• Working knowledge of computational methods including experience implementing them for model problems drawn from aerospace engineering applications • Basic foundation in theoretical techniques to analyze the behavior of computational methods This subject’s enrollment has grown in size each year. In the spring of 2006, more than 40 students were enrolled. During the semester, students gain hands-on experience with computational methods by implementing them to solve various aerospace-derived problems; for example, in 2005, students developed a finite volume method to approximate the supersonic flow over a circular cylinder.At the graduate education level, a new interdepartmental Master of Science program in Computation for Design and Optimization has been created. The CDO interdisciplinary program provides a strong foundation in computational approaches to the design and operation of complex engineering and scientific systems. Furthermore, the program provides a focal point for the large computational engineering research community at MIT. The current program has more than 20 affiliated faculty members from the schools of Engineering, Science, and Sloan. Aero-Astro is well represented: the program Mach 2 supersonic flow passed a cylinder simulated by students in 16.901 using a finite volume method.
co-director is Jaume Peraire; and Dave Darmofal, Olivier de Weck, Raul Radovitzky, and Karen Willcox are affiliates. The department offers several graduate subjects in computational engineering, all of which are also a part of the CDO program. These include: • 16.225J: Computational Mechanics of Materials • 16.888J: Multidisciplinary System Design Optimization • 16.910J: Introduction to Numerical Simulation • 16.920J: Numerical Methods for Partial Differential Equations • 16.930: Advanced Numerical Methods for Partial Differential Equations
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AERO-ASTRO 2005-2006