Introduction
There will always be engineers who push the boundaries of engineering design and development. The leading edge of these boundaries is in aerospace.
Aerospace science and engineering is a cross-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary field that allows exploration of the broadest and most fascinating fields of engineering, areas that capture the imagination of everyone, and encourage exploration beyond our own narrow terrestrial existence. Some of the areas explored in aerospace include:
| Aeronautics: |
-- aircraft design, structures, control and flight operation
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| Propulsion system: |
-- jet and rocket engine design and combustion principles
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| Flight simulation: |
-- full motion-based flight simulation with virtual reality capability
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Spacecraft design and construction
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- Spacecraft materials - the development of advanced spacecraft materials that will withstand the hostile environment of space, with unique applications on Earth
- Orbital mechanics - satellite dynamics and control
- Robotics - for use in the space environment that often translates into innovative and surprising commercial and industrial applications
- Hypersonics - high speed flight, shock wave interactions, temperature and pressure profiles of atmospheric and orbital craft
- Fibre optics - designed for spacecraft structural sensing, and `smart' materials, with revolutionary applications in architectural design, highway and bridge construction worldwide
- Computational fluid dynamics - 3-dimensional computer modeling of air flow over aircraft, in engines and scramjets
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The Institute has excellent experimental and computer facilities to support the research activities of our graduate students. Major experimental facilities: Flight Simulator, Air-Cushion Test Facilities, Subsonic Wind Tunnels, Hypersonic Flow and Shock Tube Facilities, Combustion Laboratory, Vacuum Sphere, Aeroacoustic Laboratory, Structures and Materials Laboratory, Space Flight Laboratory, Flexible Spacecraft Emulator, Space Robotics Facility, Fusion Plasma Simulation Laboratory, Fibre-Optic Test Facilities, Surface Characterization Facilities, Computer Workstations used for Computational Fluid Dynamics and other computational research. In addition to the UTIAS library, with a collection of technical reports, books and major aerospace journals, students also have access to the extensive library system at the University of Toronto.
The Institute also benefits from various interactions and collaborations with researchers in industry, government and other universities. We are participants in Federal and Ontario Centres of Excellence: the 'Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Systems' (IRIS ), the centre for 'Intelligent Sensing for Innovative Structures' (ISIS ), and the 'Centre for Research in Earth and Space Technology' (CRESTech ).