MSc & PhD Courses

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 3^rd and 4^th 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 4^th 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 4^th 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

 Table 2: Elective courses