The Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE)
The Mechanical Engineering program in the MAE department was founded in 1944 and it was first accredited in 1962 and has been re-accredited ever since. Aerospace Engineering was first introduced as a concentration in 1995 and it became a formal degree program in 2003. The Aerospace Engineering program was accredited in 2008 and has been recertified ever since. The department has graduated more than 1800 students and many of our alumni hold key positions in renowned companies and organizations worldwide. They continue to support and guide our graduates as they step into the world of engineering.
Facts about the MAE Department
The MAE department currently has 190 undergraduate students, 40 graduate students (MS + PhD), and 16 full-time faculty members. Our esteemed faculty members are not just leading research experts in their respective fields but also dedicated mentors who are deeply invested in their students' success. Our small student-to-faculty ratio allows for our faculty to understand each student's unique strengths and aspirations, nurture their talents, and foster a spirit of creativity and exploration. The MAE department particularly emphasizes and is proud of its hands-on, experiential-learning-based curriculum. Our students are frequent winners of many national and international student competitions. Recent examples include: 1) AIAA students compete in NASA rocket launch; and 2) ASME students Lunar-Bot competition base outreach program; 3) YouTube video of robotics competition.
About the MAE Faculty
The faculty in the MAE department are internationally recognized leaders in their research areas and most of them are conducting cutting-edge research in a wide range of areas include 1) Advanced Mechanics, Materials, and Manufacturing; 2) Aerodynamics, Combustion, and Propulsion; 3) Clean and Renewable Energy, 4) Space Science and Engineering; and 5) musculoskeletal biomechanics. Many of the research is sponsored by state and federal government funding agencies and industrial companies. These researches are supported by our state-of-the-art research labs and research centers at University of Miami such as the Advanced Materials Innovation Lab and the Center for Clean and Renewable Energy.
Our faculty actively engage our students (undergraduates and graduate) in their research to provide opportunities for aspiring engineers to contribute to cutting-edge research initiatives. This close interaction with faculty members empowers students to develop critical thinking skills, inspires innovation, and instills the confidence to tackle complex challenges.
Opportunities for MAE Students
Undergraduate students have opportunities to participate in faculty research. They can work on on-going research projects along with other graduate and undergraduate students. Such participation often results in the publication of research articles in professional magazines and journals. Undergraduate students of mechanical engineering are exposed to a variety of professional activities such as college-level design competitions, organization of design contests to high school students, tours to industries, including NASA, seminars by industry leaders, and entrepreneurship forums organized by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and other professional societies.
Upon completion of their degrees, our graduates emerge not only as technically proficient engineers but also as confident leaders, well-prepared to excel in their future endeavor in their career in industry or in academia. Our students have been welcomed in many leading industrial companies such as Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, Northrop-Grumman, GM, GE, Toyota, FPL, etc, as well as government research institutions such as NASA, FAA, Air Force, and national labs.
