Mechanical Engineering Celebrates Fifty Years in MEEG

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One of the milling machines that are part of the mechanical engineering department's Virtual Machine Shop. Photo by AnneDella Hines

The department of mechanical engineering celebrated the 50-year anniversary of its building on Friday, April 4. The Mechanical Engineering Building stands on the corner of Dickson Street and Harmon Avenue. It was built in 1964, in response to increased enrollment in the College of Engineering. The building has always housed the mechanical engineering departmental offices, classrooms and lab space, but recent upgrades have improved the department’s ability of offer a highly technical hands-on education in mechanical engineering.

“Mechanical engineering is the largest engineering department, and I’m so pleased that we have been able to make these improvements in order to better serve the needs of our students,” said John English, dean of the College of Engineering. “I’m excited to see what we can do in the future, as our college and this department continue to grow.”

The 50-year celebration was attended by mechanical engineering faculty, students and alumni. English and department head Jim Leylek made remarks. Leylek presented awards to individuals who were involved in the recent renovations to the building, including Bob Beeler and James Milner on behalf of the facilities management department, James Carson on behalf of contractor SSI, and Melynda Hart, mechanical engineering’s program coordinator. Leylek also recognized Polk, Stanley & Wilcox, the architects on the project, Don Pederson and Mike Johnson on behalf of the U of A administration, and Kyle Cook, facilities manager for the College of Engineering. After the remarks, attendees were invited to tour the building and see the new labs and equipment that support the department’s participation in the Conceive, Design, Implement, Operate Initiative, or CDIO Initiative.

The College of Engineering’s department of mechanical engineering is an official member of the initiative, which is considered the state-of-the-art approach to educating engineers. The university joins the ranks of MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Purdue and the University of Michigan in this movement, as well as other universities worldwide. A primary objective of the initiative is to ensure students can engineer immediately upon graduation.

Leylek explained that CDIO helps students master the engineering fundamentals through design projects. The Virtual Machine Shop in the Mechanical Engineering Building, created with the support of a gift from alumnus Mac Hogan and his wife, Sheila, contains the software and equipment students need to practice the latest engineering techniques.

The Virtual Machine Shop is composed of two rooms. A room on the second floor contains three state-of-the-art 3D printers. The printers are connected to computers that are loaded with design software, allowing students to create designs that are then printed in a polymer material. The computers are also connected to milling machines on the first floor. These devices carve pieces of metal into the shapes prescribed by students’ designs. Using this equipment, students can test their designs virtually, then print plastic prototypes and finally, create metal pieces for design projects.

In addition to the new equipment, the department has made other improvements to the building, including raising the height of the roof, adding lighting and skylights and installing an elevator.

“This is a very substantial investment to drastically improve the functionality of our building,” said Leylek. “We owe special thanks to our upper administration for helping us implement our CDIO initiative. I am happy for our faculty, staff and especially the MEEG students who will benefit immensely from these positive changes.”