MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

Subject abbreviation: ME

Akula Venkatram, Ph.D., Chair  

Program Office, A159 Bourns Hall

Professor:

Qing Jiang, Ph.D.

Assistant Professors:

Curtis Collins, Ph.D.

Frank Jacobitz, Ph.D.

Guanshui Xu, Ph.D.

Yushan Yan, Ph.D.

MAJOR  

Mechanical engineering is one of the oldest and broadest areas of engineering activity. Mechanical engineers design and manufacture most of the machines responsible for a high standard of living. These machines move and lift loads, transport people and goods, and produce energy and convert it to other forms. The design and production of machines requires training in a variety of disciplines including mechanical design, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat and mass transfer. With this type of broad training, mechanical engineers are in an excellent position to adapt themselves to the modern industrial environment, which is constantly changing in response to new developments in automation, the use of computers, and new sources of energy. The demand for mechanical engineers is strong and will continue to be so in the future.

During their freshman year, all engineering students follow a common curriculum of mathematics and sciences. By the beginning of the sophomore year, students begin more specific course work toward their selected major.

Students enrolled in community college pre-engineering programs are expected to complete the equivalent of the first two years of UCR's course work for engineering majors and to demonstrate strength in calculus, chemistry, and physics. The Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC) does not meet transfer requirements for Engineering. The Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering provides special advisory services to aid community college transfer students in formulating their program and in remedying any deficiencies in required course work.

DEGREE REQUIREMENTS  

UNIVERSITY REQUIREMENTS

General University requirements are Universitywide requirements which all undergraduates must satisfy. See the Undergraduate Studies section for a complete listing.

COLLEGE REQUIREMENTS

Students must fulfill all breadth requirements of The Bourns College of Engineering. See Degree Requirements under The Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering in the Undergraduate Studies section of this catalog.

To fulfill the Humanities and the Social Sciences breadth requirements, students enrolled in The Bourns College of Engineering must meet both University criteria and Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) criteria for breadth and depth in their selection of courses. The ABET criteria are implemented in the following manner:

1. At least two of the Humanities and/or Social Science courses must be upper-division.

2. At least two courses must be from the same subject area (for example, two courses in Psychology), with at least one of the two being an upper-division course.

3. Courses must be selected from an approved list available in The College Office of Student Affairs.

The Mechanical Engineering major uses the following major requirements to satisfy The College's Natural Sciences and Mathematics breadth requirement.

1. One course in the biological sciences chosen from an approved list

2. CHEM 001A-CHEM 001B-CHEM 001C

3. MATH 009A-MATH 009B-MATH 009C

MAJOR REQUIREMENTS

The major requirements for the B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering are as follows.

Lower-division requirements (75 units)

1. One course in the biological sciences chosen from an approved list

2. CHEM 001A-CHEM 001B-CHEM 001C

3. CS 010

4. EE 001A, EE 001LA

5. MATH 009A-MATH 009B-MATH 009C, MATH 010A-MATH 010B, MATH 046

6. ME 009, ME 010, ME 014

7. PHYS 040A, PHYS 040B, PHYS 040C

Upper-division requirements (81 units)

1. EE 132

2. ENGR 100, ENGR 115, ENGR 116, ENGR 118

3. ME 103, ME 110, ME 115, ME 120, ME 130, ME 131, ME 153, ME 160, ME 170, ME 175A-ME 175B

4. STAT 155

5. Technical electives (12 units); three courses, selected from the following list, in consultation with an advisor: EE 144; CHE 136; CHE 130/ENVE 130; ENVE 138; ME 100; ME 122

Sample Program

LOWER-DIVISION COURSES  

ME 009.
Engineering Graphics and Design. (4)

Lecture, three hours; laboratory, three hours. Prerequisite(s): none. Graphical concepts and projective geometry relating to spatial visualization and communication in design, including technical sketching, instrument drawing, and computer-aided drafting and design.

ME 010.
Statics. (4)

Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Prerequisite(s): PHYS 040B, MATH 009C. Equilibrium of coplanar force systems; analysis of frames and trusses; noncoplanar force systems; friction; distributed loads.

ME 014.
Properties of Engineering Materials. (4)

Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Prerequisite(s): CHEM 001A; PHYS 040B (may be taken concurrently). Applications of basic principles of physics and chemistry to the selection and use of engineering materials. Relationship between structure and mechanical and electrical properties of technological materials.

UPPER-DIVISION COURSES

ME 100.
Advanced Mechanical Engineering Thermodynamics. (4)

Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Prerequisite(s): ENGR 100. The entropy function, entropy production, availability analysis of cycles, equations of state and thermodynamic property relations, multiphase-multicomponent systems, combustion stoichiometry, thermochemistry, and chemical availability of fuels.

ME 103.
Dynamics. (4)

Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Prerequisite(s): ME 010, MATH 010A, CS 010. Three-dimensional vector representation of particle kinetics and kinematics. Newton's laws of motion. Kinematics of rigid bodies. Force-mass-acceleration, work-energy, and impulse-momentum methods of analysis.

ME 110.
Mechanics of Materials. (4)

Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Prerequisite(s): ME 010. Mechanics of deformable bodies subjected to axial, torsional, shearing, and bending loads. Combined stresses. Columns. Energy methods. Applications to the design of pressure vessels and structures.

ME 115.
Advanced Fluid Mechanics. (4)

Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Prerequisite(s): ENGR 115 or consent of instructor. Incompressible viscous flow; boundary layer flow; potential flows; compressible flows.

ME 120.
Analysis, Simulation, and Design of Dynamic Systems. (4)

Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Prerequisite(s): EE 001A, EE 01LA, ENGR 115, ME 103; or consent of instructor. Modeling of dynamic engineering systems in various engineering domains. Analysis of response of linear systems models. Digital computer simulation.

ME 122.
Vibrations. (4)

Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Prerequisite(s): ME 120 or consent of instructor. Free and forced vibrations of lumped parameter systems with and without damping; resonance. Matrix methods for multidimensional systems. Normal modes, coupling, and normal coordinates. Use of conservation principles. Lagrange's equation. Electromechanical analogs.

ME 130.
Mechanical Engineering Design. (4)

Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Prerequisite(s): CS 010, ME 009, ME 103, ME 110. Kinematics, dynamics, and mechanical advantages of machinery. Displacement velocity, and acceleration analyses of linkages. Fundamental law of gearing and various gear trains. Computer-aided mechanism design and analysis. A design project is required.

ME 131.
Computer-Aided Design of Mechanical Systems. (4)

Lecture, three hours; laboratory, three hours. Prerequisite(s): ME 130 or consent of instructor. Design of planar, spherical, and spatial mechanisms using both exact and approximate graphical and analytical techniques. A computer-aided design project is required.

ME 153.
Applied Finite Element Methods. (4)

Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Prerequisite(s): MATH 010B, ME 115; or consent of instructor. Introduction to the finite element method (FEM) and its matrix formulation and computer implementation of FEM concepts. Pre- and postprocessing techniques; graphics display capabilities; geometric and analysis modeling; design optimization. A term project using FEM codes is required.

ME 160.
Mechanical Engineering Laboratory. (4)

Laboratory, six hours; discussion, two hours. Prerequisite(s): ENGR 116, ME 115, ME 120, ME 170; or consent of instructor. Experimental analysis of fluid flow, heat transfer, structures, and thermodynamic systems.

ME 170.
Experimental Techniques. (4)

Lecture, three hours; laboratory, three hours. Prerequisite(s): CS 010, EE 001A, EE 01LA, ME 103; or consent of instructor. Principles and practice of measurement and control and the design and implementation of experiments. Technical report writing. Dimensional analysis, error analysis, signal-to-noise problems, filtering, data acquisition and data reduction, statistical analysis. Experiments on the use of electronic devices and sensor.

ME 175A-ME 175B.
Senior Design Project. (4-4)

Laboratory, nine hours; discussion, one hour. Prerequisite(s): senior standing in Mechanical Engineering. Under the direction of a faculty member, students (individually or in small teams with shared responsibilities) propose, design, build, and test mechanical engineering devices or systems. A written report, giving details of the project and test results, and an oral presentation of the design aspects are required. Graded In Progress (IP) until both ME 175A and ME 175B are completed, at which time a final, letter grade is assigned.