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Curriculum Overview

UCR ME's curriculum is structured around building the fundamentals of the discipline augmented by hands-on experience that employers have found to be critical. Explore the examination, design, use, and manufacture of mechanical devices. Students have the opportunities to put their skills into real-world practice.

Learn About

  • Applied finite element methods
  • Transport phenomena in living systems 
  • Vibrations
  • Environmental impacts of energy production 
  • Mechatronics 
  • Combustion and energy systems
  • Optics and lasers 

Several ME courses, including laboratory courses, incorporate design. The culmination of the students' design experience is a three-quarter capstone design course, in which students draw upon various aspects of their previous engineering science and design knowledge to address a meaningful design problem. The first quarter focuses on engineering economics, engineering/professional ethics, and review of fundamental design concepts. In the second quarter, project (concept) analysis, preliminary evaluation (economical and technical), data and literature collection, and preliminary process design and evaluation is carried out. The third quarter of the capstone design course focuses on the final detailed technical design of the process (equipment sizing and specification, etc.), followed by prototyping and construction of hardware, and detailed technical analysis of the final design. The course concludes with a formal oral presentation and written technical report.

Course Catalog

  • Materials and Structures

    Sixteen (16) units of technical electives chosen from:

    • ME 100B – Thermodynamics 
    • ME 116B – Heat Transfer 
    • ME 121 – Feedback Control 
    • ME 122 – Vibrations
    • ME 134 – Microstructural Transformations in Materials  
    • ME 153 – Finite Element Methods 
    • ME 156 – Mechanical Behavior of Materials  
    • ME 180 – Optics and Lasers in Engineering 
    • ME 197 – Research for Undergrads 
  • Energy and Environment

    Sixteen (16) units of technical electives chosen from:

    • ME 100B - Thermodynamics 
    • ME 116B - Heat Transfer 
    • ME 117 - Combustion and Energy Systems 
    • ME 136 - Environmental Impacts of Energy Production and Conversion 
    • ME 137 - Environmental Fluid
    • ME 138 – Transport Phenomena in Living Systems  
    • ME 197 -Research for Undergrads 
  • Design and Manufacturing

    Sixteen (16) units of technical electives chosen from:

    • ME 121 – Feedback Control 
    • ME 122 – Vibrations 
    • ME 130 – Kinematic and Dynamic Analysis of Mechanisms
    • ME 131 – Design of Mechanisms 
    • ME 133 – Introduction to Mechatronics
    • ME 140 – Ship Theory
    • ME 144 – Introduction to Robotics
    • ME 145 – Robotics Planning and Kinematics
    • ME 153 – Finite Element Methods
    • ME 156 – Mechanical Behavior of Materials 
    • ME 175D – Technological Entrepreneurship
    • ME 180 – Optics and Lasers in Engineering 
    • ME 197 – Research for Undergrads 
  • General Mechanical Engineering

    Sixteen (16) units of technical electives chosen from selected from the following list, in consultation with an advisor:

    • ME 100B – Thermodynamics
    • ME 116B – Heat Transfer 
    • ME 117 – Combustion and Energy Systems 
    • ME 121 – Feedback Control 
    • ME 122 – Vibrations
    • ME 130 – Kinematic and Dynamic Analysis of Mechanisms
    • ME 131 – Design of Mechanisms 
    • ME 133 – Introduction to Mechanisms
    • ME 134 – Microstructural Transformations in Materials 
    • ME 136 – Environmental Impacts of Energy Production and Conversion 
    • ME 137 – Environmental Fluid Mechanisms 
    • ME 138 – Transport Phenomena in Living Systems
    • ME 140 – Ship Theory 
    • ME 144 – Introduction to Robotics
    • ME 145 – Robotics Planning and Kinematics 
    • ME 153 – Finite Element Methods
    • ME 156 – Mechanical Behavior of Materials 
    • ME 175D – Technological Entrepreneurship
    • ME 180 – Optics and Lasers in Engineering 
    • ME 197 – Research for Undergraduates