University of Colorado Boulder Aerospace Capstone Design PROGRAM “If you look across Lockheed Martin you will find Smead Aerospace graduates working in critical technical and leadership roles in the country’s most important programs. Their extraordinary technical competence, combined with visionary leadership and an entrepreneurial spirit, are the reasons we hire them.” Steve Jolly Director and Chief Engineer, Commercial Civil Space Lockheed Martin Space Aerospace Senior and Graduate Design PROGRAMS
The University of Colorado Boulder’s Aerospace Engineering Sciences Senior and Graduate Design Programs provide an innovative educational opportunity for students to undertake a real-world project for an industry sponsor.
During their senior year, all undergraduate aerospace engineering students enroll in the department’s two semester senior projects course. Working in teams to complete a sponsored project, students synthesize and apply fundamentals of science, mathematics, and engineering as they emulate the activities of a small, entrepreneurial company.
At the graduate level, Master’s and PhD students have the option to enroll in an advanced projects course that builds upon senior design and offers sponsors additional flexibility in project structure, duration, and complexity. Senior Design How it Works » 10-12 students per team. » Teams are responsible for budget, time, and personnel management. » Teams report weekly to their faculty advisor and three times each semester to a project advisory board. » Two full-time machinists and full-time electronics instructors are available to students. » Each team spends at least 4,480 hours on the project over 28 school weeks. » 1st semester: Teams conduct modeling and simulation, conduct trade studies and review possible routes as they follow the systems engineering project lifecycle. » 2nd semester: Teams focus on manufacturing, integration, testing, verification, and validation of their designs. » Primary goal is education. Projects that are in your critical path, are subject to export controls, or contain IP cannot be accepted. All projects are conducted on a best-effort basis. Sample Projects
GROUP SPONSOR PROJECT SPECIFICATIONS/GOALS
Air Force Rsch Specialized Propulsion Increase Thrust-to-Weight (T/W) Ratio of SPECS Laboratory Engine Control System the JetCat P90-RXi Engine.
Design a low-cost, ground-based, Ground-based The Aerospace optical tracking system for space GHOST Hardware for Optical Corporation situational awareness and space traffic Space Tracking management.
CU Aerospace Mapping Architecture Create proof-of concept spacecraft MACULA Engineering Concept for Universal LIDAR system and develop software to Sciences Landing Automation identify hazards/select safe landing zone.
Design and build a child scout rover to Hazard Examination determine a viable path to a location of Jet Propulsion and Reconnaissance HERMES interest, travel to it, transmit relevant Laboratory Messenger for data, then return and dock to the mother Extended Surveillance rover.
PAB Customer Advisor
Project Systems Manager Engineer
Manufacturing Safety & CFO Engineer Test Engineer
Common Subsystems: Electrical Subsystem 1 Subsystem 2 Subsystem 3 Subsystem 4 Software Lead Engineer Lead Engineer Lead Engineer Lead Engineer Aerodynamics Mechanical Thermal
Project Milestones
Learning goals for the teams match industry practices. Students learn and follow standard design process milestones:
» Project Definition Document (PDD) - Developed in cooperation with the project sponsor and articulates the functional requirements, scope and deliverables of the project. » Conceptual Design Document (CDD) - Describes the baseline design and process that was used to arrive at that design. Involves the evaluation of at least three conceptual designs that meet functional requirements. » Preliminary Design Review (PDR) - Presents evidence that the project objectives, as defined in the PDD, for the baseline design in the CDD, is feasible within the constraints of technology and the senior projects course. This is done through modeling and preliminary experimentation. » Critical Design Review (CDR) - Presents the detailed design of the project along with a description of how the design meets the requirements, how key decisions were made about what will be purchased versus manufactured, how the system will be integrated and tested and what resources are needed. A successful CDR is required before approval to expend project funds is given. » Fall Final Report (FFR) - A comprehensive document of the design synthesis portion of the Senior Projects course. » Manufacturing Status Review (MSR) - A formal interim review on the status of the project that focuses on manufacturing. » Test Readiness Review (TRR) - A formal interim review on the status of the project that focuses on testing. » AIAA Student Paper - Teams write a paper on interesting aspects of their project and are encouraged to share their work at the Region V AIAA Student Conference. » Spring Final Review (SFR) - Presents the verification and validation results of the project. Teams are expected to clearly present and interpret the results of their tests in the context of the project requirements. Teams are also expected to close the design loop by connecting the test results to modeling and design work that went into developing the design. » Project Final Report - Complete written report for the project that includes all data packages developed during the course. » Senior Design Symposium - Short presentations to project sponsor and invited guests followed by a poster session and prototype demonstrations. Graduate Design How it Works
The Graduate Projects program expands and builds upon the possibilities of senior design and offers sponsors additional flexibility in project structure, duration, and complexity. It exposes graduate students to engineering project work, project management, systems engineering, and subsystem-level design and testing. Projects must be related to one (or more) of five graduate research focus areas: » Astrodynamics and Satellite Navigation Systems » Autonomous Systems » Bioastronautics » Fluids, Structures and Materials » Remote Sensing, Earth and Space Science Differences from Senior Design » Timeline - Can vary significantly, from one semester for a human spaceflight mockup to 3 to 4 years for a flight-ready CubeSat. » Team Size - 5 to 15 students, based on project needs. » Must align with faculty research. » Company sponsors may participate with the team as much or as little as desired. » Exploratory, proof-of-concept, and design-ready products can all be quite successful as Graduate Projects.
Sample Graduate Projects
GROUP SPONSOR PROJECT SPECIFICATIONS/GOALS
Build a mockup of a two person lunar TALOS Lockheed Martin Lunar Lander Mockup lander and provide human factors testing results.
Design collapsible insulation for Deployable Multi-Layer MLI L3Harris a deployable boom and test in a Insulation thermal vacuum chamber.
Build and launch cubesat to compete NASA CubeQuest CU Earth Escape CU-E3 in the NASA Deep Space Derby long- Challenge Explorer Cubesat distance communications challenges.
Sponsor a Project
» Interested parties should email [email protected] to receive a Notice of Intent Form and additional information on becoming a sponsor. » Sponsor pays an infrastructure fee and receives an electronic copy of each milestone. » Additional conditional deliverables will be based on agreement between sponsor and Smead Aerospace Engineering Sciences department. Sponsor Benefits » Faculty-mentored student teams work on targeted company problems. » Opportunity to interact with and assess potential future employees. » On-the-job training for potential future employees. » Professional mentoring of the next generation of aerospace employees. » Support of hands-on, project-based education. » Promote and elevate your company brand. Sponsor Expectations » Complete a Notice of Intent form which includes high-level project requirements negotiated with course coordinator. Must be signed by the technical contact and contractual contact. » Review and negotiate the Project Definition Document and Conceptual Design Document with the students. » Participate in project reviews (Preliminary Design Review, Critical Design Review, Fall Final Report, Manufacturing Status Review, Test Readiness Review and Spring Final Review). » Understand that the primary goal is education. The Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences is pushing the limits of aeronautics and astronautics research, designing next generation unmanned aircraft, expanding the possibilities of remote sensing, bioastronautics, and building space instruments and satellites for orbit around Earth and beyond. We are home to 56-tenure track, research, and instructional faculty, over 400 graduate students and 1,000 undergraduates.
The department houses four research centers and receives over $21 million annually in sponsored research awards. Leading research centers are in astrodynamics, structures and materials, bioastronautics, and unmanned aerial vehicles.
Dr. Jelliffe Jackson, Senior Projects Course Coordinator 303-492-3702 [email protected]
Nicholas Rainville, Graduate Projects Course Coordinator 303-492-7814 [email protected]
Professor Brian Argrow, Department Chair 303-492-8183 [email protected]
Claire Yang, Undergraduate Programs and Industry Relations Manager 303-492-2940 [email protected]
colorado.edu/aerospace The MinXSS CubeSat graduate project (center) flies free after leaving the CubeSat Deployer on the International Space Station (upper right).
MinXSS was designed and built by students and flew a successful, year-long mission studying solar flares and their impact on Earth’s upper atmosphere.
In AEROSPACE