A Message from the Chair

Welcome to the electronic home of the Boston University Department of Mechanical Engineering. It has been a year of significant growth and change for the Department, starting with the July 1, 2008 merger of the BU Manufacturing Engineering and Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering departments, resulting in a single, unified Department of Mechanical Engineering, boasting over 40 full time faculty dedicated to quality undergraduate and graduate instruction and active in a multiplicity of research topics ranging from acoustic levitation to bone mechanics.  ME faculty have joint appointments in other Departments and are participating faculty in the newly established BU Division of Material Science and Engineering and Division of Systems Engineering.  Add to the mix approximately $12M in new extramural research funding in 2008-2009 and you have a rich tapestry of applied and basic research activity that cuts across disciplines and offers enhanced breadth and depth of opportunity to our students.  Current areas of strength within the Department include, but are not limited to, acoustics and vibrations, automated manufacturing, biomaterials and biomedical applications of mechanical engineering, thermo-fluid sciences, materials engineering and mechanics, MEMS & NEMS, nanobiotechnology, robotics & controls, photonics, and systems engineering.

For students who matriculated as of September 2008, the Department offers accredited BS degrees in mechanical, aerospace, and manufacturing engineering.  However, the Department has since initiated a 4-year process by which we will discontinue our BS degree programs in aerospace engineering and manufacturing engineering and replace them with an accredited degree in mechanical engineering with concentrations in aerospace and manufacturing.  This will provide students with the best of both worlds: a solid foundational degree in the highly marketable and intellectually mobile discipline of mechanical engineering, coupled to optional, specialized education in either aerospace or manufacturing engineering.  The new ME program is designed with flexibility in mind, and we have since introduced additional concentrations in emerging areas such as energy and environmental engineering and nanotechnology.

At the graduate level, the Department offers the PhD in mechanical engineering as well as MS degrees in both mechanical and manufacturing engineering.  Both thesis and non-thesis options are available, and interested students can choose to pursue the MS in manufacturing via distance learning, as part of an international partnership with a consortium of German institutions, or even as a dual MS/MBA degree offered jointly with the School of Management.  This programmatic diversity is a direct consequence of the merger, and positions the ME Department to respond to new challenges and opportunities in both education and research.

During the 2008-2009 academic year we made new additions to the ranks of ME faculty at both the adjunct and tenure track level.  Adjunct Professor James Lynch joins us from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.  Professor Lynch is a world expert in underwater and ocean acoustics and works closely with Profs. Carey and Pierce. Assistant Professor Lorena Barba, specializes in several aspects of computational modeling of fluid flow, specifically the use of “particle methods” in modeling and the pursuit of fast and efficient algorithms. Lorena received her PhD in aeronautics in 2004 from the California Institute of Technology and joined BU by way of the University of Bristol (UK).

A number of ME faculty members received well-deserved awards.  New Society Fellows include John Baillieul (SIAM), R. Glynn Holt (ASA) and Victor Yakhot (APS).  Allan Pierce received the Gold Medal of the Acoustical Foundation of India, Tom Bifano received the prestigious Bepi Columbo prize for his work with micro-deformable mirrors, and James Lynch received the Walter Monk Award for his contributions to underwater acoustics.  Several faculty received College of Engineering research and service awards and the department benefitted from a number of young faculty and foundation awards.

In 2008-2009, the ME department featured a total undergraduate enrollment of 482 and conferred about 95 Bachelor of Science degrees in three active degree programs.  Several students won significant awards including a Clair Booth Luce Fellowship and two NSF Graduate Fellowships.  The graduate program boasts approximately 100 MS/PhD students enrolled and 35 degrees conferred in three degree programs.  Several graduate students won best paper awards and extramural fellowships (NSF, Claire Booth Luce).  It is important to stress that the ME faculty research portfolio is extremely diverse and crosscutting.  Mechanical engineering professors serve as PI on grants administered by numerous College departments and research centers, as well as the BU Medical Center.  Indeed, almost 50% of the PhD students supported by ME faculty are earning degrees in programs outside of mechanical engineering, mostly in BME, ECE, or one of the Division programs.

The study of mechanical engineering bestows the scholar with an excellent general education and prepares students for the multifaceted challenges of our evolving technological world.  As one might imagine, a merger of this complexity is not achieved overnight.  The next few years will witness exciting changes in our research portfolio, faculty demographics, and degree programs. I invite you to peruse the web site and learn more about the depth and breadth of our programs, the spectrum of student activities, profiles of award-winning faculty, research interests, and facilities. Please visit this site for the latest updates and announcements as the new Department of Mechanical Engineering marches forth into the future.  It is my hope that, in doing so, you will choose to make study at Boston University part of your future.

Ronald A. Roy
Professor and Chair
Department of Mechanical Engineering