Penn State

AERSP 204H/404H - Flight Vehicle Design and Fabrication (Lecture and Lab)

Thus course provides a practical, “hands-on” experience for student to learn about the principles and practices of aerospace engineering in a cooperative, multi-disciplinary team environment. The course is integrated within the four year engineering curriculum to provide students with the experience to identify, formulate, and solve engineering design problems of an aerospace vehicle by using modern engineering design and analysis methods. The design and analysis tasks include the vehicle’s structure, aerodynamics, as well as its stability and control. Throughout the course the students are required to communicate effectively within their and with other design areas. They will document their design/analysis and manufacturing effort continuously in a notebook and present their semester work in a final report and presentation. For additional information, see "Kremer Prize" under "Design Competitions." I have taken this project-based course for 7 semesters during my undergraduate career at Penn State.

Aerospace Propulsion

AERSP 410 - Aerospace Propulsion

Analysis and performance characteristics of reciprocating engine, turbo-jet, turbo-prop, turbo-fan, ram-jets, and chemical rockets. Aerothermodynamics of inlets, combustors, and turbomachinery.

AERSP 430 - Space Propulsion and Power Systems

Analysis and performance of chemical and nuclear rockets, electric propulsion systems. Introduction to solar, chemical, thermoelectric, and nuclear power sources.

AERSP 530 - Aerothermochemistry of Advanced Propulsion Systems

Physics and chemistry needed to analyze advanced rocket propulsion systems including reacting high temperature radiating gas and plasma flows.

Dynamics and Control

AERSP 597E - Linear and Nonlinear Estimation

This course will cover estimation and data fusion for linear and nonlinear systems: (a) introduction to Gaussian random variable; (b) Gauss-Markov estimation and the Best Linear Unbiased Estimator; (c) minimum mean square error estimators; (d) Kalman filter; (e) Extended Kalman filter and the Sigma Point Kalman Filter; (f) effects of non-Gauss noise and non- Gaussian initial state estimates; (g) histogram and particle filters. Examples will be taken from aerospace and robotics applications, including (among others): fusion of GPS and inertial measurements; robot localization; target tracking; and simultaneous localization and mapping.

AERSP 518 - Dynamics and Control of Aerospace Vehicles (audited)

Dynamical problems of aircraft and missiles including launch, trajectory, optimization, orbiting, reentry, stability and control, and automatic control.

E MCH 520 - Intermediate Dynamics

The main goal of this course is to provide a strong foundation for the modeling and analysis of mechanical dynamical systems.

AERSP 460 - Aerospace Control Systems (audited)

Design and analysis of feedback control systems for aerospace applications; stability, root locus, time- and frequency-domain, state-space methods.

AERSP 304 - Dynamics and Control of Aerospace Vehicles

Vibrations of single, multiple, and infinite degree-of-freedom systems; operational methods applied to aerospace vehicles; design of controllers.

Fluid Mechanics

AERPS 508 - Foundations of Fluid Mechanics

Mathematical review, fluid properties, kinematics, conservation laws, constitutive relations, similarity principles, the boundary layer, inviscid flow, vorticity dynamics, wave motion.

AERSP 311 and 312 - Aerodynamics I and II

Fluid statics and kinematics; fluid dynamics of inviscid and viscous flows; Navier-Stokes equations; introduction to boundary layers. Fluid mechanics of viscous and compressible flows, laminar boundary layers, turbulent flows, isentropic flows, shock waves, supersonic lift and drag.

AERSP 306 - Aeronautics

Lift and drag characteristics of aircraft; propulsion systems; airplane performance; introduction to stability and control.

Structures

AERSP 571 - Foundations of Structural Dynamics and Vibration

Modeling approaches and analysis methods of structural dynamics and vibration.

AERSP 301 - Aerospace Structures

Aerospace structural design concepts, flight safety. Stiffness, strength, stability of thin-walled structures under combined loads. Energy methods, finite element analysis.

Other aerospace-related courses

AERSP 597I - Spacecraft Environment Interactions

This course will examine various aspects of spacecraft aerodynamics and interactions with the space environment. The course will include some aspects of spacecraft design and the latest computational methods for calculating spacecraft aerodynamic forces and moments and thruster plume contamination.

Mathematics, Logic and Programming

E MCH 524A - Mathematical Methods in Engineering

Special functions, boundary value problems, eigenfunctions and eigenvalue problems; applications to engineering systems in mechanics, vibrations, and other fields.

MATH 597D - Numerical Methods for Hyperbolic Conservation Laws

This is a topic course for graduate students who are interested in numerical methods for hyperbolic conservation laws. Due to the large number of applications of these equations, this course should be of great interest to students in mathematics, computer science, engineering, physics etc.

Language and literature

GER 001 - Elementary German I

Introduction to listening, speaking, reading, and writing with emphasis on the first two skills; cultural aspects through readings and videos.

GER 002 - Elementary German II

Continuation of GER 001; further introduction of basic structures, culture, and development of four basic skills stressing aural-oral aspects. Students who have received high school credit for four or more years of German may not schedule this course for credit, without the permission of the department.

GER 003 - Intermediate German

Continued four-skill development with increased emphasis on reading, writing, and grammatical accuracy; culturally-oriented reading selections and videos.

IT 497A - Primo Levi: Witness or Writer? (course in Italian literature taught in English)

Through seminar-style instruction this course will explore the works of the twentieth century Italian writer, Primo Levi. The focus of the

course is the relationship between Levi’s two roles: survivor of the Holocaust, and acclaimed writer across several genres. To develop our understanding of this relationship we will consider theoretical and socio-historical aspects particularly associated with the Holocaust and its representation.