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An Undergraduate Minor in Information Sciences and Technology for Aerospace Engineering
Department of Aerospace Engineering
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See PSU Bulletin for description of this Minor This Minor requires the following courses:
For a total of 19 credits. Some of these courses can also be used as technical electives for the Aerospace Engineering B.S. degree. There is a one-time fee of $750 for the Minor. And students will need to get a C or better in all the above courses. TO APPLY for this minor complete and submit this form: IST_AEROSPACE_MinorForm.doc. This minor will enhance the aerospace engineering program, and will be of great benefit to the students who pursue it. Roughly 30-40% of the cost of developing an aerospace system is in computers, information, communications, and software. If our aerospace engineering graduates learn more about information sciences and technology, they will be more valuable to industry, government, and academia. They will be able to appreciate the entire aerospace system better, and will be better equipped to work side-by-side with experts in the computing and software fields. The Aerospace Engineering curricula was recently modified and streamlined, and one of the reasons for doing that was to make it easier for students to obtain Minors such as this one. The role of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) in the practice of Aerospace Engineering is (and will remain) very important. Aerospace systems rely heavily on computers, software, and digital information; for control, sensors, and other onboard systems. The Boeing 777 has more than 1000 processors and roughly 20 million lines of software (mostly in Ada) onboard. Some aircraft (e.g. the F-16 and F-117A) cannot fly without their onboard computers. In addition, many future aerospace vehicles will be unmanned, and the software challenges will be even greater than they are today. The onboard memory has also increased exponentially, the F-106 had 20 kBytes of memory and the new Joint Strike Fighter might have 2 GBytes of memory. The hardware and software must be carefully designed and thoroughly tested, since most aerospace systems are mission- or safety-critical systems. In addition, computers and software are heavily used in the design, development, and manufacturing of aerospace systems. Large supercomputers are often used in the design process. Giving undergraduate aerospace engineering students the opportunity to minor in IST will not only enrich their educational achievements but it will also help them succeed in obtaining employment or entering graduate school. The NSF and DOD recently referred to computing and software as the "Achilles heel" of aerospace systems; and they are encouraging universities to enhance their educational programs so that we have well-qualified engineers for future systems. For more information, read Prof. Long's paper in CrossTalk journal entitled: The Critical Need for Software Engineering Education . Also, our Industrial and Professional Advisory Committee (IPAC) members have continually stressed the importance of IT for our students. An executive from a major aerospace company said this about the program:
See also the speech given by Dr. Charles Vest , MIT.
For more information on the IST for Aerospace Engineering
Undergraduate Minor contact :
Distinguished Professor of Aerospace Engineering The Pennsylvania State University 229 Hammond Building University Park, PA 16802
Email : LNL
Phone : (814) 865-1172
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