Whenever he flew on airplanes as a kid, the window seat was always the seat of choice for Adnan Saeed, even if it sometimes meant not sitting near his parents. He says it was never about the view or the clouds below.
“I always found it hard to comprehend the fact that a machine, or precisely a vehicle, was able to fly hundreds of humans and kilograms for thousands of miles,” says Saeed, a Yemeni national who graduated in 2014 with a Bachelor of Science in aerospace engineering from Khalifa University in the United Arab Emirates. “It always amazed me what the plane was able to do.”
Aerospace engineering involves the designing and building of aircraft. Several universities in the Middle East and North Africa have aerospace engineering programs, including Cairo University in Egypt, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Saudi Arabia and the University of Balamand in Lebanon.
Saeed chose to pursue his degree abroad at Khalifa University because he says it’s among the few universities in the region offering aerospace engineering at the undergraduate level and has a space program within its curriculum.
“The program has courses related to space dynamics and orbital maneuvers,” Saeed says. “Also, there is a high-tech space lab in the campus.”
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Last year, Saeed led a team of 15 in the international Design/Build/Fly competition sponsored by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Cessna Aircraft Co. and Raytheon Missile Systems. Students were required to manufacture an unmanned electric-powered, radio-controlled aircraft designed for specific missions. His team took seventh place competing against U.S. schools like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Saeed is currently pursuing a Master of Science in mechanical engineering with a track in aerospace engineering at Khalifa University. He is now working on the design, modeling and control of hybrid drones, or drones with fixed wings that can take off and land vertically, which “can take the unmanned aviation world up to a completely new level,” he says.
Fellow aerospace aficionado Idriss El Caid is a third-year student at Université Internationale de Rabat in Morocco, where he is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in aerospace engineering. After completing his fourth year and receiving a bachelor’s degree, he plans to pursue an additional year in the U.S. through a collaboration between UIR and the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he will earn a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from Georgia Tech. The program also has a partnership with Mississippi State University.
“I am very interested in the private aviation sector, and I think for me the U.S. is the best place to start because private aviation is developed there,” says El Caid, a Morrocan.
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El Caid says in the fifth year, students are required to do an internship and he hopes being in the U.S. can lead to potential job opportunities. He plans to get work experience and return to his country to apply his expertise.
“It’s a growing market and industry in Morocco,” says El Caid. “Aerospace is the future of my country and I want to be a part of it.”
Bernard Dunn, president of Boeing Middle East, North Africa and Turkey, says there are many opportunities for aerospace engineering grads in the region. He says within the next 20 years the Middle East will be one of the world’s fastest growing aviation markets, with an extra 237 million passengers flying to, from and within the region, and 3,180 airplanes expected to be delivered by manufacturers to the region during this time frame.
“The industry will need talent to sustain this growth and aviation is a viable option for a range of engineers including mechanical, industrial, and electrical engineers and not limited to just aerospace engineers,” wrote Dunn in an email.
Dunn says apart from airlines and airports, there are opportunities in manufacturing. He says Boeing works with partners to support the development of local manufacturing industries.
Ali Hilal Alnaqbi, acting assistant dean and associate professor for the engineering department at United Arab Emirates University, says the school offers an aerospace minor within the mechanical engineering Bachelor of Science program, with plans to offer a full program in the next few semesters. He says the school has five years of collaboration with Abu Dhabi government-run aircraft company Mubadala Aerospace, which funds the university’s aerospace labs and the school’s aerospace-minor initiative.
“There is huge demand at least within UAE,” said Alnaqbi, via email. Mubadala and its subsidiary Strata, which manufactures major components for aircraft, are big recruiters of the school’s alumni, he says.
Dunn says there is great demand for talent in the region, citing 2015 company forecasts that project the aviation industry will need to supply more than 1 million new aviation personnel by 2034 — 558,000 commercial airline pilots and 609,000 maintenance technicians.
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“We anticipate that markets such as the Middle East will require over 60,000 new pilots and 66,000 technicians by 2034,” said Dunn, via email.
While the region appears prime for job opportunities, Khalifa University student Saeed plans to stick with academia and eventually continue on to his Ph.D., possibly in the U.S. He says the same curiosity and fascination that initially fueled his interest in aerospace engineering has turned into a passion and eagerness to succeed in the field, wherever it may take him.
“Curiosity was the best teacher I’ve ever had,” says Saeed. “Aerospace engineering is a whole new world.”
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Aerospace Engineering Takes Flight at Arab Region Universities originally appeared on usnews.com
