Mechanical Engineering
As a student studying mechanical engineering at Boston University, you will learn how robots move, bubbles burst, airplanes fly, and big data enables big ideas. You will learn about technological innovations that enable sustainable energy, engineer biological tissues, create new materials, and advance scientific pursuits at the nanoscale and at the scale of our solar system. You will design and create engineering solutions to real-world challenges.
The Mechanical Engineering department at Boston University emphasizes world-class, interdisciplinary research, student-faculty interaction, and a department-wide sense of community and global responsibility.
Students in the undergraduate Bachelor of Science program may specialize their mechanical engineering studies by concentrating on aerospace engineering, manufacturing, energy technologies, nanotechnology, the Grand Challenges, or technology innovation. Outside of the classroom, our mechanical engineers lead student-run groups that launch rockets (Rocket Propulsion Group [BURPG]), design drones (BU UAV), and build electric and gas-powered race cars (BU Racing; BU Baja SAE). Students perform experimental, computational, and interdisciplinary research with professors who design biomedical devices, build soft robots, study graphene, fold origami, control the flight of drones, utilize additive manufacturing, and levitate drops and bubbles. As a mechanical engineering student, you will design and build products, machines, and research prototypes in the Engineering Product Innovation Center (EPIC), characterize your creations in the shared facilities of the Photonics Center, turn your ideas into reality at the BUild Lab (Innovate@BU), and collaborate with students in the Questrom School of Business to understand how practicing engineers thrive in industry.
For graduate students, BU offers Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy programs in mechanical engineering and Master of Science programs in product design & manufacture. Students can also take some courses in mechanical engineering via distance learning. Distance learning uses videoconferencing and on-demand video-streaming technologies to enable students to apply classroom learning immediately to work-related challenges. The Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Questrom School of Business offer a coordinated Master of Science/Master of Business Administration program that prepares recent graduates or practicing professionals who are committed to careers in industry for positions as manufacturing managers.
Research initiatives conducted jointly by students and professors help advance the science and technology of mechanical engineering through topics such as acoustics and vibrations; biomechanics; computational science and engineering; dynamics; robotics, systems and controls; thermofluid sciences, energy and sustainability; materials; and MEMS & nanotechnology.
