Welcome to the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering! I
would like to invite you to explore our website, and in doing so, learn
about our programs, curriculum, and all the exciting activities faculty,
staff and students are engaging in. You will also be able to read about
the latest research and catch up on the departmental news.
The Department offers Bachelor, Master and PhD degrees and currently has
approximately 200 undergraduate students and 60 graduate students. The
Department has full accreditation from ABET in both our Mechanical and
Materials Engineering programs. We have a full-time faculty of 16 and
we expect to have two additional faculty members in autumn of 2008. Our
classes are generally small in size, and we typically offer multiple
sessions to accommodate the needs of our students. With the addition of
an Assistant to the Chair early in 2007, we have instituted a quarterly
student advising system to monitor the progress of our students and
provide enhanced academic advice to better facilitate a timely
graduation.
All students come into our department at different levels, and most
students are not born with the knowledge of engineering, nor do we
expect them to. Therefore, in order to prepare our incoming students for
the exciting yet strenuous engineering discipline we require them to
participate in a number of introductory courses. In particular, our
introductory engineering mathematics course, EGR 101, which is funded by
the National Science Foundation, provides students with the necessary
math skills to begin their fundamental engineering and physics courses.
In addition, EGR 101 serves as motivation for the rigorous calculus
courses to come. This course has received national recognition for its
success in achieving high student retention.
In the classroom we teach our students both abstract thinking and
high-level problem solving. We focus on training in analytical methods,
offering hands-on lab experience, and the design and optimization of
practical systems and components using applied computer skills. We also
provide students with opportunities to participate in conferences,
workshops and national competitions. Our student design teams, such as
aeronautical design and human-powered vehicles, have won a number of
awards in national competitions. Lastly, in our senior capstone design
courses, we engage students in practical design experience with an
emphasis on applying acquired knowledge, communication skills, and
teamwork.
The Department currently offers an optional co-op program for students;
however in order to meet the demands of a growing global economy we feel
it is necessary to give students the opportunity to travel abroad. We
are working with Universities overseas to create a study-aboard program
to help students develop international teamwork skills and expose them
to foreign engineering ethics created by cultural differences. Our goal
is to prepare our students to become global team leaders in the field of
technology and innovation.
Our faculty is very active in scholarly research and publication. We
maintain strong research endeavors in areas such as aerodynamics,
computation fluid dynamics, thermal sciences, solid mechanics,
vibration, dynamics and control, designs and optimization,
nanotechnology and materials. We work closely with the National Science
Foundation, Air Force Research Laboratory, Office of Naval Research,
NASA, and many other private companies (locally and nationwide) in these
areas. Our annual average research income per faculty is par with the
average of national tier-I universities. Therefore, plenty of graduate
research, teaching, and grader assistantships are available for high
achieving students. In addition, the DAGSI program
(http://www.dagsi.org/) provides a number of scholarship opportunities
for graduate study. Some of these scholarships provide assistantship
awards up to $25,000 per year!
While I welcome you to visit our website, I would also like to extend my
invitation for you to come and see the Department in person. We would
be pleased to arrange a tour for you to see our facilities and provide
you with the opportunity to talk to our faculty and students. Hope to
see you soon!
Sincerely,
Dr. George Huang
Chair, MME Dept.
