Northeastern’s aerospace program on the Seattle campus takes off – Northeastern University

SEATTLEEthan Edelstein, a third-year mechanical engineering student at Northeastern, has had a fascination with outer space ever since he was young. Naturally, he took that curiosity with him to college.

I always wanted to go into aerospace even before college, Edelstein says.

Edelstein is one of several dozen engineering students who signed up for a new Northeastern summer residency program cooked up on the universitys Seattle campus. The eight-week residency is a core part of a novel aerospace minor in the College of Engineering that launched in the fall of 2021.

Edelstein says the aerospace program is rigorous with a lot of high-level course work. The Seattle-based residency, designed in collaboration by the College of Engineering, the Global Experience Office, and the Seattle campus, offers a mix of introductory classes and co-curricular, aerospace-themed trips to various industry sites, such as the Museum of Flight and Jeff Bezos Blue Origin, among others.

These site visits are a selling point for students interested in exploring some of Seattles engineering and tech destinations, making contact with industry while they decide on whether to take on the minor, Rochelle Rapaszky, assistant director of mobility programs based in Seattle, says. The Pacific Northwestern city is a major tech hub, where giants such as Amazon and Microsoft have set up home bases and attracted countless aspiring entrepreneurs and graduates eager to work for some of the worlds most innovative companies.

Its also the city where Boeing was founded, essentially launching the aerospace industry. For the last decade or so, Seattle has been one of the fastest-growing cities in the countryand Northeastern has positioned itself in the region to help fill an ever-expanding workforce pipeline of tech jobs.

Thats why a cadre of Northeastern students from the Boston campus flew across the country to go hands-on with industry professionals during the summer residency. True to Northeasterns experiential learning model, the site visits give students the ability to directly connect what they learn in the classroom with ongoing, real-world advancements.

And, Rapaszky says, the effort to establish relationships with the Seattle-based aerospace sector has helped to expand Northeasterns profile of regional partners at a time when it continues to look to grow its presence on the West Coast.

In five years, if this turned into a year-long program, that would be great, Rapaszky says of the aerospace residency.

Jaidah Morales, a third-year mechanical engineering student, says the residency has been a great way to explore different engineering topicsand to hear from numerous practitioners in the field.

Knowing that I dont have to be on that required path, that I dont have to necessarily take engineering the way its given to meits just really interesting to find out from all these different speakers, she says.

Bruce Mamont, a lecturer in the College of Engineering, who teaches Introduction to Flight, says his students are a diverse group. Most are mechanical engineering majors who, he says, will be vying for private sector work. Others are there because theyre intellectually curious.

That makes it a little more interesting for me, because that was my ambition as an undergraduate, says Mamont, who teachesas part of the coursetopics on aerodynamics, aircraft performance, structures, propulsion and control theory.

So far, only several students partaking in the residency have declared the aerospace minor. One of those students is Shaked Lotem, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student, who jumped at the opportunity to enroll.

I switched my schedule around to make sure I could fit this in, he says. Being able both to see the different guest lectures that they bring in and also all of the excursions that weve been going on is a big part of the experience.

Living in Cornish Commons, a five-minute walk from Northeasterns growing campus, Lotem says he also enjoys just being in Seattlea very young, modern city.

Its great to just go and wander and see everything, he says.

But Lotem is not only content to explore Seattle. It would be a dream, Lotem says, to work for NASA or SpaceX, ultimately so that he can contribute to humanitys exploration and colonization of the moon, Mars and beyond.

For media inquiries, please contact media@northeastern.edu.

Go here to see the original:

Northeastern's aerospace program on the Seattle campus takes off - Northeastern University