• Mechanical engineering involves the design, development, and manufacture of machinery and devices to transmit power or to convert energy from thermal to mechanical form in order to power the modern world and its machines. Its current practice has been heavily influenced by recent advances in computer hardware and software.
  • Mechanical engineers use computers to formulate preliminary and final designs of systems or devices, to perform calculations that predict the behavior of the design, and to collect and analyze performance data from system testing or operation.
  • Traditionally, mechanical engineers have designed and tested devices, such as heating and air-conditioning systems, machine tools, internal-combustion engines, and steam power plants. Today they also play primary roles in the development of new technologies in a variety of fields—energy conversion, solar energy utilization, environmental control, prosthetics, transportation, manufacturing, and new-materials development.