Aerospace Research Graduate Certificate
Enhance Your Degree with Focus
Learn to develop high performance and ultra-efficient aircraft, including drones and UAVs and to improve aerospace technology by reducing emissions, noise and vibration.
Duke MEMS’s globally recognized faculty are experts in structures and dynamics, aerodynamics, acoustics, and mathematical and computational methods.
The graduate certificate customizes and focuses your Duke experience — without adding to your course count.
Hands-on and In-Depth
- Receive advanced training in high-impact courses aligned with faculty research
- Experience compelling aerospace seminars given by industry experts
- Create a research presentation
- Receive a transcript designation you can share with potential employers or doctoral programs
Senior Aeromechanics EngineerI chose Duke because its aeroelasticity faculty are some of the most renowned in this field in the world.
Expert Faculty
Duke’s aerospace engineering faculty includes members of the National Academy of Engineering and many AIAA and ASME fellows—as well as recipients of the highest awards for research excellence in aerospace engineering.
Wilkins Aquino
Professor in the Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
Donald B. Bliss
Associate Professor of the Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
John Everett Dolbow
Professor in the Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
Earl H. Dowell
William Holland Hall Distinguished Professor
Henri P. Gavin
W.H. Gardner Jr. Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Professor in the Department of CEE
Kenneth C. Hall
Julian Francis Abele Distinguished Professor
Laurens E. Howle
Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering and Material Science
Josiah D. Knight
Associate Professor of the Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
Brian Mann
Professor in the Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
Jeffrey P. Thomas
Assistant Research Professor in the Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
Thomas P. Witelski
Professor in the Department of Mathematics
Lawrence N. Virgin
Director of Graduate Studies, Professor in the Thomas Lord Department of MEMS
Specialized Research Facilities
Aerospace Testing, Robotics, Fabrication & More
- Subsonic wind tunnel
- Computational facilities
- 3D prototyping in polymers metals and composites
- Professional and student machine shops
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Core Courses
- ME 544 Advanced Mechanical Vibrations (Fall)
- ME 524/CE 530 Introduction to Finite Element Methods (Spring)
Additional Courses
- ME 527 Buckling of Engineering Structures (Every other Spring)
- CEE 541 Structural Dynamics (Occasionally)
- ME 541 Intermediate Dynamics (Fall)
- ME 742 Nonlinear Mechanical Vibrations (Spring)
- CEE 629 System Identification (Every other Spring, even years)
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Core Courses
- ME 571 Aerodynamics (Fall)
- ME 572 Engineering Acoustics (Spring)
Additional Courses
- ME 555 Spacecraft Flight Dynamics
- ME 555 Advanced Acoustics
- ME 672 Unsteady Aerodynamics (Fall)
- ME 671 Advanced Aerodynamics
- ME 775 Aeroelasticity (Spring)
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- MATH 551 Applied Partial Differential Equations & Complex Variables (Fall)
- MATH 577 Mathematical Modeling (Spring)
- ME 639 Computational Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer
- ME 524/CE 530 Finite Element Method (Fall)
- MATH 561 Numerical Linear Algebra, Optimization & Monte Carlo Simulation (Fall)
- COMPSCI 520 Numerical Analysis (Spring)
- MATH 563 Applied Computational Analysis (Spring)
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- The certificate is only available to graduate students in Duke’s Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science
- Students must declare enrollment in this certificate program within their first semester
- Participants must select a focus area, either Structures & Dynamics or Aerodynamics & Acoustics
- Each focus area has two (2) required core courses—at least one (1) must be in another area
- Only one (1) Mathematical and Computational Methods course can be counted toward the four required courses
- Course lists are subject to change