Georgia Tech Aerospace Engineering Professor Robert Braun took a group of 20 undergraduate honors students to Washington, D.C. in March to meet with some of the nation’s leading policymakers.

On March 29-30, Georgia Tech students met with senior policymakers in the Obama Administration and in Congress, and discussed aspects of aerospace science and technology policy that they have been studying.

The trip was part of Braun’s undergraduate honors course – Aerospace Science and Technology Policy: The Role of NASA in the 21st Century – that addresses the importance of technology innovation and the integration of technical, budgetary and policy issues in the framing of the U.S. civilian aerospace economy.

The course covers the challenges and fundamental physics of aerospace engineering, the historical development of aerospace capabilities, and budgetary and policy aspects of this sector. The course has utilized the rollout and subsequent debate of the Obama administration 2011 NASA space policy as a case study.

The group met with Congressman Chaka Fattah; Doug Babcock, legislative staff for Senator Sherrod Brown; Charlie Harman, chief of staff for Senator Saxy Chambliss; Ed Feddeman, professional staff of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology; Alex Saltman, executive director of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation; Lori Garver, NASA deputy administrator and Beth Robinson, NASA chief financial office.