Confidential


Leadership Responsibilities



Download 1.81 Mb.
Page7/13
Date30.04.2018
Size1.81 Mb.
#47015
1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   ...   13

Leadership Responsibilities


Professor Lakshmi Sankar, Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies, has the leadership responsibilities for the program. He reports to the AE School Chair, Professor Robert Loewy. The Academic Council (made of Discipline Chairs from all the disciplines within the AE program) works closely with Prof. Sankar and Prof. Loewy to oversee the program, assess the program outcomes and make continuous improvements to the program. Ms. Daurette Joseph serves as the staff academic advisor for the program and assists the Associate Chair in administering the undergraduate program.

Authority and Responsibility of Faculty


The development of a new course begins with a proposal submitted to the Academic Council by the Chair of a discipline within AE. The course proposal is submitted with the endorsement of the Academic Council to the AE faculty for approval. Then, with approval from the Office of the Dean of Engineering, the proposal moves on to the Institute Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and ultimately the Academic Senate for final approval to be listed in the Institute’s Course Catalog.

Once created, all BME courses are reviewed by the AE faculty periodically to ensure that the content of the courses is consistent with the course outcomes, and that the course outcomes are still correlated to the program outcomes. This is done by examining student work in the subject course, and assessment exams given at the start of upper level courses. Each course has a faculty member assigned to it who is responsible for its oversight, as well as serving as a resource for faculty who join in teaching the course.

The content of courses is periodically modified as a result of faculty observations, student feedback, or evaluation of data from the program outcomes assessment process. As needed, new courses are created and older courses are deleted from the catalog. The most current course descriptions are posted on the School web site to enable both the faculty and the students to have access to detailed information on the content of the courses that comprise the program’s curriculum.
Faculty

We closely follow and point to state of the art industry and research activities in our coursework.  All of the faculty members teaching upper level courses interact with industries and government labs on a routine basis through their sponsored research, publications in professional society meetings, and consulting.  Many of our faculty members have worked in the industry or at a government lab, and are active in AIAA, AHS, IEEE and other professional societies.  A number of our faculty members are Fellows of the AIAA and AHS professional societies.  Two of our faculty members have been inducted into the National Academy of Engineering.



Faculty Size

The program has sufficient number of faculty members (22 full professors, 9 associate professors, and 5 assistant professors). The student to faculty load is 21 at the undergraduate level. There are at least 4 faculty members in each of the sub-disciplines within AE (aerodynamics, propulsion, structures and materials, structural dynamics and aeroelasticity, flight mechanics and control, and design).


Appendix B contains an abbreviated resume for each program faculty member with the rank of instructor or above.

Faculty Development


<>

Table 6-1. Faculty Workload Summary


<>


Faculty Member (name)

FT or

PT4



Classes Taught (Course No./Credit Hrs.)

Term and Year1



Total Activity Distribution2

Teaching

Research/Scholarly Activity

Other3





























































































































































































































































1 Indicate Term and Year for which data apply (the academic year preceding the visit).

2 Activity distribution should be in percent of effort. Members' activities should total 100%.

3 Indicate sabbatical leave, etc., under "Other."

4 FT = Full Time Faculty PT = Part Time Faculty

Table 6-2. Faculty Analysis


<>

Name


Rank

Type of

Academic


Appointment

TT, T, NTT


FT or PT


Highest Degree and Field

Institution from which Highest Degree Earned & Year


Years of Experience



Professional Registration/

Certification



Level of Activity (high, med, low, none) in:

Govt./Industry Practice

Total Faculty

This Institution

Professional

Society


Research

Consulting

/Summer


Work in Industry














































































































































































































































































































































































































































Instructions: Complete table for each member of the faculty of the program. Use additional sheets if necessary. Updated information is to be provided at the time of the visit. The level of activity should reflect an average over the year prior to visit plus the two previous years.

Column 3 Code: TT = Tenure Track T = Tenured NTT = Non Tenure Track

CRITERION 7. FACILITIES

The undergraduate and graduate curriculum in Aerospace Engineering is designed to provide a comprehensive program of study leading to a Bachelor's, MS, or Ph D Degree.  A key part of this program, particularly at the undergraduate level, is the laboratory experience, which is carefully designed to complement the concepts studied in the classroom and to introduce the student to a variety of experimental techniques and modern instrumentation.


Objectives of the Undergraduate Laboratories: The objectives of the undergraduate laboratories in aerospace engineering are to provide the student with:

 

i)      a sound education in the fundamentals of experimental methods, diagnostics, and advanced instrumentation;



ii)     a laboratory experience that emphasizes a highly personal and hands-on involvement with challenging experiments, and a chance to learn through measurement and inference;

iii)    physical insights into the subject matter encountered in the classroom; and

iv)   experimentally-derived results that can be compared with theoretical predictions discussed in the classroom, thus developing in the student a strong feeling and appreciation for the need to continually compare theory with observations; and

v)    an opportunity to make technical presentations (written and oral) and respond to questions.

 

The Role of the Laboratories in the Curriculum: The laboratory portion of the program of study is designed around the following courses.

 

i)      Required laboratory courses in the three fundamental disciplines that are the focus of the undergraduate aerospace curriculum, namely aerodynamics, flight mechanics, and structures.



ii)     A computer course and computer applications laboratory that support all of the other laboratory and lecture courses in the curriculum.

 

The laboratory courses consist of the following.



 

AE 3051 - Experimental Fluid Mechanics.  The course complements AE 2020 (Low Speed Aerodynamics), AE 3450 (Thermodynamics and Compressible Flow) and AE 3021 (High-Speed Aerodynamics).

 AE 3145 - Structures Laboratory.  This course complements AE 2120 (Introduction to Mechanics), AE 3120 (Introduction to Structural Analysis) and AE 3121 (Aerospace Structural Analysis)

 AE 4525 -Control System Design Laboratory.  This course complements AE 3515 and AE 3521 (Aircraft and Spacecraft Flight Dynamics).

  

In addition, the Aerospace Computer Lab is a facility that supports all laboratory and lecture courses in the aerospace engineering curriculum by providing students access to modern computational resources for performing class assignments and projects, writing reports and preparing presentations.



 

Funding and Support for Laboratories: Funding for laboratory equipment is provided from the Institute, the School, and outside sources.  The school also supports the laboratories through monies for supplies and personal services.  Personal services take the form of Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) and support personnel.  Two to three Teaching Assistants are assigned to each of the three experimental laboratories; they set up the experiments, assist/oversee the student experimenters and help in grading laboratory reports, all under faculty supervision.  Support personnel include full-time employees in the aerospace engineering machine shop and electronics shop, and computer support specialists.  The school policy is that maintenance and repair of instructional laboratory equipment has the first call on the services of the support personnel. 

 

Funding for major equipment items purchased in the past has come primarily from the Institute through the Dean of Engineering, the Provost’s Office (Academic Affairs), and Student Technology Fees, as well as some funding from the AE School.  It is anticipated that funding support will continue to come from these sources, while outside support from both government (e.g., NSF) and industry will continue to be pursued.



 

Overview of Laboratories

 

Aerospace Computer Laboratory: The computing support staff in the AE School supports the Aerospace Computer Lab.  The laboratory is currently open from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. on Monday-Friday.  It is operated in an unattended mode during these times.  All faculty members have direct access to the lab and can use it for instructional purposes at any time during the week.  Supervising graduate teaching assistants for the senior capstone design courses also have access to the lab and can use it on weekends and evenings for supervised lab sessions.  Otherwise, unattended operation of the lab outside normal business hours is not allowed. 

 The lab supports a suite of software that is appropriate to the educational and research objectives of the school.  The core includes word processors, spreadsheets, equation solvers, math systems, graphics systems, network access software, and all software in the suite of software that students are required to purchase.  In addition, a smaller number of special purpose software systems are maintained. All 30 systems currently in the lab are running either Windows 2000 or Windows XP. 

 The lab hosts specialized software for supporting classes in computational structural analysis, computational aerodynamics, simulation, geometric modeling, and multimedia creation and presentation.  A Beowulf Cluster system was acquired and installed in laboratory space in the Weber Space Science and Technology Building. The aim of this facility is to enable professional-level computation programs in fluid mechanics, solid mechanics and aeroelasticity into undergraduate courses.  The results from well-validated codes will be made available to formulate realistic problems, assess results using physical insight, and to give students a feel for the usage of such codes within an environment of academic guidance. 

 The laboratory is located in Knight 318 and occupies approximately 700 square feet of space.  The room is equipped with an SVGA video projector and can be used for classroom instruction where each student has immediate access to a computer.  In addition the lab can be used to host problem-solving sessions for other courses or it can serve as a place for student design teams to work together on a project.

 

Classroom Facilities: Classroom instruction in aerospace engineering is continually being revised, updated and improved to reflect the latest developments in the field and to incorporate the best and most appropriate instructional technology.  To support these efforts, all of the classrooms in the AE School are also being continuously improved with the addition of new but proven A/V technology appropriate to our program of undergraduate instruction.

 

Aerospace Structures Laboratory : The Aerospace Structures Laboratory provides hands-on experience in structural testing and experimental data collection and analysis for every aerospace engineering undergraduate.  Space for the laboratory is located in Room 301 of the Montgomery Knight building.  In addition, space is shared with the Structures and Materials Laboratory in Room 106 of the Montgomery Knight building, and the Composites Manufacturing Laboratory, located in Rooms 216-217 of the Weber building.

 

The structures laboratory is currently taught as one course, AE 3145, offered each semester of the academic year.  This one-credit hour class is offered in three or four sections each semester, with enrollment in each section limited to twelve students.  The course consists of seven two-week laboratory experiment cycles, with a one-hour lecture offered during the first week and a three-hour laboratory performed the following week of each cycle. 



 

The student selects seven experiments from a supplied list.  This list changes as new experiments are designed and developed.  Training is provided to allow each student to install strain gages in at least one of these experiments.  Tests are conducted, data collected, and formal written reports prepared for each experiment.  Where applicable, comparisons between experimental findings and analyses are made.  Analysis of the data and data visualization are carried out using spreadsheets and Matlab scripts while reports are prepared using word processors. 

 

A member of the faculty teaches the laboratory course for a full year.  Two graduate Teaching Assistants are assigned to assist students in each laboratory section.  One Instron screw-jack testing machine with modern computer-based controller is available in Room 301 for structural testing, and a second Instron 8500 series servohydraulic test machine, also computer controlled, is available in the Structures and Materials Lab.  Thus, both static testing with controlled screw-jack displacements and full dynamic testing under load, displacement, or strain control can be experienced.  The laboratory is also equipped with a computerized data acquisition system, and emphasis is placed on the use of this system by the students to automate data collection from the experiments whenever possible.  This is part of a joint effort with the Aerodynamics Laboratory (AE3051) to develop and implement a unified treatment of computerized data acquisition and control in tests using advanced instrumentation.



  

The structures laboratory courses provide a laboratory experience with a student/instructor ratio of about 4/1.

 

Aerodynamics and Propulsion Laboratory Facilities: The laboratory experience in Aerodynamics/Propulsion consists of a two-credit-hour junior-level core course (AE3051).  AE3051 aims to introduce the student to various diagnostic techniques commonly used in fluid mechanics research, preliminary design, and testing, specifically related to aerodynamics and propulsion. 

 

Nine different sets of experiments are performed in AE 3051 during nine laboratory periods stretching over thirteen weeks.  Knowledge of low-speed aerodynamics and two-dimensional compressible flow is assumed; these are covered in AE2020 and 3450, respectively.  Each experiment is built around a series of related measurement techniques.  In addition, the student learns to compare experimental results with the knowledge gained in the lecture courses.  Seven of the nine experiments in AE3051 require results summarized into data reports and the other two require full laboratory reports.  The experiments are performed in teams of three to five, but individual reports have to be prepared by each student.  The reports include the student's answers to several questions.  The grading of the reports considers various aspects of technical reporting and laboratory practice.  In addition, each student makes a ten-minute oral presentation to the class, describing the proposed solution to a hypothetical measurement problem assigned in the last four weeks of the semester.  This "proposal" is graded on creativity, thought, and thoroughness.  The audience is encouraged to ask questions.  The data acquisition procedures are largely computerized and all laboratory reports must be produced using word processing and computer graphics.  However, some aspects of the experiments are done by human observation, careful alignment and adjustment, judgment and qualitative sketches.



 

The facilities required to run AE3051 are located in Room 403/5 and 42" x 42" low speed wind tunnel in Room 106 of the main Aerospace Engineering building.   The Combustion Laboratory is housed in the new Combustion Facilities.  A shock tube is set up parallel to the low turbulence tunnel in the same room.  Supersonic flow experiments are carried out in a Mach 2 tunnel and an in-draft nozzle located in the Combustion Laboratory. In these three facilities, the undergraduate labs and courses are assigned priority in scheduling. 

 

Flight Mechanics and Controls Laboratory Facilities: The undergraduate controls laboratory is the main avenue for teaching analysis, modeling and control of dynamical (mechanical) systems to the undergraduate students in the School of Aerospace Engineering.  Typically, 90-100 undergraduate students take this lab every year. The pre-requisites include AE3521 (Aircraft and Spacecraft Flight Dynamics) and AE3515 (Vibrations and System Dynamics).

 

Twelve sets of experiments are performed in AE4525 during the semester. The experiments include either modeling (DC motor), or control (helicopter) or both (DC motor, Gyro Stabilized platform). Each experiment deals with a specific principle (PID controller design, lead-lag design, LQR, etc) and it focuses around a separate demo. Extensive use of the MATLAB and SIMULINK environments allow the students to implement/modify their control designs during the lab time in an interactive manner. Use of numerical simulations is necessary to test Flight Control or Stability Augmentation Systems for aircraft or stabilizing controllers for spacecraft. Recently, this deficiency has been mitigated by the incorporation of two new experiments: one on spacecraft 3-axial dynamics and control using a “spacecraft platform” on a three-axial air-bearing and one on 3-D flight simulator for avionics control design. The lab is conducted as follows: There is one 1-hr lecture each week that goes over the particular subject to be covered in the lab that week. Depending on the number of students, the rest of the week is devoted to conducting the experiments. For this purpose, the students are divided into groups of 8-10 students. Each group rotates on a weekly basis to a different experiment. The students’ lab responsibilities include both an individual report and a group report. In the individual report each student includes the details of his/her own control design. This part is completed before the student comes to the lab. The group report includes the results from the controller implementation and its evaluation during the lab. Each group is requested to compare between the simulated and measured response of the system and subsequently comment on the performance of each controller design implemented during the lab. Additional homework is occasionally assigned that covers topics introduced in the lecture part of the class.


The FMC lab is located in Rooms 212/214 of the Montgomery Knight Building. It occupies a space of 480 sq-ft; there are six stations for experiments (this includes the actual device and the controlling PC). Three graduate students (supported by the School) are available to assist the students with the experiments. Among them one (typically the most senior) is designated as the “lead” TA, who is responsible for conducting and overseeing the experiments. The other two TAs mainly assist with the grading of the lab reports and for helping the students during designated office hours.
CRITERION 8. SUPPORT



Program Budget Process and Sources of Financial Support

Resource allocation at Georgia Tech is a top down process, where the State of Georgia allocates the resources for the entire University System of Georgia. The Board of Regents allocates these resources to individual universities. Once Georgia Tech receives an allocation from the Board of Regents, these allocations flow through the hierarchy of leadership to the various Colleges, including the College of Engineering.


The school of Aerospace Engineering is informed of the total allocations for an upcoming fiscal year (June 1 – May 30) by the Dean of Engineering. The Dean bases this allocation on a number of factors: total number of faculty members, number of credit hours taught, the overhead generated by the School based on research, etc. Once the overall allocation for a fiscal year is known, the School prepares a budget.
Sources of Financial Support
The School relies on four sources of financial support: support from the State of Georgia as discussed above, sponsored research support, technology fee funds (lottery funds received from the State for upgrade and upkeep of educational technology), and endowments and gifts to the Georgia Tech Foundation earmarked for the School.
Over the past several decades, the amount of funding available from these sources, and in particular the state funds and the sponsored research, have steadily grown. The figure below shows the growth in these categories over the past 12 years.

Over this period, the gifts and endowments have grown steadily as well, leading to a number of endowed Chairs and Professors.
Adequacy of Budget

The funds received from the Dean’s Office have been adequate for our faculty and staff needs. The total number of faculty has grown from 28 to 36 over the past 10 years, with a proportional increase in the state allocations received from the Dean’s Office. The sponsored research funds that the faculty members raise have been sufficient to develop and grow a vibrant research program that benefits graduate and undergraduate students, both.


While there has been a rapid growth in the enrollment at the undergraduate and graduate level, there School has strived to keep the class sizes small (between 40 and 50, where possible). This has lead to a large number of sections all of them taught by faculty, and an associated increase in the number of teaching assistants and graders. The state funding has not kept pace with the increased resources needed to employ TAs and graders.

Support of Faculty Professional Development

Support for faculty development is provided in a number of ways. The Dean returns a significant portion of the research overhead to the school, which is used to cover faculty development and career growth efforts. As an example, some of the travel expenses for the faculty members for professional development (seminars, workshop, collaborative research) not covered by sponsored research are supported by the School. The School and the Institute also provide support in the form of presidential undergraduate research assistantships, internal grants for excellence in teaching and research. Funds are also provided to encourage and promote excellence in teaching and research, mentoring honors program students, and so on.



Support of Facilities and Equipment

The technology fees allocations have been very valuable in acquiring and replacing equipment in our instructional and computing labs. We have been able to replace roughly 1/3 of the computers in the undergraduate computing lab every year, and have been able to provide software licenses (remotely available to students) for many of the state of the art software used in the aerospace industry.

With the growing number of students, faculty, and staff, additional resources are needed for maintenance and upkeep of the educational lab equipment and the computing infrastructure.
Adequacy of Support Personnel and Institutional Services

The School has a well equipped workshop staffed by three technicians, a Business Office staffed by five professionals, Academic Office staffed by three administrative assistants, and a staff academic advisor. The computing needs are supported by two research engineers. The faculty members also receive administrative support from six administrative assistants and an administrative manager.


With the growing needs in the instructional computing area, and the growing number of faculty members, there is an imminent need for two to three additional staff members.
CRITERION 9. PROGRAM CRITERIA

Our program may be viewed as an engineering program combining aeronautical and astronautical engineering.  Our program has an adequate number of courses and credit hours in the following disciplines, and meets or exceeds AIAA criteria that “Aerospace engineering programs or other engineering programs combining aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering, must demonstrate that graduates have knowledge covering one of the areas --aeronautical engineering or astronautical engineering as described above -- and, in addition, knowledge of some topics from the area not emphasized.”  In many of these courses aeronautics and astronautics concepts are equally emphasized.   

Until the fall of 2002, the two-semester long capstone design sequence was on the design of an aircraft from a preliminary design perspective.  Beginning in the fall of 2002, students have had a choice between an aircraft design sequence (two semesters; six credit hours) and a spacecraft design sequence. In the fall of 2006, a third sequence (rotorcraft design) was added.

The following is the list of required courses.  Detailed outlines are given in the appendix.  Our Web site (<http://www.ae.gatech.edu>) contains detailed course material for all of these courses.

Aerodynamics (8 credit hours):

AE 2020 Low Speed Aerodynamics (3-0-3), meaning 3 hours of lecture, 0 hours of lab/recitation, 3 hours of credit;

AE 3021 High Speed Aerodynamics (3-0-3);

AE 3051 Experimental Fluid Dynamics (1-3-2).

 

Propulsion (6 semester hours):



AE 3450 Thermodynamics & Compressible Flow (3-0-3);

AE 4451 Jet & Rocket Propulsion (3-0-3) .

 

Structures and Materials (13 semester hours):



MSE 2001: Principles and Applications of Engineering Materials (3-0-3)

COE 2001 Statics(2-0-2);

COE 3001 Deformable Bodies (3-0-3)

AE 3125 Aerospace Structural Analysis (4-0-4); and

AE 3145 Structures Laboratory (0-3-1).

 

Structural Dynamics and Aeroelasticity (6 semester hours):

AE 2220 Dynamics (3-0-3)

AE 4220 Structural Dynamics and Aeroelasticity (3-0-3) .

 

Flight Mechanics and Control (10 semester hours):



AE 3515 System Dynamics & Control (4-0-4)

AE 3521 Aircraft & Spacecraft Flight Dynamics (4-0-4)



AE 4525 Control Systems Design Lab (1-3-2).

 

Performance and Design (11 semester hours):



AE 1350: Introduction to Aerospace Engineering (2-0-2)

AE 3310 Introduction to Aerospace Vehicle Performance (3-0-3)



AE 4350/4356/4358 Aerospace Engineering Design Project I (2-3-3)

AE 4351/4357/4359 Aerospace Engineering Design Project II (2-3-3).  



Design Content: Our students are required to complete two semesters (AE 4350 + AE 4351 or AE 4356 + AE 4357 or AE 4358 + AE 4359: 6 hours) of capstone design aimed at designing a complete aircraft, spacecraft, or rotorcraft system starting with a design specification.  Students are also exposed to preliminary design in the course titled Introduction to Aerospace Engineering (AE 1350). 

We also offer electives provide students with the opportunity to participate in national design competitions in the areas of aircraft, engines, space vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles, and engines.  These electives are available at the freshman (AE1355), sophomore (AE2355), junior (AE 3355), and senior (AE 4355) level.  Credit earned in these courses may be counted towards the free elective hours (9 to 10) available in the program.

 

Faculty: We have sufficient number of faculty members (twenty-eight full-time, three joint professors) to offer a comprehensive educational program.  The student-to-teacher ratio in the spring of 2002 was fifteen.  There are at least four faculty members in each of our six disciplines (aerodynamics, structures and materials, structural dynamics and aeroelasticity, propulsion, flight mechanics and control, and aerospace system design).  The Academic Council, a faculty group made of discipline chairs, is tasked with the development of program objectives in consultation with our faculty and our constituents.  This Council also monitors and coordinates the development of all undergraduate courses.



 

APPENDIX A – COURSE SYLLABI

Under construction
APPENDIX B – FACULTY RESUMES

Under construction


Erian A. Armanios, Ph.D.

Professor of Aerospace Engineering





Download 1.81 Mb.

Share with your friends:
1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   ...   13




The database is protected by copyright ©ua.originaldll.com 2024
send message

    Main page