You may have heard that I’m an aspiring aerospace engineer (particularly in the astronautical field of aerospace -- we’ll get to it later in the article). And you might be asking yourselves, what is an aerospace engineer? Well, wear your seatbelt, because I’m about to give you an explanation of what aerospace engineering is and what aerospace engineers do.
Alright, you’re probably here for a short, simple, and concise explanation as to what aerospace engineering is. So, I’ll try to explain it in the most simple way I can.
Aerospace engineering is divided into two areas of specialty: aeronautical engineering (involved with designing aircraft that fly within the Earth’s atmosphere), and astronautical engineering (involved with designing spacecraft that fly outside of the Earth’s atmosphere). However, there are a numerous amount of sub-disciplines in aerospace engineering.
Now, aerospace engineers not only have to design the concept/idea, they tackle and understand the numerous scientific fundamentals involved with designing, building, and testing. Some fundamentals they need to understand range from things like fluid dynamics to humans and automation. It’s also important for all engineers to understand why their idea is useful to society’s needs, and that’s based on things like history, the environment, etc.
All engineering in general follows this basic concept of “CDIO” (Conceive, Design, Implement, and Operate). Engineers think of an idea in order to make it happen (Conceive), then they apply their knowledge of the science required to design the systems and analyze/visualize the system working in real-life (Design), after doing this, they start building and testing the system, making sure the design works properly and analyzing and adjusting things that don’t work, and finally, engineers must put the system into operation, using it in real-life (Operate).
In conclusion, aerospace engineers, here’s a basic list of the qualities of a good aerospace engineer by Boeing:
Need a good understanding of the science and math required
Good understanding of the software and information technology involved with the design
They need to know how their idea is going to be designed and manufactured
A good perspective on multiple sub-disciplines contained within aerospace engineering
Why their idea is a good idea
Great communication skills (oral, written, graphical, and listening skills)
The ability to work collaboratively and independently
Critical and creative thinking
High ethical standards (human lives depend on your technology)
Flexibility (ability to adapt to change)
Curiosity and a desire to keep learning
Profound understanding of the importance of teamwork
Aerospace engineering is field that’s so versatile and diverse, that you could work for the government to Wall Street because of the skills you learn as an engineer. It’s no question that the skills of an aerospace engineer are highly valued and appreciated.
Speaking at Cloud Expo Europe, Ministry of Justice CDIO Tom Read says CIOs must be prepared to make their own roles redundant by embracing commodity cloud services and utility computing.
