Centre for Research in Sustainable Aviation (CRSA)
"We believe that the [UTIAS Sustainable Aviation] program, designed to combine traditional education with research projects and industrial internships, will produce a new generation of highly qualified engineers, who will provide insight, innovation and talent to develop solutions addressing the environmental impact of aviation."
– Walter Di Bartolomeo, Vice President, Engineering, Pratt & Whitney Canada.
Certificate of Emphasis in Sustainable Aviation
Environmental sustainability has become a key driver in the aviation sector and in the design of aircraft and their engines, as aircraft noise and emissions have negative impacts on the environment. In particular, aviation contributes significantly to climate change, and this impact is projected to grow as demand for air travel grows unless significant reductions in climate change impact per passenger-km are achieved in the near future. The Sustainable Aviation emphasis is for graduate students who seek to develop the interdisciplinary skills and knowledge needed to develop the next generation of aircraft and thereby to contribute to the sustainability of the aviation sector.
The core course for the emphasis, Sustainable Aviation, covers a wide range of topics from atmospheric physics to regulatory aspects. Other courses relevant to the emphasis include courses related to improving the efficiency of aircraft through reductions in weight and drag, courses relevant to noise reduction, courses related to alternative fuels, such as biofuels and hydrogen, and more. Students with the knowledge and skills associated with sustainable aviation are expected to be in high demand.
Students in participating units who complete the required elements in the UTIAS programs in Sustainable Aviation will be recognized with a Certificate of Emphasis in Sustainable Aviation attesting to this focus of their studies. There are several requirements that must be satisfied to attain this recognition: AER1315: All students wishing to receive the Emphasis in Sustainable Aviation must take AER1315: Sustainable Aviation as a part of their course selection. Additional Courses: Doctoral stream (MASc/PhD) students must take at least 2 courses from the list of courses below plus AER1315; MEng students must take at least 4 courses from the list plus AER1315.
Eligible Courses
- AER1315 Sustainable Aviation
- AER1303 Advanced Fluid Mechanics
- AER1304 Fundamentals of Combustion
- AER1306 Special Topics in Reacting Flows (reading)
- AER1308 Introduction to Modern Flow Control
- AER1310 Turbulence Modelling
- AER1316 Fundamentals of Computational Fluid Dynamics
- AER1318 Topics in Computational Fluid Dynamics
- AER1319 Finite Volume Methods for CFD
- AER1322 Modern Aerospace Propulsion
- AER1403 Advanced Aerospace Structures
- AER1418 Variational Methods for Partial Differential Equations
- AER501 Computational Structural Mechanics and Design Optimization
- AER510 Aerospace Propulsion
- CIV1307 Lifecycle Assessment of Engineering Activities
- PHY1498 Introduction to Atmospheric Physics
- PHY2505 Atmospheric Radiative Transfer and Remote Sounding
- PHY2504 Atmospheric Dynamics
- CHE1123 Liquid Biofuels
- JCC1313 Environmental Microbiology
Research: Doctoral stream students must complete a thesis project in an area of relevance to sustainable aviation; topics will require approval of the Scientific Committee. While not a strict requirement, it is strongly advised that students wishing to acquire a strong knowledge of sustainable aviation also participate in the Summer School on Sustainable Aviation, the International Workshop on Aviation and Climate Change, the National Colloquium on Sustainable Aviation and the Student Research Symposium.
Please submit a summary of your research or potential thesis topic to Professor D.W. Zingg, Director of the Centre for Research in Sustainable Aviation.