Aviation Digital Technology Management

Overview

Why this course?

New and emerging generations of connected aircraft are entering service at pace. Aviation digitalisation spans the aircraft, airline, airport, airspace, MRO, ground operations, lessors and the wider ecosystem. New skills in the Internet of Things, robotics, AI, machine learning, AR/VR, big data analytics, predictive maintenance, blockchain, etc. are sought by the industry. While the digital technology is similar to other industrial sectors, the safety conscious and highly-regulated aviation industry imposes technology adoption hurdles specific to the aerospace regulatory and culture.

• Unique Cranfield global research airport learning environment.
• World-leading research centres - Cranfield University IVHM Centre has been leading research in the predictive health maintenance with technology adopted by major aircraft manufacturers. 
• Digital MRO and hangar laboratories together with the Cranfield Boeing 737-400 ground demonstrator.
• HILDA digital high performance computing ecosystem with up to 10.5 PetaFlops processing power, 2.5 PB storage and 200GBits/s network.
• Work with industrial standard aviation IT systems.

Practical research projects make up 60% of the study. The group design project (GDP) develops the students’ professional practice to work as part of a team, plan and management project, and communicate ideas and results. The GDP design, implement, validate and test an aspect of digital aviation, applying the knowledge acquired in the taught modules and integrate the various methods learnt.

The individual research projects (IRPs) allow the students to specialise on a digital aviation topic relevant to their career development. The real-world relevance of the research project topics is an effective differentiator in the job market. Informed by industryThe MSc course content has been based on advice from the Industrial Advisory Board (IAB), comprising leaders from Boeing, Etihad, easyJet, Marshall Aerospace, STS Aviation, SITA, Thales and others across the aviation sector.