The Department of Mechanical Engineering has a proud heritage at the University of Kentucky. Our faculty, including the first dean of the College of Engineering, F. Paul Anderson, were early pioneers in the development of air conditioning. Margaret Ingels, the second woman to receive an engineering degree, and the first to receive a graduate engineering degree in the United States, was a UK mechanical engineering graduate.

The Department has a long tradition of excellence in the thermal fluid sciences, and has expanded its design and manufacturing programs. Our department has close ties with the UK Center for Manufacturing, an interdisciplinary center involving faculty from a number of the academic departments in the College of Engineering. The Center was established in 1986 to improve the quality and effectiveness of Kentucky’s manufacturing enterprises.

Our curriculum and research were recently expanded into the rapidly developing area of computational fluid dynamics, with support from the University’s Center for Computational Sciences. The faculty in the Engineering Mechanics program joined the department recently, and this has also broadened the scope of the Department and its programs.