Mechanical Engineering

ME 1. Introduction to Mechanical Engineering

Required of all freshmen and transfer students during their first or second semester of study. Introduction to engineering design; case studies in mechanical engineering; problem-solving using the engineering approach; introduction to engineering code of ethics, mechanical engineering profession, and career opportunities.

Units: 1
Course Typically Offered: Fall

ME 2. Computer Applications in Mech Engineering Lab

Prerequisites: MATH 75 (or concurrently). Students develop fundamental skills in basic analytical and design tools used in mechanical engineering. Topics covered include spreadsheet applications, graphing data, technical communication, programming concepts, and computer-aided design (CAD). (3-hr laboratory).

Units: 1
Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

ME 26. Engineering Graphics

Prerequisites: MATH 75 (or concurrently). Basic computer literacy required. Principles of orthographic projection, dimensioning, and descriptive geometry. Applications to the solution of engineering problems including the use of interactive computer graphics. (Two 3-hour lecture labs)

Units: 3
Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

ME 29. Engineering Mechanics

Same as CE 29: Prerequisites: MATH 77 (or concurrently); PHYS 4A. Not open to mechanical or civil engineering majors. Study of fundamental principles of statics and dynamics by scalar and vector methods.

Units: 3
Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

ME 31. Engineering Materials

Prerequisites: CHEM 1A passed with grade of C or better; and MATH 75 passed with C grade or taken concurrently. Fundamental nature and properties of engineering materials; structure of matter and its effect on mechanical, electrical, magnetic, and thermal properties.

Units: 3
Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

ME 32. Engineering Materials Laboratory

Prerequisite: ME 31 and MATH 75 completed or concurrent. Application of experimental methods to engineering materials. Study of stress and strain in metals; fatigue; hardness; toughness. (3 lab hours)

Units: 1
Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

ME 95. Product Development

Prerequisites: ME 2 (or concurrently), ME 26, ME 31, and ME 32 (or concurrently) and MATH 75 (or concurrently). Examines the overall process of product development including preliminary design, drafting, material selection, fabrication, inspection, assembly, and testing. Laboratory component introduces basic machining and fabrication skills. (1 lecture, 3 lab hours)

Units: 2
Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

ME 112. Engineering Mechanics: Dynamics

Prerequisite: CE 20, MATH 81 (or ENGR 101). Development of principles of kinematics and kinetics in engineering. Introduction to vibration.

Units: 3
Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

ME 115. Instrumentation and Measurement Lab

Prerequisites: ECE 71 (or CSCI 40), ECE 90, ECE 90L. Application of different measuring devices and techniques used in engineering systems. Calibration and response characteristics of instruments will be examined. Use of data acquisition system in the recording and analyzing of experimental data. Technical reports are required. (3 lab hours)

Units: 1
Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

ME 116. Fluid Mechanics

Prerequisites: CE 20, MATH 81 (or ENGR 101), ME 112 (or concurrently). Fundamentals of fluid mechanics as applied to engineering problems.

Units: 3
Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

ME 118. Fluid Mechanics Laboratory

Prerequisites: Any writing class or successful completion of university writing exam (UDWE); ME 116 (or concurrently). Applications of experimental methods used in engineering practice to fluid systems. (One 3-hour lab)

Units: 1
Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

ME 122. Dynamic Systems and Controls

Prerequisites: ME 112, ME 115. Modeling of mechanical systems; mechanical feedback systems; time domain analysis; stability, frequency response, and root locus plots; performance criteria, and system compensations; applications of different measuring devices and techniques used in engineering systems.

Units: 3
Course Typically Offered: Fall

ME 125. Engineering Statistics and Experimentation

Prerequisites: MATH 77 (or concurrent). Provides fundamentals of statistical and uncertainty analysis applied to engineering measurements, experimental methods, product design, and manufacturing processes. Includes probability distributions, data sampling, confidence intervals, quality control, reliability, life testing, and analysis of uncertainty in experimental measurements.

Units: 3
Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

ME 134. Kinematics of Machinery

Prerequisites: ME 26, ME 112, CE 121, MATH 81 (or ENGR 101). Analytical, graphical, and computer solutions applied to design problems in machinery, mechanisms. Cam design, different types of followers, cam manufacturing considerations. Gear design, different types of gears, gear trains. Students will be assigned class projects related to the topics covered in class. (2 lecture, 3 lab hours)

Units: 3
Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

ME 135. Senior Capstone Design I

Prerequisites: ME 95, ME 115, ME 134 (or concurrently), ME 145 (or concurrently), ME 154 (or concurrently), ME 156 (or concurrently), and completion of Upper-Division Writing Requirement. Senior standing required. Introduction to engineering design process with consideration given to economic, safety, quality, aesthetics, environmental, liability, and patent law issues. First semester of a two-semester senior capstone design experience that culminates in a working prototype.

Units: 3
Course Typically Offered: Fall

ME 136. Thermodynamics

Prerequisites: CHEM 1A; PHYS 4A, MATH 77. Fundamentals of thermodynamics and heat transfer as applied to engineering problems.

Units: 3
Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

ME 137. Turbomachinery

Prerequisites: ME 116 and ME 136. Applications of fluid mechanics and thermodynamics and rotor fluid energy interchange. Steady flow problems of pumps, compressors, and turbines with incompressible and compressible fluids. Both closed and open ended homework problems.

Units: 3

ME 140. Advanced Engineering Analysis

Prerequisites: CE 121; ECE 71 or ECE 70 or CSCI 40; ME 112 (or concurrently), ME 116 (or concurrently). Development of finite element method of engineering analysis; applications to heat flow, fluid flow, vibrations, and stresses in mechanical design using appropriate numerical techniques and closed-form solutions of partial differential equations.

Units: 3
Course Typically Offered: Spring

ME 142. Mechanical Vibration

Prerequisites: ME 112. Mathematical and physical basis of vibration theory with applications to engineering analysis and design. Includes transient and steady state phenomena, distributed and lumped parameter systems, coupled systems, and computer solutions.

Units: 3
Course Typically Offered: Spring

ME 144. Advanced Mechanics of Materials

Prerequisites: CE 121, ME 125, MATH 81. Advanced topics in mechanics of materials. Statistical considerations in design, stress and strain theories; contact stresses, strain energy, Castigilano's theorem; failures resulting from static and dynamic loading; static and fatigue theories of failure; stress concentrations.

Units: 3

ME 145. Heat and Mass Transfer

Prerequisites: ME 116; ME 136; ME 140 (or concurrently). Analytical, numerical, and electrical analogy methods are used to solve a variety of heat transfer and mass transfer problems. Advanced topics in radiation, boundary layer flow, and heat exchanger design.

Units: 3
Course Typically Offered: Fall

ME 146. Air Conditioning

Prerequisites: ME 116, ME 156. Theory and practice in air conditioning including psychrometrics, load estimating, heating and cooling systems, fluid design and controls. (2 lecture, 3 lab hours)

Units: 3
Course Typically Offered: Spring

ME 154. Design of Machine Elements

Prerequisites: ME 31, CE 121. Design of machine elements and components using theory learned in prerequisite courses. Both individual and team-type open-ended design projects are required. Use of computers for design is required. (2 lecture, 3 lab hours)

Units: 3
Course Typically Offered: Fall

ME 155. Senior Capstone Design II

Prerequisites: ME 135 and completion of Upper Division Writing Requirement, Engineering design process with consideration given to economic, safety, quality, aesthetics, environmental, liability, and patent law issues. Meeting client-based specifications; optimizing designs, working in a team environment, and developing project management skills form the basis for the course. second semester of a two-semester capstone design experience.

Units: 3
Course Typically Offered: Spring

ME 156. Advanced Thermodynamics

Prerequisites: ME 136. Advanced topics in thermodynamics including analysis of conventional and alternative energy conversion processes.

Units: 3
Course Typically Offered: Fall

ME 159. Mechanical Engineering Laboratory

Prerequisites: ME 118, ME 125, ME 145, ME 156 (or concurrently), and senior standing. Analysis of mechanical engineering and measurement systems. Students conduct experiments dealing with advanced thermal and mechanical systems. Using knowledge and experience gained from experimentation, students design and conduct their own group experiments. Both written and oral technical reports are required.

Units: 1
Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

ME 162. Computer-Aided Design

Prerequisites: ME 2, ME 26, ME 140, ME 145 (or concurrently). Survey of computer applications for design, analysis of mechanical systems, and manufacturing of mechanical components. Typical programming language software packages used in industry (CAD/CAM and FEA) will be introduced.

Units: 3
Course Typically Offered: Fall

ME 164. Mechanical Systems Engineering Design

Prerequisites: ME 135 and successful completion of university writing requirement. Open ended design problems of complete machine systems. Integration of prerequisite course material into final design project. Team project report/presentation required.

Units: 3
Course Typically Offered: Spring

ME 166. Energy Systems Design

Prerequisites: ME 145, ME 156, and ME 118. Design of conventional and alternative energy conversion systems i.e. solar; selection and integration of components of the system; use of codes and standards. Group project report required. Satisfies the senior major requirement for B.S. in Mechanical Engineering.

Units: 3
Course Typically Offered: Spring

ME 180. Special Projects

Prerequisites: senior standing in mechanical engineering, approved subject, department apporved writing course or successful completion of writing exam. Study of a problem under supervision of a faculty member; final typewritten report required. Individual project except by special permission.

Units: 1-3
Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

ME 190. Independent Study

See Academic Placement -- Independent Study. Approved for RP grading.

Units: 1-3, Repeatable up to 6 units
Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

ME 191T. Topics in Mechanical Engineering

Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Investigation of selected mechanical engineering subjects not in current courses. (Lecture and/or laboratory)

Units: 1-3, Repeatable up to 6 units

ME 191T. Applied Simulation Modeling

The principles of simulating stochastic systems (particularly manufacturing) with an emphasis on the statistics of simulation and the use of discrete-event simulation languages. Systems such as assembly lines and health care industry will be analyzed in simulation to identify bottlenecks and potential improvements in efficiency. This topic may not be repeated for credit. (Offered Fall 2023)

Units: 3

ME 193I. Mechanical Engineering Cooperative Internship

Prerequisite: permission of adviser. Engineering practice in an industrial or government installation. Each cooperative internship period usually spans a summer-fall or spring-summer interval. This course cannot be used to meet graduation requirements. CR/NC grading only.

Units: 1-6, Repeatable up to 12 units
Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

ME 211. Advanced Dynamics

Prerequisite: ME 134 or permission of coordinator. Dynamics of mechanical systems with emphasis on equations of motion. Kinematics of particles, energy and momentum methods, variational methods, LaGrange's method, kinematics and plane motion of rigid bodies, kinetics of rigid bodies in three dimensions, mechanical vibrations.

Units: 3

ME 215. Design Optimization of Engineering Systems

This course provides students with the ability to conceptualize and formulate design optimization problems and to utilize the best algorithms for a given class of problems. Topics include constraints, monotonicity, and methods to optimally design unconstrained and constrained engineering systems.

Units: 3

ME 216. Computational Fluid Dynamics

Prerequisites: ME 116 or consent of the instructor. Basic MATLAB programming skills are required. Classification of partial differential equation (PDE). Finite difference/volume method. Basic concepts of discretization, consistency, and stability. Applications of numerical methods to selected model PDE. Explicit and implicit algorithms. Navier-Stokes solutions and numerical methods for incompressible and compressible flows (3 lecture hours).

Units: 3
Course Typically Offered: Spring

ME 220. Compressible Fluids

Prerequisite: ME 156 or permission of coordinator. Review of the foundations of fluid mechanics and thermodynamics. The velocity of sound, mach number and angle, differences between incompressible, subsonic, and supersonic flow. Isentropic flow, working charts and tables, choking operations of nozzles. Normal shock waves, ducts, shock tube analysis. Fanno and Rayleigh analysis, oblique shock waves, the PrandtlMeyer equation. Lift and drag on bodies in supersonic flow. Method of characteristics.

Units: 3

ME 221. Incompressible Fluids

Prerequisite: ME 156 or permission of coordinator. The kinematics of liquids and gases, the LaGrangian and Eulerian methods, streak lines, stream tubes. Geometry of the vector field, stokes, and Gauss's theorems, acceleration of a fluid particle, homogenous fluids and the equations of continuity. Integration of Eutor's equation, Bernoulli's equation. Potential motion and potential functions, source and sink potentials, the stream function. Vortex theory, surfaces of discontinuity.

Units: 3

ME 223. Gas Turbine Engines

First-year graduate course in mechanics and thermodynamics of jet engine propulsion. Thermodynamics of fluid flow and engines, boundary layer theory, subsonic and supersonic inlets, combustors, fans, compressors, turbines, nozzles, inlet distortion, fuel controls, noise reduction, ramjets adn scramjets.

Units: 3

ME 225. Heat Transfer

Conduction, convection, and radiation. One and two dimensional steady-state conduction, LaPlace's equation, numerical techniques. Transient heat transfer. Heisler charts, multiple-dimensional systems, boundary layers, Reynold's analogy. Forced and natural convection radiation heat transfer. Kirchoff's and Wien's laws, radiation shields.

Units: 3

ME 227. Advanced Thermodynamics

Prerequisite: ME 156 or permission of coordinator. Review of classical thermodynamics, Maxwell relations, equations of state, nonideal gases, experimental methods. Entropy and exergy analysis with applications to energy conversion devices and thermodynamic cycles, single- and multi-phase systems, and irreversibility in thermodynamics.

Units: 3

ME 229. Advanced Gas Dynamics

Review of supersonic flow. Vibrational and chemical rate processes, nonequilibrium chemical rate equations, rate equations for dissociation and recombination. Flow with vibrational or chemical nonequilibrium. Nonequilibrium kinetic theory; evaluation of collison cross sections. Flow with translational nonequalibrium. Radiative transfer in gases, and approximate solutions of the equation of radiative transfer.

Units: 3

ME 232. Advanced Aircraft Stability and Control

Prerequisite: ME 230. Continuation of ME 230. Validity of small disturbance theory, nonlinear equations of motion, steady state and dynamic stability and control of elastic airplanes. Frequency response methods, response to turbulence. Automatic flight control analysis adn design, the human pilot in te control loop, stability augmentation, digital flight control systems, state vector methods.

Units: 3

ME 241. Structural Analysis

Prerequisite: ME 134 or permission of coordinator. Graduate-level course in the principles of structural mechanics. Stress, strain and displacements, static and dynamic loads, energy methods, virtual work, discrete and continuous system analysis, finite element analysis elastic beams, plates, and frames; single and multi degree -of-freedom modal analysis.

Units: 3

ME 243. Structural Dynamics

Prerequisite: ME 241 or permission of instructor. Condinuation of ME 241. Von Karman theory, shear deformation, geometry and equilibrium of shells, theory of vibrations, vibrations of aircraft structures, coupling with the aerodynamic equation, flutter, ground and flight structural test techniques.

Units: 3

ME 290. Independent Study

Prerequisite: graduate status in engineering or permission of instructor. Approved for RP grading.

Units: 1-3, Repeatable up to 6 units

ME 291T. Topics in Mechanical Engineering

Prerequisite: graduate status in engineering or permission of instructor. Selected mechanical engineering subjects not in current courses.

Units: 1-3, Repeatable up to 6 units

ME 291T. Fundamentals of Battery Technology

Fundamentals of battery energy conversion & storage processes, including redox flow batteries, lithium ion batteries, fuel cells, etc., as well as electrochemical protection techniques. Introduction to existing commercial batteries, various popular battery characterization tools, mathematical models and applications. This topic may not be repeated for credit. (Offered Fall 2023)

Units: 3

ME 291T. Advanced Engineering Materials

Materials science, engineering, and processing of advanced materials. Structure and chemistry relationships to mechanical, electrical, electronic, acoustic, magnetic, thermal, and optical properties of these materials. Control of advanced processing to achieve desired properties; design and fabrication of novel materials. This topic may not be repeated for credit. (Offered Fall 2023)

Units: 3

ME 291T. Power Systems and Renewable Energy

This course includes power plant technology, power plant engineering, and energey conversion. In this course you wil learn about the variety of power generation technologies. From novel technologies to traditional ones. From fossil fues to renewable energy. From nuclear fission to nuclear fusion. From renewable solar and wind energy to novel plasma processing of organic fuels. From hydrogen power in fuel cells to geothermal and hydro-electrical power. Learn about plants and new fusion projects to clean power generation of the future. Learn about Magneto-Hydro-Dynamic (MHD) generators; nuclear batteries; about the traditional power generation with coal, gas, and oil, and clean coal gasification technologies and coal to liquid fuels trends; how to protect the environment knowing the physics behind the power generation; energy environment; Energy Conservation and Energy Storage; several applications using present and future technologies including Plasma processing of organic components, among others.

Units: 3

ME 298. Project

Prerequisite: graduate status in engineering. See Criteria for Thesis and Project. Independent investigation of advanced character such as analysis and/or design of special engineering systems or projects; critical review of state-of-the-art special topics, as the culminating requirement for the master's degree. Abstract required. Approved for RP grading.

Units: 3

ME 298C. Project Continuation

Pre-requisite: Project ME 298. For continuous enrollment while completing the project. May enroll twice with department approval. Additional enrollments must be approved by the Dean of Graduate Studies.

Units: 0

ME 299. Thesis

Prerequisite: see Criteria for Thesis and Project. Preparation, completion, and submission of an acceptable thesis for master's degree. Approved for RP grading.

Units: 3, Repeatable up to 6 units

ME 299C. Thesis Continuation

Prerequisite: ME 299. For continuous enrollment while completing the thesis. May enroll twice with department approval. Additional enrollments must be approved by the Dean of Graduate Studies.

Units: 0