North American Aerospace Project - Adaptable Design/Build Projects for Aerospace Education

The North American Aerospace Project (NAAP) is a NASA/industry sponsored effort to accelerate penetration of the project-based educational concept of "Conceiving, Designing, Implementing, and Operating" (CDIO) into US Aerospace Engineering programs. NAAP is developing innovative educational approaches, tools, methods and concepts specialized for the education of the future aerospace engineers. Several projects have been made available in a standardized template format. The template is designed to help an interested faculty member to quickly adopt a project and introduce it in a class. Aerospace generally, and aeronautics particularly, is a key sector of the US economy, contributing significantly to the gross domestic product, positive balance of trade, and national security. Yet the sector is facing a systemic challenge - maintaining a world-class workforce. Over the next decade, the demographics of the sector suggest that there will be a significant shortfall in technically competent engineers and other technical specialists necessary to keep this sector healthy, and preserve the nation's aeronautics core competencies. From a national policy perspective, this need has been clearly recognized. The National Aeronautics R&D Policy instructs that "executive departments and agencies with responsibility for aeronautics-related activities should continue to invest in educational development of the future aeronautics workforce…" The NASA Strategy Plan of 2006 references the need for NASA's own Strategic Management of Human Capital, and in the section on Strategic Communications: Education Initiatives reinforces NASA's responsibility to "strengthen NASA and the nation's future workforce" and to "Attract and retain students in STEM Disciplines". The NASA goals include taking "responsibility for the intellectual stewardship of the core competencies of aeronautics" which certainly includes their retention by the workforce. The importance of STEM workforce is paramount to other organizations as well, including the NAE, the AIAA and the AIA. 1 In 2005, bipartisan requests from the US House of representatives and the US Senate prompted the National Academy of Sciences to conduct a study, known as the "Gathering Storm" report, of America's competitiveness in the evolving global market. The study led to the American COMPETES Act. The revised report 2 of 2010 concludes that the gathering storm has reached "Category 5". In their overall assessment the committee concludes that