Message from the Chair

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Greetings. Welcome to the Mechanical Engineering Programs at the University of Nevada, Reno. The Mechanical Engineering Department has a long history of innovation and excellence in research, education, and outreach. We are intent on extending and strengthening our history through strong bachelors, masters, and doctoral programs that are driven by our mission, guiding principles, and goals.

Our Mission - our focus of action is to:

• Provide undergraduate and graduate educational programs which stress fundamental mechanical engineering skills such that:
• Its graduates are competitive in local, regional and national employment opportunities.
• The core curricula are broadly based to accommodate a variety of career goals.
• Provide an optimal environment for scholarship such that the faculty and students will produce research results that lead to the resolution of unanswered issues or that lead to the development of new technologies and/or new products.
• Act as a focal point for engineering practitioners and industry through industry/university cooperative efforts.
• Establish and maintain life-long learning opportunities.

Our Guiding Principles - rules that guide how we execute our Mission are:

• Innovation and excellence in research, teaching, and outreach,
• Collegiality among our faculty and other UNR faculty,
• Integrity in all we do, and
• Open communication with all our stakeholders.

In order to achieve our mission, we are pursuing the following goals:

Research Goals
Our research innovation and excellence goals are to have a significant impact on the Nevada economy and a positive impact on the quality of life of Nevada residents. The focus of our research areas is:

• Smart and Nano-scale Materials,
• Heat transfer and storage,
• Sensors and actuators, including biomedical devices,
• Renewable energy systems, and
• Manufacturing systems.

Education Goals
Our teaching innovation and excellence goals for our undergraduate students are that our graduates will be:

• Proficient in performing entry-level mechanical design.
• Able to communicate effectively in a variety of project situations.
• Prepared to pursue graduate studies at UNR and at other institutions.
• Able to define, design and execute experimental and design projects with minimal direction.

Our teaching innovation and excellence goals for our graduate students are that our graduates will:

• Acquire a strong theoretical foundation in mechanical engineering.
• Will be able, with minimal direction, to:
• define, design and execute an experimental research project -- OR--
• design, analyze and implement software for a computational research project -- OR --
• devise and critique an analytical model for theoretical portions of a research project.
• Be able to explain ideas and results through written, numerical, graphical, spoken and computer-based forms of communication.
• Able to apply their knowledge to advance the engineering discipline.

Outreach Goals
Our innovation and excellence outreach goals are to:

• Be a strong partner with industry in design activities,
• Provide for easy access to distance and non-traditional education for quality continuing education and degree programs,
• Positively impact the K-12 educational system to increase the quantity and quality of entering freshman,
• Enhance awareness of renewable energy as a critical element of Nevada's economy and national security,
• Enhance the interest in and preparation of under-represented segments of Nevada's population for engineering careers.