Department of Mechanical Engineering
Welcome
Of the many engineering disciplines, mechanical engineering is the broadest, encompassing a wide variety of engineering fields and many specialties. Although it is commonly assumed that mechanical engineers are automotive engineers, in fact, mechanical engineers are employed in an enormous range of technical areas including: acoustics, air-conditioning, automatic controls, computer-aided design, energy management, fluid dynamics, tribology, robotics, biomechanics, and turbomachinery, just to name a few. Mechanical engineering is a challenging, rewarding, and highly respected profession, a profession the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech supports through its commitment to excellence in its teaching, research, scholarship, and service missions.
Department Mission
The Virginia Tech Mechanical Engineering Department serves its students, alumni, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the nation through a variety of academic, research and service activities.
Our missions are to: holistically educate our students for professional leadership as creative problem-solvers in a diverse society, conduct advanced research for societal advancement, train graduate students for scholarly inquiry, and engage with alumni, industry, government, and community partners through outreach activities. In order to produce engineers prepared for success across a range of career paths, our academic program integrates training in engineering principles, critical thinking, hands-on projects, open-ended problem solving, and the essential skills of teamwork, communication, and ethics.
Statistics and Rankings
The Department of Mechanical Engineering is one of the largest departments within Virginia Tech's College of Engineering, and also within the United States, awarding approximately 275 BSME, 50 MSME, and 25 Ph.D. degrees annually. Virginia Tech's programs in Mechanical Engineering are consistently ranked in the top 10% of all mechanical engineering departments in the nation by U.S. News and World Report. Currently (according to U.S. News & World Report rankings), our graduate program is ranked 14th in the nation (2010), and our undergraduate program is ranked 13th nationally (2011). Research expenditures are currently about $18,000,000 annually and the department has over 50 tenured or tenure-track faculty.
Mechanical Engineering Program Educational Objectives
- Utilize fundamental technical knowledge and skills in mathematics, science, and engineering to analyze and solve problems, and apply these abilities to generate new knowledge, ideas or products in academia, industry or government.
- Demonstrate practical experience and organizational skills, and can interact and communicate effectively (written and/or oral) with others (e.g., supervisor, client and/or team) with an appreciation for intellectual diversity, involved in the project.
- Demonstrate leadership and/or assumes roles of increasing responsibility that benefits themselves and their employers.
- Recognize the importance of and engagement in life-long learning through: (a) self-study, (b) continuing education courses or workshops, and/or (c) formal graduate level education, and encourage co-workers to have this same motivation.
- Understand professional and ethical responsibilities toward peers, employers, and society and follows these precepts in their daily lives.
Office Location
Contact Us
Mechanical Engineering
100 Randolph Hall
Blacksburg, VA 24061
Tel: 540-231-7183
Fax: 540-231-9100