BP-AE Process and Activities

Professional Development Process

The professional development program is comprised of five interconnected activities coordinated with collaborators designed to engage engineering students early and implement during their academic careers through sustained mentorship and workforce development. These activities include: (1) Senior capstone design project sponsorship; (2) summer research and professional development for undergraduate students; (3) MS Traineeship degree integrating internship and project mentorship; (4) sustained mentorship including peer-to-peer mentoring among BP-AE cohorts; (5) collaborating with NASA and AFRL engineering professionals in advanced research and mentorship for graduate students. The five interconnected program activities and active engagement with all stakeholders can best be illustrated using a process diagram as shown below.





BP-AE Representative Programmatic Efforts and Events


Activities and Major Events


Capstone design projects:

BP-AE program has coordinated and completed 20 NASA-centric senior design projects as they work on the real-world, practice-oriented engineering design topics with supervision by NASA engineers and professional practitioners.

  • 2021-22: A total of 9 BP-AE projects with 37 graduating seniors participated.
  • 2022-23: Additional 11 BP-AE projects with a total of 56 student participation.

NASA summer internships:

Since summer 2022, a total of 14 students have worked as summer interns in 4 NASA centers.

  • 2022: 6 summer NASA interns (three each to MSFC and KSC).
  • 2023: 8 NASA summer interns with 4 centers (4 KSC, 2 JPL, 1 MSFC and 1 JSC).

BP-AE REU Program:

Concurrently, cohorts of BP-AE students participate in the local Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program.

  • 2022: 6 BP-AE students plus 3 AFRL Scholars.
  • 2023: 5 BP-AE students, 2 co-funded by the Hypersonic Workforce program. In addition, 4 AFRL Scholars and 4 students from DOE Hydrogen Initiative program.

Professional Development Activities:

These sessions include the program orientation, RCR training with certification, initial project presentations, mentorship workshops, graduate schools and career options, self-reflection session, technical communication, technical seminar series, and the BP-AE annual symposium.

Annual BP-AE Symposium:

The symposium comprises the following activities:

  • Hybrid oral presentations for all BP-AE interns.
  • A virtual poster session with live chats and pre-recorded video clips.
  • Coordinated reflection and feedback session for all interns.
  • Assessment and evaluation session of program outcomes and objectives involving the Advisory Council and other key stakeholders.

Annual Symposium on August 11