What is Mechanical Engineering?

Mechanical engineers design, manufacture, and operate systems that extend our physical abilities. A mechanical engineer's work is seen every day in anything that moves. This includes designing an aircraft, planning a building's ventilation system and improving a car's fuel economy. Mechanical engineering also saves lives through bioengineering technologies. The world's first artificial heart was partially designed, manufactured and implanted using mechanical engineering principles.

As a mechanical engineer, you are an innovator. You're interested in the physical principles involved in a product's design, its manufacture and assembly, it’s safe operation and final disposal. You must also consider appearance and ease of use, the costs of design, manufacture, operation and effects on the environment of your product. Robotics, automation for manufacturing, environmentally responsible power generation or any form of transportation are just some of the areas where your product can be used. In fact, it would be hard to find an area or object in everyday life that is not in some way affected by a mechanical engineer.

Should You Become a Mechanical Engineer?

Here are some common traits of our mechanical engineering students:

• Enjoy physics and math.
• Problem-solve creatively.
• Like to understand how and why things work.
• Have an interest in bioengineering, aerospace or robotics.
• Are curious about the use of alternative fuels and energy.
• Want to use their ideas to help solve global problems.