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School of Engineering

Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering

The requirements for obtaining a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering are described below. In addition to required courses within and outside of the department, students also are required to take four mechanical engineering technical electives, one engineering elective, six humanity and social science electives, and one communication skills elective. There are a total of 128 passed units required for graduation, all of which must be taken with the letter-grade option.

Required Mechanical Engineering Courses

Students must satisfactorily complete each of the following mechanical engineering courses. There are 16 required courses for a total of 48 units.

Required Courses from Outside the Department

Students must satisfactorily complete each of the following courses from outside the department. There are 14 required courses for a total of 47 units.

  • CHEM 0960: General Chemistry for Engineers 1 (3 units)
  • CHEM 0970: General Chemistry for Engineers 2 (3 units)
  • ENGR 0011: Introduction to Engineering Analysis (3 units)
  • ENGR 0012: Engineering Computing (3 units)
  • ENGR 0022: Materials Structure and Properties (3 units)
  • ENGR 0135: Statics and Mechanics of Materials 1 (3 units)
  • ENGR 0145: Statics and Mechanics of Materials 2 (3 units)
  • MATH 0220: Analytic Geometry and Calculus 1 (4 units)
  • MATH 0230: Analytic Geometry and Calculus 2 (4 units)
  • MATH 0240: Analytic Geometry and Calculus 3 (4 units)
  • MATH 0280: Matrices & Linear Algebra (3 units)
  • MATH 0290: Differential Equations (3 units)
  • PHYS 0174: Physics for Science and Engineering 1 (4 units)
  • PHYS 0175: Physics for Science and Engineering 2 (4 units)

Technical Electives

Students are required to satisfactorily complete four of the following mechanical engineering technical elective courses, for a total of 12 units. The courses are presented by subject area to assist students who wish to choose courses from an area of personal interest (note that some courses are listed under more than one subject area). At least one of the four technical electives must be from the Dynamic Systems subject area.

Technical Electives by Subject Area

Dynamic Systems

  • MEMS 1020: Mechanical Vibrations (3 units)
  • MEMS 1045: Automatic Controls (3 units)
  • MEMS 1049: Mechatronics (3 units)
  • ME 2027: Advanced Dynamics (3 units)
  • ME 2045: Linear Control Systems (3 units)
  • ME 2046: Digital Control Systems (3 units)
  • ME 2080: Intro. to Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) (3 units)
  • ME 2082: Principles of Electromechanical Sensors and Actuators (3 units)

Engineering Mathematics and Computation

Fluid/Thermal Systems

  • MEMS 1055: Computer Aided Analysis in Transport Phenomena (3 units)
  • ME 2003: Introduction to Continuum Mechanics (3 units)
  • ME 2056: Introduction to Combustion Theory (3 units)

Manufacturing

nuclear engineering

  • ENGR 1700: Introduction to Nuclear Engineering (3 units)
  • ENGR 1701: Fundamentals of Nuclear Reactors (3 units)
  • ENGR 1702: Nuclear Plant Technology (3 units)

Solid Mechanics

  • MEMS 1033: Fracture Mechanics for Manufacturing and Performance (3 units)
  • MEMS 1047: Finite Element Analysis (3 units)
  • MEMS 1062: Orthopedic Engineering (3 units)
  • ME 2003: Introduction to Continuum Mechanics (3 units)
  • ME 2022: Applied Solid Mechanics (3 units)

Special Projects

Please note the following:

  • Co-op students can earn three credits for completing three co-op rotations and a written technical report on their co-op experience, which may be substituted for one of the technical electives. However, the Dynamic Systems technical elective requirement must still be satisfied.
  • Upper-level engineering courses from other engineering departments may be substituted for mechanical engineering technical electives, subject to the approval of the undergraduate director. To request approval for such a substitution, a student must submit a Technical Elective Approval Request form to the undergraduate director. This is typically associated with the pursuit of a minor.
  • Technical electives are usually not offered during the summer term.
  • Students must complete the proper prerequisites before enrolling in any of the technical electives and should have acquired senior standing.

Engineering elective

Students are required to complete one Engineering elective course, for a total of at least 3 units. Any course offered by the School of Engineering may be used to satisfy this requirement (e.g., ENGR 0020 Probability & Statistics For Engineers or IE 1040 Engineering Economic Analysis). It does not have to be an upper-level course (in contrast, recall that only upper-level courses from other departments can be used as mechanical engineering technical electives. For students pursuing a minor from another department, one of the courses required for the minor can be used to fulfill this requirement.

Communication Skills Elective

To satisfy the communications skills elective requirement, students must satisfactorily complete one of the following five courses offered by the School of Engineering (ENGR), the Department of Communication (COMMRC), and the Department of English (ENGCMP). The communication skills elective should be taken as soon as possible, preferably in the fourth term of a student's course of study.

  • ENGR 1010: Communication Skills for Engineers (3 units)
  • COMMRC 0500: Argument (3 units)
  • COMMRC 0520: Public Speaking (3 units)
  • COMMRC 0540: Discussion (3 units)
  • ENGCMP 0400: Written Professional Communication ("W") (3 units)

Humanities and Social Science Electives

Students must satisfactorily complete a minimum of six humanities and social science electives for a total of 18 units to satisfy the degree requirements for mechanical engineering. All courses selected must be on the list of approved humanity/social science courses that has been prepared by the Office of the Associate Dean. External studies courses are not acceptable, nor are ENGCMP 0150 and ENGCMP 0200.

In order to satisfy School of Engineering and ABET accreditation requirements for breadth and depth, all mechanical engineering undergraduates must fulfill the following requirements when choosing their six elective courses:

Depth requirement

  • Students must satisfactorily complete two or more courses (only one of which can be an introductory course designated by an asterisk [*]) from one of the departments or programs within the School of Arts and Sciences.
  • A student may also satisfy the depth requirement by completing two or more courses with a related theme, e.g., courses that focus on a geographic region, historic period, or ideological perspective.

Breadth requirement

  • Students must select courses from at least three different School of Arts and Sciences humanities and social science departments.
  • Students must select courses from both humanities and social science departments.

Writing requirement

  • All School of Engineering students must also complete at least one "W" -designated course in which the "W" indicates that a course has a substantial writing component, as approved by the School of Arts and Science. Students should refer to the Registrar's website each term to determine whether a course is being offered as a "W" -designated course. Note that every School of Arts and Science departments offers "W" -designated courses, which may or may not satisfy School of Engineering humanities or social science requirements.

departmental requirement

  • Students must include PHIL 0300 Introducation to Ethics as one of the six humanities/social science courses.

Humanities and social science courses on the school's list of approved courses satisfy the School of Engineering requirements. However, students may petition the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs to have a course added to the list of approved courses by submitting an Approval Request for Humanities/Social Science Elective form. The form must be submitted to the Associate Dean's office (323 Benedum Hall) for approval. Students can contact the undergraduate program office approximately one week later to see if the course was approved. It is helpful to include a copy of the course description with the form. Courses that are deemed sufficiently relevant and academically appropriate generally are approved. Broad survey courses (typicaly below the 100 level that are generally taught in large lecture sections) are usually not approved. Skills courses (courses that focus on acquiring a skill than on conveying intellectual knowledge) are also usually not approved.

Admissions

Undergraduate students are admitted to the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Material Sciences through the School of Engineering Admissions office.

Manual

Outside Courses

Descriptions of required courses outside of the department

STUDENTS

Over 400 undergraduates, 70 MS, and 40 Ph.D. students make up the MEMS student body.