About

“If you decide that you want to be a mechanical engineer, then you have made the best decision of your life. It is extremely important to get an internship during the summer. When you graduate, your internship experience and your senior design project will play a huge role in getting your first job as an engineer.”

— Thomas Lacey, BS Mechanical Engineering ‘18

Learn to Build the Tools That Will Shape the Future

Dear students, parents, and partners,

Welcome to our Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Students in our program learn how to build the tools that will shape the future. They design and analyze mechanical and thermal systems—skills they can apply to a broad range of fields from aerospace to nanotechnology to the automotive industry.

We offer a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering, as well as minor in the field. Plus, graduate students can pursue a PhD in information technology with a mechanical engineering concentration.

Our bachelor’s degree combines theoretical and practical knowledge taught by world-renowned faculty members in newly renovated labs.

After completing core requirements and introductory engineering courses on the Fairfax Campus, students move to the university’s SciTech Campus in Manassas for their final semesters.

During their senior year, students team up to conceive, design, and produce solutions to meaningful, sponsor-dictated, mechanical engineering problems. Over the last several years, their projects have included a robot to detect clogged storm drains, a portable wind turbine to provide electricity, and vehicle devices to make transportation safer.

Because research is an integral component of any academic enterprise, we are building a multi-disciplinary, challenge-driven research enterprise that will engage our undergraduate students as well as provide the platform for our future graduate programs.

"Our bachelor’s degree combines theoretical and practical knowledge taught by world-renowned faculty members in newly renovated labs."

— Oscar Barton, Jr., founding former chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering

We invite you to come to campus and meet our faculty and learn more about our programs and research.