Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at Iowa State University has undergraduate program that is one of the 10 largest in the country and is consistently ranked among the best. The program is recognized as a leader in preparing design engineers with departmental strengths including: computational mechanics, aerodynamics, flight mechanics and control, acoustics, and nondestructive evaluation.

The Center for Industrial Research and Service (CIRAS) links Iowa industries with the resources of Iowa State, the College of Engineering and ISU Extension. CIRAS serves a diverse client base, ranging from Bonsor's Pasta Products, a manufacturing company with three employees, to McLeodUSA, an integrated communications company with more than 8,000 workers.

Engineering Distance Education's (EDE) modern facilities include a hybrid of teleproduction classrooms, Web-based and digital media production labs, National Technological University satellite teleport, and Iowa Communications Network two-way video capabilities. The unit developed a technologically sophisticated 250-seat auditorium in Howe Hall that has the capacity to link to the C2 and C6 virtual reality labs. EDE has also partnered with other Iowa State high-tech research facilities (like the Virtual Reality Applications Center and the Center for Nondestructive Evaluation) to support on-line courses.

The Virtual Reality Applications Center (VRAC) is an interdisciplinary research center administered by the Institute for Physical Research and Technology at Iowa State University. It was founded in 1990 with seed funds from the Carver Trust and Iowa State Unversity. Since that time VRAC has grown rapidly, drawing faculty and students from a variety of academic disciplines. Our focus is the emerging field of engineering and science applications of synthetic environments (SEs).