Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Message from the Department Head

Welcome 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 of Walt Disney World in Orlando. Our ideal location on the Space Coast allows close interaction with nearby scientists and engineers of the U.S. space program and easy access to the Florida east coast beach.Dr. Pei-feng Hsu

You will find the MAE Dept. is among the best.  The latest U.S. News and World Report has listed Florida Tech as a Tier-1 national university, making it the second-highest ranked private National University in Florida.  Currently the Department has the largest undergraduate enrollment on campus.  We emphasize "hands-on" experience.  The students have 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 2011, we will have a total of 17 full-time faculty members in the Department, plus two research professors and several part-time faculty members.  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 browse the departmental web site 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:

  • Addition of a nuclear technology curriculum that include four new courses in nuclear engineering available to juniors and seniors.
  • Development of a new area of specialization in automotive engineering in our Master's degree programs.
  • Dr. Dan Kirk serves as FL Tech's technical lead in the FAA Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation, a 10-year partnership of academia, industry, and government, developed for the purpose of creating a world-class consortium that will address current and future challenges for commercial space transportation.

 

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

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