The Department of Mechanical Engineering has strong Dynamics, Systems and Controls (DSC) and Thermofluids Science (TFS) groups that are collectively research active with wide expertise in Transportation and Automotive systems including hybrid and electric drives and automation coupled with connected infrastructure. This Automotive minor will educate students in the Transportation and Automotive systems and will be accessible to non-ME students, e.g., Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Chemical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Business, Management, Mathematics and Physics to just name a few. Students going through this minor will be prepared to enter a diverse and globally competitive workforce with interdisciplinary knowledge that can meet next-generation challenges relating to advancing automotive technology.
Advanced transportation and automotive systems are critical to our innovative and transformative economy which has driven great demand for engineers, managers and entrepreneurs trained in the complex inter-relationship of a wide variety of automotive systems. The University of Alabama Department of Mechanical Engineering is uniquely qualified to deliver this objective based on the institutional emphasis on transportation, its tremendous associated laboratory capability, and the popular student interest demonstrated in the outstanding automotive experience-based challenge programs available on campus (e.g. EcoCAR, Formula SAE, see ME Department Student Challenge Projects).
The automotive industry is dominated by large and diverse corporations, making understanding how they work essential to moving this technology forward. This Minor’s objective is to provide this training while facilitating communication and interaction among the people participating in the transformation. The minor is open to all University students, however, it does require a number of prerequisites for the courses in the minor.