Jean N. K.

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT JEAN N. K.

Bio for Jean N Koster.A distinguished Professor Emeritus of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, Jean\'s 40-plus years of dedication have significantly shaped teaching, research, and service. As an Associate Fellow of the AIAA, he actively contributed to the AIAA-Rocky Mountain and Colorado Space Business Roundtable councils, and his leadership was evident in organizing the AIAA-ATS conference 2022 at CU Boulder. His commitment to the CDIO organization also saw him play a key role in organizing multiple international engineering education conferences.Jean\'s innovative educational philosophy is marked by the development of a hands-on curriculum for students and a rigorous senior/graduate design program. This advanced curriculum emphasizes systems engineering and cultivates essential soft skills, including critical thinking, teamwork, presentation skills, and business acumen.Renowned for pioneering delocalized, international student-team collaborations, Jean spearheaded the Boeing-funded \"Hyperion\" project. This ambitious three-year endeavor engaged senior and graduate students from CU Boulder, Stuttgart, and Sydney in a collaborative effort to design a Blended Wing Body aircraft. Taking advantage of an 8-hour time difference between the universities, the \"Following-The-Sun\" project completed 3 days of design work in 24 hours, earning Jean the AIAA-RM Teacher-of-the-Year Award in 2011.Jean\'s influence extends to industry insights, demonstrated by his publications, including an ASME blog article on \"Developing Career Skills through Design Projects\" and an AIAA white paper analyzing the value of senior design projects over internships. His recent assessment of Colorado\'s aerospace engineering workforce challenges, based on interviews with 26 diverse local companies, led to an invitation to present his findings to the Colorado Aerospace Legislative Caucus and the Colorado Space Coalition, chaired by Lt. Governor Dianne Primavera. He recently reiterated his national security concerns regarding the strategic expansion of the People\'s Republic of China’s (PRC) academic workforce development. Nationally, Jean\'s expertise was sought by NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF), where he served as an evaluator of technical proposals and graduate researcher fellowships. His commitment to the aerospace engineering industry is further underscored by his advisory role with the Colorado Office of Economic Development & International Trade (OEDIT), where he focuses on fostering the growth of small aerospace companies in the state.