Historically the largest and oldest engineering discipline, mechanical engineers experience a great deal of flexibility regarding career opportunities in a variety of industries and specific job responsibilities --- and it is Wilkes' focus to ensure that graduates can meet those challenges. Wilkes recognizes that knowledge of concepts is only as good as the ability to physically apply them in a hands-on environment...and besides, it's what engineers like to do!
Wilkes' Cooperative Learning Program places students with companies such as: Benton Foundry, Bergen Industries, Flowserve Corporation, Highland Associates, PPL Corporation, Smith Miller Associates, Wyman-Gordon, and others.
The senior design projects (capstones) let teams tackle real corporate challenges by providing real world experience designing and producing solutions in business-sponsored projects. It’s not unusual for these experiences to lead to job offers. Students devise a system, component, or process to meet desired needs. They engage a decision-making process, (often iterative), in which the basic sciences and mathematics, and engineering sciences are applied to convert resources optimally to meet a stated objective. Among the fundamental elements of the design process in which students will gain experience are the establishment of objectives and criteria, synthesis, analysis, construction testing, and evaluation. The engineering design component of the curriculum includes most of the following features: development of student creativity, use of open-ended problems, development and use of modern design theory and methodology, formulation of design problem statements and specifications, consideration of alternative solutions, feasibility considerations, productions process, concurrent engineering design, and detailed system descriptions.
Possible careers post-graduation are: Development Engineer, Engineering Project Manager, HVAC Systems Engineer, Plant Engineer, Production Supervisor, Systems Engineer, and more.
