Aerospace Systems

Our research aims to improve the safety, environmental impact, economics and productivity of aerospace systems. In doing so, we train students to work within interdisciplinary teams to develop new technologies that shape our society.

Graduates from the programs who participated in our research have gone on to academic positions at leading universities around the world, government agencies such as the National Wind Technology Center, and companies such as Amazon and Blue Origin.

Real-world Impact

A student holding a drone.

The aerospace systems research group works on projects ranging from cable-driven robots and solar sails to the navigation, guidance and control of aerospace vehicles. 

Graduate students have performed research to improve the aerospace systems performance in a variety of applications — everything from using drones for precision agriculture to improving wind turbine power capture efficiency and designing more fuel-efficient aircraft through automation.

Renowned Research Faculty

AEM instructors are recognized for their expertise in flight dynamics, robust control, estimation, guidance and navigation, reduced-order modeling, distributed decision making and control, unmanned aerial vehicles, robotics, machine learning, and formal methods — a diversity of knowledge that yields fruitful internal and external research collaborations. This group also has strong connections across several departments at UMN.

Faculty in this Area

Professor Ryan Caverly
Ryan Caverly
Associate Professor, McKnight Land-Grant Professor
[email protected]
612-625-2540
126 Akerman Hall
Demoz headshot
Demoz Gebre-Egziabher
Professor & Director of the Minnesota Space Grant Consortium
[email protected]
612-624-2305
121 Akerman Hall
Maziar Hemati
Maziar S. Hemati
Associate Professor, Russell J. Penrose Faculty Fellow
[email protected]
612-625-6857
117C Akerman Hall
Professor Damennick Henry
Damennick Henry
Assistant Professor
[email protected]
205B Akerman Hall
Strandjord
Kirsten Strandjord
Lecturer/Assistant Professor
[email protected]
224 Akerman Hall
Professor Yue Yu
Yue Yu
Assistant Professor
[email protected]
216 Akerman Hall