Among the most diverse of the engineering fields, mechanical engineering affects almost all aspects of our lives and embraces many areas of specialization: automotive systems, bioengineering, combustion and propulsion, design methodology and tribology, dynamic systems and controls, energy systems and thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, manufacturing and production, materials behavior and processing, and microscale and nanoscale phenomena and systems.In this program (accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, www.abet.org), engineering design, communication, teamwork, and laboratory experiences are integrated throughout the curriculum from freshman to senior year. The technical portion of the mechanical engineering curriculum is designed as a sequence of increasingly specialized experiences. The entering student's first year is spent mastering the basics of science: math, chemistry, and physics. Building on this base, in the second year students begin to take fundamental engineering courses such as statics, dynamics, basic circuits and electronics, thermodynamics, and strength of materials. By the third year, students are taking specialized mechanical engineering courses in the subfields of fluid mechanics, heat transfer, dynamic systems and controls, materials, mechanical design, and manufacturing. Finally, during the senior year, students have the opportunity to both broaden and deepen their knowledge of the field through individually chosen technical elective courses. At the end of the curriculum, students take the capstone senior design course where the knowledge and skills they have learned are applied to projects submitted to the department by corporate or faculty sponsors, preparing Mechanical Engineering students for their next leap into industry or graduate school.