Greetings to the incoming first-year students of 2020/21!
Congratulations on being accepted to the USM School of Aerospace Engineering! It’s a delight to welcome you here to be part of our Aero family of 22 lecturers, 22 staff, and 140 other students in their second, third, and fourth years.
Aerospace engineering combines the two fields of aeronautics and astronautics. The students and staff at USM Aerospace share a mutual passion for aerospace vehicles which include drones, aircraft, helicopters and satellites. Since the inception of the Malaysian Aerospace Blueprint (MAB) in the 1990s, the country has gone through rapid development in the aerospace field beginning with the Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) area followed by aerospace components and manufacturing and finally toward systems integration.
For the past ten years, we have been involved with the developments of aerospace components and manufacturing having strong linkages with Spirit AeroSystems. Recently, we have embarked into systems integration through the research and developments of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and nano-satellites collaborating with local aerospace companies. As a member of the Malaysian Aerospace Industry Association (MAIA) which is a consortium of 200++ aerospace companies, we are constantly engaged with the aerospace industry staying abreast with its current trends.
It is our commitment to ensure that our students are highly employable within the aerospace or aerospace-related industry. We provide them with strong theoretical knowledge, adequate hands-on experience, relevant skill-sets with lifelong learning abilities to adapt to ever-changing future needs. Our four-year undergraduate program at USM aerospace is very competitive and accredited by the Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM). All of our lecturers extensively practice Outcome-Based-Education (OBE), applying active teaching and learning methods on a wide range of subjects from aerodynamics, aircraft structures & composite materials, flight stability & control to aircraft and spacecraft design. Our courses are conducted through blended learning of which combines the traditional face-to-face (F2F) teaching methods and the online sessions not only for the sake of circumventing the challenge of Covid-19 but as a part of embracing the global future education.
I hope that you will have the same passion for aerospace and willing to put in the hours to become aerospace engineering graduates of USM. We know that these are tough times, but please stay safe, healthy and focused in your studies. We sincerely hope to see you soon!
Associate Professor Dr. Farzad Ismail
Dean,
School of Aerospace Engineering USM
6 October 2020
