Cal Poly Aerospace

Future aerospace engineers in action. Students are performing a composites wet layup, adding protective tabs to carbon fiber test specimens so the samples don’t fail inside the jaws of the testing machine during tensile testing. Hands-on learning from fabrication to testing — where classroom concepts meet real engineering practice. #AerospaceEngineering #Composites #CarbonFiber #EngineeringStudents #HandsOnLearning

Aerospace students assembled for a little launch-break adventure — catching a rocket ripping into the sky from Vandenberg Airforce Base at 7:15 PM 🚀🌅

This week, Dr. Abercromby’s Introduction to Human Spaceflight (AERO 455) did a simulation of astronauts on mars with gloves on getting instructions from Mission Control on how to build structures. Each group had a time delay with communication to simulate the delay in sending information to both the Moon and Mars. The purpose was to determine methods of communication that worked best and understanding that certain tasks are much more difficult with gloves on than you might Fun was had by all! #space #calpolyaerospace #learnbydoing #aerospaceenginnering #spacecommunication

Check out our students in our wind tunnel lab, taught by Dr. Nandeesh Hiremath! #calpolyaero #windtunnel #learnbydoing

Senior Design is hitting the road! Students in our Aircraft Senior Design class were split in half to present their projects to industry. A group of students presented their designs to General Atomics, and the other group presented to Northrop Grumman. Both groups were able to gain critical industry feedback as they get closer to the design symposium in June! #calpolyaero #aircraftdesign #learnbydoing #industryfeedback

Jason Wallace, the founder of subspace industry, and Chris Cretel an electric propulsion engineer, came to share with our students today about trending electrical propulsion and working in a startup company. This was a great networking opportunity opportunity for them. Thanks for all the great information! #aerospaceenginering #electricalpropulsion #learnbydoing #calpolyslo #networking

This Thursday! 192-321 at 1pm

Dr. Markus Wilde, GNC engineer at Blue Origin, joined us this last week to talk all things spacecraft rendezvous and capture. He broke down how spacecraft successfully rendezvous with both cooperative targets (like space stations) and uncooperative objects (like asteroids), and the methods that make it all possible in orbit.

Students in AERO 307 (Experimental Aerodynamics) are utilizing the wind tunnel to understand propeller characteristics. Working with Dr. Nandeesh Hiremath (and his canine companion Chintu), the lab studies propeller performance based on propeller geometry and flow conditions, which can be artificially created using the wind tunnel. #calpolyaero #learnbydoing #windtunnel #propeller #aerolab

Such a great turnout at Open House! ✈️ Thank you to everyone who came out to visit Cal Poly and explore Aerospace Engineering. We loved sharing lunch with you, hearing a message from Dr. Mehiel, and getting to showcase all the amazing opportunities through our Aero clubs. So excited to meet the next generation of engineers—hope to see you back on campus soon!

AERO 471 completed one of the wings for the RV12is. This is the second aircraft from AERO 471. The wing was assembled on the third floor, then lowered down to the main hangar space with ropes and pulleys. Due to the danger involved in this move, no students were present. Later, this wing will be attached to the airframe during final assembly. #aero #calpoly #wing #fly #innovate

The AIAA 2026 Region VI Student conference organized by the AIAA Cal Poly Student Chapter with Faculty Advisor Dr. Nandeesh Hiremath, hosted the student conference on the @calpoly Campus over Spring Break (March 21-22) which was comprised of Graduate, Undergraduate, Teams (three or more students), and High School Categories. Each category has an award of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place for best paper of each respective category. There were over 200 attendees, featuring a total of 69 conference papers and 57 presentations. We are happy to inform that @calpolyaero students won 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in the Graduate Paper Category, in addition to 1st place in the Undergraduate Paper Category. Described are the students, faculty advisor, and conference paper titles: Graduate Student Category 1st place: Alexander DeBartolo (MS student), Allegra Ciarlantini (BS Student), Dr. Stephen Kwok-Choon (Faculty Advisor) “SpaceOTTER - Space Optically Tracked Testbed for Experiments and Research” 2nd place: Jackson Cordova (MS Student), Dr. Stephen Kwok-Choon (Faculty Advisor) “Development of 3 Degree of Freedom Manipulator for Use on a Planar Microgravity Testbed “ 3rd place: Paige Jewell (MS Student), Dr. Madhusudan Vijayakumar (Faculty Advisor) “Design and Optimization of Repeat Ground Track Constellation for Discontinuous Regional Coverage” Undergraduate Student Category 1st place: Drew Stannard-Stockton (Aero BS Student), Dr. Madhusudan Vijayakumar (Faculty Advisor) “Residual Learning of Universal-Variable Corrections for Fast Lambert Transfers CONGRATULATIONS ALL! #calpolysanluisobispo #aerospaceengineering #aiaa #award learnbydoing