Research

The AEM department has built broad expertise in the core foundations of aerospace engineering and mechanics: fluid dynamics, solid mechanics and materials, and aerospace systems. Our faculty is active and our research is in strong demand; in 2018 AEM had over $8.9 million in sponsored research expenditures. AEM research ranges from the design of hypersonic aircraft to the discovery of new active materials with unprecedented properties; from new control algorithms for drones to the discovery of MRI methods for measuring fluid flow in the respiratory system. Our research guides our undergraduate and graduate teaching and inspires our students. Our fundamental scientific approach to all our areas of teaching and research catalyzes an unmistakable atmosphere of collegiality in AEM. 

Additionally, AEM researchers have ongoing collaborations at the University of Antwerp, Bonn, Carleton (Canada), Kiel, KU Leuven, Melbourne, Queensland, Canberra, Oslo, Oxford, Tel Aviv, the Ecole Centrale and Ecole Polytechnique, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; at research institutions such as the European Space Agency, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Sztaki), the Laboratoire de Mecanique des Solides (Paris), the Max Planck Institute on Mathematics in Sciences (Leipzig), the Norwegian Institute of Technology, the Advanced Institute of Italy (SISSA), the von Karman Institute for Fluid Mechanics (Belgium) and SYNTEF Energy Research (Norway). AEM researchers also currently lead the NSF sponsored KIM project (400 members in 29 countries) and "The Rise of Data in Materials Research" (participants from Belgium, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, and the UK).