Manufacturing Engineering

Manufacturing engineers are in demand because they know how to make things. And manufacturing engineers work on producing everything from computers to orthopedic implants. Virtually all the products and devices we encounter – and the tools and machines used to make them – are produced through the designs of manufacturing engineers. MFEs use their education in materials, design, processes, engineering analysis and systems design to develop, build, operate and manage production systems for everything from a simple piece of paper to the most complex aircraft. Incorporating computer-aided design and manufacturing, robotics, computer-integrated manufacturing, controlled machining, concurrent engineering, controls and vision systems, manufacturing engineering offers practitioners unrivalled opportunities to develop efficient, cost-effective and clean products without wasted time, resources or effort. If this is the future you envision, then MFE is the major for you.

Why WPI? There are many engineering schools in the United States. Some are larger than WPI. None are better. At this university, professors – not teaching assistants – provide students with their classroom instruction. WPI is one of fewer than 20 universities accredited to award a B.S. in manufacturing engineering, and one of the first to do so – over a decade ago.

The WPI Plan, a flexible, innovative and academically challenging curriculum uses classroom instruction and hands-on, real-world project experience to empower undergraduates to think creatively and develop competence, confidence and self-learning skills.

Programs

The manufacturing engineering major is multidisciplinary – drawing upon the expertise of faculty members from the university's Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Management departments to provide students with great flexibility and numerous opportunities to pursue their special interests within the context of the program.

Like all WPI engineering programs, MFE is based on a solid foundation of mathematics and the basic sciences, including calculus, chemistry and physics. Other WPI requirements include the Humanities and Arts Project, courses in the social sciences, and the completion of an Interactive Project and a Major Project.

The program's core is composed of five units of course work in four areas: materials and processes, product engineering, computer controls, and manufacturing systems. You select three courses (one unit) in each of these areas, along with one unit of electives. A sixth unit is the Major Project, a capstone engineering design project that is the hallmark of the WPI experience.

Dual-Degree Program

Outstanding undergraduate students in manufacturing engineering and other WPI engineering and science programs are encouraged to apply for the five-year B.S./M.S. program in MFE (exceptional students can complete this in four years). Curriculum planning with the student's academic advisor and the director of manufacturing engineering should begin during the third year to ensure that degree requirements for both are met.

Projects

The Major Project is a professional-level, team-based project within the student's major area of study. Equivalent to about one-third of a year of study, this project may be completed on or off campus for sponsoring businesses, hospitals, agencies and organizations. Sponsors gain valuable creative solutions to specific problems or insights into technical issues – students receive valuable practical experience in their field. Located within a region known for its medical, high technology and biotechnology industries, WPI provides students with project opportunities at major biotech, microelectronics, semiconductor, tool-making and heavy industry companies and with such corporations as Pratt and Whitney, United Technologies, and Saint Gobain. The university also maintains project centers in the Silicon Valley, at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez.

Last year two MFE majors did their projects redesigning the production system for a manufacturer of medical products in Greenwich, England. Another designed and made a special controller for WPI's U.S. FIRST robot.

Some recent project topics:

Facilities

A vital component of any engineering experience at WPI, laboratory work is critical to the development of effective skills and understanding in manufacturing engineering. MFE students (who often work with graduate students on sponsored research) have a wide variety of lab facilities available for course work and projects:

Machine tools are the foundation of all industrialized economies. The Manufacturing Engineering and Robotics laboratories recently added $500,000 worth of computer-controlled (CNC) machine tools from Haas Automation of Oxnard, Calif. As a Haas Technical Center, WPI has the state-of-the-art machine tools to produce complex geometries and to create and test tooling materials, fixtures, production methods and software on a wide variety of products and manufacturing systems. The center includes a design studio for computer-aided manufacturing with state-of-the-art software to facilitate turning ideas into real products.

Careers

Manufacturing engineers are employed all over the world for designing and manufacturing every kind of product from biomaterial devices to sporting goods and advanced guidance systems for defense. Manufacturing environments are highly automated, computer-integrated systems of people, machines, computers and software. Many manufacturing environments must be cleaner than hospital's operating rooms, and much larger.

Manufacturing engineers can do everything from trouble shooting a laser cutting process to integrating a global supply chain to produce a product better, faster, cheaper and cleaner. Manufacturing engineers may be employed to improve productivity in hospitals, design better software, coordinate global supply chains, and design products for improved manufacturability in a global economy.

With an MFE degree, graduates enjoy the challenges of transforming resources to meet human needs better, faster and cheaper, or are part of a design team that assures manufacturability from the beginning of the design cycle. In addition to traditional career paths in established manufacturing areas such as aerospace, automotive and electronics, new paths are emerging in biotechnology and e-commerce.

An MFE degree offers excellent salary opportunities, with average annual compensation among the highest for all engineers.

Maintained by webmaster@wpi.edu
Last modified: November 08, 2006 14:31:09