Vision

The vision of the department is to be recognized for exceptional undergraduate and graduate education in the art, science and practice of mechanical engineering.

Mission

The mission of the department is to offer students nationally recognized educational opportunities grounded in the fundamentals of mechanical engineering and state-of-the-art technology. The department programs support technological development and innovation to meet many goals, including the needs of the society. Faculty and student participation in design projects, research, or other similar activities is considered essential to their professional development. The education opportunities are to take place in a collegial environment of effective instruction and counsel.

Strategic Plan

Strategic Goals of the Department

The Department has identified the following five goals that, if achieved, will enable our vision of expanding the Department's national prominence in the next five years. Those goals are as follows:

1. Stabilize the Size and Improve the Quality of the Undergraduate Program

The Department has the largest enrolled undergraduate student population in the Whitacre College of Engineering. As such, we are a key contributor to providing the technical workforce needs of the state and nation. We recognize that our nation needs more engineers, including those that reflect the diversity of our population.

2. Improve the National and International Recognition of Our Research Programs

The Department has a rich heritage of faculty members'; intellect, drive, and synergy creating world-class research initiatives. The Department needs to expand how it empowers and rewards faculty engaged in high-quality current and promising research activities.

3. Increase the Amount of Externally-Funded Grants and Contracts

Quality research requires significant resources to support the faculty, students, and staff engaged in the research mission, and to provide the state-of-the-art equipment and facilities essential to the enterprise. The level of external funding not only enables our research mission, but is the primary factor in determining our research prominence in the nation.

4. Increase the National Recognition of the Department's Graduate Programs

The Department takes pride in a strong synergy between the graduate educational mission and the research mission. The quality and size of our graduate student body depends heavily on the national recognition of the excellence of our graduate program.

5. Increase the Diversity of the Students and Faculty in the Department

Historically, engineering has only appealed to a narrow segment of the society. Real and perceived obstacles to success in engineering must be removed and efforts made to attract talented individuals from a diverse segment of the society.