Technical Electives

Undergraduate student Gabrielle Penn polishing a specimen for microcharacterization of advanced alloys at the Materials Lab.

The purpose of technical electives is to broaden and/or deepen a student's knowledge of engineering and technology. Mechanical Engineering majors are required to take a total of 12 hours of technical electives. A wide variety of courses are appropriate to satisfy this requirement. Sometimes it may also be desirable for a student to select an elective course from a discipline outside of Mechanical Engineering.

The student's choice of elective classes must always be discussed with, and approved by, their advisor prior to enrollment. Technical electives should be chosen that provide the student with the foundation necessary to achieve a competitive advantage in attaining their career goals. Not all electives will be approved. Some restrictions are:

1. Electives should only be taken during the senior year.
2. Only three elective hours (one class) may be taken outside Mechanical Engineering.
3. The student must have the required prerequisites and/or background for the course.
4. Any course not shown in the listing below must first be approved by the advisor.
5. An elective cannot usually be an alternate form of material already covered. For example, a second high-level programming language would not be acceptable. Nor would a first or second class in thermodynamics in another department be acceptable.
6. Material that could reasonably be learned independently is ordinarily not suitable. Nor is material that is not directly related to a career in mechanical engineering, or that is vocational.
7. The student may be able to take a graduate level class as a technical elective provided he/she has completed the Mechanical Engineering classes up to their junior year with a grade point average of 3.2 or better, and permission has been obtained from both their advisor and the instructor. A special form is available from the Registrar's office to enable the student to take graduate level classes.

Below is a list of some suitable technical electives. Other classes not listed below may be appropriate after consultation with your academic advisor and the undergraduate coordinator.

Students may select Technical Elective Tracks resulting in a certificate of specialization.

If you take a course outside of mechanical engineering, please give some feedback about how useful it is to you to your advisor. That will allow us to keep the list of approved courses up to date.