| Abstract: | This paper describes the growth of the individual and team national undergraduate and graduate AIAA/Industry design competitions. These design competitions have been developed primarily to enhance the university capstone design education experience of both undergraduate and graduate aerospace engineering programs. The competitions represent an Industry/University partnership to improve the design capability of individuals, corporations and the nation at large. The AIAA serves as the facilitator in this process. The student design teams respond to RFPs developed by AIAA Technical Committees. The competitions are funded by interested corporations. The AIAA design competition model or template could easily be implemented by any professional engineering society to nurture and encourage student capstone design efforts in that society's discipline. Students, corporations, the AIAA and the nation benefit from these competitions which enhance the competitiveness of all of the participants and thereby the competitiveness of the national community. The paper also includes an assessment of these competitions and some thought about their future direction. |
