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Mechanical Engineers play a significant role
in the design and manufacturing of all of the products and systems essential to
everyday modern life--from your home appliances, bikes, recreational equipment
and automobiles, to satellites, wheelchairs, airplanes, robots, industrial
equipment and environmental control systems. They are the designers and builders
of the mechanical, thermal and fluid-flow related aspects of all such systems,
including computer and feedback control of complex systems. In fact, mechanical
engineers play a role in designing and manufacturing most of the things that
people use--look around you and you'll see their contributions everywhere.
To design and build all of these great
products properly involves a broad, basic education and significant knowledge of
how to apply, interface and use computers in modern engineering systems. As
engineers they work in almost every technical field imaginable, including
aerospace, automotive, biomedical engineering, computer aided design and
manufacturing, energy and environmental systems. Indeed, a Mechanical
Engineering (M.E.) education is the broadest of all engineering disciplines,
with the widest applicability and most flexibility in terms of career paths.
Mechanical engineering education involves
learning how to creatively apply a strong scientific and mathematical basis to
the design of safe, reliable, environmentally sound, and cost effective systems.
Teamwork, communication skills and knowing how to apply and use modern computer
simulations and control systems are important skills to all M.E.s. At the
advanced degree level M.E.s perform the basic research needed to advance
knowledge in the engineering sciences, knowledge needed to improve the world
around us.
From an even wider perspective, the education
of a Mechanical Engineer is very broad and focuses on the basic skills needed to
be an effective problem solver in the modern world. Thus, many students combine
the broad technical knowledge gained in their undergraduate M.E. studies with
graduate study in M.E. Additionally, some M.E. students combine their M.E.
knowledge with other technical disciplines, or use it as a basis for entry into
Business, Law or Medical Schools.
EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES
In terms of the range of applications and employment opportunities, M.E.
students are involved in diverse projects. For instance, Mechanical Engineers
design advanced materials and structures to meet the demands of supersonic and
hypersonic flight and space travel. Others are involved in efforts to cleanup
and preserve the earth's environment.
Employment opportunities have attracted mechanical
engineers to projects involving alternative energy sources, the improvement of
engineering designs and the related manufacturing processes to be more energy
efficient, to avoid the creation of pollutants, environmental monitoring and
re-mediation projects. M.E.'s work in the energy field on both new methods for
energy generation such as solar, fuel cell and wind generated power, and also
on the design of traditional electrical power plants equipped with reactors,
pressure piping, heat exchangers and other specialized components. In the
automobile industry, mechanical engineers design the various parts of cars. In
manufacturing companies of all kinds, they develop the systems that improve
and speedup production processes.
Mechanical engineers also work alongside physicians,
therapists, and other medical professionals to investigate the workings of the
human body and to design aids and instruments for medicine applications. Other
mechanical engineers work with trainers, coaches, and athletes on the design
of sporting equipment. Mechanical Engineers involved in government research
assist on key policy decisions regarding technology development and use.
Overall, we give our Mechanical Engineering students a broad based education
that allows them to make numerous and significant contributions to solving
society's problems in a wide variety of challenging, interesting and rewarding
careers.
