Learning

Basics

We use the terminal and git heavily in all of our projects. You’ll also want to dive deeper into a programming language. We primarily use Julia with an occasional need for Python, C/C++ or Fortran. Complete the starter tasks for new undergraduate researchers if these aren’t already familiar. These cover writing, reading, command line, git, programming, and a starter application project.

Online Courses

Some excellent online courses are available to help you learn more about some topics of importance in our research.

Wind Energy

• Wind Energy Coursera Course, prerequisites: freshmen math, level: beginner
• Aerodynamics edX Course, prerequisites: freshmen math and physics, level: intermediate

Aircraft

• Introduction to Aeronautical Engineering edX Course, prerequisites: none, level: beginner
• Aerodynamics edX Course, prerequisites: freshmen math and physics, level: intermediate
• Flight Vehicle Aerodynamics, prerequisites: aerodynamics or fluid mechanics, level: advanced

I’ve also posted lectures for Flight Vehicle Design, Aerodynamics, and Optimization on our lab YouTube channel.

BYU Courses

Here are some classes that tend to be most directly applicable to our lab. The list below is not mandatory, they are just some ideas to help you in your course selection. I encourage you to choose courses based on your interests. PhD students will need more math than ME 505.

Foundational to our Lab:

• ME EN 412 - Applied Fluid Mechanics
• ME EN 415 - Flight Vehicle Design
• ME EN 515 - Aerodynamics
• ME EN 575 - Optimization Techniques in Engineering
• ME EN 510 - Compressible Fluid Flow
• ME EN 512 - Intermediate Fluid Dynamics
• ME EN 541 - Computational Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer
• ME EN 505 - Applied Engineering Math
• Physics 530 - Computational Physics
• Physics 580 - Theory of Predictive Modeling
• Physics 601/602 - Mathematical Physics
• CS 474 - Deep Learning
• CS 674 - Advanced Deep Learning
• Ch En 536 - Machine Learning and Dynamic Optimization

Textbooks

Depending on what your research topic is, you might find some of the following textbooks useful to become familiar with. You should at least read the first one in each list that is relevant to your research. Links are for books with available electronic copies (either publicly available or for on-campus students through BYU’s subscriptions). For books with a star* there is an electronic copy on our shared folder in Box. The others you can purchase, borrow from the library, or borrow from me.

Communication

• Trees, maps, and theorems: effective communication for rational minds*, Doumont

Aerodynamics

• Fundamentals of Aerodynamics, Anderson
• Computational Aerodynamics, Ning (used in ME 515)
• Understanding Aerodynamics, McLean
• An Introduction to Theoretical and Computational Aerodynanics, Moran
• Modern Compressible Flow, Anderson,
• Compressible-Fluid Dynamics, Thompson

Optimization

• Engineering Design Optimization*, Martins and Ning (used in ME 575)
• Optimization Concepts and Applications in Engineering, Belegundu
• Numerical Optimization*, Nocedal
• Convex Optimization, Boyd
• Engineering Design via Surrogate Modeling, Forrester

Wind Energy

• Aerodynamics of Wind Turbines*, Hansen
• Wind Energy Explained, Manwell
• Wind Energy Handbook, Burton
• Innovation in Wind Turbine Design, Jamieson

Flight

• Flight Vehicle Design, Ning (used in ME 415)
• Fundamentals of Flight*, Shevell
• Introduction to Flight, Anderson,
• Aircraft Design, Kroo
• Introduction to UAV Systems, Fahlstrom
• Mechanics of Flight, Phillips
• Aircraft Design, Raymer

Journal Papers

• You should be regularly reading new journal papers. This will help you stay current, will improve your writing, and will help you make connections and discover ideas. Browsing the publications of some of our peer research groups is another good place to start.
• Not all papers are of equal quality or relevance. You need to learn how to quickly scan through a paper to discern. You also don’t need to read every paper in depth. Start by reading the abstract, looking through the figures, and reading the introduction and conclusion. For core papers to your area you will need to read in greater depth. You should keep a reference list of papers with a few bullet points on the main ideas. In our lab we use BibDesk to manage references.
• Start your literature reviews early. Begin with outlines and fill in details later.

Research

An effective way to get started in research is to find a good paper in your area of interest (ask those who work in that area for recommendations), and reproduce the results in the paper. This process will help you get up to speed in an area of interest and along the way you’ll likely have ideas for new directions or ways you can build on that work.