Curriculum
The Mechanical Department curriculum allows students to apply principles of engineering, basic science, and mathematics (including multivariate calculus and differential equations) to model, analyze, design, and realize physical systems, components or processes and prepare students to work professionally in either thermal or mechanical systems while requiring topics in each area.
All mechanical engineering students are required to have a practical training experience that requires them to apply principles of engineering in either an industrial or university research setting during the summer of their third and fourth year. Although this is a non-credit Pass/Fail course, the practical training is required to meet the requirements of the program.
The Mechanical Engineering Program curriculum includes 32 credit hours in basic science and mathematics.During their study in the Mechanical Engineering Program students are required to take two credit hours of general chemistry with a lab six credit hours of physics and one required course on materials science. As part of the ME curriculum physics topics are applied and covered in greater depth in courses such as engineering mechanics, engineering materials, electric circuits and electronics, and thermodynamics and fluid engineering.Students cover multivariate calculus in BA124 Mathematics 2, and differential equations in BA223 Mathematics 3 and algebra, partial differential equations, complex numbers, and numerical methods in BA224 Mathematics 4.
Students are required to apply their knowledge of multivariate calculus and differential equations to model, analyze, and design in ME461 Fluids Mechanics and in the ME356 Machine Design I.Students take a sequence of required courses and a restricted elective in both the thermal and mechanical systems areas. The required courses in the thermal systems area sequence are ME232 Thermodynamics I, ME333 Thermodynamics II, ME431 Heat Transfer, ME461 Fluids Mechanics, and ME520 Thermal Plant.The required courses in the mechanical systems area sequence are BA141 Engineering Mechanics, BA142 Engineering Mechanics 2, ME274 Material Science, ME276 Stress Analysis, ME356 Machine Design I, ME357 Machine Design II, ME355 Theory of Machines, ME455 CAD, ME458 Mechanical Vibration.Throughout the curriculum students are required to analyze, model and design by applying their accumulating knowledge of principles of engineering, basic science, and mathematics. During their last year students take the ME501 and ME503 which is a team based capstone design experience.
The Final Year Project experience is described in detail in Criterion 5. Curriculum. In addition, many of the required and elective courses have significant levels of thermal and mechanical design content. For example in ME520: Thermal Plant Engineering students use of modern computational tools to model thermal performance characteristics of components and systems. In ME356 Machine Design I, students design machine elements such as screws and joints, mechanical springs, bearings, gears, and shafts these applications are covered through case studies and a team project. In ME357 Machine Design II modern tools and methods for product design and developments are covered topics include identifying customer needs, product planning, product specification, concept generation. ME591 Mechatronics includes a required team based project for the design and implementation of a mechatronic system. ME455 CAD is a course that exposes students to computer aided design (CAD), Matlab and Solid Edge for the solution of various problems of mechanical engineering. 2
Faculty
Faculty are expected to remain current within their specialty area. In fact, there is strong evidence that nearly all of the ME faculty members are maintaining their currency through several means. These include research, publication of scholarly work in peer reviewed international journals, participation in technical conferences at the international and regional levels, involvement in professional society, and consulting to both public and private companies. For information on ME Faculty involvement in research and professional activities refer to Criterion.