The role of 'hands-on' practice in aerospace engineering education

Abstract

This paper describes the role of hands-on practice in aerospace engineering education at The University of Adelaide. Experience shows that the final year design and build projects, a component of final year undergraduate engineering studies, are conducted very successfully and are aligned extremely well with the aerospace engineering curriculum. Five honors projects recently completed at the University of Adelaide are described in detail, highlighting the positive contributions made to the education experience. The projects were of a ‘design and build’ nature, and utilized hands-on realization and practical student involvement. The engagement of the students through hands-on practice constituted the main aspect of the all projects. Each project had a timeframe of less than 10 months, in which the students were required to undertake and successfully coordinate the fundamental tasks of a ‘real world’ engineering task, namely market evaluation, revenue raising, project management, design, manufacturing, testing and evaluation. Analogous to real World tasks, the projects were designed such that the students would be exposed to real World resource and time constraints. The undertaking of these projects has demonstrated their capabilities and benefits in educating aerospace engineering.