. These new positions are created

Pr epar i n g f o r t o m o r r o w /
with the goal of recruiting scholars whose work crosses boundaries and opens new pathways, or for cluster hires
that bring scholars from different fields together to explore significant questions or address complex problems. The
program is enhancing the Universitys ability to engage emerging research opportunities.

A total of 25 new junior faculty have been hired under this initiative in 2008, the first year of the program, and three
of these are in engineering. Their research will be in data mining, learning, and discovery using massive datasets;
energy storage, and global change.

Over the next four years, the remaining 75 positions in this initial phase of the program will be similarly filled with
junior tenure-track faculty working in interdisciplinary areas that address some of the most important teaching and

/ 47
research opportunities for the future.
 t
y or
ilit re
e su
pp
g inab de
g ed
n rin ion ta sh
at i o
n e e
e n t
s u s
e ms r ts
m ini
al
iz gi nv l ign ys
t
al
a
,d
i
ds
en &i ta es es er ts ee
t ion n g o n m en
t d c i b o s n
na fin
i ti on spa
l c ta
l
er ova cr
af as ing cie
de vir ro g
int r e i n n e n a i r a e e n r i s s o

1 Expanded
Departmental
Research Thrusts

2 Strategic New
Aerospace Faculty
Hires

3 The FXB Flight Vehicle

Institute

4 A New Major Energy

Initiative

5 A New Environmental
Sustainability CenteR

6 A New International
Minor for Engineers

7 A New Engineering
Entrepreneurism
Center

8 Expanded Curriculum
and Design
Opportunities

9 100-Faculty
Interdisciplinary
Hiring Initiative
S
ince its inception, the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan has
been recognized as one of the leading members of the academic component in the aerospace
enterprise. Today, as throughout its nearly 100-year history, the Departments educational and
research activities are organized around advancing the technical disciplines needed to address
engineering issues associated with air and space vehicles, vehicle systems, and related

l ead i n g t h e way /
technologies. This includes a strategically balanced representation in the Departments research areas and in its
curriculum of aerodynamics and propulsion, solid mechanics and structures, flight dynamics and control, and
design of hardware and software in ways that prepare our students to become future leaders in this field.

/ 51

The Michigan-designed UAV Endurance recently broke the record for fuel-cell
powered flight. It flew for 10 hours, 15 minutes and 4 seconds on October 30th,
2008 in Milan, MI.
 As outlined in the preceding pages, our Department is
exceedingly well-positioned for the future. We have a
growing professoriate faculty of highly-recognized
individuals working in a collaborative and vibrant
intellectual climate, and strong enrollments of highly-
qualified students at both the undergraduate and
graduate levels. We have an excellent and highly
modern curriculum that is deep in its course offerings
and meets the needs of tomorrows aerospace
engineers. We have a strong research position that
successfully balances our traditional focus on
fundamental research questions with additional
efforts addressing engineering systems and
applications research in some of todays and
tomorrows most imperative topics.
In preparing for the next decade and beyond, our
ae r o spac e at m i c h i g a n /
Department takes an anticipatory and forward-looking
/ 52
Curiosity and enthusiasm are two critical factors that
characterize Michigan aerospace engineers.
approach. Rather than making speculative predictions
or simplistic assertions about which technical topic will
become the next major focus of our field, we instead
base our assessment of the future on identifying some
of the key elements that will influence the aerospace
enterprise over the next two decades. All of these will
have important impacts on this field, and will most likely
have implications on the future.
The resulting changes that these factors will produce
represent fresh challenges and opportunities for
academic departments that understand the forces
driving them, their nature and extent, and the implica-
tions they have across the aerospace enterprise. The
opportunities they present are available to those who
are prepared to be properly positioned for the next two
decades in this field.
The Department of Aerospace Engineering at Michigan
is ready for the future. We have implemented in a set
of closely coordinated steps with the College of
Engineering and the University the key initiatives
described herein to position ourselves and our
graduates to succeed. With these strategic moves,
aerospace engineering graduates from Michigan will
continue to lead the way into the future by building on
strong backgrounds in science and technology
reflected in our research and teaching, and in our
determination to think independently, critically, and
creatively.
Tomorrows aerospace engineering graduates from Michigan will

continue to serve as leaders into the future, making use of their

strong backgrounds in the science and technologies on which

the future will be founded, and the abilities that we have instilled in

them to think independently, critically, and creatively.

l ead i n g t h e way /
/ 53
Our faculty members are inspired, driven, and dedicated to the dual teaching and research missions on which the
Department is based. Many are recognized leaders in their fields of expertise; their research areas span the most
important contemporary aspects of aerospace engineering.

Ella M. Atkins, Associate Professor. Individual and James F. Driscoll, Professor. Turbulent combustion,
collaborative air and space systems, fault-tolerant flight nitric oxide reduction, supersonic combustion, scram-
management, UAV/MAV applications. jets, rocket combustion, laser diagnostics.

Luis P. Bernal, Associate Professor. Fluid mechanics, Krzysztof Fidkowski, Assistant Professor.
aerodynamics, turbulent shear flow, whole-field flow Computational fluid dynamics, higher-order discretiza-
measurement, microgravity fluid physics. tions, discontinuous Galerkin methods, fluid dynamics.

Dennis S. Bernstein, Professor. Linear and nonlinear Peretz P. Friedmann, Professor. Rotary and fixed wing
systems, identification, optimal, robust and adaptive aeroelasticity, aerothermoelasticity, multidisciplinary
control. optimization, micro air vehicles.

Iain D. Boyd, Professor. Electric propulsion, hyperson- Alec D. Gallimore, Professor. Experimental plasma
ics, micro-scale flows, computation of nonequilibrium physics, plasma probes, microwave and optical
gas and plasma dynamics. diagnostics, electric propulsion, space propulsion.

Carlos E. S. Cesnik, Professor. Aeroelasticity, active Anouck R. Girard, Assistant Professor. Nonlinear
vibration and noise reduction, structural health monitor- systems, hybrid systems, embedded systems,
ing, transducer design, signal processing. cooperative control, unmanned vehicles.

James W. Cutler, Assistant Professor. Small satellites, W. Matthias Ihme, Assistant Professor. Turbulent
space systems, ground stations, engineering design, reactive flows, large eddy simulation, flamelet modeling,
system engineering. scalar mixing, aeroacoustics.

Werner J.A. Dahm, Professor. Turbulence, turbulent Pierre T. Kabamba, Professor. Control theory, dynam-
flows, mixing, combustion, flow and combustion ics, modeling robustness, sampled-data systems,
modeling, propulsion, aerodynamics, defense science. guidance, navigation, process control.
N. Harris McClamroch, Professor. Nonlinear dynamics
and control, geometric mechanics, feedback control,
optimization, estimation.
Elaine S. Oran, Adjunct Professor. Computational fluid
dynamics, computational combustion, rarified gas flow,
fluid and particle dynamics, astrophysics.
Kenneth G. Powell, Professor. Computational fluid
dynamics, aerodynamics, numerical methods for
plasmas, computational space physics.
Philip L. Roe, Professor. Computational fluid dynamics,
gasdynamics, nonequilibrium flow, hypersonics,
magnetohydrodynamics, electromagnetics.
John A. Shaw, Associate Professor. Mechanics of
adaptive materials and structures, instabilities and
thermomechanical behavior of solids, experimental
mechanics.
Daniel J. Scheeres, Adjunct Professor. Astrodynamics,
orbital mechanics, asteroid and comet science,
navigation and control, space science.
Wei Shyy, Professor and Chair. Computational fluid
dynamics, micro air vehicles, bio-inspired flight, biofluid
dynamics, thermofluid systems.
Timothy B. Smith, Lecturer. Experimental plasma
physics, atomic spectroscopy, laser diagnostics,
electric propulsion, space propulsion.
Veera Sundararaghavan, Assistant Professor.
Computational mechanics, multi-scale modeling,
atomistic simulations, optimization, high performance
computing.
Nicolas Triantafyllidis, Professor. Continuum mechan-
ics, micromechanics, structural stability, geomechanics,
magneto-electro-mechanical coupling in solids.
Bram van Leer, Professor. Computational fluid dynam-
ics, fluid dynamics, numerical analysis, compressible
flow, hyperbolic partial differential equations.
Anthony M. Waas, Professor. Composite structures,
structural stability, biologically inspired materials,
nanocomposites, engineered materials.
Peter D. Washabaugh, Associate Professor.
Experimental solid mechanics, fracture mechanics,
instrumentation, non-destructive testing, optimization.
Charla K. Wise, Adjunct Professor. Vice President of
Technology Environment, Safety and Health,
Lockheed Martin Corporation.
Margaret S. Wooldridge, Professor (Mechanical
Engineering). Combustion, reburn and co-firing
technologies, reaction kinetics, aerosol sampling
and transport, optical diagnostics.
Thomas H. Zurbuchen, Professor (Atmospheric,
Oceanic, and Space Sciences). Space flight hardware,
space particle detectors, heliosphere plasma
composition, solar wind, interstellar gas and dust.
Photo credits:
Cover: The Eagle Nebula as seen with the Spitzer Space Telescope.
Image: courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/ Institut dAstrophysique
Spatiale.
Page 3: Photo: Jupiterimages.com.
Page 6: The Wright Brothers first heavier-than-air flight on December
17, 1903. Photo: courtesy NASA.
Page 7: This look-down view of NASAs SR-71A aircraft shows the
Blackbird on the ramp at the Dryden Flight Research Center,
Edwards, California, with Rogers Dry Lake in the background. Photo:
courtesy NASA.
Page 8: Astronauts Ed White and James McDivitt inside the Gemini
IV Spacecraft. Photo: courtesy NASA.
Page 9: On June 3, 1965 Edward H. White II became the first
American to step outside his spacecraft and let go, effectively setting
himself adrift in the zero gravity of space. Photo: courtesy NASA.
Page 10-11: Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisaea) in flight.
Photo: Darrell Gulin/Riser/Getty Images.
Page 14: Workers position the tail cone on the Space Shuttle
Discovery in preparation for its return to Nasas Kennedy
Space Center in Florida. Photo: courtesy NASA
Page 16: Photo: courtesy NASA.
Page 18-19: STS-96 Shuttle Mission Imagery. Photo: courtesy NASA.
Page 20: Technicians inspect the sub-scale X-48B Blended Wing
Body concept demonstrator in the full-scale wind tunnel at NASAs
Langley Research Center. Photo courtesy: NASA.
Page 24: Photo: Jupiterimages.com.
Page 25: Photo: Copyright Boeing.
Page 27: Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II in flight. Photo: courtesy
Lockheed Martin.
Page 30-31: Row of Wind Turbines. Photo: Don Klumpp/ Iconica/
Getty Images.
Page 33: (lower right image) NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center
(MSFC) and university scientists from the National Space Science
and Technology Center (NSSTC) in Huntsville, Alabama, are watching
the Sun in an effort to better predict space weather - blasts of
particles and magnetic fields from the Sun that impact the
magnetosphere, the magnetic bubble around the Earth. Photo:
courtesy NASA.
Page 36: Space shuttle launch, Cape Canaveral, Florida. Photo:
Jupiterimages.com.
Page 42: Space station orbiting around Earth. Photo: World
Perspectives/Stock Image Collection/Jupiterimages.
Page 49: A diversified mission of astronomy, commercial space
research and International Space Station preparation gets under way
as the Space Shuttle Columbia climbs into orbit from Launch Pad
39B at 2:55:47 p.m. EST, Nov. 19, 1996. Photo: courtesy NASA.
Page 50: The F-22 Raptor in flight. Photo: Jupiterimages.com.
Page 54-55: This wide-field image of the Eagle Nebula was taken at
the National Science Foundations 0.9-meter telescope on Kitt Peak
with the NOAO Mosaic CCD camera. Image: courtesy NASA /
T.A.Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage, NRAO/AUI/NSF and
NOAO/AURA and B.A.Wolpa.
Department of Aerospace Engineering
The University of Michigan
3054 Franois-Xavier Bagnoud Building
1320 Beal Avenue
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2140
aerospace.engin.umich.edu
Graduate Program:
Denise Phelps, Graduate Student Services
Coordinator
Phone: (734) 615-4406 or (734) 764-3311
dphelps@umich.edu
Undergraduate Program:
Linda Weiss, Undergraduate Student Services
Coordinator
Phone: (734) 764-3310
lweiss@umich.edu
Regents of the University
Julia Donovan Darlow, Ann Arbor; Laurence B. Deitch, Bingham Farms; Denise
Ilitch, Bingham Farms; Olivia P. Maynard, Goodrich; Andrea Fischer Newman,
Ann Arbor; Andrew C. Richner, Grosse Pointe Park; S. Martin Taylor, Grosse
Pointe Farms; Katherine E. White, Ann Arbor; Mary Sue Coleman, ex officio
Nondiscrimination Policy Notice
The University of Michigan, as an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer,
complies with all applicable federal and state laws regarding nondiscrimination
and affirmative action, including Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972
and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The University of Michigan is
committed to a policy of nondiscrimination and equal opportunity for all persons
regardless of race, sex, color, religion, creed, national origin or ancestry, age,
marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, disability,
or Vietnam-era veteran status in employment, educational programs and
activities, and admissions. Inquiries or complaints may be addressed to the
Senior Director for Institutional Equity and Title IX/Section 504 Coordinator,
Office of Institutional Equity, 2072 Administrative Services Building, Ann Arbor,
Michigan 48109-1432, 734-763-0235, TTY 734-647-1388. For other
University of Michigan information call 734-764-1817.
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