Two Southeast universities are advancing aviation maintenance and propulsion research that has direct implications for the MRO industry. Georgia Tech's School of Aerospace Engineering opened its Aircraft Prototyping Lab in September 2025, establishing a dedicated facility for developing and testing electric and hybrid powertrain systems for regional aircraft. The lab is designed to bridge the gap between computational modeling and physical prototype testing, giving graduate researchers access to tooling and instrumentation typically found only in commercial aerospace facilities. The Georgia Tech lab's current research agenda includes battery thermal management under maintenance cycling conditions — an emerging concern as electric regional aircraft begin entering certification pipelines and MRO operators prepare for a new category of powertrain service work that does not map neatly onto existing piston or turbine maintenance frameworks. At Auburn University in Alabama, a faculty researcher in the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering received a National Science Foundation grant for work on high-speed aerodynamic flow modeling. The research applies computational fluid dynamics methods to improve predictive maintenance models for high-performance airfoil surfaces, with potential applications in determining inspection intervals and surface treatment schedules for commercial and military aircraft operated in high-cycle environments. Universities and MRO training programs looking to communicate research outcomes and establish industry partnerships benefit from professional aviation maintenance video production that translates technical research into accessible content for commercial audiences. Source: Georgia Tech News Center, Auburn University Samuel Ginn College of Engineering, September 2025 – May 2026.