"I remember in my early years as a Purdue undergraduate engineering student having to learn how to learn, how to organize my thoughts, and how to think clearly — fast. I was motivated in the attainment of these critical skills by the faculty and especially by my fellow students, who provided challenging academic competition.”
Dr. David K. Schmidt is Professor Emeritus of Engineering at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs and the founder of an aerospace engineering consulting firm. He is an internationally recognized leader in the dynamic modeling and control of atmospheric, exo-atmospheric, subsonic and hypersonic aerospace vehicles.
Schmidt retired from UCCS in 2006, after serving as the Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and Dean of the Graduate School.
In 1999, he founded D.K. Schmidt and Associates (S&A), which has conducted research for NASA, ARINC Research, Boeing, McDonnell Douglas and Systems Technology, Inc. In addition, S&A has offered onsite short courses on the modeling of flexible aircraft at NASA’s Langley, Ames and Armstrong Research Centers, the Naval Air Development Center, Boeing Commercial Aircraft and Northrop Grumman Aerospace, the German Aerospace Laboratory, the Hamburg University of Technology and Embraer in Brazil.
Prior to joining the faculty at Colorado, Schmidt served on the aerospace engineering faculties at Purdue University (14 years), Arizona State University (six years) and the University of Maryland, College Park (six years).
Schmidt has served as an invited member of several national review panels and committees, organized by the National Academy of Engineering and the U.S. Air Force, and on national technical committees of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). He is a fellow of the AIAA.
He earned a Bachelor of Science in Aeronautical Engineering from Purdue, a master’s in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Southern California and a Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Purdue.
Class of 2020 OAE feature series: David Schmidt