Who we are?

The Center of Excellence for Aeronautics and Astronautics (CEAA) at the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) and Stanford University aims to collaboratively provide global-impact research results and advanced technology developments. From its inception, the CEAA was established to be a world-class research effort to enable advancements in space and aeronautical technology applications contributing to the transformation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from a resource-based economy to a knowledge-driven society. In order to solve these complex challenges, the CEAA draws from a number of multidisciplinary expert scientists in the fields of Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Applied Physics, and Electrical Engineering, as well as some application specific domains. This interdisciplinary team structure allows for the precise execution of both innovative scientific research and advanced technology development of cutting-edge aircraft designs and spacecraft technology applications, in addition to improving educational infrastructure in aerospace physics. CEAA’s current research projects focus on emerging topics of pressing interest, which are well aligned with the Kingdom’s global push to raise its technological profile. These include developing new “green propellants”, performing synergistic experimental and numerical studies of bio-inspired flapping robotic winged Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs), executing collaborative efforts in numerical and experimental studies of advanced system identification and control of autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).

Featured Projects

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Autonomous Aircraft System Identification and Control Using Machine Learning

This project addresses the design and implementation of automatic control systems for aircraft with large flight envelopes, using a novel system ...

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Advanced Guidance, Navigation, and Control for Autonomous Miniaturized Distributed Space Systems (MDSS)

The goal of this project is to investigate and design novel Guidance, Navigation and Control approaches ...

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A High-Fidelity Computational Technology to Study the Dynamic Behavior of Micro Air Vehicles

The goal of this project is to develop a high fidelity computational technology that has the capability to accurately model and simulate the aerodynamic...

Recent Outputs

Traditionally, most efforts for improving aircraft aerodynamic efficiency have focused on shape optimization for a given structural concept.

A small-scale UAV was equipped with a number of differential pressure sensors distributed on the wing, and data was collected in stall/spin maneuvers ...

Certain types of ionic liquids have shown energetic properties in combination with select oxidizers. Due to their low vapor pressure and hydrolytic stability ...

Recent Events

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KACST CEAA First Annual Stakeholder’s Workshop 2015, Riyadh Saudi Arabia

  29 March 2015

CEAA hosted the first annual workshop at the KACST headquarters from March 29th – 31st ...

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Science and Technology Week Showcase at KACST Headquarters 2015

  26 April 2015

Every year the KACST faculty and researchers have the opportunity to showcase their research to the public...

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Saudi Arabian Cultural Bureau (SACB) Graduation Ceremony and Career Fair 2015

  15 May 2015

The SACB graduation ceremony and career fair was held at the Ottawa Convention Center from May ...