Research Fields

The graduate program in the MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics Department provides educational opportunities in a wide variety of aerospace-related topics through academic subjects and research. This webpage provides general descriptions and doctoral field exam information for the research fields commonly pursued in the department.

Field Descriptions

The purpose of the documents below is to provide incoming master's and doctoral level students guidance in planning the subjects they will take during their graduate program. The suggestions outlined here are to be understood as guidance and not as a mandatory, rigid framework. The final decision as to which subjects are taken and in what sequence is to be decided between each student and the student's academic advisor and/or doctoral committee. In addition to these recommendations, the official S.M. and doctoral degree completion requirements must be taken into account during the design of an individual's program of study.

Click to download PDF documents.

• Aerospace Computational Engineering (164K)
• Air-Breathing Propulsion (312K)
• Aircraft Systems Engineering (908K)
• Air Transportation Systems (312K)
• Autonomy (84K)
• Communications and Networks (104K)
• Controls (84K)
• Humans in Aerospace (328K)
• Materials and Structures (description coming)
• Space Propulsion (3.6M)
• Space Systems (916K)

Doctoral Field Exams

The Field Exams are one part of the doctoral qualifying process for the MIT AeroAstro Department. A student seeking entrance into the department's doctoral program must take one of these field exams that are offered annually in January. Information about the doctoral program and the doctoral qualifying process can be found in the Department's Doctoral Program Guide. The document below describes the content of the field exams.

Field Exam Descriptions

Field Exam Application

Past Field Exams

Below are questions that were used in past field exams.

• Aerospace Computational Engineering - 2008 - 2009
• Air-Breathing Propulsion - 2008 - 2009
• Aircraft Systems Engineering - 2009
• Air Transportation Systems - 2009
• Autonomy - 2008 - 2009
• Communications and Networks - 2009
• Controls - 2008 - 2009
• Humans in Aerospace - 2008 - 2009
• Materials and Structures - 2009
• Space Propulsion - 2008 - 2009
• Space Systems - 2008 - 2009

Thesis Proposal and Defense Examples

Below are a few examples of successfully written and defended thesis proposals by doctoral candidates within AeroAstro. These may be downloaded and examined as part of your preparation for the Thesis Proposal Defense, a required part of our doctoral program.

Approximate Dynamic Programming Using Bellman Residual Elimination (Brett Bethke) - Proposal (412K) - Defense (4.7M)

CAD-Based Multifidelity Analysis and Multidisciplinary Optimization in Aircraft Conceptual Design (David Lazzara) - Proposal (7.6M) - Defense (11.9M)

Integrated Modeling for Lightweight, Actuated Mirror Design (Lucy Cohan) - Proposal (948K) - Defense (2.7M)