The program prepares students for graduate school and professional practice and inspires them to undertake careers that provide an opportunity to address the pressing technological needs of society. The program builds on Caltech's core curriculum to combine individual depth of experience and competence in a particular chosen mechanical engineering specialty with a strong background in the basic and engineering sciences.

It maintains a balance between classroom lectures and laboratory and design experience, and emphasizes the problem-formulation and solving skills that are essential to any engineering discipline. The program also strives to develop in each student self-reliance, creativity, leadership, professional ethics, and the capacity for continuing professional and intellectual growth. For interested students, there are opportunities to conduct research with a faculty member. The outcome of the undergraduate program is to prepare the student to:

• Build on a fundamental education in physics, mathematics, chemistry and biology and to apply those principles to the solution of open ended engineering problems;
• Design, analyze, measure, and evaluate fluid, thermal and mechanical systems;
• Work effectively as part of a team;
• Communicate effectively;
• Apply ethical considerations;
• Understand the broader impacts of engineering developments, including societal, cultural and environmental concerns.

Mechanical engineering is the branch of engineering that is generally concerned with understanding forces and motion, and their application to solving problems of interest to society. The field includes aspects of thermodynamics, fluid and solid mechanics, mechanisms, materials, and energy conversion and transfer, and involves the application of physics, mathematics, chemistry, and increasingly, biology and computer science. Importantly, the field also emphasizes the process of formulation, design, optimization, manufacture, and control of new systems and devices.