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Aerospace Center launches digital engineering studio at NASA Johnson Space Center

(Houston) On June 1, 2023, The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) inaugurated a new research and teaching collaboration between the Aerospace Center at UTEP and NASA: the Digital Engineering Design Center (DEDC @Houston). Emphasizing the DEDC’s use of digital engineering to advance aerospace research, leaders of the two institutions held a virtual press conference broadcast from both the UTEP campus and JSC to celebrate the occasion.

DEDC @Houston is the Aerospace Center’s fourth digital engineering research teaching studio. Dr. Choudhuri, Associate Vice President and founder of the Aerospace Center, and his research team created the model DEDC on the UTEP campus. Digital engineering is an emerging paradigm that has the potential to democratize research and development by significantly decreasing the costs of bringing products to market. The digital engineering tool chest also dramatically accelerates the iterative process of product development and production, which will allow the United States to maintain its competitive advantages over other countries.

For all the promise of digital engineering, the major roadblock to unleashing its power is a workforce shortage. On a national level, the United States’ aerospace and defense workforce is aging and lacks experience with the experience of digital engineering. The DEDC combines the Aerospace Center’s research technical expertise with its unique student development model. With this model the Aerospace Center has become a national leader at bringing minority and female students into the engineering workforce.

It's a powerful combination. The success of the Aerospace Center’s original DEDC on the UTEP campus has led to invitations to open three more DEDCs across the country: DEDC @Youngstown (Ohio), DEDC @Huntsville (Alabama), and now, DEDC @Houston.

“As we stand here in 2023, we know the aerospace sector is growing in ways we could only have imagined 30 years ago,” says Julie Kramer White, the Director of Engineering at NASA Johnson Space Center. “To meet the nation’s objectives for sustainable commercialization of space and human exploration, we need more people. We need more engineers. We need more technicians and touch labor. We need more diverse views and experience to solve complex problems in innovative ways. The DEDC is a great example of where all these needs intersect with the intent of creating an actual solution.”

Each center employs between five and fifteen undergraduate and graduate research assistants each academic semester, drawn largely from underrepresented communities in those communities. “Despite all of the scientific success of the United States, the country still has not fully realized its potential for research. The Aerospace Center’s goal is to open new pathways into engineering so that our country can draw on the talent of all of its communities,” says Dr. Choudhuri. “We will leverage all of our nation’s immense talents by creating these entry points into STEM fields.”