About Us
If it moves, it’s mechanical. And if it’s mechanical, we’re involved with it. Our nationally recognized programs offer students the opportunity for hands-on learning with experienced faculty who value innovation.
Programs
We offer degrees in mechanical engineering at the bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels. As an undergraduate, you can also add a concentration in biomedical, energy, motorsports engineering, or precision engineering and metrology, and students from other departments and colleges can minor in mechanical engineering. If you want a more applications-based approach to engineering, you may pursue a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering technology through the Department of Engineering Technology and Construction Management.
Our undergraduate plan of study is driven by our design sequence and hands-on team projects, which start in the first year. In your second year, you’ll begin using the state-of-the-art machine shop to build air-powered engines. As a junior, you’ll focus on electromechanical systems and use rapid prototyping technology to build robots in the junior design course. The culmination of the sequence is the senior design program, a two-semester capstone course in which you’ll solve a more complex, real-world design/build challenge and may have the opportunity to work directly with professional industrial partners.
Facilities
Our department’s home is Duke Centennial Hall, built to embody our philosophy of hands-on, design-based experiential learning. This 107,000-square-foot building offers students state-of-the-art classrooms, laboratories, a fully equipped machine shop, computer labs, and a wide variety of industry-level scientific equipment. The unique Kulwicki Motorsports Lab, a 6,800-square-foot building located beside Duke Hall, is dedicated to the undergraduate motorsports program. Our department’s bioengineering researchers also have laboratories within Woodward Hall.
Alumni
Growing industries like motorsports, bioengineering, power generation and computing all demand the precision and technical background that a degree in mechanical engineering provides. Our alumni have established careers in design, construction, research, higher education, management, and much more – for example, 22% of NASCAR Cup Series engineers hail from the William States Lee College of Engineering, a distinction not held by any other university nationwide. Starting average salary for our bachelor’s degree recipients is $69,000-$70,000, and 82% have full-time jobs within six months of graduation. Top employers include Corning, Ingersoll Rand, Collins Aerospace and Siemens Energy.