Lee Nguyen

Title
Adjunct Faculty
Email
Department
School of Engineering
College
College of Aviation

Office Hours

Mon. and Fri. 5 PM-6 PM ET, or by appointment.

Areas of Expertise

System engineering; Airworthiness engineering; Uncrewed Aircraft System Designs and Operations

Lee Nguyen

Dr. Nguyen graduated from Purdue University in 1983. His doctoral dissertation was in Chemical Physics. In his first year, he worked as a system engineer at IBM. Over the next ten years as aerospace engineer at NASA, Dr. Nguyen served as project manager of in-house and contractual research and development programs on aircraft engine technologies, aircraft and engine flight control, electronic display technologies, system engineering and development, and safety risk analysis. During his last year with NASA, he served as inter-agency coordination manager for the High-Speed Civil Transport (HSCT) program and led an FAA/industry team of specialists and completed the FAA HSCT preliminary certification basis. During the next 26 years as an aerospace engineer with the FAA Aircraft Certification Service, he worked on the certification, regulations, system engineering, safety, security standards and continued airworthiness for aircraft and unmanned aircraft systems and avionics, communication, surveillance, navigation systems, and flight deck systems. He retired from the FAA in 2021.

From June 2022 to January 2025, Dr. Nguyen worked as an independent consultant at Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance, Inc. (NUAIR) Center of Excellence in Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM). His responsibilities include providing technical, regulatory and operational policy oversight in support of NUAIR proposals and projects with federal agencies, state agencies and the private sector, leading technical research on current and future UAS technologies, AAM and Counter-Unmanned Aircraft System technologies, and supported UAS flight testing.

Since January 2022, Dr. Nguyen has served as adjunct faculty member in the School of Engineering, College of Aviation Worldwide Campus at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.  

  • Ph.D. - Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical Physics, Purdue University
  • B.S. - Bachelor of Science in Chemistry: Biological Sciences, Illinois State University
  • SYSE 500 - Fundamentals of Systems Engineering
  • SYSE 530 - System Requirements Analysis and Modeling
  • AWEN 552 - Continued Airworthiness
  • AWEN 510 - Aircraft Airworthiness Engineering Principles
  • UASE 501 - Introduction to Unmanned Aircraft Systems Design

Received clearance approval to teach SYSE 505 - System Safety & Certification; UNSY 315 - Uncrewed Aircraft Systems & Operations; and UNSY 311 - Uncrewed Ground Systems and Applications.

Career spans over four decades in aerospace engineering, including roles at the FAA, NASA, NUAIR and IBM.

Received Online Teaching Certificate, January 2024; RefreshER 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 Completion Certificates

Enrolled in Eagle Accessibility Advocate Certificate training, 2025.

Current member of ASTM, RTCA and SAE.

RTCA Annual Award for superior contributions to the RTCA SC-220, Automatic Flight Guidance and Control Systems, June 2011.