Institute of Industrial Engineers Return to Top Mechanical Engineering Mechanical engineering is a broad curriculum that focuses on the design of mechanical and thermo-mechanical devices. Mechanical engineers may design cars, airplanes, heating and cooling systems. They may work with vibrations and earthquake engineering, power plant design. Aeronautical and aerospace engineering, materials engineering, nuclear engineering, and manufacturing engineering are all specialties that derive from mechanical engineering. Mechanical engineers rely heavily on mecanics and thermodynamics in thier work.
Mechanical engineers work for a wide array of manufacturing and design firms.
Almost every large technical or manufacturing company has a need for mechanical engineers. Manufacturers, utilities, and consulting firms large and small hire mechanical engineers. American Society of Mechanical Engineers Return to Top Nuclear Engineering Nuclear Engineering deals with the practical use of nuclear energy from nuclear fission, fusion, and radioisotope sources. The major use of nuclear energy is in electric power generation. Other uses are in the areas of chemical processing, medicine, instrumentation, and isotope trace analysis.