| Home |
| Welcome to MIE |
| Overview |
| Degree Programs |
| Faculty |
| Students |
| Alumni |
| Research |
| Calendar |
| Contact Us |
| College of Engineering |
 |
Message From the Department Head Welcome to the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at UIC. With majors in two academic disciplines, the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering is one of the largest departments in the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Almost one fourth of the College’s undergraduates pass through our department, receiving either a B.S. in Mechanical or a B.S. in Industrial Engineering (we also offer the M.S. and Ph.D. in both disciplines). With over 40 professors and research engineers, 20 laboratories, more than $6 million annually in grants, and an expanded Industrial Advisory Board, we are well staffed, equipped, funded, and connected. Our faculty includes two members of the National Academy of Engineering, two holders of chaired professorships, fellows of professional societies, editors of international journals, and four of the College’s thirteen women professors. Uniquely among the College’s departments, we also run a non-profit energy consulting operation, the Energy Resources Center, which has been serving the energy management needs of government agencies, cultural institutions, and regional businesses for over 30 years. Our services include free or low-cost energy audits for mid-sized industries (sponsored in part by the US DOE) and assessments of energy savings from a variety of cutting-edge technologies, including combined heat and power applications. See further at www.erc.uic.edu. Recent initiatives and achievements of our department and our faculty make this an exciting time for us. In Fall 2007 we plan to begin offering a Master of Energy Engineering. Designed for working professionals, this two-year evening program offers a set curriculum of applications-oriented courses in all aspects of power generation and energy usage, including electric power plants, internal combustion engines, HVAC systems, combined heat and power applications, energy efficient building design, sustainable and renewable energy, and engineering project management. Courses will be taught by our regular faculty and by principal engineers from the Energy Resources Center, with additional invited presentations from local industry leaders. In the area indoor air quality and building energy efficiency, we are beginning a new collaborative research program with the UIC Schools of Architecture, Business Management, Economics, and Public Health to expand our understanding of the emerging industry of advanced air filtration technologies. Since high tech filters for cleaning indoor air of particulate, gaseous, and microbiological contaminants will increase occupant health and well being while also improving a building’s energy efficiency, universities need to study this industry with more interdisciplinary cooperation than has been the case in the past. We have a leading role in this development through our state-of-the-art Air Cleaning Technology Laboratory. We are also making strides in the area of alternative and renewable energy sources, with several faculty members cooperating on research into the fluid dynamic and combustion characteristics of plant-based transportation fuels, including biodiesel. Such team efforts will also feed into our forthcoming large-scale proposals for the use of biofuels in distributed energy and combined heat and power applications. Among several professors who have recently received large grants, named professorships, and other honors, we may single out just three: Professor W. J. Minkowycz has become the first holder of the new James P. Harnett Professorship of Mechanical Engineering Energy Systems, named after our own Professor Harnett, who was a leader in our department and in the international heat transfer community for many years. Professor Ahmed Shabana has received one of the first two Richard and Loan Hill Professorships in the College of Engineering and also has substantial federal funding of $3 million for research into large scale dynamic simulations over the next five years. Professor Farid Amirouche has been honored both as a University Scholar and as a newly elected member of the prestigious “Palmes Académiques” of France. We congratulate all these scholars for their achievements and their good example to the rest of their colleagues. (Further details are available in the “news” section of the MIE homepage.) Aside from our outstanding faculty, funding, and computational and experimental resources, we believe our department provides a congenial atmosphere for undergraduate and graduate study 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. With my best wishes, |
||
