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Institutionally known as "Course 2," the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering (ME) is the second oldest and second largest academic program at MIT. The editors of U.S. News & World Report , among others, consistently rank it the top graduate and undergraduate mechanical engineering program among North American colleges and universities. Its students are drawn from all 50 states and more than 50 countries. Its alumni are leaders in business and industry, education and government; they range from CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, to astronauts on the Space Shuttle, to award-winning scholars, inventors, entrepreneurs and innovators.

In 2005, Mechanical Engineering merged with the Department of Ocean Engineering (Course 13) to create a new department made up of approximately 75 faculty, 367 undergraduate students, 227 doctoral students, and 281 masters program students. Following the merger, the newly formed department retained its original name, the Department of Mechanical Engineering, which includes the Center for Ocean Engineering. As ME enters a new phase of its existence, it recognizes that its future lies in seven key "thrust areas" that will define its research and scholarly agenda. These areas have their foundations rooted in the Institute's 100-plus year history of research defined by the Scientific Method, their vibrant growth by the cross-pollination of interdisciplinary studies, and a potential yield of inventions and innovations only limited by the imagination and ingenuity of its faculty, researchers and students. They are:

• Mechanics
• Product Realization
• Controls, Instrumentation & Robotics
• Energy Science & Engineering
• Ocean Science & Engineering
• Bio-Mechanics & Engineering
• Micro/Nano Mechanics & Engineering

More than two-dozen research laboratories and centers provide ME faculty, research scientists, post-doctoral associates and undergraduate and graduate students the opportunities to meet the challenges of the future by developing ground-breaking innovations today.

For more information, go to http://me.mit.edu .

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