Mechanical engineering is a comprehensive discipline covering the analysis, design, fabrication and production of products, machines, devices and facilities, with applications across every industry.
Because it brings together all fields of engineering to develop the equipment and machinery that make everyday life more convenient, mechanical engineering is both the foundation of every industry and a leader in advanced technologies. In the 21st century—as environment, new energy, biotechnology, nanotechnology, mechatronics and advanced biomedical engineering emerge alongside information technology as the main fields of modern industry—mechanical engineering sits at their core.
Research Areas
| Area | Description | Related research |
|---|---|---|
| Design & Mechanics of Materials | Designing components and structures, analyzing and predicting their durability, safety and reliability, and verifying them through experiments and computation | Vehicle crash, tires and sports engineering, nuclear power components, manufacturing process analysis, musculoskeletal models and biomechanics, models for rehabilitation and surgery |
| Thermal, Fluids & Energy | Design and analysis of energy systems, heat engines, refrigeration cycles and fluid machinery such as turbojet engines, gas turbines and blowers | Alternative refrigerants, micro gas turbines, fuel cells and desalination, engine flow analysis |
| Control, Vibration & Robotics | Analysis of robots, CNC machine tools and mechatronic systems; vibration analysis and active control for high-speed, high-precision motion; bio-inspired robots, sensors, actuators and biomedical applications | Wearable rehabilitation robots, capsule endoscopes, insect-inspired micro-robots, bacteria-based robots for cancer therapy |
| Manufacturing Engineering | Processing and design of conventional and advanced materials, micro-machining, ultra-precision and laser machining, nano-processes and self-assembly, AI-driven automation of production and assembly | Computational manufacturing analysis, biomedical systems, battery-free wireless sensors, multifunctional atomic force microscopy and nanoscale systems |
Career Paths
| Path | Fields |
|---|---|
| Industry | Machinery, electronics, aerospace, environment, construction and more |
| Government & finance | Systems management and policy-making in government, finance and other sectors |
| Research institutes | National and corporate research institutes |
| Graduate school | Master’s and doctoral programs in mechanical engineering |