What is Mechanical Engineering?
Mechanical engineering is a diverse subject that derives its breadth
from the need to design and manufacture everything from small individual
parts and devices (e.g., microscale sensors and inkjet printer nozzles)
to large systems (e.g., spacecraft and machine tools). The role of a
mechanical engineer is to take a product from an idea to the
marketplace. In order to accomplish this, a broad range of skills are
needed. The mechanical engineer needs to acquire particular skills and
knowledge. He/she needs to understand the forces and the thermal
environment that a product, its parts, or its subsystems will encounter;
to design them for functionality, aesthetics, and the ability to
withstand the forces and the thermal environment they will be subjected
to; and to determine the best way to manufacture them and ensure they
will operate without failure. Perhaps the one skill that is the
mechanical engineer’s exclusive domain is the ability to analyze and
design objects and systems with motion.
Since these skills are required for virtually everything that is
made, mechanical engineering is perhaps the broadest and most diverse of
engineering disciplines. Mechanical engineers play a central role in
such industries as automotive (from the car chassis to its every
subsystem—engine, transmission, sensors); aerospace (airplanes, aircraft
engines, control systems for airplanes and spacecraft); biotechnology
(implants, prosthetic devices, fluidic systems for pharmaceutical
industries); computers and electronics (disk drives, printers, cooling
systems, semiconductor tools); microelectromechanical systems, or MEMS
(sensors, actuators, micropower generation); energy conversion (gas
turbines, wind turbines, solar energy, fuel cells); environmental
control (HVAC, air-conditioning, refrigeration, compressors); automation
(robots, data and image acquisition, recognition, control);
manufacturing (machining, machine tools, prototyping, microfabrication).
