Aerospace Honors Program

The Aerospace Engineering Honors Program at the University of Maryland provides a rigorous and comprehensive education for a career in technical leadership and scientific or engineering research.

Honors Handbook Honors Curriculum Sheet

Honors course work encompasses the required curriculum for all University of Maryland Aerospace Engineering students, but at an advanced level. Students also have the opportunity to engage in a number of independent research projects.

Why is Maryland's Aerospace Engineering Honors Program special?

Classes are limited to a small number of students, which facilitates discussion and close interaction with faculty
Research opportunities are an integral part of the program, providing students with hands on experience during their under undergraduate education

There are two ways that students can be involved in this program. Students can pursue Honors courses, Honors research, or both. Only students that pursue both the coursework and the research are eligible to earn the Honors Citation. The Honors Citation is awarded at graduation and the title of "Honors Student" is earned during senior spring semester, after completing the research project. Successful completion of the Aerospace Engineering Honors Citation will be noted on your diploma.

In your sophomore, junior, and senior years, you will take honors versions of core aerospace engineering courses, which go into greater depth and are more challenging than the standard program. For students opting to pursue the honors citation, in your junior and senior year, you will enroll in elective courses and complete an honors research project under the supervision of a faculty advisor. In your senior year, you will write a scholarly paper and present your research findings at the annual student conference.

The curriculum is designed to prepare our students for the world of engineering and emphasizes design and hands-on engineering. This program is intensive and is intended only for the top undergraduates in the Department of Aerospace Engineering.

Requests to be enrolled in Aerospace Engineering Honors courses (ENAExxxH) can be made by any student in advance of the semester that the course is offered by completion of the online honors course request form. After the best consideration deadline, students will be invited into the class based primarily on their academic performance to date until the roster is filled.

These courses will be capped at 24-25 students.

Any Aerospace Engineering Sophomore with a minimum 3.6 GPA that can identify a research faculty advisor and project by the end of their Spring semester can opt-into pursuit of the Honors Citation. A 3.5 GPA is required by the start of the Spring semester Senior year.

This includes transfer students, who should work directly with Dr. Sedwick to confirm eligibility. The deadline for submitting the online Project Approval Form with faculty acknowledgment is the end of Sophomore year. Students pursuing the honors citation are given first priority for admission into Junior and Senior level honors courses.

Honors sections of these aerospace engineering courses are offered.

To earn the Honors Citation, students must successfully complete ENAE311H, either ENAE423H or ENAE457H, and 3 credits of ENAE398H.

ENAE 283H- Introduction to Aerospace Systems
Introduction to airplanes and space vehicles as aerospace systems. Fundamentals that describe these systems. Elements of aerodynamics, airfoils, and wings. Airplane performance, stability, and control. Aircraft and rocket propulsion. Fundamentals of orbital motion. Aspects of vehicle conceptual design.
ENAE 311H - Aerodynamics I
Fundamentals of aerodynamics. Elements of compressible flow. Normal and oblique shock waves. Flows through nozzles, diffusers and wind tunnels. Elements of the method of characteristics and finite difference solutions for compressible flows. Aspects of hypersonic flow.
ENAE 423H - Vibration and Aeroelasticity
Dynamic response of single and multiple degrees of freedom systems, finite element modeling, wing divergence, aileron reversal, wing and panel flutter.
ENAE 457H - Space Propulsion and Power
Thermodynamic cycle analysis, aerothermochemistry of fuels and propellants, operating principles of rocket, ion, and other exoatmospheric power units.
ENAE 398H - Honors Research Project
Undergraduate honors research project conducted under the direction of an AE faculty member in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the College of Engineering Honors Program.

Research projects take you to places that you have never been before.

Take a dive to view robots assembling space structures in simulated micro-gravity
Test new fluids for dampers in the dynamometer testing facility
Develop flight hardware that could be launched to the International Space Station
Spin some rotor blades in the hover stand to determine stability

While students are encouraged to reach out to faculty earlier in the program, before the last day of classes of Spring semester of their Sophomore year they must
submit a completed Project Approval Form to the Undergraduate Programs Coordinator.

In order to graduate with honors, students must complete an Application for Graduation Honors to ensure that they have met all the honors program requirements.