Research at Aerospace Engineering
Research is the backbone of the Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Tech. All 470+ graduate student are involved in the School’s research program. Over 25% of the more than 750 undergraduates participate in research or in design competitions. Research related expenditures in FY 07 exceeded $23 million, an increase of over 130% over the past five years. These $23 million dollars represented more than 75% of the Schools total budget in 2007, the remainder coming from state funds (including tuition). During the past five years research funding per faculty member increased from about $360,000 to more than $630,000 per year. As a result the School has had the highest level of sponsored research funding per faculty member in the College of Engineering for a number of years now. This, incidentally, coincides with record enrollments of both undergraduate and graduate students.
Research funds from the School come from a large number of sources. In FY 07 almost 30% of funding came from NASA, about half that from each, the Army and the Air Force. The Navy accounted for almost 9% of funding. Because members of the faculty regularly and successfully compete for large research grants, the relative distribution of funds can change considerably from year to year. However, the level of funding from industrial sources has remained constant over the past four years at over 15% which is considerably higher than most other engineering schools at Georgia Tech or at peer institutions in the U.S.
Faculty members in the School of Aerospace Engineering are engaged in a wide variety of research topics ranging from highly theoretical work to extremely applied projects. Presently active research programs include diversified and multidisciplinary projects in fluid mechanics, structures, aeroelasticity, controls, combustion & propulsion, design & optimization, air transportation, and cognitive engineering, as applied to fixed wing aircraft, rotorcraft and space systems. Details are given in the numerous links to individual researchers and research groups provided under this (Research) menu and under the Faculty & Staff menu.
