Transcript for:
Introducing Clemson's Mechanical Engineering Program

[upbeat music] - Welcome to the presentation for prospective students in Mechanical Engineering at Clemson University. [upbeat music] Let me tell you a little bit about myself. I'm Todd Schweisinger, I'm the Director for the Undergraduate Program in Mechanical Engineering. And I'm glad you could stop by our virtual presentation to hear a little bit more about what Clemson offers prospective students. And so I wanna tell you a little bit about the presentation. What I'd like to do is at first, just kind of introduce you to some concept of the careers in mechanical engineering, in case you're considering that as a discipline. A little bit about the career services that Clemson provides and the work experiences that we provide for students. And also how the Department prepares students for these careers in mechanical engineering, such as our classes, the resources we have available to students, as well as other opportunities outside the classroom, or just to develop as a professional and as a student to really help you make the decision in terms of what makes Clemson the right choice for you, if it is the right choice for you. And we hope that it is. So a little bit about the careers in mechanical engineering. Mechanical engineering is a broad engineering discipline where students have gone on to graduate, have graduated, gone on to careers in aerospace, transportation, power generation, defense, manufacturing, construction, HVAC, research, product development, and even extended into law and medicine and other areas of project management and leadership. Clemson prepares our students for doing that through our curriculum. But also we have an outstanding career services through our top rated Center for Career and Professional Development, as well as the Michelin Career Center, which is gonna help our students obtain those careers upon graduation. But they also help those our students get some work experience while they're here at Clemson. And so the Career Center has a dedicated person solely to mechanical engineering students who are participating in co-op and internships programs. So that means that our students are getting a dedicated person in career services to help them get paid work experience before they graduate. And that really is an advantage, a benefit to our students, really getting that customized attention. And the Clemson ME student is in demand nearly all of our Clemson students seeking a co-op accept some kind of offer. And as an example of the types of companies that our graduates and as well as our students are interning, co-oping with and they span the spectrum from your Fortune 500s to regional companies in different areas of aerospace, defense, manufacturing, and those topics we discussed a second ago. And so how do we prepare our students to pursue these careers? Well, it starts with a flexible scheduling with multiple sections and classes offered every semester. So they can really customize their plan of study to accommodate their co-ops, internships, or other academic pathways they wanna pursue. And as part of their schedules and classes, it really begins with the breadth of core topics, which we'll talk about in just a little minute. And then also give students an opportunity to go deeper into specific topics and really explore personal interests or their professional aspirations. And so those first couple of years, students will start in general engineering and they will pursue some general engineering, general education requirements as well, such as English, social science, and then also developing some core math, chemistry, physics, and science classes. In the beginning, the sophomore year, students will begin to take the mechanical engineering sequence beginning with the mechanical engineering lab, as well as some foundation courses in statics, dynamics, thermodynamics, and fluids. And they'll round up that sophomore year with some, a little bit more breadth in electrical and computer engineering, some material science and other technical aspects getting them prepared to really focus on their core discipline of mechanical engineering in their junior year. And that's when students begin to really enter their fundamental ME concepts in thermodynamics, heat transfer, fluid mechanics, machine design, and additional sequence of labs. And that's gonna prepare them for their senior year where now they're gonna take all of the knowledge, apply that into practical ways, such as their senior design project, where they're solving, our students are solving industry-sponsored projects, real projects. Also completing their final lab and they also have the opportunity to take some technical electives to specialize and go. We talked about going in depth, going a little more focusing on a specific track of courses to really pursue some personal interests and career aspirations, such as in manufacturing with materials, computational engineering, looking at the dynamic systems more, vehicles, aircraft design, energy, and gas turbines, as well as HVAC and even as topics is a cardiovascular biomechanics would be other classes kind of. So we offer a breadth of technical electives and opportunities for students to go deeper into that core classes they took their junior year. But in addition to those core classes in mechanical engineering, students also have the opportunity to customize their curriculum in other ways. And what we do is we have each student meet one-on-one with an academic advisor to develop that custom experience, to learn more about what that student's interests are. Those interests could include studying abroad during the summer or a regular semester and getting course credit for those towards their degree. Or it could include a research opportunity such as departmental honors or senior year completing one year of undergraduate research with one faculty member. Or the creative inquiry sequence could be working with a team of undergraduates solving a problem, passionate that an instructor is passionate about and a topic that a student might also be passionate about. The University also offers minors, which are mechanical engineering students are eligible to obtain such as math or business administration, nuclear engineering, and radiological science as well as international science in some languages. In mechanical engineering we have some select few programs to really focus on some themes. One of those teams can be advanced manufacturing, where the students will have access to some outstanding facilities in Greenville, South Carolina, learning more about advanced manufacturing and partnering with those industries building those networks and relationships. And we also have a program focused on energy systems our senior year in Charleston, and students can obtain an automotive engineering certificate through the CU-ICAR, also located in Greenville, South Carolina. And we also offer a BSMS program for students looking to fast track through a graduate degree. They can shave some time off by getting some strategically taking classes as an undergrad that will also count towards their MS degree. And so some of the resources that we have to help those students include tutors embedded into the course. So those are our peer assisted learning students. So those are our PALs who are gonna tutor students specifically in a class in teams of students in group settings. Students also have access to the Academic Success Center for tutoring as well as tutoring in the peer and wise office and students have access to the Writing Center. So there's a number of ways that we're providing resources to help students be successful in the program. And in addition to those resources, we provide a Mechanical Engineering Student Shop to support coursework, research projects, senior design capstones, or just personal interests. There's makerspaces in the library, in the Watt Family Innovation Center. We also have student mentors in the Jansen Family Mentor Program who are reaching out to our undergraduate students our first second year, early on, earlier to students to mentor them in career and student success within their classes as well. And certainly have the instructors office hours where the instructors are gonna be doctor level faculty or professionals with decades of industry experience. Is an opportunity for students to live in the residence in science and engineering, living and learning community that also offers in-house tutoring in the residence hall, specific to science and engineering. And a Clemson degree can encompass more than formal coursework. One example would be finding like-minded students to engage in their studies and profession by participating in a student organization or competition team, such as the Clemson Rocket Engineering, or some automotive engineering organizations, student organizations. And then a little bit about the Clemson experience we're located in between two hours between Atlanta, Georgia, and Charlotte, North Carolina at the base of the foothills mountains, right on scenic Lake Hartwell. We have a population of about 20,000 undergraduate students with 5,000 graduate students in a small college town setting. And we like to talk about the Clemson family and really what that means is that we welcome all students from different disciplines and backgrounds and everybody's identity is welcomed at Clemson. And we want everyone to, we really value the diversity of the Clemson population, and we really want everyone to feel welcome. But it's also just a hospitable culture that we have on campus. And you'll feel that when you come to campus, what that means, and there's a lot of opportunities be for campus involvement, such as clubs sports, or other activities. So we don't want students when they come to Clemson to abandon their personal interests, just to pursue this degree. We want them to strengthen their personal, their passions, and identities and build beyond just the academic core sequence. And so Clemson has a lot of opportunities to get involved. And another popular aspect that Clemson students report about certainly is our athletic program. So a good compliment to a top tier academic program. We also have a top tier athletics program as well. And the Princeton Review constantly ranks, consistently ranks. Clemson in the top 10 for their students love these colleges. And the overwhelming majority of our students would choose to enroll in Clemson and repeat their experience if they could do it all over again. Well thank you for considering mechanical engineering at Clemson University. The mechanical engineering discipline offers a breadth of opportunities for our graduates in terms of their career, aspirations, and personal interests. And we help prepare those students with an outstanding Career Center who's placing students in top companies and also helping our students get the paid work experience while they're students to better prepare them for their careers. And in order to get those great work experiences while they're students, we're preparing them through our classes and the curriculum that has the breadth and the depth, and also the technical expertise they'll need to be successful in the engineering profession. And it also offers the flexibility in the schedule so that students can customize their plan of study to whatever academic pathway they're interested in, whether that be a co-op, an internship, a study abroad, undergraduate research, or any other experience that really they want to customize to maximize their potential. And so hopefully we've given you some things to consider in making your choice as Clemson mechanical engineering. And if you're looking for more information, you can find us on the internet. We look forward to seeing you at Clemson, go tigers. [upbeat music]