Prepare to Make a Difference in the World

Undergraduate MAE Majors

Michigan Tech has a long-standing reputation of offering an unparalleled mechanical and aerospace engineering education.

Our challenging coursework, wide-ranging options, and state-of-the-art facilities will provide you with an experience like no other. As a graduate, you'll have hands-on abilities and the capacity to hit the ground running thanks to world class faculty and innovative teaching—each and every course is taught by faculty.

Tomorrow needs mechanical and aerospace engineers who are prepared to make a difference in the world to solve challenges in healthcare, energy, transportation, space exploration, climate change, and more. We're ready. Are you?

Bachelor's Degrees

Workers in lab testing Nasa Watts equiptement

Aerospace Engineering

A bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering will take you to the stars. Design, construct, and test real spacecraft, aircraft, and related systems, crafting out-of-this-world solutions for challenges in propulsion systems, structural design, and system engineering. At Michigan Tech, you will gain hands-on experience that prepares you for cutting-edge industry.

Aerospace engineers use the foundational principles of structures, materials, gas dynamics, space science, and orbital mechanics to design and test real products and prototypes—like the three satellites already built by Michigan Tech engineering students. Focusing in areas like aerodynamic fluid flow, structural design, navigation and control, and propulsion and combustion, aerospace engineers also work in research and development and manufacturing. You'll be well-suited for employment in a wide range of aerospace engineering fields, including astronautics, aeronautics, spacecraft and aircraft design, mechanics, structural design, communication, and astrodynamics.

Pathways are wide-ranging and include:

Drafting blueprints and other technical drawings for aerospace products and equipment
Manufacturing and repairing components for spacecraft and aircraft
Designing, testing, and launching microsatellites to enhance communication between spacecraft and ground receivers
Determining which materials and substances an aircraft requires to meet durability and safety requirements

A researcher working on a project

Mechanical Engineering

Ranking in the top ten in degrees awarded for twenty-seven consecutive years, a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering will prepare you to create a better tomorrow. Design components, devices, systems, and processes that will help solve today's biggest challenges in health care, transportation, world hunger, climate change, and more. At Michigan Tech, you will gain the skill set necessary for driving technological innovation.

Mechanical engineers apply the principles of motion, energy, force, and materials to design innovative products that are safe, efficient, reliable, and cost effective. In addition to design, as a mechanical engineer you'll work in research and development, testing, and manufacturing. You'll be well-suited for employment in a wide range of mechanical engineering fields, including the aerospace, automotive, biomedical, chemical, computer, communications, nanotechnology, and power-generation industries.

Pathways are far-reaching and include:

Studying auto aerodynamics using powerful supercomputers
Designing a rocket engine to withstand the subzero temperatures of outer space
Developing a microprobe small enough to dissect a single nerve cell under a microscope
Analyzing machinery such as gas turbines, control devices, and jet engines, with the goal of improving performance

Career Options are Tremendous

Analyzing machinery such as gas turbines, control devices, and jet engines, with the goal of improving performance
Designing a rocket engine to withstand the subzero temperatures of outer space
Studying auto aerodynamics using powerful supercomputers
Developing a microprobe small enough to dissect a single nerve cell under a microscope

Ready to take the next step?

Learn more about studying mechanical engineering at Michigan's flagship technological university.

34th

in the nation for best undergraduate mechanical engineering programs
50K+

square feet of labs and computer centers
8th

largest BSME enrollment in the US
3

student-built satellites launched into space
Top 27

in BSME degrees awarded for the past 36 consecutive years

Preview image for My Michigan Tech: Ray Coyle video

"You have it all up here. You have the outdoors. You have the education. You have the community."Ray Coyle, '19 Mechanical Engineering

Earn an ABET Accredited Engineering Degree

With ABET accreditation, you can be sure that your Michigan Tech degree meets the quality standards that prepares you to enter a global workforce.

And, because it requires comprehensive, periodic evaluations, ABET accreditation demonstrates our continuing commitment to the quality of your program—both now and in the future.

Sought Worldwide

ABET's voluntary peer-review process is highly respected. Its criteria are developed by technical professionals and focuses on what you, as a student, experience and learn. It adds critical value to academic programs in technical disciplines—where quality, precision, and safety are of the utmost importance.

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Mechanical Engineering is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, https://www.abet.org, under the General Criteria and the Mechanical and Similarly Named Engineering Programs Program Criteria.

ABET logo

MTU engineering

Real Engineering. Meaningful Work.

We are committed to inspiring students, advancing knowledge, and innovating technological solutions to create a sustainable, just, and prosperous world. With an entering engineering class of about 1,000 students, 18 degrees to choose from, and 160+ faculty in the College of Engineering alone, we provide a world-class education with the trusted reputation of Michigan Tech.

As a student at Michigan Tech you’ll work closely with faculty mentors, immerse yourself in experience-powered learning, and gain a thorough understanding of engineering practice. Collaborate and innovate in laboratories, coursework, Enterprise, and Senior Design—you'll work with industry partners on real engineering projects and develop strong skill sets for your future.

You could study abroad, with engineering opportunities ranging from a few weeks to one full year. Or focus on problems facing disadvantaged communities in countries around the world. Michigan Tech’s Global and Community Engagement program offers you a range of options.

More than 400 employers regularly recruit our students for internships, co-ops, and full-time employment. Engineering students average seven interviews, and 98 percent are employed within their field of study, enlist in the military, or enroll in a graduate school within six months of graduation. A degree in engineering from Michigan Tech can take you anywhere.

Tomorrow Needs You

Engineers do a lot of things, but there's one thing we do first and foremost: we help people. We use creative ideas and technologies to solve problems in health care, energy, transportation, hunger, space exploration, climate change, and more—much more. Become an engineer who is ready for what tomorrow needs.

Student Stories

The MAE Department

Discover and design innovative solutions.

In the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering our challenging coursework, wide-ranging options, and state-of-the-art facilities will provide you with an experience like no other. Once you graduate, you'll have hands-on abilities and the capacity to hit the ground running.

We focus on giving students the personal attention and support necessary for not only academic success, but also a positive undergraduate experience overall. And we encourage students to take advantage of our faculty's open-door policy.
We limit our class sizes to allow for meaningful student-faculty interaction. The average class size is 31, and the average lab size is 12. Every class is taught by faculty.
Department labs and computer centers occupy over 50,000 square feet and 12 stories in the R. L. Smith Building. Within our department, you’ll have the opportunity to experience four semesters of engineering in our ME Practice courses. These courses involve open ended experiences using the same tools as industry uses to test, model, and simulate real world systems.
Learn how to be an effective engineer and further expand your toolbox of capabilities by joining an Enterprise team at Michigan Tech. Our department hosts and advises ten different Enterprise teams who work on designing, building, and testing engineering systems for industry clients. As early as your freshman year, you could be creating competition vehicles, nanosatellites, or snowboards. You could develop new ways to mine on the moon and Mars, or focus on Navy projects in all domains: space, air, land, sea, and undersea.
You can get involved in world-class engineering research, too. Our students work side by side with our faculty on robotics, autonomous vehicles, alternative energy, materials in medicine, controls, and alternative energy, including energy from ocean waves. Undergraduate research opportunities are plentiful, often in multidisciplinary teams.
During your senior year, you'll join a design team to work on industry-sponsored projects for 2 semesters–much like your first job as an engineer. Project sponsors include over 50 companies so nearly anything is a possibility! Some examples include developing a wireless car door opener, designing a quiet, green snowmobile, and creating power tool testing machines. You will take an idea from concept to working prototype.

All of this takes place in one of the biggest mechanical engineering departments in the nation. Michigan Tech is consistently ranked 8th for the total number of mechanical engineering bachelor's degrees granted in the United States.

"When getting ready to teach, I put myself in my students' shoes, making sure I'm getting the information across in a way that is meaningful and helpful to them."Professor Gordon Parker