The Center for Aerospace and Unmanned Systems Engineering (CAUSE) is a result of a matured Aerospace Engineering Program within the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The Center is an effort to consolidate all aerospace engineering and sciences efforts on campus.

Aerospace activities began in 1994 with the creation of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) student chapter at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez (UPRM). Under the leadership of Dr. David Serrano, in 1995 the Department of Mechanical Engineering established the SAE Aero-Design Team where students built a working prototype of remotely controlled cargo planes and competed with other universities at national and international contests. In 2002, Dr. Vijay K. Goyal was hired to develop an aerospace engineering program at UPRM in a joint venture with InfoTech Aerospace Services (IAS) and Pratt & Whitney. The program has been led by Dr. Goyal and Dr. Stefano Leonard throughout the years. In Fall 2008, the UPRM Academic Senate approved the Curricular Sequence in Aerospace Engineering within the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

In Spring 2014, Dr. Eduardo I. Ortiz along with a group of professors from several other universities in Puerto Rico and collaboration with Dr. Pedro Capó (NASA-Marshall), built the first nano-satellite (i.e. CubeSat type) in Puerto Rico.

During Spring 2014, a team built by the Dean of College of Engineering Agustín Rullán and Associate Dean of Research & Innovations lead efforts to a multi-university FAA proposal under the lead of Dr. Eduardo Ortiz, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering, and Dr. David Serrano, Professor of Mechanical Engineering.

At the end of this task, the group of professors involved in this proposal decided to submit a proposal for the creation of Center for Aerospace and Unmanned Systems Engineering (CAUSE). On October 7, 2014, UPR President Uroyoán Walker (through UPRM Chancellor Juan Fernández Van Cleve) accepted and created CAUSE. These efforts were led by Dr. Vijay K. Goyal, Director of CAUSE, and Dr. Eduardo Ortiz, then Associate Director of CAUSE.

In Fall 2015, the UPRM Academic Senate approved the Multidisciplinary Minor in Aerospace Engineering.