Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

With the advancement of the NASA Artemis Plan, humanity is on the cusp of permanent, sustainable lunar settlement that will be used as a proving ground for further exploration of Mars. Scientific, commercial, and military interests are converging at the moon and the next generation of aerospace engineers will shape humanity’s future in cislunar space. This shift is occurring in parallel with the advent of commercial space, which is upending an industry that has traditionally relied on large government programs and contractors. Some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs are now doing their most innovative work in this NewSpace industry. We believe that MAE, in partnership with collaborators across Cornell University, including at Cornell Tech, is positioned well to build on our legacy of spacecraft innovation, exploration, and entrepreneurship to lead in this new era. In research, we will leverage fundamental advances in materials, space systems, and propulsion science to push the boundaries of knowledge. This will in turn help bring about technological innovations that provide societal and economic benefits commensurate with this remarkable shift in space policy. Our plan calls for harnessing these efforts to create an Institute for Space Technology, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship that serves as a unique facility in the world for bringing together leaders from industry, academia, government, and the military to enable a one-of-a-kind research and education opportunity at Cornell University.

The science of autonomy, enabled by robotic systems, is reshaping the way we drive cars, fly planes, design & manufacture products, and much more. In the future we anticipate these trends will penetrate into essentially every industry, from healthcare to hospitality. Cornell has established a world-class, cross-college initiative – Robotics@Cornell – led by MAE. Our strategic plan will leverage this initiative and MAEs longstanding leadership in areas ranging from control theory, dynamics, and design, to ensure that the school and Cornell University remain at the forefront of innovation Robotics and Autonomy. The plan calls for strengthening the Robotics PhD program recently created by MAE faculty to complement our already strong undergraduate minor in the 18 area, and to increase industry engagement. The ultimate aim is to establish a cyber-physical experimental facility for enabling flight testing of autonomous air vehicles.

Nearly 150 years ago Cornell University offered its first undergraduate degree program in Mechanical Engineering, making it one of the oldest in the country. Since that time, the program has reimagined itself many times over, maintaining its position as one of the top programs in the world. The latest in these reimagining’s is our Active Learning Initiative – “Mastering Fundamentals Through Projects and Inductive Reasoning”. Our strategic plan calls for development of new curricula and instructional laboratory infrastructure that will catalyze these efforts. We will redesign the undergraduate curriculum to combine the best elements of experiential learning and coursework by emphasizing project-based or case-based learning and inductive teaching in the service of fundamentals in junior- and senior-level MAE courses. This will involve reimagining of undergraduate labs in advanced materials, product design & manufacturing, robotics, space technology and energy systems, enhanced data science literacy, and development of entrepreneurial and professional skills.

From infectious disease to climate change, Cornell engineers can help solve the world’s biggest problems. Complementing Cornell University’s Radical Collaboration program, MAE plan calls for development of an engineering focused “Centers of Excellence” program, which would pair relief from a portion of a faculty members traditional academic duties, like teaching, with leadership training to develop multidisciplinary teams prepared to pilot and execute the big-ideas that can scale to solve the world’s biggest problems.

Cornell MAE has achieved remarkable success increasing diversity of faculty and students over last 5 years – exceeding that of many of its peers. These successes can be traced to decades long efforts to make a Cornell Education available to every student, irrespective of their socioeconomic background; to simultaneously focus on diversifying the faculty and student body; to build meaningful bridges to high schools in order to create sustainable pipelines to a diverse pool of talent; and to create support systems in Cornell Engineering that allow our faculty and students to thrive, irrespective of their background. Our strategic plan calls for building robust partnerships Cornell-wide, with the specific aim of becoming the first Ivy League ME or AE program to reach gender and URM population parity.