DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGINEERING Guide to Graduate Studies 2013 / 2014 TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii I INTRODUCTION The University & Graduate School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 The College of Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 The Aerospace Engineering Department . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Expenses and Financial Aid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 General Expenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Financial Aid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 TAs, & RAs, & TAides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 TAides and RAides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Tax Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Departmental Student Organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 List of Faculty and Lab Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 List of Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 8 List of Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 II THE AEROSPACE GRADUATE PROGRAM Areas of Emphasis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Course Offerings 400 Series – Senior & Graduate Level Courses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 500 Series – Graduate Level Courses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 600 Series – Graduate Level Courses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Aerospace Course Offerings Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 III ACADEMIC REQUIREMENTS & GUIDELINES Graduate School Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Departmental Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Supervision and Advising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Credit Load & Academic Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Core Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 M.Eng. Degree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 M.S. Degree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Ph.D. Degree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 IV RESEARCH AREAS & FACILITIES Primary Research Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Computational and Experimental Facilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Computer Facilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Experimental Facilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Duties for Department’s Lab and Computer Coordinators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Description of Faculty Research Interests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Research Centers and Programs in Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 APPENDIX A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 DEVELOPMENT OF A “SIX-S” LABORATORY WORK ENVIRONMENT SAFETY MANUAL i ii PREFACE This Guide to Graduate Study provides information about the graduate degree program in the Aerospace Engineering Department of the Pennsylvania State University. It is intended to serve as an introduction to the program for new graduate students and as a reference resource for continuing graduate students, faculty, and staff of the department. It is designed to supplement the Graduate Degree Programs Bulletin (henceforth referred to as “the Bulletin”), issued by the Graduate School, which is the primary reference document for graduate study at Penn State. Inquiries about the Bulletin and its contents should be addressed to: Graduate Enrollment Services (GES) The Pennsylvania State University 114 Kern Graduate Building University Park, PA 16802 Phone: (814) 865-1795 http://www.gradsch.psu.edu A brief overview of Penn State University, the Graduate School, the College of Engineering, and the Department of Aerospace Engineering is provided in the Introduction. The Aerospace Graduate Program and Academic Requirements and Guidelines are next discussed in Sections II and III, respectively. Section IV presents the faculty and laboratory staff of the department. Any questions regarding the Aerospace Graduate program should be addressed to: Ms. Nancy C. Nagle Graduate Program Staff Assistant Department of Aerospace Engineering The Pennsylvania State University 229 Hammond Building University Park, PA 16802 Phone: (814) 865-6431 Fax: (814) 865-7092 [email protected] Additional sources of useful information for graduate students may be obtained by contacting: University Office of Global Programs Student Affairs Off-Campus Living The Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University 410 Boucke Building 125 HUB-Robeson Center University Park, PA 16802 University Park, PA 16802 Phone: (814) 865-6348 Phone: (814) 865-2346 Fax: (814) 865-6480 email: [email protected] http://www.international.psu.edu http://www.sa.psu.edu/ocl Student Health Insurance Office Office of Disability Services The Pennsylvania State University 116 Boucke Building 302 Student Health Center University Park, PA 16802-5902 University Park, PA 16802 Phone: (814) 863-1807 (Voice or TTY) (814) 865-7467 Fax: (814) 863-3217 Fax: (814) 863-1390 http://www.equity.psu.edu/ods/ Email: [email protected] http://www.sa.psu.edu/uhs/basics/insurance.cfm To the incoming graduate students of the Department, I welcome you all on behalf of the Department of Aerospace Engineering and wish you success in your studies. Michael M. Micci Professor and Director of Graduate Studies Phone: (814) 863-0043 [email protected] iii INTRODUCTION The University and Graduate School The Pennsylvania State University (http://www.psu.edu) is a land-grant University serving the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from a number of campuses located throughout the State. The central campus, located at University Park, offers undergraduate and graduate education and research through its Colleges of Agricultural Sciences, Arts and Architecture, Business, Earth and Mineral Sciences, Education, Engineering, Health and Human Development, Information Science and Technology, Liberal Arts, Science, and the School of Communications. The Graduate School (http://www.gradsch.psu.edu) administers for the University all graduate programs in the various Colleges and Schools. Among other functions, it provides a common admission process for all graduate programs and administers a number of graduate fellowship programs. The College of Engineering Aerospace Engineering is a department within the College of Engineering (http://www.engr.psu.edu) which is also home for 18 other departments and a number of specialty programs and research units. The Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research provides a liaison between the graduate programs within the college and the Graduate School and external research sponsoring organizations. A number of College of Engineering Fellowships are also administered from the Dean’s Office. The Aerospace Engineering Department The Department (http://www.aero.psu.edu ) provides undergraduate and graduate educational programs in all the major disciplines of aerospace sciences: aerodynamics, structures, guidance, dynamics and control, and propulsion. It promotes and supports vigorous research by its faculty members with assistance from graduate students, and maintains a number of experimental and computational research facilities. It is administered by the Department Head (Prof. George A. Lesieutre), Administrative Assistant (Ms. Sheila Corl), clerical staff, and faculty directors of undergraduate and graduate studies and admission. The Director of Graduate Studies (Michael M. Micci) is responsible for the admission of new graduate students into the graduate program, the graduate courses, and Doctoral Candidacy Examination. He is assisted by the Graduate Program Staff Assistant (Ms. Nancy C. Nagle). Graduate programs lead to the Master of Science (M.S.), Master of Engineering (M.Eng.), or Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees. Expenses and Financial Aid General Expenses For the latest information concerning tuition rates, room and board rates, bill due dates, payment plan, refund policy, residency policy, retroactive registration, tuition bill instructions, tax credits, and tuition adjustments please go to http://www.bursar.psu.edu. 1 Medical Insurance (http://www.sa.psu.edu/uhs/currentstudents/gains.cfm) The University requires medical insurance for all students enrolled at Penn State and their accompanying dependents (spouse and/or children). As a Graduate Assistant or Graduate Fellow, you are eligible to receive subsidies in the amount of 80% of the annual premium cost for the Graduate Assistant and Graduate Fellow Insurance Plans. The university will pay this amount directly to the insurance companies and will deduct your 20% contribution to premium expense from your monthly paycheck. Your insurance subsidies for your eligible dependents are 70% of the annual premium expense. As with the subsidy for your individual insurances, the university will pay 70% of the premium expense directly to the insurance companies and you will pay your 30% of the premium costs through a payroll deduction. Penn State will not supplement, nor will a payroll deduction be made for medical insurance policies other than the Penn State Graduate Assistant Graduate Fellow Plan. Please contact the Student Insurance Office at 208 Boucke Building, University Park, or call 814-865-7467 or visit http://studentaffairs.psu.edu/health/services/insurance for additional information. ******************************************************************************************** Penn State students are eligible to purchase a student health insurance plan for the upcoming academic year. All graduate students taking one or more credits are eligible to purchase the plan. The plan is offered online through Aetna Student Health Insurance. Overview The Student Health Insurance office is responsible for administering the health insurance plan for Penn State students:  The Graduate Assistant & Graduate Fellow Insurance, which is available as a benefit to Graduate Assistants and Graduate Fellow.  This site will allow you to decline the automatic medical, dental and vision coverage provided to Graduate Assistants/Graduate Fellows (GA/GF) and/or allow you to add dependents to the medical, dental and vision coverage. This process needs to be completed every fall semester since the GA/GF benefits are reset to Single Student Coverage each Fall Semester.  The Penn State Student Health Insurance Plan, which is available to undergraduate and graduate students: o who have no health insurance coverage; o who need supplemental insurance because their current plan does not provide adequate coverage while they are at Penn State. o who are international students and must comply with Penn State's Mandatory Health Insurance Requirement Please contact the Student Insurance Office at 208 Boucke Building, University Park, or call 814-865-7467 or visit http://studentaffairs.psu.edu/health/services/insurance for additional information. 2 Financial Aid Many opportunities exist for financial support. There are graduate assistantships, fellowships and traineeships, graduate school tuition assistance (for summer semester) and employment and loan programs available through the Office of Student Aid. Half-time teaching and research assistantships are available within the department on a competitive basis, carrying a stipend plus paid tuition. The student on a half-time assistantship normally schedules 12 credits per semester and performs tasks that, on average, occupy approximately 20 hours per week. For M.S. or M.Eng. degree candidates working as teaching assistants, the duration of this support is typically two years, without tuition in the fourth semester. Most research assistantships are also available during the summer, offering an additional stipend. Nearly all assistantships are half-time, however, quarter-time or three-quarter time assistantships may be arranged for special needs. TAs, RAs & TAides There are two main types of graduate assistantships at Penn State, Teaching assistantships (TA) and Research Assistantships (RA). The financial support for RAs is usually provided by external grants made to individual faculty members. TAs are controlled by the department. TA responsibilities typically include grading, running lab sections, holding office hours and problem sessions, and occasional lecturing. TA positions do not usually include summer support. The Department of Aerospace Engineering frequently supports M.S. and M. Eng. students as TAs for three (3) semesters because students usually complete the bulk of coursework in three semesters, followed by one (1) semester of support as a Teaching Aide (TAide). The Teaching Aide is a wage payroll position which provides students with support equivalent to that of the TA stipend and does not include tuition remission or insurance coverage. TAs actually teaching (i.e. lab course 305W) should take ENGR 588 (1 cr.) this semester. The remaining TAs should take the Grader’s Seminar. Please see the Graduate Program Staff Assistant for more details and registration. Foreign nationals are required to take the oral language SPEAK test (formerly Test of Spoken English) if they are serving as a TA/TAide (results for this semester were given to the students involved). Please see the Director of Graduate Studies to discuss results. TAs & TAides are evaluated by supervising instructor at end of each semester. This information is used by the Director of Graduate Studies & the Department Head for making future selections. RA activities typically include literature review, problem definition, analysis, experiments, report writing, and presentations. A report of this research work and its results will likely constitute the bulk of your thesis. RA positions usually include summer support, at an hourly rate comparable to that of the academic year stipend. To inquire about the possibility of an RA, you should contact faculty members who are performing research of interest to you. TAs & RAs should register for the maximum number of 12 credits (including thesis research, AERSP 600). Students may want to apply for the Tuition Assistance Program in the Summer Session to maximize tuition monies. Ph.D. students should request Summer assistance if they plan to take Comprehensive Examination or Final Defense of Thesis. Faculty and students will be informed of application dates. TA and RA monthly stipends will be deposited into personal bank accounts on the last working day of each month. TAides and RAides Students will be paid via wage payroll, on a bi-weekly pay schedule, and will be responsible for their tuition and health insurance expenses. Timesheets reporting hours worked should be promptly submitted to the bookkeeping office to ensure timely payment. 3 DATE: February 22, 2006 TO: Graduate Program Chairs, Staff Assistants, Faculty and Graduate Students FROM: Regina Vasilatos-Younken, Senior Associate Dean SUBJECT: Discontinuation of “Tax Letters” Each year, as the time for filing tax returns approaches, questions arise regarding how assistantships and fellowships are treated in terms of tax liability, reporting obligations, etc. Keeping in mind the overriding advice that graduate students, as anyone, should seek the advice of a qualified tax consultant, the following information may be helpful in clarifying how the University handles these different financial entities and the basis for why these differ. Please feel free to share this information with graduate students, faculty and other program personnel who advise your students. A fellowship recipient is not a University employee. Accordingly, the University has no obligation to (and does not) withhold tax on fellowship awards, or report these awards to Federal (IRS), state or local taxing authorities. Because fellowship amounts are not reported to taxing authorities, nor have taxes been withheld, units have no reason to complete "Tax Letters" for fellowship recipients as they may have in the past for graduate assistants (GAs). Therefore, the University no longer permits the issuance of Tax Letters. Please note that even though the University does not report on or withhold tax from fellowships, recipients may be liable for taxes on any amount of such awards not used for payment of tuition, fees or other qualified education expenses. In order to assist fellowship recipients with their tax returns, the Payroll Office reports to them the amount of their fellowship payments received during the year. However, as indicated above, taxes are not withheld nor are Fellowship amounts reported, and therefore the University no longer permits the issuance of Tax Letters. Alternatively, GA stipends are wages for federal tax purposes and subject to tax reporting and withholding. However, for PA state and local tax purposes, GA stipends are only taxable when the GA must perform duties beyond those required of all degree candidates in their program. In the past, Tax Letters were prepared for GAs, in order to assist them in obtaining a refund of PA taxes withheld on their GA stipend, given that the University treated all GA stipends as subject to PA tax. Now, PA tax is correctly not withheld on non-taxable GA stipends (i.e., when the GA performs no services beyond those required of all other students in the program, as indicated in the GA appointment form). Thus, the University no longer has reason to issue Tax Letters, given that the appropriate PA tax withholding is applied to each GA paycheck. Therefore, as indicated above, the University no longer permits the issuance of Tax Letters. International Taxes: Federal regulations mandate withholding International Taxes for foreign students who receive any assistance in excess of tuition and fees. The Student Loans & Scholarships Office is responsible for withholding these taxes. The tax rate is 14%. As an example: Tuition + Fees: $5,000 Tuition Provided by Asst/Fellowship: $4,790 (Tuition portion only. Stipends are processed through Payroll) Additional Scholarships: $1,000.00 Amount Subject to International Taxes: ($4790.00 + $1,000.00) – ($5,000) = $790.00 Tax Liability: $790 x 14% = $110.60 4 However, foreign students from certain countries may qualify for an exemption to this withholding if they are citizens of a country that have a tax treaty with the United States, complete form W-8BEN and submit it to the Student Loans & Scholarships Office. For further information, please refer your students to: http://www.studentloans.psu.edu/tax.cfm Again, to determine an individual graduate student’s tax liability, he/she should consult a qualified tax consultant; however, the above may be helpful in providing some guidance and clarifications. For any questions related to the above, please contact the Office of Graduate Fellowships and Awards Administration; 313 Kern Graduate Building; 863-2514. ******************************************************************************************** SLC-0502 DATE: January 20, 2005 FROM: Sheila Corl, Administrative Assistant TO: Deans L. C. Burton & J. M. Mason SUBJ: Criteria for PA & Local Tax Exemption Status for Graduate Assistantships Per the request of 1/17/05, listed below are the criteria for which the Department of Aerospace Engineering determines those graduate assistants who are eligible for the state and local tax exemption status. “It is the expectation of the University as well as the Department of Aerospace Engineering that all MS and PhD degree candidates, as part of their responsibilities (in addition to taking courses), conduct independent research enabling them to prepare a thesis, which is required of all students to meet requirements as specified in the PSU Graduate Degree Programs Bulletin. The work performed by a GRADUATE RESEARCH ASSISTANT involves only research that forms the core of the requirement for the degree, and the same type of research is conducted by all MS or PhD candidates, whether or not they receive support for their efforts.” “GRADUATE TEACHING ASSISTANTS are providing a service to the Department and University, which is not a requirement of all graduate students.” slc Cc: G. A. Lesieutre D. B. Spencer R.I. Grandy D.J. Witherite J. G. Shawver ******************************************************************************************** 5