MAE 1170

Introduction to Mechanical Engineering

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2024-2025.

Introduction to fundamentals of mechanical and aerospace engineering. Students learn and understand topics such as stress and strain, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, automotive engineering, and engineering design and product development. Emphasis is placed on critically examining problem solutions to begin developing engineering intuition. Key components of the class include in-class discussions, homework, laboratory experiments, and a group design project.

When Offered Fall.

Comments Course in introduction to engineering series. This ENGRI course is not required for entry into the mechanical engineering major.

• Students will be able to gain a basic understanding of four major areas of the mechanical engineering curriculum: statics, mechanics of materials, fluid mechanics, and thermal sciences.
• Students will be able to identify a system and its interactions with surroundings; they will use this approach to solve problems in both mechanical and thermal/fluids systems.
• Students will gain experience with unit conversion, estimation, approximations, and critical thinking.
• Students will be able to design and build a device (e.g. a small battery-powered car), and perform and document laboratory experiments.
• Students will be able to become aware of current problems, issues, successes, entrepreneurship opportunities, design trade-offs, and failures in the mechanical and aerospace field.

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