Handbook

All engineering degrees within UNSW Canberra aim to provide outstanding engineering education to the future leaders of the Australian Defence Force and civilian students to pursue excellence through contributions to the engineering profession, industry and the community.

The Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Mechanical Engineering is of four years duration, and the degree may be awarded at Honours Class I, Honours Class II, Division I or Honours Class II, Division II.  These honours levels will be displayed on the final testamur.  Candidates who do not achieve Honours Class 1 or 2 will receive a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Mechanical Engineering with no honours level displayed.

Mechanical Engineering is the branch of engineering that is concerned with machines and the production of power, and particularly with forces and motion. It became a separate branch of engineering in the early 1800s, when steam power began to be used in manufacture and transportation.

One can identify four functions that are common to all branches of mechanical engineering.

The first is the understanding of and dealing with the bases of mechanical science. These include dynamics, concerning the relationship between forces and motion, such as vibration; automatic control: thermodynamics, dealing with the relations among the various forms of heat, energy, and power; fluid flow; heat transfer; lubrication; and properties of materials.

Second is the sequence of research, design, and development. This function attempts to bring about the changes necessary to meet present and future needs. Such work requires not only a clear understanding of mechanical science and an ability to analyse a complex system into its basic factors, but also the originality to synthesise and invent.

Third is production of products and power, which embraces planning, operation and maintenance. The goal is to produce the maximum value with the minimum investment and cost while maintaining or enhancing longer term viability of the enterprise or the institution.

Fourth is the co-ordinating function of the mechanical engineer, including management, consulting and, in some cases, marketing.

In all of these functions there is a long continuing trend towards the use of scientific instead of traditional or intuitive methods. Operations research, value engineering and reliability centred maintenance are typical titles of such new rationalised approaches. Creativity, however, cannot be rationalised. The ability to take the important and unexpected step that opens up new solutions remains in mechanical engineering, as elsewhere, largely a personal and spontaneous characteristic.

(The above description was adapted from the Encyclopedia Britannica).

Except for Electrical Engineering and those in the Chief of Defence Force Honours Program first-year engineering and technology students enrol in a common program taking foundation science and engineering courses. In second and increasingly in third and fourth years the programs diverge into their specialities although there are some courses that span across programs in all years. A key element in all years is the design stream which emphasises complex problem solving. Other streams such as stability, control, thermofluid dynamics, structures, mechanics, materials and management often incorporate project based learning informed by academic research and industrial practice. Electives and a final year thesis enable students to pursue particular interests both within and outside the specialist discipline.

At the end of the program students are expected to meet the graduate attributes of the University and Stage 1 Competencies of Engineers Australia, ready to practice in their chosen profession and with the ingenuity and resourcefulness to meet rapid technological change.