Optimizing airplane components for mass while ensuring the part will still be strong enough to stand up to the heavy loads experienced during flight requires the use of powerful computational optimization software. This software must have the capabilities of modeling a part’s behavior when various changes are made to the geometric design that would affect the part’s final mass. Although this specialized software is very powerful, it can be complicated and difficult to use. After exploring the optimization process, the Boeing-Olin SCOPE team identified areas of opportunities within the method, and decided to focus on the learning process.