Admission & Requirements

Curriculum Overview

In essence, our curriculum consists of the following primary groups of courses:

  • Core Courses: these are compulsory courses that cover the fundamental and advanced elements of aerospace engineering. These group of courses include laboratory courses, Industrial Training (internships at relevant industries in Malaysia or abroad), and Final Year Projects (supervised research projects).
  • Elective Courses: advanced courses in the 3rd and 4th years of study that students can select from to offer in-depth knowledge and skills in selected areas of specialization.
  • University Requirements: these are compulsory non-engineering courses aimed towards developing students with important skills, understanding, and appreciation in areas such as communication, social sciences, and entrepreneurship.
  • Co-curricular Courses: students have to complete a small number of credits in these type of courses, offered to offer a broad educational experience beyond the normal academic scopes.

Please note that the medium of instruction for all science and engineering courses at USM is English. Exceptions to this policy are for non-English language courses and some university courses. For these university courses, the medium of instruction is in Bahasa Malaysia. Nonetheless, sessions taught in English are offered specifically for international students.

The academic curriculum and curricular design for Bachelor degree of Aerospace Engineering strongly reflect the philosophy and approach adopted in the program structure. The students need to accumulate 135 credit units to graduate. 108 units are core courses, 15 units are university courses, and 12 units are elective courses.

The distribution of the core and elective courses according to areas is as shown below:

  1. Engineering Mathematics (Basic)
  2. Materials
  3. Static and Dynamics
  4. Engineering Design & Computer-Aided Engineering
  5. Engineering Labs
  6. Fluids Mechanics & Thermodynamics
  7. Aerodynamics & Propulsion
  8. Aerospace Structure
  9. Aircraft/Spacecraft sub-system and Design
  10. Engineering Management
  11. Electrical Engineering Technology
  12. Flight and Orbital Mechanics
  13. Flight Control

Final Year Project

During their 4th year of study, each of our undergraduate students will carry out a research project supervised by one or more lecturers at SAE. The aim of this project is to train students with the systematic process of solving engineering problems methodically. Students will be trained to conduct a detailed investigation, analysis, and experimentation, using various engineering tools and techniques, to find solutions to the problems being investigated.

In these FYPs, our students will have opportunities to apply knowledge and skills learned earlier in more realistic scenarios. This experience is designed to help them enhance their writing and communication skills through thesis writing and viva presentation.

Capstone Design Project

In their 4th year, our students will have the opportunity to consolidate their engineering knowledge and skills when they take the Aircraft Design course, which is a compulsory capstone design course. Students in this course will work in multidisciplinary teams to conceptually design small unmanned aircrafts.

Each year different groups of students will be presented with different requirements to abide by in their design. Students will follow through with their designs by actually building and testing the aircrafts in another Aircraft Design course in the following semester.

Table 1: Program for Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering

Curriculum for Bachelor of Engineering (Aerospace)

YEAR 1 (SEMESTER 1

YEAR 1 (SEMESTER 2)

CODE

COURSE

UNIT    

CODE

COURSE

UNIT   

EMT 101

Engineering Programming

    2

EUM 114

Advanced  Engineering Calculus

    3

EUM 113

Engineering Calculus

    3

EMD 112

Conceptual Design CAD

    2

EMD 101

Engineering Drawing

    2

EMM 102

Static

    3

EBB 113

Engineering Materials

    3

EEU 104

Electrical Technology

    3

EML 101

Engineering Practice

    2

EMH 102

Fluid Mechanics

    3

LKM 400

Bahasa Malaysia

    2

ESA 211

Aerospace Laboratory I

    2

LSP 300

Academic English

    2

WUS 101

Entrepreneurship

    2

Co-Curriculum

    1

Total Unit

   17

 

Total Unit

   18

YEAR 2 (SEMESTER 1)

YEAR 2 (SEMESTER 2)

EPP 201

Manufacturing Technology I

    3

SHE 101

Ethic Relations

    2

EMM 213

Strength of Materials

    3

EMD 222

Machine Component Design

    2

ESA 272

Aircraft Subsystem Elements

    2

EEM 213

Dynamics and Mechanism

    4

ESA 242

Thermodynamics & Heat Transfer

    3

ESA 251

Control System Theory

    3

ESA 222

Aerospace

Laboratory II

    2

ESA 244

Aerodynamics

    2

LSP 404

Technical and Engineering English

    2

EMT 212

Computational Engineering

    3

Co-Curriculum/Uni Option

    1

Total Unit

   16

Total Unit

   16

YEAR 3 (SEMESTER 1)

YEAR 3 (SEMESTER 2)

EMC 311 

Mechatronics                                       

     3      

ESA  380

Orbital Mechanics

    3      

ESA 381

Spacecraft Subsystem Elements

    3

ESA 382

Spacecraft Subsystem Design

    3

ESA 321

Aerospace Structure

    3

ESA 344

Propulsion System

    2

ESA 366

Flight Performance

    3

ESA 322

Surtructal Dynamics

    3

ESA 343

Aircraft Aerodynamics

    2

ESA 369

Flight Stability & Control

    3

ESA 323

Aero composite Engineering

    3

ESA 312

Aerospace Laboratory III

    2

ESA 3**

Elective 1

    3

 Total Unit

   17

 Total Unit

   19

YEAR 4 (SEMESTER 1)

YEAR 4 (SEMESTER 2)

EUP 222

Engineers in Society

    3

ESA 414

Aerospace Policy and Management

    2

ESA 471

Aircraft Design I

    3

ESA 412

Final Year Project II

    4

ESA 421

Aerospace Structural Design

    2

ESA 4**

Elective 3

    3

ESA 394

Industrial Training

    5

ESA 490

Aerospace Manufacturing Tech.

    2

ESA 4**

Elective 2

    3

HTU 223

Islamic and  Asian Civilization

    2

ESA 412

Final Year Project 1

    2

Co-Curriculum

   1

Total Unit 

   19

Total Unit 

   13

Total Unit = 135

ESA 3**/4** Elective Courses

 Table 2: Elective courses

Elective 1

Elective 2

Elective 3

ESA 368

High Speed Aerodynamics

EPM 361

Project Management

ESA 472

Aircraft Design II

EMT 302

Mathematical Modeling for Engineering

ESA 481

Spacecraft Design

EPM 212

Metrology & Engineering Quality

EME 451

Introduction to

Computational Fluid Dynamics

 

 

Contact Us

School of Aerospace Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Engineering Campus,
14300 Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang, MALAYSIA

Main Office
Tel : +604-599 5901  |  Fax: +604-599 6911 
Dean
Tel: +604-599 5902
Assistant Registrar
Tel: +604-599 5967