The Mechanical Engineering Academic Curriculum
The Mechanical Engineering undergraduate curriculum contains a core of basic subjects that must be taken by all students. The second and third years provide courses in mechanical engineering and electrical engineering with further development in mathematics and physics. In fourth year, a significant two-term capstone design project will be undertaken that will facilitate and promote integration of the knowledge and skills acquired in previous years of study and development of project management skills. Opportunities for more in-depth study in theme areas exist during the fourth year, where a choice of technical elective courses arranged into five different theme areas of expertise is available. Students may also choose to take the Welding and Joining Specialization. Four required non-technical Complementary Studies Elective (CSE) courses are distributed throughout the curriculum but do not appear in all terms.
The term-by-term academic component of the curriculum is as follows:
Term 1A (Fall)
Term 1B (Winter Stream 8/Spring Stream 4)
Term 2A (Fall Stream 8/Winter Stream 4)
Term 2B (Fall Stream 4/Spring Stream 8)
Term 3A (Winter Stream 8/Spring Stream 4)
Term 3B (Fall Stream 8/Winter Stream 4)
Term 4A (Fall Stream 4/Spring Stream 8)
Term 4B (Winter)
Note: The course load in 4A and 4B is five and six courses or six and five courses, respectively.
Non-Credit Courses
Capstone Design Project
In fourth year, a two-term Mechanical Engineering capstone design project must be undertaken under the auspices of ME 481 in the 4A term and ME 482 in the 4B term. This project may include involvement in either an inter-varsity student design competition team, or small group design project of the student’s choosing. In lieu of ME 481 and ME 482, students may take MTE 481 and MTE 482 if they are pursuing the Mechatronics Option or GENE 403 and GENE 404 if they are part of a multi-disciplinary design project.
Work Reports
Work reports are based on work-term experience and are intended to develop skills in technical report writing. Three work-term reports are required – WKRPT 100, WKRPT 200, and WKRPT 300. See
Examinations and Promotions for further information on work-term reports.
Professional Development
Professional development courses are required; see Work Terms for details.
Ethics Requirement
To meet the Ethics Requirement, students must pass one of PD 22 or PHIL 315. PD 22 will fulfil one of the PD requirements while PHIL 315 will fulfil one of the List C CSE requirements.
Electives
Complementary Studies Electives
Beyond the core courses, mechanical engineering students must take four additional complementary studies elective courses. Eligible courses are listed on the Complementary Studies Course Lists for Engineering. One course must be chosen from List A, one from List C, and each of the remaining two courses from any of Lists A, C, or D. The grades obtained in these courses will be included in the calculation of term averages.
Technical Electives
Seven technical electives (TEs) are required in addition to the core courses listed above to fulfil the requirements of the Mechanical Engineering curriculum. A minimum of four of the seven TEs must be 400- or 500-level ME or MTE technical elective courses. A maximum of three TEs can be 400- or 500-level TEs from other University of Waterloo engineering plans or a graduate-level course as discussed below. Students may require instructor and department permission to enrol in courses from another department. Technical electives may have prerequisites that have to be taken first. Some 400- and 500-level courses are not TEs but are CSEs. Courses listed as a CSE cannot be counted towards the TE requirement.
Mechanical Engineering technical electives are grouped into five different themes: Automation and Control, Fluid Mechanics, Machine Design and Solid Mechanics, Materials Engineering and Processing, and Thermal Engineering. It is possible to combine courses from different theme areas. Students are responsible for selecting their own combination of electives, in keeping with their ultimate career objective after graduation. To assist in ensuring that course selections satisfy all academic requirements, students are encouraged to discuss and obtain approval from the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering's undergraduate advisor and/or the associate chair.
Students who are contemplating graduate studies, or who complete the majority of their TEs from one theme, or who complete the Welding and Joining Specialization, can request permission to take a graduate-level course. It is recommended that students discuss their study plans with a faculty member.
Automation and Control
- ME 435 Industrial Metallurgy
- ME 538 Welding Design, Fabrication and Quality Control
- ME 540/BME 540 Fundamentals in Neural and Rehabilitation Engineering
- ME 547 Robot Manipulators: Kinematics, Dynamics, Control
- ME 548 Numerical Control of Machine Tools 1
- ME 555 Computer-Aided Design
- ME 559 Finite Element Methods
- ME 561 Fluid Power Control Systems
- ME 597 Special Topics in Mechanical Engineering
Fluid Mechanics
- ME 562 Experimental Methods in Fluids
- ME 563 Turbomachines
- ME 564 Aerodynamics
- ME 566 Computational Fluid Dynamics for Engineering Design
- ME 567 Fire Safety Engineering
- ME 571 Air Pollution
- ME 595 Special Topics in Mechanical Engineering
Machine Design and Solid Mechanics
- ME 423 Mechanical Design 2
- ME 435 Industrial Metallurgy
- ME 524 Advanced Dynamics and Vibrations
- ME 526 Fatigue and Fracture Analysis
- ME 538 Welding Design, Fabrication and Quality Control
- ME 555 Computer-Aided Design
- ME 559 Finite Element Methods
- ME 574/CIVE 460 Engineering Biomechanics
- ME 598 Special Topics in Mechanical Engineering
Materials Engineering and Processing
- ME 435 Industrial Metallurgy
- ME 436 Welding and Joining Processes
- ME 526 Fatigue and Fracture Analysis
- ME 531 Physical Metallurgy Applied to Manufacturing
- ME 533 Non-metallic and Composite Materials
- ME 535 Welding Metallurgy
- ME 538 Welding Design, Fabrication and Quality Control
- ME 596 Special Topics in Mechanical Engineering
Thermal Engineering
Welding and Joining Specialization
Students may also choose to take the Welding and Joining Specialization. This specialization is restricted to Mechanical Engineering students only. To earn the Welding and Joining Specialization designation, students must take five specific technical electives in their 4A and 4B terms as part of the required course load:
A minimum average of 60% in the five specialization courses and a minimum grade of 50% in each of the five courses is required. For students that take and meet the specialization requirements, the credential is recognized on both the diploma and the transcript.