Undergraduate Research
Undergraduate research is an important part of the Michigan experience. Students have a range of opportunities to get involved in research within Aerospace or elsewhere in the University.
Summer Undergraduate Research (SURE) PROGRAM
How to Apply
All participants must complete the online application for the College of Engineering SURE program. The program application launches in December and the deadline to apply is January 24, 2022, with students being notified in February and March.
Applicants are required to write a statement explaining the reason why they want to work on a project, their relevant skills, and what they expect from the experience. The statement should be one page or less (12pt font and 1″ margins) and uploaded in “Other” section at the bottom of the online application. The applicant indicates their three top projects in order of interest.
The list of the most recent Aerospace Engineering projects available is below. (In December the project list is updated for the following summer.) If you have additional questions regarding a project or are interested in working with a faculty mentor not listed here, please contact the faculty member directly.
Aerospace Engineering
Summer Undergraduate Research in Engineering (SURE) projects 2022
Aero Project 1: Robust and Resilient Autonomous Vehicles
Faculty mentor: Prof. Ilya Kolmanovsky
Prerequisites: Interest in modeling, dynamics, control, robotics and autonomous vehicles/ systems
Project description: There is a rapidly growing interest in autonomous vehicles in aerospace, automotive and marine domains. This project involves research into modeling, development, and implementation of novel control algorithms and control systems for autonomous space, air and ground vehicles. The particular focus is on improving resiliency to onboard failures and uncertainties/disturbances affecting the operation of such vehicles, enhancing their agility and maneuvering capability, satisfying maneuver/operating envelope and energy/power constraints, and extending the range/endurance/operating life of such vehicles. The scope of a specific project may vary depending on priorities each year, and could include first principle based and data-driven modeling, development of computer simulations, control system design and analysis, embedded control implementation in the lab, development of small-scale experimental platforms, etc.
Research mode: hybrid (remote/in-person) to be determined
Aero Project 2: Development of a Table Top Electric Thruster
Faculty mentor: Prof. Benjamin Jorns
Prerequisites: Hands-on project work in both mechanical and electrical engineering. Programming experience in MatLab and LabView.
Project description: The purpose of this project is to design and build a small-scale electric propulsion device that will be used to demonstrate the principles of operation of the next-generation space propulsion technologies developed at Plasmadynamics and Electric Propulsion Laboratory. The student will assist with design, fabrication, and implementation. Additional work will involve probe construction and GUI development for data visualization.
Research mode: in person (plans may need to change as the public health situation dictates)
Aero Project 3: Next Generation Space Propulsion Testing
Faculty mentor: Prof. Benjamin Jorns
Prerequisites: Hands-on project work in both mechanical and electrical engineering. Programming experience in MatLab and LabView.
Project description: The purpose of this project is to assist the faculty mentor and his graduate students in a series of experimental campaigns planned over the summer. The goal is to perform performance and plasma measurements for several new electric thruster concepts under development at Plasmadynamics and Electric Propulsion Laboratory. Tasks may include probe construction, data analysis, or thruster development.
Research mode: in person (plans may need to change as the public health situation dictates)
Aero Project 4: Measurements and Analysis of Detonating Flows
Faculty mentor: Prof. Mirko Gamba
Prerequisites: Some hands-on project experience in mechanical and electrical engineering. Good working knowledge of MatLab and/or Python.
Project Description: In this project, the student will assist with the development of testing hardware and diagnostics for the study of detonations in simplified configurations replicating rotating detonation engines. The student will also conduct data analysis of measurements, and the development of analysis tools in Matlab or Python. The project will require some review of existing literature data, data collection and processing, mechanical design and drafting, instrumentation selection and assembly. The student will also participate in measurement campaigns on models developed as part of this project.
Research mode: in person (plans may need to change as the public health situation dictates)
Aero Project 5: Measurements in Turbulent Combustion
Faculty mentor: Prof. Mirko Gamba
Prerequisites: Some hands-on project experience in aerospace and mechanical engineering. Good working knowledge of MatLab and/or Python.
Project Description: In this project, the student will assist in the execution of measurements in a turbulent combustion apparatus. The project will require review of literature, analysis of existing measurement data, experimental data collection and processing, and work with a graduate student on setting up and operating laser diagnostics to investigate the turbulent flow field. The student will be required to participate in bi-weekly meeting with the project team to review and discuss the work of the research.
Research mode: in person (plans may need to change as the public health situation dictates)
Aero Project 6: Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) Lab Facility Development
Faculty mentor: Profs. George Halow and Gökçin Çınar
Prerequisites: Demonstrated experience with hardware builds and debugging, software. Strong English language writing skills.
Project Description: Procurement, installation, and debugging of equipment to supplement the Aerospace Engineering MBSE Leadership Lab, and the new Aerospace Engineering IDEAS (Integrated Design of Environmentally-friendly Aerospace Systems) laboratory. Types of equipment will include high-end computing and processing machines for high-fidelity systems modeling, as well as verification hardware facilities and devices (e.g. optical scanners, PCB printer). It is expected that the SURE student will also write clear and concise instructional manuals, for safe and efficient operation of all equipment staged (plus potentially others).
Research Mode: In-person, in laboratory. Safety training will likely be required.
Aero Project 7: Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) Research and Pedagogy Development
Faculty mentor: Profs. George Halow and Gökçin Çınar
Prerequisites: Familiarity and experience with engineering modeling and diagnostics. Strong English language writing skills.
Project Description: Research into multiple modes of engineering modeling and diagnostics – both virtual and physical. Use of engineering modeling tools for design of experiments, statistical modeling, 6sroot cause analyses, multi-criteria decision-making. This position will also involve development of teaching material for a junior-level Aerospace Engineering (AEROSP 388) course, and some correlation lab work with physical testing methodologies.
Research Mode: In-person, in laboratory, although some virtual work can be accommodated. Safety training will likely be required.
Aero Project 8: Morphable Aerial Drones: Building Hardware, Control Algorithms, and Simulators
Faculty mentor: Prof. Vasileios Tzoumas
Prerequisites: Passion for autonomy and robotics; passionate to become an independent researcher in control, perception, optimization, and/or learning; passion with coding (Python and/or C++ and/or ROS), and/or passion with building hardware; interest in collaborating with other undergraduates as well as graduate students.
Project Description: Drones of the future promise to revolutionize package delivery, search and rescue, and surveillance. These drones promise to be (i) efficient during take-off, maneuvering, and landing, (ii) resilient against the elements of nature, and (iii) agile in cluttered and dynamic environments. The purpose of this UROP research project is to contribute steps towards novel drones that can fulfill the above promises. Particularly, in contrast to current drone technologies that rely on drones with a rigid body, the purpose of this project is to develop drones with a morphable body that is able to change on the fly. Such morphable capabilities will enable the drones to achieve enhanced (i) efficiency in different flight stages, (ii) resiliency against varying wind and weather conditions, including rotor and sensor failures, and (iii) agility in cluttered and dynamic indoor and urban environments. Along with developing the hardware, the purpose of this project is to develop photorealistic simulators that model the hardware and flight/environmental conditions.
Research Mode: In Lab, and Hybrid
Aero Project 9: Exploration for Bayesian machine learning in tensor formats
Faculty mentor: Prof. Alex Gorodetsky
Prerequisites: Required Skill Set
– Advanced experience in Python and/or C++
– Previous experience with probability and statistics
Description: Assessing the confidence in data-driven models is a tremendously important task for increasing trust and reliability. Bayesian inference provides a paradigm to capture uncertainty in model parameters. In this project the student will perform Bayesian inference using the group’s codes for low-rank model formats. This modeling format has tremendous potential to enable learning in large-scale systems. This research will be an empirical exploration of how learning performs for this set of model classes and will include an assessment of competing algorithms. The student will be responsible for running codes with different parameter settings and documenting the results. Advanced performance in this project may lead to the development and testing of new learning approaches for this important class of models.
Research Mode: TBD
Aero Project 10: Differential games for Multi-agent systems
Faculty mentor: Prof. Alex Gorodetsky
Prerequisites:
Required Skill Set:
– Advanced experience with python
– Interest in dynamical systems and control
Description: This project seeks novel ways for swarms of autonomous agents to autonomously coordinate to allocate their collective resources to a set of tasks. In particular, this project considers tasks that are adversarial — which actively act against the agents. The student will perform literature review to become familiar with existing methods for solving these problems. The student will then perform numerical experiments using an in-house code to assess the performance of recently developed algorithms for this effect.
Research Mode: TBD
RESEARCH OPPORTUNITY
The Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) creates research partnerships between first and second year students and University of Michigan faculty. All schools and colleges of the University of Michigan are active participants in UROP.
