The curriculum goals of the unit, as currently stated in the catalog or other departmental documents, are as follows (per the catalog): 

The Aerospace Engineering Sciences (AES) curriculum’s Educational Objectives and Desired Outcomes are as follows:

AES Mission Statement, 2010-Present

"Our mission is to provide quality education, including hands-on learning, and to conduct foremost research in aerospace engineering sciences. We accomplish these goals through fundamental and multidisciplinary research and by preparing aerospace engineering students to meet the needs of our 21st-century society through the conception, design, and application of aerial and spacecraft systems.

AES Educational Objectives, Fall 2010 - Present

During their first three to five years after graduation, Aerospace Engineering Sciences graduates will have:

  • Established themselves in professional careers or received a graduate degree;
  • Demonstrated ethical leadership, project management, and/or innovation; and
  • Played significant roles in the research and development of engineering systems and products.

Desired Outcomes – Knowledge

In accordance to ABET knowledge criteria students completing the undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering will be knowledgeable in the following areas:

  1. the professional context of the practice of aerospace engineering and expectations of new graduates in aerospace engineering organizations, including an awareness of ethics issues, economics, and the business environment;
  2. the history of aerospace engineering, providing a perspective on current events;
  3. aerospace engineering as a highly multidisciplinary endeavor, requiring a systems perspectives to integrate technologies and manage complexity; and
  4. major principles and scientific methods underlying the technologies comprising aerospace vehicles and systems.

Desired Outcomes – Abilities

In accordance with ABET abilities criteria, upon graduation students will have developed the following general skills and abilities:

  • written, oral, and graphical communication skills;
  • an ability to quantitatively estimate, model, analyze, and compute;
  • an ability to define and conduct experiments using modern laboratory instruments, and to interpret experimental results;
  • an ability to seek out and gather information, enabling independent and lifelong learning;
  • interpersonal and organizational skills that enable individuals to work effectively in teams and assume leadership positions;
  • an ability to identify needs, requirements, and constraints, and to design appropriate reliable engineering solutions;
  • an ability to formulate technical problems clearly, and to correctly apply appropriate methods and procedures for their solution;
  • an ability to program computers, and skills in the use of modern engineering analysis, simulation software and operating systems, and
  • an ability to understand societal needs, business issues, and the ethical concerns and responsibility of the industry.

The Department added the following abilities in its student assessment:

  • development and application of software methods,
  • basic understanding of instrumentation electronics in projects, and
  • an understanding of systems engineering including correlation of mechanical, software and electronic subsystems.”

Are these goals still accurate/current or do they need to be revised?

The Mission Statement, Educational Objectives, and Desired Outcomes are current and reflect the current position of the department.  They have been reviewed before the ABET report was written and considered correct. 

What is the unit’s schedule for reviewing the curriculum goals?

The main event for reviewing the curriculum goals by the entire faculty is organized every year shortly after the Spring semester concludes (month of May), called “Undergraduate Retreat” which lasts one full day.

Alumni surveys are administered each summer by the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences for all departments.

Senior surveys are administered by the College at the College level in April/May for May and August graduates and in November/December for December graduates.

The AES senior students meet on a voluntary basis to participate in an exit survey and program discussions organized by undergraduate student adviser Claire Yang at the end of the Spring semester.

Every semester Comprehensive Course Assessment (CCA) evaluations are done by the department faculty in all undergraduate courses. They pertain to the ABET K1-3 and A1-8 evaluation criteria. The outcomes are evaluated by the Curriculum and Teaching Committee (C&T).

The Undergraduate committee 2010-11 is composed of 9 faculty members  plus the undergraduate adviser Claire Yang and meets monthly each semester to discuss the curriculum. The committee assesses feedback from professors and students. The UGC prepares curriculum items for voting to faculty meeting agendas when necessary.

The External Advisory Board (EAB) meets with the faculty and the Curriculum Improvement Team (CIT), a group of 10-15 students (sophomores, juniors and seniors; grades across the board, ethnicity, mix of women and men) at least one time each year and discusses the curriculum with these students. Select faculty report on new teaching activities and/or on teaching activities of special importance to the EAB. The EAB briefs the Chair in a final report about the outcome of those discussions. The Chair responds to the EAB at the following EAB meeting.

On average two meetings of the Curriculum Improvement Team (CIT) are held each year with the Aerospace Associate Chair for the Undergraduate Program and the  under-graduate Advisor. Results are reported to the Undergraduate Committee (UGC), and later to the entire faculty at the Undergraduate Retreat in the May time frame.

During the last review period, how has the department/program assessed how well it has accomplished its curriculum goals?

How: Objectives: Evaluate Alumni, post-graduate, and undergraduate surveys.

Outcomes: from Curriculum and Teaching (C&T) Committee discussions Undergraduate Curriculum faculty retreats and faculty meetings External Advisory Board (EAB) meeting minutes

Student and alumni surveys

In the past two years, the College of Engineering and the AES department reviewed our Program Educational Objectives through the following means:

  • The annual alumni survey
  • The post-graduate and exit surveys
  • Undergraduate senior student surveys

The surveys include, among others, the following questions, depending on target group:

  1. From the ABET section of the Alumni Survey: 
  2. To what extent do you sense that you are now well-established in a successful professional career?
  3. Are you/Do you:
    • partner or owner of a business?
    • exert leadership in job?
    • employed as an engineer?
    • employed as an engineering manager?
    • employed in the aerospace industry?
  4. Are you involved in the design of one or more engineering systems or subsystems?
  5. if you are currently involved in the design of one or more engineering systems or subsystems:
    • how would you categorize the level of complexity of the systems that you are involved in designing?
    • how would you categorize the overall importance of your contributions to the successful design of these systems?
    • to what extent are you involved in systems engineering for the projects
  6. in which you work?
  7. Overall, did your program of study at CU-Boulder meet your educational goals?

From the Employment file of the Alumni Survey:

  • What is your primary occupation at this time (employed, graduate school)?
  • Location of employer (inside/outside Colorado)
  • Nature of Work
  • Type of employer or Business
  • Salary data
  • Supervision of others

From the Additional Education file of the Alumni Survey:

  • how many are in grad school (or have already graduated from grad school)
  • plans for additional education and licensing
  • professional licensing, registration or other professional certification

From the Senior Surveys:

  • Best aspects of the Curriculum
  • Please identify any deficiencies in the curriculum, or improvements you would suggest
  • Please rate your satisfaction with the following (CU, CEAS, AES, Staff advisor, Faculty advisor)
  • Would you recommend the following to a friend (CU, CEAS, AES):
  • Overall, did your program study at CU-Boulder meet your educational goals?
  • Would you consider hiring a CU graduate if you had a position open?

From the Post-Graduation Survey (sent 6-8 months after graduation):

  • Plans for/participation in graduate school
  • What is your primary occupation at this time?
  • Annual salary of all respondents compiled as average
  • Signing bonuses received

From Comprehensive Course Assessments (CCAs)

CCAs are modeled on the ABET ―K‖ and ―A‖ specifics of knowledge and abilities given to students in each undergraduate core course and were completed in the last weeks in fall and spring semesters—the CCAs are posted on the private website for faculty and are discussed at the May UGC retreats.

Outcomes:

Alumni Surveys (Summer 2011, students graduating in 2007, 16 respondents)

Students with an average 4 years after graduation receive this survey. The vast majority is employed in the aerospace industry.

The alumni appreciate the AES program very much: In summer 2011 students rated the AES major ―very satisfied (33%) and ―extremely satisfied (53%) based on 15 responses. Out of the 15 alumni responding to this question, two-thirds (67%) considered themselves as well- established and in a successful professional career; 88% are employed in the aerospace industry, 2 are employed in engineering management, with 4 reporting that they are supervising others. Most alumni state a) the program definitely met most of their educational goals (88%), b) they recommend both CU and the College of Engineering and Applied Science (4.67/5, 4.6/5, respectively), and c) they would hire graduates from AES (4.67/5).

The prominent educational highlight is the hands-on experience throughout the entire curriculum and especially the senior projects program. The most prominent skill they need is systems engineering which they learn in senior projects.

Most appear to work in systems engineering (56%). The systems the alumni work on are considered ―extremely or highly complex- by 56% and 67% consider their contributions as ―extremely or highly important to the success of the project.

A select few enroll in higher education besides their employment. Most prominent is the MS degree (46%), followed by the PhD (23%) and MBA (15%) degrees. In addition, several take additional course work or attend conferences to strengthen their knowledgebase.

As in every year before, alumni indicated that the discipline they most often use is systems engineering. The Senior Design course sequence (ASEN 4018/28) offers lectures and workshops on systems engineering, all given by professional engineers from local industry.

Alumni Quotes:

“The Senior Project itself was one of my favorite experiences at CU.  That program is amazing and really helped to solidify what I had learned throughout my four years at CU.”

“The senior project was by far the most worthwhile and applicable to my work-life.”

“The course I thought was the most beneficial was the Senior Projects course.  This gives such a great look at what really happens in the real world and really prepares the student for a career in the aerospace industry.”

Post-Graduate Surveys (students graduating in calendar year 2010, 36 respondents)

About 66% have a job, 17% are attending graduate school and 6% report being employed in the military. One student is attending medical, dental or nursing school. Less than 6% were unemployed.

Post-graduation surveys included the following questions:

  • What type of degree did you complete? This revealed that 42% adopted the BS/MS Program, which reflects a recognized significant increase from the previous year (33%).
  • What is your primary occupation at this time?  66% were employed and 17% went to graduate school. 52% of those employed are employed outside Colorado.
  • Respondents engaged in full time engineering positions report good average starting salaries of $62,000 (BS) and $75,000 (BS/MS). Signing bonuses for May-August graduates ranged between $0 and $6,500.

Undergraduate Senior Surveys (students graduating in Dec 2010, May 2011, 1 respondent/41 respondents, respectively)

The Dec 2010 cohort was only one student; thus has no statistical relevance and is not included in this summary.

The following general questions were asked of seniors (among others):

  • In May 2011 the responses revealed that 79% are very or extremely satisfied with their AES major.
  • AES major is recommended with no/some reservation by 68% of the 40 respondents
  • AES also “definitely met” the educational goals of 68%.
  • Seniors (>90%) feel that the program provided an understanding of aerospace engineering as a highly multidisciplinary endeavor, requiring a systems perspective to integrate technologies and manage complexity.
  • The hands-on design experience across the curriculum was rated highest for the senior year. However, the junior year scored highest in the fundamentals/principals and in the computational categories.

Senior Quotes:

  • “Hands on lab experience. Seeing science in action with a practical application to real world, physically validating what we were learning.”
  • “Aerospace senior projects has been a very enjoyable experience, allowing the students to take what we've learned in lectures for the past four years and put it to practical use. It has also taught us numerous lessons that cannot be conveyed in a classroom but that will be of great help in the engineering realm.”
  • “The senior design course was by and far the best experience I have had at the university.”
  • “CU is awesome and the college atmosphere is awesome here”
  • “[most useful:] Senior Projects because it allowed me to use the skills I have learned from my classes and apply them to a large project. It also taught me the importance of teamwork and communication.”
  • “[most useful:] Senior Design -- We had the most opportunity to 1) Learn independently about what we are interested in; 2) Learn to communicate with not only a large team, but a graduate-level team and teams around the world; 3) Understand industry expectations.  Ultimately, it seemed like the most involved course.
  • “[most useful:] The sophomore level classes were very helpful in introducing the topics and basic fundamentals of engineering required to advance at all.”
  • “[most useful:] Senior design, because I actually had to apply the things that I learned in the rest of my undergraduate career in the course.”

Employer Survey (employers surveyed in 2010-2011, there were 33 respondents who hire our aerospace students that completed the entire survey)

Employers hiring our graduates were asked several questions about how well we prepare our students for employment.  Notable results include:

  • On all dimensions (many of them related to ABET outcomes), our students scored above the average of students hired from other universities.
  • Our students scored highest in their ability to “hit the ground running” – 4.21/5 with 79% of the respondents judging our students to be somewhat to much better than those hired from other colleges.
  • Our students also scored high in their “Ability to apply knowledge of mathematics, science, and engineering” – 4/5 with 79% of the respondents judging our students to be somewhat to much better than those hired from other colleges.
  • Our students also scored high in their “Ability to design a system, component, or process to meet desired needs within realistic constraints” – 4/5 with 70% of the respondents judging our students to be somewhat to much better than those hired from other colleges.
  • Our students also scored high in their “Ability to function on multi-disciplinary teams” – 4/5 with 69% of the respondents judging our students to be somewhat to much better than those hired from other colleges.

These scores strongly suggest that our curriculum, and particularly our senior design course, is preparing our students to perform well in industry after graduation.

What has the department/program concluded with respect to the outcomes of its undergraduate curriculum?

Assessments

The all-day retreat was held May 3, 2011. The purpose of the retreat is to assess student learning, catch developing issues in the teaching efforts, and to make recommendations for curriculum improvement as part of our ABET self-assessment, satisfying the “continuous improvement process” requirement. A report is archived on the department private faculty website.

Objectives and Goals were:

  • key components of our assessment process
  • discuss assessment data
  • Identify and develop means to improve our UG curriculum

Goals were:

  • Identify and address issues regarding procedures & policies
  • Develop implementation of ethics into courses
  • Assess program with respect to program outcomes (ABET K4.1-n & program criteria).
  • Do the topics covered by the courses (see ABET material) teach the knowledge and skills needed by an aerospace engineer?
  • Do the topics covered prepare students well for graduate school?
  • Identify redundancies and gaps among the courses.
  • Is the time allocated for individual topics adequate?
  • Discuss strategic changes to curricula
  • Do we have the right balance between theory and hands-on teaching?
  • Check your labs: depth and balance between computing, experimental, and design labs.
  • What professional area electives are currently offered (frequency) and which one should be offered to provide sufficient opportunities for students in this curriculum track.

Topics covered were the Program Overview, Assessment & Updates, Ethics Training, Revision of Freshmen Year, Feedback from Senior Design, Curricula Tracks / Concepts & Topics, and generic Curriculum & Teaching.

Recommendations from the Undergraduate Retreat:

  • Increase “Good Academic Standing” minimum from 2.00 to 2.25
  • Undergraduate students shall meet with faculty mentor in Fall semester
  • Have Juniors listen to senior project presentations (e.g. in the spring when they are forming project ideas and teams).
  • Add the chemistry requirement to a new Materials Science course
  • Add a software course in the sophomore year.

What changes in the curriculum or in major requirements have occurred as a result of your assessment of the undergraduate program?

The yearly faculty Undergraduate Committee curriculum and teaching retreat (held 03 May 2011) produced a number of noteworthy actionable items for future program improvement plans:

  • ASEN 2012 - Experimental and Computational Methods: Due primarily to faculty assessment of students’ abilities in experimental techniques and the related statistics knowledge to process the data at the sophomore level, a motion was passed at the spring 2010 UC retreat to develop an independent course to fulfill this deficiency. As a result, a minor restructuring of the sophomore year courses was proposed. ASEN 2012 (2 credit hours) will first be taught in fall 2011 by reducing both ASEN 2001 and ASEN 2002 from 5 credit hours to 4 credit hours. The development of the syllabus was undertaken by Jeff Thayer in Fall 2010 to address in part: i) how to write a lab report, ii) assessment data to track if the new experimental methods curriculum improves student learning of the material, iii) relevant material that is utilized in all facets of the sophomore curriculum.
  • ASEN 4013 - Foundations of Propulsion: Comprehensive Course Assessment results over the last number of years regarding ASEN 4013 have indicated the students’ desire for labs in this topic to support the traditional classroom instruction. This effort has not yet moved past the preliminary planning phases; however Dr. Starkey has been busy the last two years developing a gas turbine engine test stand, and more recently adapting a supersonic wind tunnel test stand which could facilitate lab instruction. Support by Dr. Kantha (planning and implementation), as well as financial support from the Department, eSpace, Dr. Starkey, and the Engineering Excellence Fund have made this effort possible. The final major hurdle to implementing the lab component is the mitigation of the noise to within permissible campus levels. A more structured class proposal will be presented to the faculty and the UC during the 2011/2012 academic year. 
  • ASEN 4519 – Introduction to Software Engineering: A proposed sophomore/junior level course that was piloted Fall 2010 with seniors and first year graduate students. This is intended to address a deficiency highlighted in part by faculty assessment, student surveys, alumni survey data (2010), as well as industry through a comprehensive survey by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Software Engineering Technical Committee (this will be made available during the site visit). The issue is that MATLAB has proven to be a good entry level language but students are overwhelmed by required MATLAB skills in sophomore year. A grant from Lockheed Martin was obtained to support this effort with the goal of eventually transitioning this course into a sophomore required course. This will require further study as the Department would have to remove a different required course to make space available in the curriculum – it has been proposed to remove Freshman Chemistry to support this.
  • Freshman Chemistry: Integrate essential elements into a new Materials Science course.

The department added/upgraded a few labs after needs developed for undergraduate courses, especially senior design:

Cubesat Lab:

A lab was renovated to accommodate expanded cubesat activities, including multiple senior projects, graduate projects, and research cubesats.The lab is capable of supporting flight-hardware, semi-clean activities, and is ITAR compliant.

Lockheed Martin Room improvements:

Thanks to continued support from Lockheed Martin, the Lockheed Martin room was improved with the addition of a Polycom video-conferencing station and three new high end workstations including machines and software for running the CATIA design suite.

Electronics Manufacturing lab:

Surface mount soldering capabilities were expanded by adding a pressurized solder paste dispenser, hot air rework station and an advanced soldering station with tweezers and attachments for multiple types of integrated surface mount packages. Two existing soldering benches were enhanced by adding small computers to view Altium schematics and datasheets via the web during printed circuit board population. New oscilloscopes and function generators were purchased for the two test and measurement workbenches in this lab. Room 1B20 was vacated and is in the process of being renovated to be an electronics design and fabrication lab, enhancing our ability to support an increasing demand from the expanding graduate projects course.

ITLL improvements:

Projector systems were installed on the laboratory plazas to enable showing the entire lab section videos, documents or presentations related to laboratory content. New oscilloscopes and function generators were installed on the 30 test and measurement stations heavily used by the Aerospace classes.

Fleming Law:

Space was reallocated from the campus to AES design classes in the vacant Fleming Law building.

Changes in Faculty lines 2009-10:

  • Kamran Mohseni, resigned in spring 2011 and went to University of Florida
  • Kurt Maute, began serving as Associate Dean for Research, College of Engineering & Applied Science
  • Mahmoud Hussein, Ryan Starkey, reappointed
  • Hanspeter Schaub, awarded tenure
  • Xinlin Li, promoted to full professor
  • Peter Hamlington, hired as assistant research professor