Penn State’s Department of Aerospace Engineering has a distinguished record of research excellence and scholarship. The department’s research spans the range of traditional disciplines associated with research in aeronautics and astronautics, including relatively unique strengths (given our moderate size) in rotorcraft and aero-acoustics. We are also growing into new areas associated with increasing computational power for design and analysis and for on-board autonomy, and with new challenges in the industry such as sustainable aviation and the incredible growth in space systems.
In the fiscal/academic year 2022-2023, over 50 research projects generated a total of over $9.5M in sponsored research funding. Most of our graduate students’ work towards research theses (for MS and PhD) are supported on distinguished fellowships and research assistantships. We also actively collaborate across the university and with our neighboring UARC, the Applied Research Lab, and our students may also be sponsored and advised by a significant cadre of faculty in other units also officially affiliated with our research program.
Our faculty include a diverse range of experienced and new researchers. Collectively, our accomplishments include:
- Vertical Lift and Rotorcraft Center of Excellence (VLRCOE) – Competitively re-bid every 5 years, 6 times so far and going strong!
- PIs on large, multi-disciplinary research efforts including a NASA University Leadership Initiative, MURI and SURI
- Amongst our junior faculty, multiple competitive young investigator awards, including NSF CAREER and DoD Young Investigator awards
- Roughly 1/3 of our faculty are Fellows of societies including the AIAA, Vertical Flight Society, American Physical Society & HFES
- Distinguished society elections including member of the Int. Academy of Astronautics, and Distinguished Lecturer in IEEE AESS
- Awards including the AIAA Aero Acoustics Award (3), AIAA Sperry Award (2), AIAA Applied Aerodynamics Award, Am Astronautical Society Brouwer Award, and AIAA de Florez Award in Flight Simulation
- NAA Collier Trophy (as part of the the Exec Committee of the Commercial Aviation Safety Team)