Benefits of opting for aerospace engineering degree

Engineering remains a stream of choice for several students post-high-school. The sheer joy of building stuff and watching it in action, going beyond the words and formulae written on a piece of paper, seemingly attracts curious minds towards acquiring an engineering degree. However, the choice after that is not straightforward. A plethora of options are available for aspiring candidates, ranging from traditional ones such as mechanical, electronics, computer science, chemical, etc. to newer ones such as biotechnology, aerospace, and the like. The focus of this article shall be on exploring the benefits of aerospace engineering.

In the earlier days, ‘aeronautics’ was a specialized area, dealing with aircraft design, development, testing, and maintenance. With the rapid advancements in the outer space domain during the 1960s, the word “aerospace” indicating the integrated studies of air and outer space found its way into academic circles.

In fact, in the early days, aerospace engineering was deemed to be complex enough that it was offered only as a postgraduate specialization, to be built upon after undertaking an undergraduate engineering degree. This also made sense as the core elements of aerospace engineering borrow from mechanical (structures, manufacturing, flight mechanics, etc.), electronics (control, navigation, guidance) and advanced mathematics (optimization, motion dynamics, etc.). However, over time, the course has made its way into the undergraduate stream as well, with many candidates opting for a degree in aerospace engineering right after high school.

This marked shift has been driven, at least, in part by the huge demand for such graduates in the aerospace domain, owing to rapid advancements in aircraft and space technology. Broadly speaking, the demand can be categorized into three major camps – Government Agencies, Industrial Players, and Academia themselves. Let us explore each of them one by one.

Being a strategic, capital-intensive, and technologically complex domain, governments across the world have recognized aerospace as a sustained focus area, leading to their presence in the form of specialized agencies, catering to civilian as well as defence requirements. Coming to India, one can identify agencies such as ISRO, DRDO, CSIR-NAL, etc., which are in need of aerospace engineers. These agencies typically engage in advanced R&D in the field of aerospace, with long-term deliverables. The path towards these deliverables involves intensive collaboration with industry as well as academia, driving the need for aerospace engineers in these sectors as well. Industries engaged in the aerospace domain, emerged firstly as sub-systems manufacturers and over time as independent players, bringing forth innovation and agility in this sector. In fact, it would not be an overreach to state that industry players have revolutionized the sector over the past few decades and are active partners with government agencies. Aerospace engineers are in huge demand in the private sector, given the expertise and domain knowledge they bring to the table. Globally, names such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, SpaceX, Blue Origin, etc. come to mind, whereas in the Indian scenario, we have L&T, HAL, TATA Aerospace, etc. – all offering substantial opportunities for aerospace engineers. The third piece of the puzzle is academia, wherein opportunities to further hone one’s skill in the form of doctorate and post-doctorate specializations exist. In fact, academia drives research into this complex domain, wherein a lot of challenges still exist to be solved. Several universities, in India as well as globally, exist offering doctoral and Research Staff positions to aerospace engineering background students. Thus, we have seen the diverse camps in which aerospace engineers flourish. Of course, it must be acknowledged that while an undergraduate degree is just the starting step, the break-neck pace of advancements in the aerospace domain, has fuelled the demand for aerospace engineering graduates, offering them a string of opportunities to contribute in this exciting arena.

(The auhor is a Distinguished Scientist & Director (Retired) ISRO HQ, Bangalore & Professor, Aeronautical Engg. Dept. NMIT, Bangalore)