Wanted: aerospace engineers

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In the classroom
While engineering enrollment overall is declining, undergraduate aerospace engineering (AE) enrollment appears to be taking off. According to the American Association of Engineering Societies, 1999 engineering enrollment dropped 2% for electrical, 4% for chemical, 5% for industrial, and 11% for civil engineering over 1998 numbers (mechanical engineering stayed the same). That same year, computer engineering experienced a 4% increase, while AE numbers climbed 13%. The U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts a more modest increase in job growth of 7.8% for AE through 2006, but nationwide, colleges and universities do not seem daunted by such conservative figures.

According to Marc H. Williams, Professor and Associate Head of the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Purdue University, Purdue had a record high enrollment of 570 in 1989. Over the next six years, enrollment dropped to 160 in 1995, but since then, it has grown substantially to about 300 currently. At the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU), AE enrollment numbers similarly dropped from 600 students in 1990 to 240 in 1997. Syracuse University's Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Manufacturing Engineering also experienced a precipitous decline in AE enrollment in the mid-1990s, but the past few years have seen an increase.

The declining numbers of the mid-1990s were primarily blamed on defense cuts earlier that decade. During the early 1990s, the general perception was that cutbacks in defense and space had gutted the job market. In contrast, many U.S. universities today view the decline in numbers as a positive, believing smaller aerospace departments to be more attentive and effective.

While entering classes are not as large as they were in the mid- to late-1980s, the nationwide trend in AE university enrollment has been a steady increase since about 1996 and is once again reasonably healthy. According to Walter Horn, Professor and Chair at the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Wichita State University (WSU), the university has matched the trend and exceeded the national average with its graduate enrollment. Horn feels that during times of economic austerity, many laid-off employees choose to return to the campus for graduate studies to gain an advantage in the job market. Consequently, graduate enrollment is unaffected by any cyclic behavior of aerospace industry employment.

AE enrollments have been going up, and substantially so, at the Georgia Institute of Technology for the last several years, according to Robert G. Loewy, Professor and Chair of the School of Aerospace Engineering. In fact, campus administrators have been surprised that the combined undergraduate and graduate enrollment in AE now exceeds that of civil engineering. In an effort to reverse the downward trends of the late '80s to mid-90s and to appease those students who expressed a desire to get started with their major courses, Georgia Tech now offers an introductory course for AE majors in the freshman year.

Williams noted that Purdue also began teaching an Introduction to Aerospace Engineering elective for freshman, which has proven quite popular. He is unsure, however, as to how much of the college's recent growth results from the introductory class, and how much to the economic boom. Williams feels there is currently a strong interest in AE among students, noting, "When times are bad, many stay away despite the interest. When times are good, they feel it's worth the risk."

AE students from Warsaw University of Technology participate in a hands-on design project program, the SAE 2000 Aero Design East competition.

At CU, technical students are encouraged to pursue a minor, with computer science the most popular choice, making this new crop of aerospace engineers better able to compete with other technicals and with computer scientists for programming jobs in the aerospace industry.

The computer industry does seemingly appeal to a few would-be engineers. At Syracuse, Eric Spina, Associate Dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science and a faculty member, noted that the majority of inquiring students to the College are interested in computer engineering and computer science, which Spina believes to be a nationwide trend.

Despite, or maybe because of, the lure of the computer industry, the demand for AE graduates in the last few years has pretty well exceeded the supply, according to Williams, which makes it a great time to be graduating. To that end, Williams noted that Purdue "tries to accommodate all companies that want to recruit our students by providing recruiters with interview rooms and advertising their presence." In addition, Purdue has expanded the number of employers involved in its co-op program.

The AE department at Purdue also has a full-time development officer who travels to various aerospace companies in an effort to increase the ties between the department and industry. At Georgia Tech, the Career Services Office conducts interviews on behalf of companies and graduating students, and Loewy noted that he is unaware of any graduates "having difficulties getting a job in the aerospace community."

According to Spina, the staff and faculty at Syracuse "are continually educating business contacts about the quality of our AE students and encouraging them to include Syracuse University on their 'key school' list. We have special career and internship fairs in the fall and spring, and a major Community Open House in the spring to which we invite national and regional companies to interact with our students."

The AE faculty at Syracuse also "take a very hands-on approach" to recruiting new students. Spina noted that prospective students meet with the department chair, faculty, and current students in an effort to provide a close-up perspective of the AE program. Aerospace design project programs such as the Design/Build/Fly Competition, a co-op program, international study opportunities, and undergraduate research projects are all emphasized.

Mohammad Noori, Professor and Head of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at North Carolina State University, stated that his department recently started an Industrial Partners Program, which provides graduating students a direct link with industries who are members of the program.

Horn added that while the Office of Admissions at Wichita State is responsible for all undergraduate recruitment, the AE department assists in any way possible and offers a large number of undergraduate scholarships. This year, over 35% of those enrolled full-time in the undergraduate AE program received some form of financial assistance. At the graduate level, all full-time students received financial support.

WSU does occasionally advertise its graduate program nationally. This year, the school ran an advertisement in the SAE Student Action in Engineering and mailed out a poster to a large number of engineering departments nationwide to solicit potential graduate students.

Horn believes that WSU's close proximity to four major aircraft manufacturing companies—Boeing, Bombardier-Learjet, Cessna, and Raytheon (Beech)—puts the university in an enviable position. Upon graduation, many WSU students go to work for the local companies. Alumni and/or current students who are employed by local companies often act as points of contact for new job opportunities. Horn added that WSU's offices of Career Services and Cooperative Education work closely with the local companies as well as with national agencies such as NASA and FAA to provide students with employment after graduation. The Office of Career Services also actively markets graduates to companies nationwide through online resume databases, virtual job fairs, and traditional company recruiter visits to the campus.

While the current condition of AE programs at the university level looks quite promising, the computer industry continues to grow, and the future for aerospace is an uncertain one. Noori noted that "in general, there has been a decline, partly due to a slow down in the AE industry, but moreover due to the fact that aerospace is faced with new challenges. Boeing is no longer the only major manufacture of aircraft in the world, and in terms of technology, the Europeans have caught up. The nature of the discipline has changed drastically."

Horn added that during the past few years, he has noticed a decline in the quality of education received by AE graduates, and he feels these trends are also evident in the results of the Fundamentals of Engineering examination. Horn blames the decline on "a number of issues such as the reduction in the number of credit hours required for an engineering degree, a stronger emphasis on retention at some expense to quality, or a nationwide emphasis on 'soft issues' as opposed to traditional engineering topics."

Whether these observations are the foreshadowing of another early 1990s-like trend in AE or just a mere bump on the runway remains to be seen, but currently, AE's popularity at the university level is on the up, and its graduates seem to be in demand.

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