Aerospace Engineering & Engineering Mechanics

Utilizing Last Frontier to Study our Own Planet

The Department of Aerospace Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin has come a long way since granting its first degree in 1927. Space is still a destination and object of study, but it also has become the vantage point from which we investigate and improve our own planet. The Department of Aerospace Engineering pursues education and research to prepare future engineers for this task - from mapping deforestation and migration to tracking weather patterns and earth sensing and imaging. Additionally, aerospace engineers investigate current challenges in atmospheric flight, such as autonomous aircraft, flexible structures, more efficient propulsion with lower environmental impact and safer reentry to the earth's atmosphere from space. The department offers top-ranked graduate and undergraduate programs, interdisciplinary studies opportunities and access to very strong research centers and laboratories.

Research Areas

• Aerothermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics
• Computational Mechanics
• Guidance and Control
• Orbital Mechanics
• Solids, Structures and Materials
• Structural Dynamics

Points of Distinction

Nine faculty are members of the National Academy of Engineering.

Undergraduate and graduate programs both ranked among the top 10 programs in the nation.

Six department graduates have gone on to be astronauts for NASA and the European Space Agency.

Alumnus Mason Peck Named NASA's Chief Technologist

Aerospace alumnus Mason Peck (B.S. plan II '89, B.S. ASE '94), associate professor at Cornell University, has recently been named NASA's chief technologist. He will serve as the agency's principal adviser and advocate on a broad spectrum of matters. His two-year term will begin in January 2012.

According to a recent NASA press release, as the chief advocate, Peck will help communicate how NASA technologies benefit space missions and the day-to-day lives of Americans. The office is also responsible for integrating technology throughout the agency and showing the societal impact of NASA's technology investments. Read more about Peck's appointment.

Professor Hans Mark Discusses Challenger 25 Years Later

John J. McKetta Centennial Energy Chair in Engineering and Professor Hans Mark visited Fox 7's Good Day on Friday, Jan. 28 to discuss the 25th anniversary of the Challenger disaster.

Mark has served as director of the NASA-Ames Research Center, secretary of the Air Force, deputy administrator of NASA and most recently, director of Defense Research and Engineering.

Watch the full segment on Fox 7's Web site.

Professor Oden Wins SIAM Prize

Professor J. Tinsley Oden has been selected to receive the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics/Association for Computing Machinery (SIAM/ACM) Prize in Computational Science and Engineering (CS&E) for his outstanding research contributions to the development and use of mathematical and computational tools and methods for the solution of science and engineering problems.

The award consists of a certificate containing the citation and a cash prize of $5,000 which will be presented at the SIAM Conference on CS&E.

Dr. Oden serves as the director of the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences. He holds the Cockrell Family Regents' Chair in Engineering No. 2 and the Peter O'Donnell Jr. Centennial Chair in Computing Systems.

Alumna's Success Combines Aerospace Degree with Business

Even Laura O'Donnell, B.S. ASE '90, didn't expect her aerospace engineering degree to lead her to becoming a top executive for the fastest growing personal HD camera company in the world. As executive vice president of consumer products at Contour Inc., O'Donnell has discovered the versatility of her degree and the value of her engineering education have eased her path to the top in ways that now feel as natural as choosing to go to The University of Texas at Austin in the first place. Read more.