Department of Mechanical Engineering

Department Head: Skenes
Associate Professors: Sanders, Skenes
Assistant Professor: DeVoria, Elamin, Niksiar, Ragan, Righter, Washuta

Mechanical Engineering Program’s Mission Statement

To broadly educate and prepare graduates to become principled mechanical engineering leaders in the global community by instilling the core values of The Citadel, the School of Engineering and the Mechanical Engineering program in a challenging intellectual environment that includes a broad-based, rigorous curriculum, emphasizing theoretical and practical engineering concepts, strong professional values, and a disciplined work ethic.

Program Educational Objectives

The Mechanical Engineering program educational objectives are for alumni, 3-5 years after graduation, to achieve success through:

Collaborative positions to provide leadership or engineering expertise to organizations and create innovative solutions in a complex world.
Local and national recognition in their career paths, solving technical, environmental, business and social challenges.
Professional registration and/or an advanced degree in ME or closely related field, oriented to serve local and national development.

Program Core Values

The Mechanical Engineering Program has adopted the following core values:

Students are our Focus: We believe the education, development, empowerment, and welfare of our students are the primary focus of our efforts.

Engineers as Principled Leaders: We believe the engineering profession requires the highest professional and ethical standards, which we seek to model, teach and prepare our students to embrace.

Collaborative Teaching and Learning Environment: We believe a collaborative collegial environment among our faculty, staff and students is critical in sustaining advancement in educational excellence.

Growth through Assessment: We believe data-driven inquiry and improvement will lead us to sustained advancement in educational excellence.

Program Outcomes

Students who qualify for graduation with a mechanical engineering major will demonstrate an ability to:

Identify, formulate, and solve complex engineering problems by applying principles of engineering, science, and mathematics.
Apply engineering design to produce solutions that meet specified needs with consideration of public health, safety, and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factors.
Communicate effectively with a range of audiences.
Recognize ethical and professional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed judgments, which must consider the impact of engineering solutions in global, economic, environmental, and societal contexts.
Function effectively on a team whose members together provide leadership, create a collaborative and inclusive environment, establish goals, plan tasks, and meet objectives.
Develop and conduct appropriate experimentation, analyze and interpret data, and use engineering judgment to draw conclusions.
Acquire and apply new knowledge as needed, using appropriate learning strategies.

Program of Study

The Mechanical Engineering program will incorporate a number of courses within the existing ABET accredited civil and electrical engineering programs. As shown in the program of study, there will be five main focus areas to meet the needs of the local industry in South Carolina:

Manufacturing Engineering - Students acquire knowledge in different manufacturing practices to optimize the processes and systems in a production environment.
Composites - Students study composite materials, the principles behind their design, their physical properties, fabrication methods, and application to real-world engineering solutions.
Power and Energy - Students learn about energy resources, alternative energy, energy storage, conversion between forms of energy, and energy performance limitations as they apply to satisfying the needs of mankind.
Aeronautical Systems - Students study the science and design of fixed wing light systems, aircraft performance and structures.
Mechatronics - Students apply skills from mechanical engineering and electrical engineering to enable real-world control of robots, unmanned aerial vehicles, and other autonomous systems.

Facilities

Fabrication Shop

The Fabrication Shop is a 1250 square foot facility with a four-axis CNC machine, mill, welding equipment, and other metal working tools. Additionally, there are bandsaws, miter saws, a table saw, sanding station, and various other woodworking tools for student projects and design work.

Project Shop

The Project Shop is a 750 square foot facility with workspace and storage space for assembly of student projects. It provides a cleaner space for final work.

The Main Computer Lab

The primary teaching and student-use computer facility in the Mechanical Engineering Program contains twenty-four student stations, one projection-capable instructor station, and one laser printer. The software in the labs is Windows based. All machines in the lab have graphics-capable WWW browsers. The program’s standard general purpose software includes: Microsoft Office, Matlab, and SolidWorks.

Controls and Mechatronics Lab

This lab classroom is the primary teaching and student use facility in the Mechatronics focus area of the Mechanical Engineering Program. The room contains twenty-four student workstations or twelve team stations and one instructor station. The software in the room is Windows based. Laboratory equipment consists of standard function generators, oscilloscopes, multimeters, and Feedback instruments for laboratory use and applications.

Materials Testing Laboratory

Major items of equipment include a 250,000 pound and another 300,000 pound concrete cylinder testing machine; 2 each 60,000-pound hydraulic universal testing machines; light microscope; impact tester; hardness tester; grinder/polisher; dual chamber furnace; and equipment for making tension, compression, shearing, and most other accepted and significant tests on metals, ceramics, polymers, and composites.

Fluid Mechanics Laboratory

Equipment is provided for a wide variety of experiments and tests involving the flow of water through pipe networks, meters, and orifices. Other major items of equipment include a head loss and flow measurement fluid circuit apparatus, a Reynolds number device, two (2) hydraulic demonstration units permitting experiments involving many phenomena of open channel flow.

Other engineering equipment

Adequate equipment is available for the courses in thermo-fluids, machine design, manufacturing, as well as for the other junior and senior courses.

Fundamentals of Engineering Examination

Each graduating student is required to take the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) Examination and provide documentation to the department head.

Programs

Majors

Mechanical Engineering Major

Minors

Mechanical Engineering Minor

Courses

Mechanical Engineering