Top 10 Universities for Mechanical Engineering

At Imperial College London, mechanical engineering research is organized into three broad categories: Applied Mechanics, Mechanics of Materials and Thermofluids. Within these three strands, Imperial researchers are engaged in exploring the applications of mechanical engineering within diverse industries including healthcare, transport, energy and defence.

With a similarly broad focus, UC Berkeley’s mechanical engineering school identifies five main areas for its research: Biomechanical Engineering & Health; Controls & Dynamics of Complex Systems; Energy Science & Technology; Green & Sustainable Technologies; and Micro and Nano Engineering. For those interested in the role of mechanical engineering in sustainable development, the Berkeley Energy & Sustainable Technologies (BEST) Lab has research projects focusing on sustainable product design, alternative energy sources, sustainable technologies and sustainable communities.

Harvard’s Materials Science and Mechanical Engineering department – and indeed its entire School of Engineering and Applied Sciences – emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of its research. Key fields include the mechanics of material structures, biomedical instrumentation, teleoperated robots, elasticity, plasticity, buckling, fracture and wave motion, and exploring ways in which understanding biological systems such as the brain could provide inspiration for mechanical design.

At the National University of Singapore, the country’s highest ranked university, major mechanical engineering research themes include: manufacturing; materials; energy & thermal systems; fluid mechanics & aerodynamics; control, robotics & mechatronics; applied mechanics; and applied bio-mechanics. The university has also identified some key growth areas for its mechanical engineering research, which include defence technology, energy systems, off-shore engineering, green technology, innovative materials and micro- and nano-systems.

Meanwhile Japan’s highest ranking university, the University of Tokyo, categorizes its mechanical engineering research into five groups: Solid State and Materials Engineering; Fluid and Thermal Engineering; Mechanical Dynamics and Control Engineering; Design and Production Engineering; and Bioengineering. More specific focus areas include micro- and nano-scale strength/friction test methods, strategies for improving energy conversion efficiencies, micro- and nano-sized medical devices, diagnostic technologies and regenerative medicine.

At Georgia Tech’s George W. Woodruff  School of Mechanical Engineering, research covers: Acoustics and Dynamics; Automation and Mechatronics; Bioengineering; CAE and Design; Fluid Mechanics; Heat Transfer, Combustion and Energy systems; Manufacturing; Mechanics of Materials; Medical Physics; Micro- and Nano-Engineering; Nuclear and Radiological Engineering; and Tribology.

Finally, the University of Michigan’s Department of Mechanical Engineering offers research opportunities in the following fields: Automotive & Transportation; Biomechanics & Biosystems Engineering; Controls; Design; Dynamics & Vibrations; Energy; Fluids; Manufacturing; Mechanics & Materials; Mechatronics & Robotics; Micro/Nano Engineering; Multi-scale Computation and Computational Mechanics; and Thermal Sciences.

About the QS World University Rankings by Subject

Published annually since 2011, the QS World University Rankings by Subject highlights the world’s top 200 universities across 30 different subjects. The ranking is compiled based on QS’s global surveys of academics and graduate employers, combined with data about research citations per faculty member.