A Year of Growth!
This past year in the College of Aeronautics and Engineering has been one of incredible growth. Growth in enrollment, in research capability, in facilities, in corporate partnerships, and in mission. We are seeing an approximate 25% enrollment growth of our incoming class, with most of this growth being seen in our engineering programs and our flight program (soon to be renamed the Professional Pilot program). We worked hard on retention and are seeing a retention rate of 84.1%... way above national averages. We hired five new tenure track engineering faculty who expanded our capabilities in the areas of robotics, mechatronics, space mission planning, CubeSats, autonomous systems, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and Big Data. We are growing our corporate partnerships, which now include Goodyear Global Engineering and Swagelok, among many other engineering and aeronautics companies and airlines. We reorganized our administrative staff to better reflect our new vision and mission as a college. Two new additions to our CAE administrative family include Dr. Joycelyn Harrison as our new Associate Dean, Research and Faculty Affairs, and Dr. Robert Kraus as our new Associate Dean, Flight, and Operations. And of course, we have added new facilities, including the brand new FedEx Aeronautics Academic Center (FAAC)! The Grand Opening of the FAAC will kick off two days of events starting with the Grand Opening of the FAAC on Friday, September 6, at 5:00 pm, followed by the Alumni and Friends of CAE Dinner at the KSU Airport at 6:00 pm. Remarks by our own Dave Edmonds, FedEx CEO, will be at 6:30 pm. On Saturday, September 7, we will hold our Aeronautics & Engineering Expo from 8 am-4 pm. The A&E Expo will highlight all aspects of what we do as a College, and will include line-following robots, vintage aircraft, UAVs (drones), flight simulator experiences, foundry demonstrations, high powered rockets, virtual reality experiences, and more! I look forward to seeing you all very soon, either at the upcoming events or when you come home to KSU CAE for a visit. I know you will feel the same excitement that we do as we watch our college grow, our students succeed, and our alumni prosper.