2012-2014 Undergraduate Catalog 
    
    Mar 28, 2024  
2012-2014 Undergraduate Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Mechanical Engineering, B.S.


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Program Coordinator: John Sarris, Ph.D.

The B.S. program in mechanical engineering is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, www.abet.org.

Mechanical engineering represents a wide diversity of pursuits including the analysis, design, and testing of machines, products, and systems essential to everyday life — everything from doorknobs, tennis rackets, and fishing reels to power plants, skyscrapers, and automobiles. Mechanical engineers work in a variety of fields such as aerospace, utilities, materials processing, transportation, manufacturing, electronics, and telecommunications.

Program Mission and Educational Objectives

The mission of the Mechanical Engineering program is to graduate professionally competent and responsible students who can meet industry's current and future needs in the general area of mechanical engineering.

In order to achieve its mission, the Mechanical Engineering program must ensure that its graduates will be able to:

I. Practice mechanical engineering in the private or public sector.

II. Engage in self-emprovement through special training, independent inquiry or professional certification.

III. Pursue graduate studies in engineering, business law, medicine or related fields, if they so choose.

By the time they graduate, mechanical engineering students should be able to:

A) Apply knowledge of mathematics, science and engineering

B) Design and conduct experiments, as well as analyze and interpret data

C) Design a system, component, or process to meet desired needs within realistic constraints such as economic,

     environmental, social, political, ethical, health and safety, manufacturability and sustainability

D) Function multidisciplinary teams

E) Identify, formulate and solve engineering problems

F) Understanding professional and ethical responsibility

G) Communicate effectively

H) Understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global, economic, environmental and societal context

I) Recognize the need for and engage in life-long learning

J) Know contemporary issues

K) Use the techniques, skills and modern engineering tolls necessary for engineering practice

 

Recognizing current knowledge-based demands on graduating engineers and responding to input from the program's stakeholders, the Mechanical Engineering Department has embraced the concept of a multidisciplinary foundation to discipline-specific education. Thus, the bachelor of science in mechanical engineering (B.S.M.E.) curriculum includes a sequence of ten (EAS prefix) foundation courses.

Mechanical engineering classes are small (rarely more than twenty students) and are taught almost exclusively by full-time faculty. Restricted and technical elective courses offer the opportunity for further learning in areas such as fluids, energy, design, heat transfer, numerical analysis and computers, aerospace sciences, and control systems.

Experienced practitioners from industry may also contribute their expertise in selected courses. Faculty and students work with industry in research and design projects.

Academic Performance

Mechanical engineering majors who complete their first twelve credits of ME-prefixed engineering courses with a cumulative grade point average for these courses of less than 2.0 will have their academic records reviewed by the entire ME faculty on a regular basis. An ME-prefixed course may not be taken more than twice unless consent is granted by the program coordinator.

An undergraduate student already enrolled at the University of New Haven who wishes to transfer to mechanical engineering will normally be expected to satisfy the standards of the program for admission by transfer.

The coordinator of the Mechanical Engineering program reserves the right not to award transfer credit for technical courses taken at any institution more than ten years prior to a student's matriculation in the bachelor of science degree program in mechanical engineering at the University of New Haven, if it is determined that knowledge acquired in those courses is either inadequate or obsolete.

Exceptional students having an overall average of 3.5 or better are invited to join the Delta Zeta Chapter of the Pi Tau Sigma mechanical engineering honor society, which provides the opportunity for closer relations with faculty and other prominent individuals in the field for the purpose of further professional development, involvement in faculty research, and varied social and intellectual activities.

Internship

It is recognized in the Mechanical Engineering program that experiential work by undergraduate students is a valuable tool in launching a successful professional career. It is desirable, then, for mechanical engineering majors to spend time prior to graduation performing engineering-related duties at a manufacturing company, consulting firm, technical organization, government agency, or other appropriate setting.

Interns are required to complete a minimum of 300 hours of practical experience in an area or technical project closely related to mechanical engineering. The requirement may be satisfied through appropriate work experience, part- or full-time employment, a summer job, or an apprenticeship or volunteer work at any time during a student's undergraduate studies. Registration, proof of compliance, or a request for waiver must be submitted to the Department only after completion of 75 credits toward the B.S.M.E. degree. The internship is graded on a Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory basis and carries no academic credit.

Required Courses


Students earning the bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering are required to complete 128 credits, including the University Core Curriculum.

Freshman Year


In addition to the common first-year courses listed under the Tagliatela School of Engineering, mechanical engineering students take the Mechanical Engineering Skills Workshop. This one-hour-per-week workshop familiarizes students with basic practices in a laboratory environment, including safety considerations, design planning, layout, fabrication, and the use of basic measuring equipment and devices to test and verify a design. The workshop is offered in the spring semester and is graded on a Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory basis. The workshop carries no academic credit.

Senior Year


Note(s):


*Must be chosen in consultation with the student's adviser.

Focus Areas

Focus areas are optional clusters of four or five courses that provide depth in an area related to mechanical engineering. Those courses typically consist of electives that are prescribed depending on the focus area. Currently, there are three focus areas within the BSME curriculum: mechatronics, renewable energy, and system engineering.

Mechatronics is the synergistic combination of mechanical, electronics, computer, controls, and system engineering thinking in the design of products and manufacturing processes.  This focus area is offered to meet the demand of manufacturing and automation industries for engineers capable of interdisciplinary and integrated approaches to problem solving.

The following 11 credits comprise the Mechatronics Focus Area:

  • ME 215 Instrumentation Laboratory (2 credits; required)
  • ME 355 Interfacing and Control of Mechanical Devices (3 credits; technical elective)
  • ME 438 Systems Dynamics and Control (3 credits, technical elective)
  • ME 445 Robots: Design/Control/Program (3 credits, technical elective)

 

The Renewable Energy focus area involves the study of how energy is harvested from inexhaustible sources such as the earth, sun, and wind.  The feasibility of operating power plants that produce clean, renewable energy as well as the means and impact of increasing energy efficiency will be considered.

The following 13 credits are required for the Renewable Energy Focus Area:

  • ME 305 Engineering Thermodynamics (4 credits; required)
  • ME 361 Fundamentals of Renewable Energy Systems (3 credits; technical elective)
  • ME 365 Introduction to Energy Efficiency (3 credits; technical elective)
  • ME 407 Solar Energy, or other approved energy-related course (3 credits; design elective)

 

The focus area in System Engineering prepares students for complex engineered system design and encourages pursuit of system engineering at the graduate level. System engineering science focuses on development, integration, testing, and commercialization of technologies to produce an optimally designed engineered system which meets customer needs over its lifecycle.

The System Engineering Focus Area consists of the following 15 credits:

  • SE 388 System Engineering Concepts and Design (3 credits; design elective)

Choice of two courses among the following: (6 credits; technical elective, restricted elective)

  • ME 351 Modern Manufacturing
  • ME 355 Interfacing and Control of Mechanical Devices
  • ME 445 Robots: Design, Control and Programming

      And

  • SE428 Six Sigma Quality Planning (3 credits; technical elective)
  • EAS345 Applied Engineering Statistics (3 credits; math/engineering analysis elective)

The B.S.M.E. program includes two required stems of coherent course offerings:


Note(s):


It should be noted that the required capstone design sequence ME 497 ME 498  (6 credits) may be taken in either of the above stems. Also, technical and design electives are offered periodically in both thermo/fluid and mechanical systems, and the internship experience could be in either one or both of these areas.

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