FRS 001 — Sec. 002 —
(1 unit) — CRN 73026 — T 2:10-3:00pm — 2130 Bainer
Rocket Science
Instructor: Mohamed Hafez, Department of Mechanical & Aeronautical
Engineering, College of Engineering
Description: These seminars will be prepared for freshmen who
are interested to know about rockets. The relevant concepts will be explained
in a simple manner, from first principles and based only on high school math and
science. The students will be encouraged to study simple experiments to demonstrate
the basic ideas discussed in the lectures.
Prerequisites: High School Math (geometry, algebra & trig.,
calculus) High School Science (chemistry, physics)
Format: Nine lectures including lab and demonstrations are planned
to cover the main aspects of the subject. A textbook will be used to back up the
lectures and for further readings. Homework will be assigned every lecture. Instructor
will be available during regular office hours for helping the students. Grading:
The grades will be based on homework assignment as well a final project, equally
weighted.
About the Instructor: The instructor received his PhD from Department
of Aerospace Engineering, University of Southern California, in Los Angeles, in
1972. He worked at Flow Research, Inc. in Kent Washington for few years before
he joined NASA Langley Research Center, in Hampton , Virginia, in 1980. He came
to Davis in 1985 as a professor of Aeronautical Engineering, and since then he
has been teaching theoretical and computational aerodynamics at both graduate
and undergraduate levels. He also participated in the COSMOS summer program for
high school students during the last two years. His research is in the fields
of Computational Fluid Mechanics and Transonic Aerodynamics.