Engineered advanced materials and adaptive structures for sustainable terrestrial and space travel, security and habitation.
The widespread adoption of composites - combined with advances in additive manufacturing, robotics and automation - has expanded our capacity to manufacture new forms and build unusual flight structures. Our faculty explore new designs, tests, and manufacturing methods, looking at how novel materials are performing across the industry. Current research includes design of engineered materials systems (e.g. nanocomposites and metamaterials), structural design, material characterization, non-destructive testing and evaluation, certification and structural health monitoring. In these activities, state of the art computational modeling methods are utilized and new methodologies are developed.
Undergraduate students have the opportunity to design, build, and fly new aircraft concepts in our senior-level Aircraft Design Capstone. The new capstone design teams includes personnel from industry and allow students to work on a variety of structural concepts that impact spacecraft, aircraft and unmanned aerial systems. The teams make use of our on-site machine shop, composite lab, and 3D fabrication facility. Graduate students work closely with prominent faculty and collaborative industry partners on contemporary cutting-edge research problems.
Key research areas
- Aeroelasticity
- Aircraft Design
- Composite Materials
- Fatigue, Vibration and Impact
- Metamaterials
- Solid Mechanics
- Structural Analysis and Dynamics
- Wave Propagation
Associated faculty
Key labs
- Active Aeroelastic Structures Lab
- Laboratory for Multiscale Analysis of Materials and Structures
- Illimited Lab
- Programmable Matter Lab
Key centers
- Advanced Composites Center
- Advanced Materials in Transport Aircraft Structures (AMTAS)
- Boeing Advanced Research Center
