Facts and Rankings

With 45 faculty members, over 800 students and over 6,000 living alumni worldwide, the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at The University of Texas at Austin is a tight-knit, interdisciplinary community that offers programs in aerospace engineering, computational engineering and engineering mechanics. Our faculty work closely with students to solve important technological and scientific problems related to aviation, space engineering and science, robotics, energy, solid biomechanics, biomedicine, earth science and more.

Undergraduate Students

• 630 Enrolled

Graduate Students

• 193 Enrolled
• 17% Women

*Enrollment numbers updated in Sept. 2025

Faculty

• 45 faculty
• 31 endowed faculty positions
• 9 emeritus faculty

Honors and Distinctions

• 1 MacArthur fellow
• 1 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers recipient
• 1 National Academy of Sciences member
• 4 National Academy of Engineering members
• 12 National Science Foundation CAREER Award recipients
• 6 American Society of Mechanical Engineers fellows
• 6 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics fellows
• 3 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics fellows
• 4 Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Program Award recipients
• 3 American Academy of Mechanics fellows
• 4 American Astronautical Society fellows
• 2 Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Program Award recipients
• 1 American Heart Association Career Development Award recipient

$26.8M in Research Expenditures

At ASE/EM, our faculty and students conduct research across three broad disciplines: aerospace engineering, engineering mechanics, and computational engineering (computational mathematics and engineering). As the fields of aerospace engineering and mechanics continue to evolve, the department has been working strategically in recent years to hire faculty who specialize in the cutting-edge areas of robotics and autonomy, remote sensing, space engineering and technology, and computational engineering.

Facilities

In late 2018, the department moved into the newly renovated Aerospace Engineering Building. Features include updated and expanded research laboratories, including a state-of-the-art space object visualization lab, updated autonomous UAV and human-centered robotics labs, and collaboration zones for students and faculty. The main entrance features the McKnight Student Center — a well-lit open study space on the first floor of the building with a collaborative learning area, computer lab and student conference room. Improved undergraduate design and teaching labs also provide students with more experiential learning opportunities.

Alumni

The UT ASE/EM community – over 6,000 strong – consists of government and industry thought leaders across a wide variety of fields. From flying in space to mapping oil spills from space; from teaching our future engineers to be leaders to leading engineering businesses – our alumni continue to make a positive impact on the world with their knowledge and skills.