Mission
The Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics seeks to be a vibrant and inclusive academic community of choice for diverse students and scholars–one that welcomes and supports those underrepresented in our field into programs distinctive for integrated and collaborative education, inquiry fueled by curiosity-inspired modeling, design, and manufacturing; and the successful application of MEM discoveries and innovations to address humanity’s most pressing challenges.
Vision
The Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics engages students and faculty from around the world in integrated teaching & learning, research, and service that empowers them to solve complex societal problems with technical skills, creativity, and empathy.
The Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics will:
Have a dynamic faculty dedicated to excellence in teaching, research, and scholarship, creating and transferring knowledge that provide the foundation for new educational programs in areas of emerging technologies.
Respond to current societal needs by developing selected “target research thrusts” which utilize the talent and encompass the aspiration of the faculty and by providing the appropriate research infrastructure supporting our faculty to excel in their field of expertise.
Offer nationally recognized, integrated, undergraduate engineering educational programs that tailor a student’s learning expertise to her/his professional and career aspirations.
Have a nationally – recognized undergraduate educational program which integrates the student’s learning experience with his/her Co-op internship.
Maintain state-of-the-art laboratories and facility infrastructure to support the educational and research enterprise.
Program Educational Objectives
Program Educational Objective #1:
Our graduates will be successful in careers that deal with the design, simulation and analysis of engineering systems, experimentation and testing, manufacturing, technical services, and research.
Program Educational Objective #2:
Our graduates will enter and complete academic and professional programs in engineering, business, management, law and medicine.
Program Educational Objective #3:
Our graduates will communicate effectively with peers and be successful working with and leading multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural teams.
Program Educational Objective #4:
Our graduates will recognize the global, legal, societal, and ethical contexts of their work.
Program Educational Objective #5:
Our graduates will advance in their careers; for example, assuming increasing levels of responsibility and acquiring professional licensure.
ABET Accreditation
ABET accreditation criteria are developed by the technical professionals who are members of ABET's 31 Member Societies. Each society dedicates volunteers to perform program reviews related to its professions. Coming from both academic and industry backgrounds, ABET volunteers are trained experts who evaluate the programs for relevancy, content, and quality. This third-party peer review protects the community’s best interests, as well as the professions’. This is critical in the technical fields, where quality, precision, and safety are of utmost importance, and sets ABET apart from other accreditors. It is a solid process that has been refined over nearly 80 years.
ABET Criterion 3: Requirements that all engineering graduates must meet
- An ability to identify, formulate, and solve complex engineering problems by applying principles of engineering, science, and mathematics
- An ability to apply engineering design to produce solutions that meet specified needs with consideration of public health, safety, and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factors
- An ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences
- An ability to recognize ethical and professional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed judgments, which must consider the impact of the engineering solutions in global, economic, environmental, and societal contexts
- An ability to function effectively on a team whose members together provide leadership, create a collaborative and inclusive environment, establish goals, plan tasks, and meet objectives
- An ability to develop and conduct appropriate experimentation, analyze and interpret data, and use engineering judgment to draw conclusions
- An ability to acquire and apply new knowledge as needed, using appropriate learning strategies