Utah State’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering is recognized at both regional and national levels. MAE graduates consistently finish in the top 10 percent in intercollegiate national student design competitions. In 2009, the USU Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Team took first place at an international competition.

Graduate students enrolled in the program have the opportunity to study with award-winning faculty. The MAE Department received the university’s 2010 Department Teaching Excellence Award for outstanding teaching throughout the department.

The department is particularly strong in the following areas of study:

• Solid mechanics is concerned with the mechanics of displacement and stress analysis combined with material science for selection of an optimum design. Included are studies of elasticity, plasticity, and failure in traditional metals and high-tech composite materials.
• Thermal/fluids is concerned with the transport of mass, momentum, and energy in solids, liquids, and gasses. Included within its scope are the fundamental studies of thermodynamics, heat transfer, and fluid mechanics.
• Dynamics and control is concerned with describing and controlling the motion of mechanical systems. Included within its scope are the fundamental studies of dynamics, kinematics, vibrations, control theory, electromechanical systems, and machine design.