Welcome

On behalf of the faculty and staff of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, I want to welcome you to our web site. Since the program was established in 1983 (with only one full time faculty member), we have been working vigorously to increase the size and improve the quality of our educational and research programs. We are proud of the fact that the Department has grown to the current size of 19 full time faculty members. Their diverse backgrounds and internationally recognized research and educational expertise encompass all major fields in Mechanical Engineering.

The Mechanical Engineering undergraduate curriculum is designed to provide students with a broad knowledge in basic engineering science and design, and to build a solid foundation for professional careers in engineering. Since 1997, we have been revamping our program to shift emphasis from a topics-based curriculum to an integrated curriculum that introduces engineering design earlier in the course of study and integrates it throughout the curriculum. This new curriculum also offers a year-long senior "capstone" course focused on product realization processes with real-world engineering practice issues. Finally, we have expanded the use technical electives to provide depth in specific areas of mechanical engineering. Our new curriculum produces students who graduate with a better appreciation of the systems approach to engineering, improved written and oral communication skills, and stronger teamwork capabilities. We currently have an undergraduate enrollment of about 350 full time students, of which 50% are underrepresented minorities. Details of the integrated curriculum and its assessment can be found in the ME ABET 2002 Self Study Report located under ABET 2000 link in the Undergraduate Program section.

Recognizing the fact that education is a lifelong pursuit, our graduate program is designed to provide students with the skills, knowledge and philosophical grounding that will enable them to continue to grow throughout their career. Currently, our graduate student enrollment has reached 77 full-time students, with 37 pursuing their Ph.D. degrees.

Our research program emphasizes both basic research, which expands the frontiers of knowledge, and applied research, which is designed to solve the present and projected technological needs of society. Major research activities are focused in four primary areas: Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer, Structural Mechanics, Material Science and Engineering, and Dynamic Systems and Controls. Each of these areas is served by one or more state-of-the-art laboratories. In addition, interdisciplinary research programs are conducted in cooperation with the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL), the Center for Advanced Power Systems (CAPS), the Center for Materials Research and Technology (MARTECH), and the school of Computational Science & Information Technology (CSIT). A new thrust area of Power and Energy Conversion is being developed in affiliation with the newly established CAPS program.

I hope that you will enjoy visiting our web site and I encourage you to browse through our ABET section, which contains a detailed report on our undergraduate program. I would also suggest a visit to our Research Highlights page, which features several Power Point presentations highlighting the most recent research activities of our faculty. Feel free to share your views and comments with us. Your feedback is very important for us to continuously assess and improve our program. Thank you.

Chiang Shih
Professor and Chair