Illinois Aerospace Institute (IAI)

The Illinois Aerospace Institute (IAI) is a one-week residential summer camp at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for high school students who want an introduction to aerospace engineering. It is run by the Department of Aerospace Engineering with the Grainger College of Engineering's WYSE outreach office. Campers learn through classroom lessons, hands-on projects, field trips, and guest speakers. Topics include aeronautics and astronautics, aircraft flight mechanics, aerospace materials and structures, aerodynamics with wind tunnel experiments, orbits and satellite design, and rocket and aircraft propulsion. In model workshops students design and build their own gliders and model rockets, and computational design sessions use Python and Excel. In 2026 the camp ran in two sessions, July 12 to 18 and July 26 to August 1, with campers living in Nugent Hall on the Urbana-Champaign campus. The 2026 residential fee was $1,500 plus a $25 deposit, covering housing, meals and snacks, materials, activities, insurance, and a camp T-shirt, though travel to campus is not included. Partial and full Trail Blazer scholarships are available to accepted campers who qualify.

Open to students entering grades 9 through 12 in the fall after camp; the department prefers to place rising juniors and seniors in the on-campus camp, and international students may attend residential camps. Admission is merit-based. Applicants submit an online application with a short essay, self-reported grades for the current fall semester and the previous full year, and an educator recommendation sent through a form after submission. Applications open in February, priority deadlines generally fall near the end of March, and decisions arrive by late April or early May. The 2026 camp is full.