Academics: Where Are We Now?
 

AEM Graduate Program

A total of 156 applications came in from prospective students seeking entry into the AEM graduate program for the 2001-2002 academic year. The admissions faculty reviewed 135 of these applications, the remainder being incomplete. Seventy-five prospective students were admitted while 60 were rejected whose credentials were not sufficiently strong enough to warrant admission. Financial aid was offered to 42 of the admitted students in the form of teaching assistantships, research assistantships, and graduate school fellowships. Seventeen of the offers were declined, however, twenty-two were accepted and those 22 students enrolled in our graduate program in Fall, 2001. Fourteen of those students were from the United States, three were from China, 2 were from Korea and one each from Mexico, India and Canada.

During the 2001-2002 academic year, 12 students received graduate degrees in AEM. Two received their M.S. in mechanics and eight received their M.S. in aerospace engineering. Two other students received their Ph.D., one in mechanics and one in aerospace engineering. Of the M.S. graduates, 6 continued on in the Ph.D. program in AEM and one in another area at the university, 2 returned to their home countries and one secured employment here in the United States. Both the Ph.D. graduates were employed by the university in postdoctoral positions, one in AEM and the other in a related area.

Gordon S. Beavers,
Director of Graduate Studies
 

AEM Undergraduate Program

As in the past, we had a very active group of seniors this year. For the second year in a row, we had two groups of students develop experiments that were flown on NASA’s KC-135. This plane, nicknamed the vomit comet, flies parabolic paths to simulate the free fall of spacecraft in orbit. The projects this year looked at the role of microgravity on random packing of spheres (supervised by Professor Shield) and a study of the pinch-off of liquids under microgravity conditions (supervised by Professor Longmire). We also had an active design class, with projects on an autonomous slow flyer, and a two-stage-to-launch vehicle, with separate groups working on each stage as well as a group building an RC model of the first stage. Professors Balas and Vano supervised the design class this year.

As always, the Department would like to keep in touch with all of our alumni to find out how everyone is doing. You can add any information you may have by checking our alumni web site, at:

/alumni/Alum_Network.html .

You can also submit your e-mail address if you would like to be contacted that way. Alternatively, please feel free to contact me (phleo@aem.umn.edu) if you have any questions or comments on the program.

Perry Leo
Director, Undergraduate Studies

 Next- Undergraduate BAEM Program Evaluation and Improvement

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