The aerospace engineering pillars of structures, gas dynamics, and dynamics and control have rested long term on a firm foundation of calculus-based physics. Today’s aerospace engineer relies more on the computational device than the pencil and paper to innovate in theory and in practice. Educators and practitioners struggle with questions in how to improve computing knowledge and skills in the aerospace curriculum. Whereas most agree it would be unwise to compromise most content currently in place, opinions differ on which computing concepts students need to know. The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of computing for aerospace and encourage critical thought about options for its inclusion into the required undergraduate curriculum. To do this, computer science is defined and common misconceptions are discussed. A review of computing content in aerospace curricula is presented. A pedagogical strategy that capitalizs on analogs between discrete and continuous-valued physical processes is proposed, including examples of how computational thinking can be meaningfully infused without loss of content in traditional aerospace courses. The paper concludes with related efforts to introduce computational thinking in kindergarten through 12th grades and higher education along with a discussion of insights computer science offers aerospace by revisiting questions from the introduction.


    Access

    Check access

    Check availability in my library

    Order at Subito €


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Education in the Crosscutting Sciences of Aerospace and Computing


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2014-08-14


    Size :

    12 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




    Aerospace Illinois education in aerospace sciences

    SOLOMON, WAYNE / LAZAR, JAMES | AIAA | 1991



    Education in the Cross-Cutting Sciences of Aerospace and Computing

    Atkins, E. / American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2013