Our mission is to prepare engineers for success and leadership in the Conception, Design, Implementation, and Operation (CDIO) of aerospace and related complex, high-performance systems. We intend to create a new integrated education, the goals of which are:

• To provide students with a deep working knowledge of the technical fundamentals;
• To educate engineers to be leaders in the creation and operation of new products and systems;
• To instill in researchers an understanding of the importance and strategic value of their work.

These three goals are synergistic but distinct. Since the engineering science revolution of the 1950s it has been the goal of university technical education to teach the fundamentals. We are concerned that as education has become more abstract and more packed with topics, the depth and comprehensiveness of understanding of the fundamentals has declined. Therefore, we will create the learning environment that reinforces and deepens the understanding of the fundamentals, empowering our young engineers to use their knowledge and skills to create and innovate much more confidently and productively.

For more information, go to http://web.mit.edu/aeroastro/www/ .

MIT OpenCourseWare materials are licensed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under a Creative Commons License .