Students can earn two degrees in one year in France and at UC

Mnich has family members who work in the industry as pilots and in the military, so aerospace and defense were always on his radar. The Aero-System Operations (AESOP) Program is a collaborative degree program between UC and the University of Bordeaux Evering Institute (UBx) in France wherein students are awarded a dual diploma by the two universities. A Master of Engineering degree from UC and a Diplôme Universitaire International from Bordeaux. 

"The AESOP program is a signature program of CEAS as it provides unique opportunities for our students. There are very few programs nationally preparing students to lead and manage aviation repair and maintenance organizations. Couple that with the time spent in France learning from both faculty and practitioners and you have a program to be very proud of," said Eugene Rutz, Associate Dean of Graduate Studies at CEAS. 

The university's top-ranked cooperative education (co-op) program drew Mnich to UC, and the rewarding experience he had here is what led him to stay for graduate school. Mnich chose mechanical engineering technology for his undergraduate degree because of the hands-on nature of the program. The AESOP program was an ideal next step to expand his knowledge and skills. 

"My whole life I've worked on cars and dirt bikes and stuff like that, so the hands-on portion of mechanical engineering technology was really valuable to me," Mnich said. 

In France, he took two core classes as part of his structural maintenance curriculum (composite materials and non-destructive testing). Each of these two courses had three different types of class sessions. For instance, Mnich explained that first, they would have the core session for the course, which was lecture based instruction. Following that, they had the travaux dirigés (TD) and travaux pratiques (TP) sessions. 

"After the core session, we'd have the TD session which was applying the concept and the math behind it, and then we'd have the TP session which was all lab work," Mnich said. 

During the semester, Mnich took one avionics course that focused on the instruments found in the cockpit of an aircraft. In the course, students of varying education levels were able to use aircraft simulators to use and test different components within the cockpit to further understand the material in class. 

"They had some really high-level equipment that we used," Mnich said. "We could see everything in the cockpit and hook up different things to simulate the aircraft at 5,000 feet moving 200 knots, for example." 

This experience with the cockpit and flight simulators was invaluable to Mnich, whose goal is to become a pilot and fly planes. His MET undergraduate experience paired with his time in France learning more about the structural maintenance of aircraft is quickly preparing him to achieve this goal.