Designing Solutions

Like all engineers, mechanical engineers are problem-solvers. They design, develop, and construct internal combustion engines, machinery, power plants, transportation vehicles, and biomedical devices.

They work in manufacturing, marketing, management, research, education, and system design and development. They have plenty of opportunities for challenge, diversity, and advancement in their work.

Lafayette’s Department of Mechanical Engineering offers a comprehensive program of study that prepares students for professional work or further study. The curriculum includes a solid grounding in mathematics, science, and technology, along with technical electives and humanities and social sciences electives.

Design is integrated throughout the mechanical
engineering curriculum. Students are introduced to design as a creative, open-ended process through in-depth projects during their first semester. Design is an integral part of most later engineering courses, particularly during the junior and senior years. Courses in both the thermal sciences and the structures and mechanism areas strongly emphasize design.

Students use contemporary engineering computer software and apply modern manufacturing processes in completing design assignments and projects.

A year-long senior design project is the capstone design experience. Senior projects have included a mini-Baja off-road racer, a basic utility vehicle, a human-powered submarine, a BattleBot, and a radio-controlled airplane that can take off and land while carrying a maximum weight of cargo. Lafayette’s airplane made it to the third round in the 2002 national competition.

“As a department, we feel it is important for students to have the experience of working together as a team to design and build actual devices and then enter their projects in national competitions,” says Erol Ulucakli, associate professor of mechanical engineering. “It’s a costly endeavor, but worth it.”

Four seniors designed and built “Bacchus” for the 2001 national BattleBot tournament. It advanced to the final 16 among more than 100 competitors. The competition was aired on the television show “Comedy Central Sports Presents BattleBot.” A team of majors designed and built a mini-Baja race car that outpaced more than half the field at the 2001 Midwest Mini-Baja Competition. Another team of eight mechanical engineers designed and built a vehicle for families in developing countries that finished second in the 2001 Basic Utility Vehicle Competition.

Seniors may do independent study or honors thesis research work that includes completing a project and defending it in an oral examination. Students often publish the results of their work in professional journals or give presentations on the topic at national meetings.

Mechanical engineering students may seek election into the student chapters of Pi Tau Sigma, the national mechanical engineering honor society, and Tau Beta Pi, the national engineering honor society.

The mechanical engineering program is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, 111 Market Place, Suite 1050, Baltimore, MD 21202-4102; (410) 347-7700.

Excellent Facilities

A massive renovation of the 90,000-square-foot engineering complex was dedicated in 2003. The new Acopian Engineering Center includes innovative student learning centers, additional laboratories designed specifically for collaborative student/faculty research, and additional high-tech classrooms equipped with the latest instructional technology. The mechanical engineering learning center, laboratories, and faculty offices are grouped together to facilitate interaction among students and faculty.

Mechanical engineering facilities include a modern manufacturing laboratory including CNC equipment; an internal combustion engines laboratory for experimental work and research on a variety of engines; a thermo-fluids laboratory for the study of fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, heat transfer, power generation, and refrigeration; a modern, well-equipped instrumentation and data
acquisition laboratory; a robotics laboratory; and a dynamic systems laboratory for work in vibrations and controls. Space is also available for student and faculty research projects.

Instrumentation and equipment available for student use include: computer workstations; PC-based data acquisition and control systems; PLC systems; digital storage oscilloscopes; spectrum analyzers; a hot wire anemometer system; high resolution digital multimeters; X-Y plotters; numerous pressure and temperature sensors and trans-ducers; a Parr bomb calorimeter; digital scales; subsonic wind tunnels; a water table; a steam turbine/generator system; an experimental refrigeration apparatus; fluid friction experiments; large and small internal combustion engines connected to electric and water brake dynamometers; computer-controlled robots and video equipment; and a variety of manufacturing equipment.

After Graduation

Among mechanical engineers in the Class of 2004, 74 percent accepted jobs and 19 percent enrolled in graduate programs.

Graduates have found jobs in research, design engineering, experimental engineering, industrial management, mechanical design engineering, product engineering, maintenance engineering, manufacturing, and consulting. Employers who have hired graduates in the last three years include: Accenture, APS Technology, Arrow International, BAE Systems, Continental Airlines, Foster Wheeler Corp., General Electric, Ingersoll Rand, Lockheed Martin Corp., Lutron Electronics, Merck & Co., Northrop Grunman, Picatinny Arsenal, Procter & Gamble, PSEG, Siemens Building Technologies, Sperry Rail Service, and Turner Construction.

Recent graduates have pursued advanced study in engineering, engineering management, and business at Boston University, California Institute of Technology, Duke University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Pennsylvania State University, Ohio State, Oregon State, University of California at Berkeley, University of Southern California, and University of Illinois.

Faculty and Staff

Jeffrey D. Helm, Assistant Professor. Ph.D., University of South Carolina. Teaching areas: mechanical design and manufacturing. Research interests: precision measurement, computer vision, fatigue and fracture, mechanical design.

Scott R. Hummel, (Home Page), Associate Professor and Head. Ph.D., Lehigh University. Teaching areas: mechanisms, mechanical design, and manufacturing. Research interests: mechanical design, manufacturing, material properties, and polymer processing.

Ira M. Katz, Director of Mechanical Engineering Laboratories and Chemical Hygiene Coordinator. Ph.D., Duke University, P.E., North Carolina. Teaching areas: instrumentation. Research interests: fluid mechanics, aerosol deposition in the lung.

Richard A. Merz, Associate Professor. Ph.D., Rutgers University; P.E., Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio. Teaching areas: thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer. Research interests: fluid mechanics, compressible flows, flow separations, aerodynamics of road vehicles, experimental techniques and instrumentation; computer analysis of fluid flows.

Steven M. Nesbit, Associate Professor. Ph.D., West Virginia University; P.E., Pennsylvania. Teaching areas: mechanical design, mechanism analysis and design, robotics. Research interests: biomechanics, kinematics, robotics, manufacturing processes, automation.

Karl A. Seeler, (Home Page), Associate Professor. Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology; P.E., Pennsylvania. Teaching areas: controls, system dynamics, design and manufacturing. Research interests: system dynamics, controls, mechanical design, manufacturing polymers, nondestructive evaluation.

Jenn Stroud Rossmann, Assistant Professor. Ph.D., University of California-Berkeley. Teaching areas: fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, heat transfer, biomechanics, and structural mechanics. Research areas: biological fluid dynamics, blood flow in vessels affected by atherosclerosis or aneurysm, and aerodynamics of baseball.

M. Erol Ulucakli, (Home Page), Associate Professor. Ph.D., University of Michigan. Teaching areas: thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer. Research interests: thermo-fluid engineering and science; experimental and theoretical heat transfer.

Leonard A. Van Gulick, Professor, Chair of B.S. in Engineering/A.B. in International Studies Program and Acting Head, Sem I. Ph.D., Princeton University; P.E., Pennsylvania. Teaching areas: mechanical design, dynamics, medieval architecture. Research interests: finite element analysis, mechanical design. Recipient of Thomas Roy and Lura Forrest Jones Award.

Scott R. Hummel
Head, Mechanical Engineering
(610) 330-5587
hummels@lafayette.edu

For general information:
Office of admissions
Lafayette College
Easton, PA 18042
(610) 330-5100
FAX (610) 330-5355
admissions@lafayette.edu