Aerospace leader shares 35 years of experience

The Interdisciplinary Capstone program welcomed its latest mentor, Roger Bartlett, in January 2026. He has over 35 years of experience in the aerospace and defense industry. 

Bartlett graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering in 1990. During that time, Bartlett interned at Foster Engineering, a small firm where his father was a partner. After graduation, he joined the Hughes Aircraft Company in Fullerton, CA as a mechanical engineer. Hughes gifted Bartlett a fellowship to obtain a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University in 1992. 

Bartlett returned to Hughes after graduate school and eventually transferred to Hughes Missile Systems in Tucson, which later became Raytheon, an RTX Business. At Raytheon (1994-2022), he held many positions including leadership roles in systems and mechanical engineering. More recently, Bartlett served as a program director at Cummings Aerospace.

What drew you to the Interdisciplinary Capstone program? 

I became involved in the program when my company, Cummings Aerospace, decided to sponsor a project [Team 25507] in fall 2025 and I was assigned as the main point of contact. I really enjoyed helping my team solve the problems at hand. After giving my feedback to program leaders, I was told there was an opening for an adjunct faculty position and I couldn’t resist that opportunity. I think it's important to share my industry experience, so students can learn from the challenges I've faced and better understand what they'll encounter as professional engineers.

From your perspective, what makes projects successful – not just the final product, but in how team members grow during the process? 

Projects are most successful when team members learn to collaborate across disciplines to achieve a common goal. Just as importantly, a successful project will help students recognize they have the knowledge, experience and confidence to solve real-world engineering challenges.

How do you plan to guide students through challenges they encounter in a project?  

In my experience, one of the biggest challenges is encouraging the team to fully think through a design problem before settling on a solution. Iterative design is important, but success begins with understanding the requirements and evaluating multiple approaches. My role is to guide students by asking questions that challenge their assumptions, helping them think critically and arrive at well-reasoned solutions rather than simply giving them the answers.

How do you coach teams on solving problems they have never encountered?

Technical rigor doesn't have to be compromised when working across disciplines. The challenge is finding a design that meets the requirements of each discipline, which often requires students to listen to one another, evaluate tradeoffs and make thoughtful compromises. The real balancing act is developing a solution that satisfies the project's technical requirements while drawing on the strengths of every engineering discipline represented on the team.

What do you hope students remember most about their capstone experience five or ten years from now? 

First, that they gave the project their best effort and are proud to talk about it long after graduation. Working on a capstone project is often one of those experiences engineers remember throughout their careers. Second, collaborating with engineers from different disciplines is both rewarding and essential, because that's how most engineering projects are accomplished in industry. Finally, I hope they genuinely enjoy the experience. Engineering is challenging, but it should also be engaging and fulfilling.

What perspectives are you bringing into the program that you think will shape how you support students?  

Since systems engineering has been a significant part of my career, I bring the perspective that defining requirements early is far more than a box to check. It is the foundation of a successful design and a critical step in guiding the entire process. I hope to help students understand that by clearly defining what a solution needs to accomplish, they can make informed decisions throughout the project and develop designs that truly meet the customer's needs.