His work is primarily focused in the realm of appropriate design and humanitarian engineering. He has worked on development projects all over the globe but his most recent humanitarian engineering project is focused locally in Denver where he is implementing the installation of solar furnaces he designed to help a low income community reduce their energy bills. This project was recently featured on NPR, the Denver Post and earned him the title "Community Game Changer of the Month" from CBS Denver. He also was recently nominated for the Carnegie U.S. Professor of the Year award and the Presidential Award for STEM mentoring, both related to this project. Previous to his academic career Aaron Brown worked in the aerospace industry on such projects as the Mars Curiosity landing mechanism and Hubble robotics mission.