Using Regional Technical Conferences To Augment Aerospace Design Projects

Successfully integrating academic and industry players into the aerospace engineering classroom requires innovation and focus. The benefits, however, include the illustration of current aerospace design practices and tools. This paper describes the co-location of a regional technical symposium alongside a capstone aerospace design project. With this approach, industry has a focused interaction with students and faculty that significantly augments the traditional classroom experience. A case study on a tactical missile project is discussed in detail to illustrate how this benefits the student’s ability, “to design a system, component, or process to meet desired needs within realistic constraints such as economic, environmental, social, political, ethical, health and safety, manufacturability, and sustainability.” The symposium described was filmed making it available to use at another time or institution.