Like markets merging together to create a global economy, this decade has approached the exciting frontier of joint research. The marriage of Mechanical Engineering to related fields has contributed to a new "Interdisciplinary Era".  In meeting the challenges brought on by this co-operative approach to engineering, the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering (MAE) at the University of Missouri-Columbia has broadened its scope in both education and research while maintaining strengths in the fundamental disciplines:  Dynamics & Control, Design & Manufacturing, Materials & Solids and Thermal & Fluid Science Engineering.

Such well-established academic traditions in the undergraduate and graduate curriculum as well as nationally renowned research programs are the basis for MAE having become the largest department in the College of Engineering at MU.  Other effective tools include our Undergraduate Honors Program, which is designed to challenge even our most advanced students, and a series of well planned technical elective that bring our students to the forefront of mechanical engineering. There are more than 415 students enrolled in the MAE Undergraduate Program and whose average ACT score of 28.3 ranks them in the top 93 percentile.  Also contributing to the growth of the MAE department are the more than 60 graduate students pursuing their advanced education with approximately one-third working towards their PhD degrees.

While great care has been taken to ensure a solid foundation in traditional academics for the MAE program, emphasis on teamwork and creative thinking has generated progressive design contents that have been well implemented throughout the MAE undergraduate curriculum.  Electronic teaching, including the use of industrial standard software in all core courses and dissemination of class materials via the WEB, is a familiar academic exercise to all of our MAE undergraduates.  Cooperation between Industry and MAE, involving everyday design challenges, has enabled the MAE undergraduate program to develop curriculum around generating "real world" solutions, exemplified by the numerous Senior Capstone Design projects.  Support for these projects are provided by a variety of companies including Energizer, Boeing, Caterpillar, and MU hospitals.  In addition to business support, the MAE Industrial Advisory Council, composing of eminent representatives in the Industry, provides input into the undergraduate program through semiannual conferences as well as direct interaction with MAE undergraduate students.  The Council's input as well as the semiannual one-on-one exit interviews conducted between every MAE graduating senior and the MAE department chair have been used as guidelines for the continuous improvement of the MAE undergraduate program. 

An equally important aspect contributing to the quality of the MAE department is the aggressive pursuit of funding, by our faculty, to establish nationally recognized research programs.  Well-earned support through sizable funding from both federal agencies and industry are valuable resources in the promotion of our graduate research and undergraduate teaching.  Currently, the National Science Foundation supports more that fifty percent of the MAE faculty research in areas such as MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS), structural health monitoring and modeling, control and containment of swash plate of axial-piston pumps, efficient numerical algorithms for modeling turbulent flows, innovative welded structures engineering/design, and damage resistant transparent composites.  Other funded projects include NASA's multi-year human comfort research on portable space suits as well as graduate fellowships, which have assisted in retaining high caliber undergraduates for the MAE Graduate Program.  Recent DOE funding, which compliments our strengths in flow modeling, is focusing our research efforts on flame image analysis.  Additional support from Caterpillar for fluid power and turbulence modeling has contributed to results on similar projects supported by NSF.  Other existing successes in linking our strengths to industry includes fatigue analysis of aluminum-bonded structures and crash resistance of automobile bodies by reinforced foams with Ford, efficient heat-pipe design for Intel, smart suit design for Gore Tex and the formation of the Industrial Consortium in support of a planned fluid power center.  The multi-year project supported by the Laser Effect research Branch in Air Force Research Laboratory on the topic of femtosecond heating of metals pioneers our efforts in ultrafast thermomechanics.

The department has been undergoing exciting changes that have effectively promoted our prominence among our peers.  New faculty members are frequently added as a result of the continuous expansion of the department.  The resulting effect has facilitated the formation of more interdisciplinary research/teaching teams in pursuance of a higher level of success for the total MAE program.

Robert Tzou
James C. Dowell Professor & Chair