From the Dean

Dear Friends,

I never played football as a kid, but I watch enough of the sport to know that timing is everything. Quarterbacks don’t throw to their wide receivers; they throw in front of them. By aiming where the receiver is going — rather than where they are — quarterbacks make sure the ball arrives in the right spot at the right time.

We use the same playbook in the College. Part of what makes us successful is not focusing on where we are, but looking ahead. We anticipate the trends and technologies on the horizon, then hire researchers thinking about them so that we’re on the ground floor of the future. They teach our students about these possibilities, leading them toward careers where they will implement these ideas of tomorrow.

Aerospace engineering is a great example of this strategy. We recognized about a dozen years ago that briefcase-sized CubeSats were emerging as an ideal (and cheaper) way to explore low earth orbit. We didn’t have many researchers with this expertise, so we hired Brian Gunter and Glenn Lightsey. They’ve built a small satellite pipeline and put a half dozen projects in orbit. More than a dozen will launch in the next few years.

Similarly, with private companies sending rovers to the moon, we’ve added Yashwanth Nakka to our AE faculty. He isn’t thinking about a single machine. He specializes in algorithms that will allow multiple rovers to work as a team on the lunar surface. Closer to home, flying taxis may someday ferry people into and around urban areas. We’re designing those vehicles, and we’re already thinking about their effects on neighborhoods that will be close to where they take off and land.

We’re doing all of this in a state where the aerospace industry is a priority. Aerospace products are Georgia’s top export, generating $12.6 billion in 2024. Companies like Lockheed Martin, Honeywell, and Delta (which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year), are among those at the center of the industry, and we are proud to partner with each of them to shape the future.

Our Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering will celebrate its own centennial in six years. But, again, we’re already looking ahead. One of the College’s top priorities is to mark the School’s first century with a new building for the nation’s top-ranked public aerospace program.

In these pages, you’ll learn more of what we’re doing in aerospace, from plane designs and drones to satellites and planetary exploration. As usual, the work is spread throughout the College and extends into our alumni network.

They say the sky is the limit. I say that it’s limitless. And we’re pushing the boundaries every day.

Raheem Beyah
Dean and Southern Company Chair