Facts and Rankings

With 38 tenure-track faculty members, over 800 students and over 4,500 alumni living worldwide, the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at The University of Texas at Austin is a tight-knit, interdisciplinary community that offers programs in aerospace engineering, computational engineering and engineering mechanics. Our faculty work closely with students to solve important technological and scientific problems related to aviation, space engineering and science, robotics, energy, solid biomechanics, biomedicine, earth science and more.

1st

Computational Engineering Undergraduate Program Offered by a U.S. University

#8

Graduate Aerospace Engineering, 2022
U.S. News & World Report

#8

Undergraduate Aerospace Engineering, 2022-23
U.S. News & World Report

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Undergraduate Students

  • 662 Enrolled
Aerospace Engineering
  • 544 Enrolled
  • 33% Underrepresented Population
  • 25% Women
  • $75K Average Starting Salary
Computational Engineering
  • 118 Enrolled
  • 25% Underrepresented Population
  • 31% Women
  • $84K Average Starting Salary

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Graduate Students

  • 187 Enrolled
  • 18% Women
  • 40% International
Aerospace Engineering
  • 165 Enrolled 
Engineering Mechanics
  • 22 Enrolled

*Enrollment numbers updated in Oct. 2022

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Faculty

  • 38 tenure/tenure-track faculty
  • 30 endowed faculty positions
  • 11 emeritus faculty
Honors and Awards
  • 1 MacArthur Fellow
  • 5 Members, National Academy of Engineering
  • 9 Winners, National Science Foundation CAREER Award
  • 7 Fellows, American Society of Mechanical Engineers
  • 6 Fellows, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
  • 4 Fellows, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
  • 4 Winners, AFOSR Young Investigator Program Award
  • 3 Fellows, American Academy of Mechanics
  • 3 Fellows, American Astronautical Society
  • 2 Winners, Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Program Award
  • 1 Member, National Academy of Sciences
  • 1 Winner, Presidential Early Career award for Scientists and Engineers
  • 1 Winner, American Heart Association Career Development Award
  • 1 Winner, DARPA Young Faculty Award

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$20M in Research Expenditures

At ASE/EM, our faculty and students conduct research across three broad disciplines: aerospace engineering, engineering mechanics, and computational engineering (computational mathematics and engineering). As the fields of aerospace engineering and mechanics continue to evolve, the department has been working strategically in recent years to hire faculty who specialize in the cutting-edge areas of robotics and autonomy, remote sensing, space engineering and technology, and computational engineering.

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Facilities

In late 2018, the department moved into the newly renovated Aerospace Engineering Building. Features include updated and expanded research laboratories, including a state-of-the-art space object visualization lab, updated autonomous UAV and human-centered robotics labs, and collaboration zones for students and faculty. The main entrance features the McKnight Student Center — a well-lit open study space on the first floor of the building with a collaborative learning area, computer lab and student conference room. Improved undergraduate design and teaching labs also provide students with more experiential learning opportunities.

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Alumni

The UT ASE/EM community – over 5,700 strong – consists of government and industry thought leaders across a wide variety of fields. From flying in space to mapping oil spills from space; from teaching our future engineers to be leaders to leading engineering businesses – our alumni continue to make a positive impact on the world with their knowledge and skills.