2023 AEM Open House
Welcoming curious minds and sharing experiences
MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (12/15/2023) — Earlier this fall, the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics (AEM) held its annual open house event throughout the various spaces in Akerman Hall. The event drew nearly 100 visitors, mostly freshmen, to learn about the different AEM majors and opportunities.
Several juniors, seniors, and grad students from student teams and organizations, such as the Rocket Team, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), and the UMN Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project (NEBP) were on hand to answer questions and to showcase their team’s various projects and activities to attendees.
The action spilled over from the Balas Atrium into the halls of Akerman where students were greeted by the UMN Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project (NEBP) team. The week prior, the team returned from a trip to New Mexico where they studied an annular solar eclipse from stratospheric ballooning platforms. Hardware flown during the eclipse was put on display, and students also got to see short video clips from a 360-degree camera on the NEBP stack.
Heading around the corner or up the stairs, many students found themselves captivated by the demonstrations of equipment in the different labs. Many students were very interested to see the tabletop wind tunnel, even before it was fully fine-tuned.
Speaking to the event, Teaching Lab Manager, Brett Rosiejka stated, “It was good to see younger students having meaningful conversations with older students, especially about AEM coursework and research. Younger students who saw the junior and senior lab experiments (Instrumentations Lab AEM 4601 and Aeromechanics Lab AEM 4602) really seemed to enjoy seeing what they would be doing in their future lab courses.”
Special thanks to all the students, faculty and staff who contributed to the evening’s success!
