Welcome to AeroAstro’s Winter 2018 newsletter.

These are exciting times for our department. Not long ago we received a generous leadership gift from Boeing to replace the venerable 80-year-old Wright Brothers Wind Tunnel with a state-of-the-art facility that will be the largest and most advanced academic wind tunnel in the United States. (See the story above.) We’re now in the design phase.

The return to the renovated and greatly expanded Building 31 is nearly complete. The Gas Turbine Lab and our autonomous systems faculty and labs are in place. The project’s final phase, opening of research/workshop student facilities for AeroAstro-Lincoln Lab’s Beaver Works, is scheduled for completion this March.

On the people side, while AeroAstro is one of the most diverse academic aerospace engineering departments in the nation, we want to, and need to, do more. We’ve adopted a statement on race and diversity confirming our commitment to “respect for, and full engagement of, all races, genders, religions, ethnicities, and sexual orientation.” We’ve created the Diversity, Inclusion, and Innovation committee comprising faculty, staff, and students to explore and implement appropriate guidelines and actions. And, you will see an article below that we’ve established a graduate fellowship pool for females and underrepresented people. 

Your response to our debut newsletter last fall was overwhelmingly positive, and we trust you will find this issue equally compelling. Thank you for reading, and we welcome your feedback. Let us know what you think. Our doors are always open.