Rose State College Forms Aerospace Software Institute Published June 9, 2020

Welcomes Tinker AFB Interns- June 15   

Rose State is forming the collaborative Aerospace Software Institute focused on education and training related to software design/development otherwise known as ‘Coding’.  The first session will be offered to Tinker Air Force Base interns during the week of June 15^th on the Rose State campus. The institute is also envisioned to be a source of research and development related to software engineering.  Rose State, as the initiator, will expand the collaboration in the future to include additional universities. Rose State has been working with Tinker AFB to meet an initial requirement for training in Unit Testing of software platforms and C-sharp programming language this summer. 

Software development and sustainment are often a challenge for aerospace systems. The primary challenge is to educate/train software engineers with the skills and in the quantities to meet the growing demand that has been expressed by government and industry. According to Rose State’s Dean of Engineering, Wayne Jones, a retired Tinker Air Force Base engineer, over the forty years from 1960 to 2000, the amount of functionality provided by software to pilots of military aircraft grew from 8% to 80%, and software size grew from 1000 lines of code in the F-4A to 1.7 M lines of code in the F-22. The newest fighter, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has over 5.7 M lines of code.  Highly educated/trained software specialist are need to staff the growing needs within aerospace. 

“This is a unique opportunity for us to offer specialized training in a fast growing sector of the aerospace industry,” said Wayne Jones, Dean, Engineering and Science Rose State College. “We anticipate these courses will also be of future interest to others in the aerospace industry including Boeing and Northrop Grumman,” he continued. 

To complement the coding instruction, Rose State’s Business and Information Technology and Engineering Science Divisions will offer a 1-credit hour class this summer on Unit Testing.  The first class will include approximately 66 Tinker Air Force Base Interns.  The interns are from colleges and universities across the country.  There will be two sections with approximately 33 students in each section. Rose State’s vision is to expand the aerospace software related course offerings for Tinker AFB Interns and Full-Time employees during the upcoming semesters.