110th Anniversary Chairs Panel Discussion: The Future of Aerospace Education

On Thursday, November 7, we proudly hosted three outstanding University of Michigan Alumni for a panel discussion in honor of the 110th anniversary of the Michigan Aerospace Engineering Department. This event stood as the third and final 110th celebration this semester, honoring the continued legacy of the University of Michigan Department of Aerospace Engineering. 

During the event, alumni Dr. Ella Atkins, the Fred D. Durham Professor and Head of the Kevin T. Crofton Aerospace and Ocean Engineering Department at Virginia Tech, Dr. William “Bill” Crossley, the Uhrig and Vournas Head of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a Professor at Purdue University, and Dr. Mitchell Walker, the William R. T. Oakes Chair & Professor of the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Tech, joined Carlos Cesnik, the Richard A. Auhll Department Chair of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan, for conversations surrounding the future of aerospace engineering education. Each of the panelists highlighted their own vision and excitement for the future of the aerospace and aviation industry, showcasing how they see the fields evolving to meet a new generation of engineering advancements. 

One of the main topics discussed by the panelists during the event focused on how to expand and evolve the aerospace engineering curriculum in ways that address the demands many are anticipating. With many students opting to go directly from their academic career into industry and government positions, the panelists shared ideas on how the needs of students could spark change in the current course curriculum. The panelists each highlighted their own vision for the future of the curriculum in a broad way that would allow students to focus heavily on the engineering field and help them meet the technological changes of the future. 

Panelists agreed that a changing curriculum could be a difficult thing to develop due to students’ course credit limits. In this perspective, Ella Atkins expressed, “It’s very hard to change the curriculum, because we have credit limits and for anything that you add, you have to take something out. It means that we have to look at all of the courses and we have to ask the question, in 20 years, what is it that we know?”

Many of the panelists expressed a similar viewpoint, stating that building a more “dense” curriculum could be beneficial to students going through aerospace programs while continuing to maintain a goal of graduating in four years. Bill Crossley emphasized the hope of increasing the fundamental depth of content that is instilled in the students while also including the topics that are going to make them successful in their future careers. 

During the discussion, Crossley stated, “We need to figure out a way to leverage some of the newer tools. What does digital engineering mean for our education? Can we use that to somehow double down on content?” 

From there, he continued to discuss the importance of incorporating Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) into the curriculum within aerospace education. He highlighted that by incorporating MBSE, students would have the opportunity to learn how to use digital tools while professors are showing them the fundamentals of aerospace engineering, adding density to the curriculum. 

Within the topic of curriculum advancements, the chairs also touched on the topic of emerging technologies, specifically generative AI and large language models. Mitchell Walker discussed how at Georgia Tech, they welcome the use of generative AI and large language models (LLMs) into the coursework. He explained that by giving students the ability to learn how to correctly use and dissect answers from models like ChatGPT it could give them a leg up in the industry after graduation. 

“Generative AI is really exciting to me. I think this is the biggest thing in education for probably 20 or 30 years. I can’t wait to see where it goes. At Georgia Tech, I think we’ve done a good job of integrating the AI into the courses like saying, ‘this is how you use AI to do your homework. This is how you can do it faster,’” Walker said during the event. “For me, it’s going to be exciting to not just teach the students how to get answers anymore, but how do they know what problem they’re solving, and how to figure out if the answer they got is anywhere close to right.”

While the University of Michigan’s Department of Aerospace Engineering continues to grow and find new ways to evolve, the opportunity to welcome alumni back to campus for insightful conversations always provides a deeper perspective into how far the department has come. While working closely with peer institutions like Virginia Tech, Purdue and Georgia Tech, the department proudly looks forward to the future and the next 100 years of advancing aerospace engineering.