Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

Aerospace and mechanical engineers design and build unique, complex mechanical-optical-electronic (mechoptronic) systems, ranging in scale from the International Space Station (102 m) to microscale electric generators and pumping systems (< 10-3 m). During the last half-century, the capabilities of mechoptronic systems have expanded to near-Earth, planetary, and interplanetary space. There has been a parallel inward extension to the ocean depths, far underground, and deep inside the intricacies of human bodies. A broad range of engineering science research is critical to developing novel, complex mechoptronic systems. As a consequence, aerospace and mechanical engineers conduct extensive basic and applied research within and crossing their usual disciplinary boundaries, while also synthesizing research from many other disciplines such as biology and computer science.