What is Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering?

This is often seen as the broadest of all engineering qualifications as the skills required range from mathematics and electronics to metal fatigue and fluid mechanics. Nearly all machines used in everyday life – from the car or washing machine to the most complex aircraft or electricity supply plant to the tiniest surgical instrument – have required the skills of a mechanical engineer. Every industrial plant or manufacturing operation relies on a mechanical engineer for its smooth running and efficiency.

Mechanical engineers are involved in design, testing, inspection and manufacture of mechanical devices and components. As a mechanical engineer you will work as a professional using technology to make the world a better, safer place.

Graduate skills and career opportunities

Our graduates have taken jobs in companies such as: High tech manufacturing (Intel, Pfizer, Depuy, National Instruments, Seagate, Siemens); Automotive (Jaguar, Rover, BMW, Dromone); Engineering and Business Consultancy (Arup, Deloitte, Accenture); Energy (OpenHydro, ESB, Eirgrid, EDF, Vattenfall); and Process Engineering (Cameron Flow Control, Proctor and Gamble, Syngenta, Glanbia, Kerry).

Our graduates went on to Masters and PhD programmes in Universities such as: RCSI; Edinburgh, Imperial College London, Brunel, Cambridge, Cranfield University, UK; ETH Zurich; KTH, Sweden; Grenoble, France; and MIT, US.

As well as the potential for a career in mainstream mechanical or manufacturing engineering, graduates have found work in industries as diverse as film production, financial services and airlines. There is also a demand for specialist research and development work in industry, research organisations and universities. Opportunities exist for graduates in mechanical and manufacturing engineering to find employment in Ireland and elsewhere in engineering consultancies, public utilities (transport, power generation) and manufacturing industries in the mechanical, electronic and biomedical sectors.

Your degree and what you’ll study:

• Mechanics – how things like cars, wind turbines and rugby players move, deform and break
• How to design new machines and technology, for example a phone charger for developing countries
• Advanced manufacturing techniques such as rapid prototyping
• How heat and energy can be captured, used and managed (how to keep electronics cool as they become more powerful and more compact

Course topics include: Energy; Solid Mechanics; Engineering Materials; Fluid Mechanics; Manufacturing Technology and Systems; Dynamics; Mechatronics; and Engineering Design.

In third year you will study eight technical modules. In fourth year and optional Masters (fifth) year you will choose from a wide range of technical and non-technical modules, tailoring your degree to suit your own interests.

Project work is an important aspect of this degree and there is an extensive research facility available to students. You will carry out several projects, including a major Capstone research project in your final year. Some examples of final-year projects include:

• Study of jet engine exhaust noise
• Design and build an entry for ‘Robot Wars’
• Design and construction of energy storage devices for the developing world
• Pedestrian car impact simulation
• Bamboo: study of structure and mechanical properties