Farzad Mashayek Professor and Interim Head of the Department

Message From the Interim Department Head

Welcome to the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at UIC. Our department is located just outside the vibrant downtown of Chicago and near major hubs for ground, rail and air transportation. The metropolitan Chicago is home to a large number of industries that interact with our faculty and employ our graduates.

We offer BS, MS, and PhD degrees in each of the disciplines of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. We also offer a BS degree in Engineering Management and a unique Masters of Energy Engineering designed for working professionals. These programs are supported by 21 tenured or tenure-track professors and several additional teaching and research faculty and by substantial annual research funding to support graduate students in their works as researchers in one of our 17 research labs.

Mechanical engineering is one of the oldest fields of engineering, yet it is constantly evolving through its applications in emerging areas. Today, mechanical engineers are not only trained in traditional fields such as fluid mechanics, heat transfer, machine design, and controls, but they also learn how to apply the fundamental principles from physics, chemistry and mathematics to exciting modern fields such as biotechnology and nanotechnology. Mechanical engineering is also one of the broadest fields of engineering and its graduates find jobs in various industries such as energy, aerospace, manufacturing, robotics, and medical devices, just to name a few.

Industrial Engineering is concerned with the analysis, design, improvement, and installation of integrated systems of people, material, information, equipment, and energy. Industrial Engineering is where engineering meets business. Industrial engineers are specially trained to eliminate practices that waste time, money, energy and other resources. Graduates in industrial engineering can work in almost any industry, including manufacturing, healthcare, logistics, transportation, finance, electronics, entertainment and many others.

In addition to our outstanding faculty, funding, and computational and experimental resources, our department provides a congenial atmosphere for undergraduate and graduate studies and for collaborative work with industry and other academic partners. I encourage you to learn as much as you can about our programs. Visit the department and look over our faculty research profiles on our website, talk to our faculty, and meet with our students. I hope you will find that MIE offers the breadth and vision in its undergraduate, graduate, and collaborative programs that you seek, and I invite you to consider becoming a part of this talented and dynamic community.