Message from the Chair

Dr. Darryll J. Pines, Aerospace Engineering Department Chair

W E L C O M E to the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland! Our Department offers one of the nation’s strongest education and research programs in aeronautics and astronautics in the country. The latest U.S. News & World Report rankings rate our graduate program as the best public program in the Northeast and 11th in the nation (6th among public institutions), overall. Since its inception, in large part due to a generous gift by aviation pioneer Glenn L. Martin, our department has established tradition of excellence in research and education, and the best is yet to come.

We offer students a broad range of education and research opportunities. Our location near Washington, D.C. offers unique opportunities for students to engage in research at national and government laboratories, including NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the National Institute for Aerospace, the Naval Research Laboratory, the Applied Physics Laboratory, and the Army and Navy Research Laboratories. In addition, our location enables our students to be able to intern at leading government agencies to help craft future national aerospace policy.

Led by over twenty faculty members and research staff, the Department has a superior record of research accomplishments as evidenced by the number of published and cited research papers and patents that have come from our faculty members and students. Faculty research is supported by annual expenditures of approximately $18 million. Our level of research expenditures places the department among the very top aerospace engineering departments in the nation.

There are several major research centers in the department including:

• Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center
• Space Systems Laboratory
• Space Vehicle Technology Institute
• Advanced Propulsion Laboratory
• Autonomous Vehicle Laboratory
• Composites Research Laboratory

We also conduct work in Microsystems based research which includes:

• Micro and nano air vehicles technology development
• Microcombustion
• Micro and nano control for aerospace and biomedical applications

These research focus areas provide our students and researchers the opportunity for team-oriented, cross-disciplinary research and access to state-of-the-art laboratories such as those in the recently constructed Jeong H. Kim Engineering Building. With approximately 370 undergraduates and more than 160 graduate students, we are the highest ranked department within the A. James Clark School of Engineering, and one of the fastest-rising engineering schools in the country.

Our incoming freshmen have an average SAT score of approximately 1320 and a GPA (weighted) of 3.9. We offer an honors program for students with GPA’s (at Maryland) in the 3.5+ range and a five year BS/MS program for students with GPA’s (at Maryland) in the 3.75+ range. Our program is intended to take four years and requires 124 credits to complete. Normally approximately 80 percent of our students finish within the four year frame. We also offer a Co-op Program which extends the time to completion to five years. Nearly one third of our undergraduate students are employed in our research labs each year (for pay). Another third of our students either participate in the Co-op program or have internships at industrial sites or government labs throughout the U.S. Many of these positions are in the local area. Each academic year, our students participate in a wide range of exciting design projects and teams including competitions such as, Design, Build and Fly, Micro Air Vehicle, RASCAL, AUVSI and SAMPE composite wing. At the graduate level our incoming students have an average GRE score of approximately 2100 and a GPA at the undergraduate level of 3.6+. Nearly all of our students are supported on research grants for the duration of their graduate degrees.

Our alumni find themselves in high demand for positions in some of the top corporate, government and education institutions and continue to make significant contributions to the field. This is further supported by a recent article (8.20.2007) in Aviation Week and Space Technology which lists our school as one of the top five schools preferred by Aerospace employers. As a friend, alumni, or contributor to the department, we hope that you will continue to support the activities of our department including two major events this fall. The first event is the 25th Anniversary Celebration of the establishment of the Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center scheduled in the fall. We look forward to seeing many friends and former graduates of the center. The second event is the third induction ceremony of our Academy of Distinguished Alumni. In this event, we honor past graduates of the department for their significant accomplishments to the field of Aerospace Engineering. This year’s inductees will join the likes of Glenn L. Martin and Michael Griffin (NASA Administrator) as members of our prestigious group of graduates. I hope that you enjoy this website and the exciting things that our faculty and students are doing here at Maryland.

Dr. Darryll J. Pines
Department Chair