Mechanical engineers serve society by solving problems in transportation, energy, the environment, and human health. The activity of mechanical engineers extends from the investigation of physical phenomena governing the behavior of our surroundings to the manufacture and evaluation of products. The mechanical engineering profession encompasses numerous technical areas, including acoustics, automatic control, bioengineering, combustion, cryogenics, design, dynamics, energy conversion, engines, environment, heat transfer, lubrication, mass transfer, manufacturing and sustainability, materials processing, mechanics of solids and fluids, mechanisms, plasma dynamics, propulsion, thermodynamics, vibration, and wave propagation.
The undergraduate program in mechanical engineering seeks to provide students with a broad education emphasizing an excellent foundation in scientific and engineering fundamentals. The objectives of the undergraduate program are to prepare undergraduate students for employment or advanced studies with four primary constituencies: industry, the national laboratories, state and federal agencies, and academia (graduate research programs).