The Department of Mechanical Engineering offers advanced instruction and research opportunities in a variety of areas of current interest in mechanical engineering. There exists, moreover, a close connection with a number of industrial companies. Research programs include bioengineering, computer-aided design and graphics, robotics, optimum design of fluid components, kinematics, automated mechanism design, modern and optimal control, flexible manufacturing, materials processing, continuous web manufacturing, tribology, fluid mechanics, chemically reacting flows and heat transfer. A program in Manufacturing Engineering, leading to a Master of Science degree, offers a new curriculum to train engineers and managers in the new technologies, new methods of production, and new approaches to product design.
Students receive hands-on training in an associated manufacturing engineering laboratory.
A new program in Thermal Science, leading to a Master of Science degree offers a modern curriculum to train engineers in the design of thermal systems and computational methods. This program offers considerable flexibility for interdisciplinary study to students with interests in thermofluid phenomena in chemical processes, environmental sciences and oceanography. The M. S. degree program requires completion of a minimum of 30 points of approved course. A thesis, based on experimental or theoretical research, is optional and may be counted in lieu of up to 6 points of credit. A special program allows students holding bachelor's degrees with majors in mathematics, physics, and certain other physical sciences to receive the M.S. degree after a somewhat longer period of study at Columbia.