Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Message from the Department Head

Department HeadWelcome to the home page of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) at Florida Tech. We are pleased that you would like to find out about our department, its faculty, and its programs and facilities. The campus is located about 45 miles south of the NASA Kennedy Space Center and within an hour's drive to Walt Disney World in Orlando. Our ideal location on the Space Coast allows close interaction with the nearby scientists and engineers of the US space program and easy access to the Florida east coast beach.

You will find the MAE Department is among the best. Currently the department has the largest undergraduate enrollment on campus. We emphasize "hands-on" experiences. The students gain machine shop and laboratory experience from the freshman introductory classes to the senior capstone design classes. In our graduate program, we are moving forward to expand our research activities, with the majority of full-time graduate students supported by funded projects. By the fall semester of 2008, we anticipate a total of 15 faculty members in the department. The faculty has a diverse background in mechanical and aerospace engineering, including mechatronics, robotics, propulsion, energy conversion systems, hydrogen fuel cells, magnetic levitation, nanomaterial mechanics, composite structures, lasers, and hurricane wind damage. To find out about each faculty member's background, teaching interests, and research activities, please look through the departmental website for additional information. There are also links to pages describing our undergraduate and graduate programs, departmental activities, and departmental facilities. Below are some recent highlights in our department:

  • Arrival of Dr. Taeyoung Lee, Assistant Professor of Aerospace Engineering. Dr. Lee graduated from the University of Michigan and his research interests are in geometric mechanics and control, nonlinear control, adaptive control, neural networks, and multi-body systems.
  • Dr. Dan Kirk is the recipient of the 2008 Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Ralph A. Teetor Award.
  • Dr. Kunal Mitra has been promoted to Full Professor in Mechanical Engineering
  • New research projects: most notably, Dr. Mark Archambault will embark on a multi-year rocket plume cratering project with colleagues at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Dr. Kirk continues his successful work with NASA, especially at the Kennedy Space Center, on fuel tank slosh dynamics studies.

You are very welcome to visit our campus, tour our facilities, and speak with our faculty. Visits can be arranged through our Undergraduate Admissions Office and additional information can be found on their web page (www.fit.edu/ugrad). Thank you for your interest in our programs.

Sincerely,

Dr. Pei-feng Hsu

Professor and Department Head