Being able to supply the highest level of education to the Aerospace industry is vital, especially based on results of an “Aviation Week” workforce study published in the Aug. 8, 2008, edition. According to the study, in the past 10 years U.S. aerospace, defense and government leaders have expressed concern about impending retirements of engineers and scientists and the decreasing number of college enrollments in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs. For Kettering officials, this program helps respond to the national need to encourage more students to consider STEM programs and aeronautical engineering as a career field.

Unlike other institutions, Kettering University’s new Aerospace Engineering concentration trains engineers in unique areas of propulsion and aerodynamics using technological resources and software that are usually unavailable at other institutions for undergraduate students.

Some of these tools include the Joint Army NASA Navy Air Force standard methodologies such as: Thermal Equilibrium Program (TEP) for the study of equilibrium combustions of fuels; Solid Performance Program (SPP) for solid rocket motor propulsion, performance and grain design studies; Two-Dimensional Kinetics (TDK) for liquid rocket engine performance analysis; Viscous Interaction Performance Program (VIPER) for liquid and solid rocket engines; and Liquid Thrust Chamber Performance (LTCP), which is a two-dimensional/Axisymmetric Navier-Stokes solver for liquid rocket engine performance.

Dr. Homayun Navaz, professor of Mechanical Engineering, oversees the program. “We train our students to use the programs and technologies that organizations like NASA, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne Inc. and other rocket propulsion communities use today,” he said. “We can train our engineering students in the classroom using these resources, which makes them more compatible with aerospace propulsion community needs. With a thorough marketing strategy, we can also increase their potential for co-op employment at aerospace industries,” he added.

Navaz also said that the curriculum “aligns very well with this growing area of technology and Kettering is positioned well to offer this concentration, since we have an exceptional cooperative education partnership with more than 600 companies throughout the world.”