Resources

The Mechanical Engineering Department is located in the Walter Scott Engineering Center, with faculty offices and classrooms on the first, second and third floors and supporting machine shop facilities on the first floor.

• Design, Modeling, Measurements, and Controls Laboratories.
  Several laboratories in these areas support the undergraduate and graduate work in mechanical system design, machinery dynamics, basic measurements, and mechanical system controls. The laboratories contain a wide variety of instrumentation equipment, bench models of control mechanisms and systems, analog computers for simulation studies, shaker system and dynamic recording equipment for machinery vibrations, microcomputers, and extensive areas for project activity.
  
  
• Materials Laboratories.
  Undergraduate facilities are available to support instruction in modern metallographic techniques, X-ray diffraction methods, mechanical testing of materials, materials processing, thermal analysis, heat treatment of ferrous and nonferrous materials, and the evaluation of materials-environment compatibility. Additional research facilities are available to advanced undergraduate and graduate students in the area of powder metallurgy, thin film structures, gas analysis and corrosion of metallic and nonmetallic materials, analytical electron microscopy, and the study of phase transformations in alloys.
  
  
• Thermodynamics, Fluid Dynamics, and Heat Transfer Laboratories.
  These laboratories are equipped with a variety of facilities for demonstration of and experimentation on the basic concepts of fluid flow and energy conversion. Included in the available equipment are wind tunnels, engines, turbines, pumps, compressors, a complete air-conditioning unit, heat exchangers, thermal radiation systems, and numerous fluid flow devices.
  
  
• Graduate Student and Staff Research Laboratories.
  These laboratories, extensions of those described above, are equipped for research in the fields of fluid mechanics, heat transfer, thermodynamics, turbulence, flow visualization, computational fluid mechanics measurements, turbomachinery and engine research, combustion, metallurgy and corrosion, microcharacterization of materials, mechanical design, dynamics, and controls.

Activities

UNL students have access to hundreds of activities and groups related to specific academic, social, cultural, or political interests. Involvement in any of these organizations builds leadership, communication, and organizational skills and helps you make new friends with similar interests.

The department sponsors two student chapters of professional societies--the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and the American Society for Metals International (ASM), and also the Nebraska Pi Chapter of Pi Tau Sigma, the mechanical engineering national honor society. To be eligible for membership in the honor society, a student must rank in the top quarter of the junior class or the top third of the senior class. The active membership elects student officers from this group.

During the academic year departmental student organization sponsor a number of activities. These include an honor award recognizing those students in the top 25 percent of the junior class; a mousetrap-powered car race and a paper airplane contest help in conjunction with Engineers' Week; building cars for Mini-Indy, Super Mileage and Natural Gas- powered vehicle competitions; sponsoring a fall faculty/student pig roast, and a student/alumni banquet in the spring.

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