Strategic Plan

Ready for Launch

All the components are in place to launch our department to new heights: a merging of student, faculty and staff talent and expertise; supportive leadership; a burgeoning space tech industry in Texas; and devoted donors, alumni and industry partners willing to support our groundbreaking work. The engineering challenges of tomorrow require the unmatched breadth and depth our department brings. It is up to us to seize these opportunities and take flight. The sky is not the limit.

Since its inception in 1942, the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin has been a national leader in engineering education. 

As the new space age is emerging on a global scale, we have the exciting opportunity to establish ourselves as a world leader in multiple areas, skyrocketing our presence as the nucleus for technology development for new space, the hub for the next generation of computational methods and data analytics for aerospace, and as trailblazers in transdisciplinary research.

This five-year plan lays out the strategies we will pursue to launch our department to new heights. We will consider this plan a success if we are able to shape those who will shape tomorrow by providing a world-class, hands-on education, a deep commitment to innovation, and a welcoming community of collaboration.

These goals rest on five strategic and interconnected pillars that are core to not just ASE/EM, but the Cockrell School of Engineering and The University of Texas at Austin as a whole:

• People
  Our people — faculty, staff, students and alumni — represent the key to reaching for the stars and beyond. They build and maintain the communities we rely on.
• Place
  Within the emerging space tech hubs of central Texas and beyond, ASE/EM at the Cockrell School will be a critical player in the unlimited future of space. We are committed to welcoming all communities and partners who want to be involved in world-changing innovation.
• Experiences
  As a top aerospace engineering department in the nation, we are committed to providing enriching experiences for students, faculty, staff and alumni. These initiatives will help forge lasting personal relationships and connections with the university, augment knowledge and teaching experiences with learning outside of the classroom and lab.
• Education
  A modernized, hands-on program, firmly rooted in engineering fundamentals that includes opportunities to participate in projects that cross disciplines and have a real impact. We will seek out new ways to get students involved in projects earlier in their academic careers, so they can find their engineering passion.
• Research
  Our research applies rigorous application of theory, experimentation, and computational methods to drive transformative engineering solutions.