Every ME student has the opportunity to take concentrations and minors, such as Mechatronics, Bioengineering, and other disciplines in Engineering, Business, and Arts and Sciences. The specific courses must be selected in conjunction with the appropriate departmental office and the student's academic advisor. Requirements for a minor are set by the appropriate department. All concentrations and minors must be approved by the Chairman of the Mechanical Engineering department.
The Department seeks to provide a fundamentally sound, well-rounded, and flexible educational program for its students. To this end, the faculty very strongly encourages students to take only mechanical engineering technical elective courses. However, also understood is the value of expanding the student’s base of knowledge into areas that are not directly related to mechanical engineering but believed by the student, with their academic advisor, to serve their long term interests. This value can be added by taking a minor.
To accommodate students taking minors, the Department allows students to substitute one course from their minor in place of the ME/Career Elective in spring of senior year. In addition, all ME students, with or without a minor, may take a technical elective course from the sciences or another engineering department that is appropriate to the student’s senior standing and approved by the academic advisor. This elective course may be placed in the ME/Career Elective slot in spring of senior year.
Those students taking minors may also place one of the courses from their minor in the Free Elective slot in the spring of senior year. In some cases, one course from the minor may also be fit into the Humanities/Social Science Elective in the spring of junior year. Students enrolled in the combined bachelor/master program are expected to take all of their technical electives as 7000-level graduate courses in their senior year.
