A broad-based program of research is being conducted by the faculty of the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics. Research efforts are concentrated in three areas:

Solid Mechanics and Structures: advance composites, elasticity and plasticity, fatigue/fracture mechanics, machine design, material joining, mechanical characterization, MEMS, nondestructive evaluation, nonlinear mechanics, penetration mechanics, photoelasticity, and stress analysis

Fluid Mechanics: aerospace propulsion, computational fluid mechanics, experimental aerodynamics, flow control, heat transfer, luminescent sensing, novel LDV and PIV development, transport phenomena, and transition and turbulence modeling

Dynamics and Controls: aeroacoustics, aeroelasticity, genetic algorithms, multidisciplinary modeling, navigation and gyroscopes, neural networks, numerical models, structural dynamics and control of flexible bodies, and vibroacoustics

Excellent computing and laboratory facilities are available to support these areas of research. Research assistantships are available for undergraduate and graduate students on many of these research projects.