ME Technical Electives

Spring 2023 Course Offerings

Classes indicated with the symbol are approved for the Biomedical Engineering minor.
Classes indicated with the  symbol are approved for the Energy Engineering minor.

Fall 2022 Course Offerings

Classes indicated with the  symbol are approved for the Biomedical Engineering minor.
Classes indicated with the  symbol are approved for the Energy Engineering minor.

*Listed with temporary course numbers for Fall 2022.  Permanent course numbers are pending and are listed on course slides.
**Tentatively scheduled. May shift to Spring 2023.

Spring 2022

Note: Junior, senior, or graduate level standing in mechanical engineering is required to enroll in any of the courses listed below. Listed prerequisites are for BS students. MS and PhD level students should have comparable preparation, but do not need to have completed the undergraduate level prerequisites at CU.

MCEN 4117/5117: Anatomy and Physiology for Engineers — Wei Tan

Learn about the Tan Lab’s research on cardiovascular health
Career areas: biomedical engineering, medical devices, prosthetics
Explores human physiological function from an engineering, specifically mechanical engineering, viewpoint. Provides an introduction to human anatomy and physiology with a focus on learning fundamental concepts and applying engineering (mass transfer, fluid dynamics, mechanics, modeling) analysis.

Approved for the Biomedical Option and Biomedical Minor.

MCEN 4125/5125: Optimal Design — Shalom Ruben

See how optimal design can be applied in the semiconductor industry 
Career areas: any of a wide range of design related fields
Learn how to formulate engineering optimization problems into mathematical forms that can be solved by standard software tools to find the "best" solution. Applications such as the minimum cost mechanical design, wind farm power maximization, minimum energy control, operations research, classification via support-vector machine, and even a Sudoku solver will be explored using the tools learned.
Prerequisite: MCEN 3030. 

MCEN 4131/5131: Air Pollution Control Engineering

Learn about some of the air quality research being conducted at CU
Career areas: environmental engineering, environmental consulting, policy analysis
Introduces air quality regulations, physics and chemistry in the atmosphere, meteorology, and exposure. Examines methods for controlling major classes of air pollutants, including particulate matter and oxides of sulfur and nitrogen, as well as control technologies for sources such as coal power plants and motor vehicles. Requires interdisciplinary design projects.
Prerequisites: MCEN 3012 and MCEN 3021.

Approved for the Environmental Option. 

MCEN 4133/5133: Intro to Tissue Biomechanics — Ginger Ferguson

Learn about Prof. Ferguson’s research on the mechanics of biological tissues
Career areas: medical device design and manufacturing, prosthetics engineering, biomedical engineering, biomaterials design, clinical assessment and care
Focuses on developing an understanding of the fundamental mechanical principles that govern the response of hard and soft biological tissue to mechanical loading. Specifically, covers mechanical behavior of biological materials/tissues, classical biomechanics problems in various tissues, the relationship between molecular, cellular and physiological processes and tissue biomechanics and critical analysis of related journal articles.
Prerequisites: MCEN 2024, MCEN 2063, and MCEN 3021.

Approved for the Biomedical Option and Biomedical Minor. 

MCEN 4135/5135 Wind Turbine Design — Roark Lanning

Learn more about the energy minor
Focuses on understanding and applying principles related to current wind energy technology. Students will apply technical coursework from throughout the ME curriculum (fluids, dynamics, circuits, economics) to the process of designing a wind turning and determining whether their proposal is feasible from an economic standpoint.

Approved for and sponsored by the Energy Minor. 

MCEN 4173/5173: Finite Element Analysis — Jianliang Xiao

Read about Prof. Xiao’s work on flexible electronics and thin film materials
Career areas: structural engineering, heat transfer, renewable energy, biomechanics, advanced and novel materials
The class is an introductory course of finite element analysis (FEA). It introduces the theory behind and applications of the finite element method as a general and powerful tool to model a variety of phenomena in mechanical engineering. It will cover the fundamental theory of FEA including FEA formulas for truss, beam, 2D and 3D elasticity problems, general theory and considerations of FEA. The lab session will give chances to apply the FEA tool to problems including structural mechanics, elasticity, and heat conduction.
Prerequisite: MCEN 2063.

Approved for the Biomedical Option. 

MCEN 4194/5194: Energy Conversion and Storage — Sehee Lee

See how Solid Power is making energy storage safer and more efficient
Career areas: electric vehicles, energy storage for smart grid, portable electronics, fuel cell system for energy conversion
Presents the fundamentals, principles and experimental techniques of electrochemistry, the background of ionic or electronic conduction of metal, semiconductor, inorganic and polymer materials, and applications in the areas of batteries, fuel cells, electrochemical double layer capacitors, electrochemical photonics, sensors and semiconductor electrochemistry.
Prerequisite: MCEN 2024. Corequisite: MCEN 3032.

Approved for the Environmental Option and Energy Minor. 

MCEN 4228-001: Design for Community — Dan Riffell

Learn about the D4C design consultancy
Career areas: engineering product design, project management
Design for Community (D4C) will provide engineering students with practical experience in consulting while offering valuable engineering services to University and industry clients. Focuses on preparing students for the practice of engineering by acting as a consultancy for clients' engineering-related design and fabrication needs. Students may be expected to work in teams or individually under the supervision of project directors, depending on project scope. Each student or team will assist several clients during the semester. D4C will pursue the following goals for its students: provide a practical just-in-time learning experience for students interested in engineering consulting; prepare students for the practice of engineering design with underspecified real-world problem sets; prepare students for the professionalism needed to interact with clients; provide outreach that connects communities outside the Department of Mechanical Engineering and serves clients that would not have access to engineering resources otherwise.

MCEN 4228/5228-002: Design for Inclusion — Janet Tsai

Learn about Prof. Tsai’s research and teaching
Career areas: engineering product design, social justice, critical analysis, engineering ethics 
Are robots racist? Are algorithms oppressive? How do we end up with technologies that are optimized for some users, but scarcely meet the needs of others? In this era of upheaval and inequity, how should we be thinking about who benefits or who is harmed by a product? How can we as ethical engineers even begin to answer these questions? The Design For Inclusion (DFI) course will examine the ways modern inventions like apps, products, public infrastructures and educational systems are biased, and what we as socially conscious engineers and designers can and should do about it. Design approaches including universal design, participatory action research, and culturally responsive design will be explored through multiple hands-on projects with the goal of equipping all to become more capable designers for inclusion rather than exclusion. The DFI course will prepare students to analyze innovations and seek opportunities for change, reframing the way we think about technological advancement and the communities we serve with our designs. 

MCEN 4228/5228-003: Bioinspired Robotics — Kaushik Jayaram

Learn about the Animal Inspired Movement and Robotics Lab
Career areas: engineering, robotics, medicine, architecture, art, business
In this course, you will learn how to build robots by leveraging principles of bioinspired design. Specifically, bioinspired design views the process of how we learn from nature as an innovation strategy translating principles of function, performance and aesthetics from biology to human technology. Lectures will address the biomimicry design process from original scientific breakthroughs to entrepreneurial start-ups using cases studies that include gecko-inspired adhesives, robots that run, fly and swim, artificial muscles, computer animation, medical devices and prosthetics while highlighting health, the environment, and safety. Diverse teams of students will collaborate on, create, and present original bioinspired robotic devices as projects at the end of the course.

Approved for the Biomedical Option and Biomedical Minor.

MCEN 4228/5228-004: Automated Mechanical Design — Rob MacCurdy

Learn about the Matter Assembly Computation Lab
Career areas: mechanical design,design automation, additive manufacturing, robotics, optimization, mechanical simulation
This course introduces computational approaches to automatically generate mechanical designs that satisfy predefined specifications. Multimaterial mechanical design is formulated as a constrained non-convex multi-objective optimization problem, and various algorithms to solve these optimization problems are discussed. Topics include: review of the expert-driven design process; computational analysis tools based on mechanical simulation (finite element methods, mesh-free methods); topological optimization; compositional design; multi-objective optimization; evolutionary design; design for manufacturing with additive manufacturing (FDM, SLA, Inkjet). Students will use the methods presented to automatically design a mechanical part that satisfies specifications.
Prerequisite: MCEN 3030.

MCEN 4228/5228-005: Computational Fluid Dynamics — Debanjan Mukherjee

Read about how the Mukherjee Lab applies fluid mechanics to biological systems
Career areas: biomedical engineering, energy (oil & gas, renewables), automobiles and transportation, defense, industrial and manufacturing, environmental applications, and more!
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques have become an integral component of modern engineering analysis of complex systems. This course will provide a broad introduction to the basic principles and applications of CFD. The core focus will be on computational solutions of flow and transport problems using the finite element method. Students will learn about the mathematical fundamentals of the finite element method, as well as techniques for geometry handling, mesh generation, assembly and solution of matrix systems derived from the governing equations, and post-processing of the resultant numerical solution. Students will get the chance to apply computational techniques to model and simulate realistic engineering fluid flow and transport problems. The course will culminate in a mini-conference/symposium style event where students will present their work to an audience comprising their peers, other students, and faculty.
Prerequisites: MCEN 3021 and MCEN 3030. Graduate students should have prior exposure to fluid mechanics, basic numerical methods, and computer programming. Strong interest in computer programming is beneficial.

Approved for the Biomedical Option and Biomedical Minor. 

MCEN 4228/5228-006: Materials & Devices in Medicine — Wei Tan

Lean about Prof Tan’s work in the biomedical field
Career areas: biomedical engineering, healthcare, medical devices
The main objective of this multidisciplinary course is to provide students with a broad survey of biomaterials and their use in medical devices for restoring or replacing the functions of injured, diseased, or aged human tissues and organs. The topics to be covered include: evolution in the medical device industry, a broad introduction to the materials used in medicine and their chemical, physical, and biological properties, discovery of medical problems, potential impacts of treatment innovations, existing devices and design considerations for several major physiological systems (cardiovascular, neuromuscular, skeletal, pulmonary, renal, dermal), materials interaction with the human body, basic mechanisms of wound healing, biocompatibility issues, testing methods and techniques in accordance with standards and relevant regulations, biofunctionalities required for specific applications, as well as state-of-the-art approaches for the development of new regenerative materials targeting cellular mechanisms.
Prerequisites: MCEN 2024 and MCEN 4/5117.

Approved for the Biomedical Option and the Biomedical Minor. 

MCEN 4228/5228-007: Biofluids at the Macro Scale — Debanjan Mukherjee

Read about how the Mukherjee Lab applies fluid mechanics to biological systems
Career areas: biomedical engineering, healthcare, medical devices, medical imaging, precision biomedicine
This course will provide a formal introduction to principles of biofluid mechanics at the macroscopic physiological scales. The average living human body is filled with fluids of over two dozen varieties – each performing key functions essential for life and well-being. Developing a core understanding of macroscale physiological flows is essential for key advances in healthcare and medical technology. The course will explore the use of engineering principles of fluid flows and fluid-solid interactions to study physiological flow phenomena. This will include discussions of physiological processes in healthy and diseased states. The course will also explore the latest advances in medical imaging and image-based flow analysis. This will be a part of a two-course sequence (macroscale and microscale biofluids) – and students can take this course individually, or complete the sequence.
Recommended prerequisite: MCEN 3021.

Approved for the Biomedical Option and Biomedical Minor.

MCEN 4228/5228-008: Regenerative Biology and Tissue Repair — Sarah Calve

See how Prof. Calve’s research is contributing to new regenerative therapies
This course covers the biological aspects behind the regeneration/repair and the utilization of engineering strategies to restore functionality of tissues compromised by injury and disease.  The course is designed for graduate students and senior level undergraduates in any engineering or science discipline who have a desire to learn more about the fundamentals of biology that direct tissue formation. A range of tissues, including epidermal, neural, digestive, respiratory, digestive, musculoskeletal and cardiovascular, will be discussed based on student interest. Key topics critical for understanding the biological underpinnings of tissue regeneration (e.g. immune response, cell-matrix interactions) will be emphasized.

Approved for the Biomedical Option and Biomedical Minor.

MCEN 4228/5228-009: Mechanics of Cancer — Maureen Lynch

Learn how the Lynch Lab’s work is contributing to advances is cancer research
Career areas: biomedical engineering, clinical assessment and care, tissue engineering for cancer, biomechanics for cancer
This course will cover the role of mechanics (emphasis on solid and fluid mechanics) in cancer and cancer-related processes. Course content includes experimental systems used to model and test these processes. No prior knowledge of biology is required to take this course. A limited overview of relevant biological processes will be covered as necessary.
Prerequisites: MCEN 2063 and MCEN 3021. If you are uncertain whether you have the appropriate prerequisite knowledge, please contact maureen.lynch@colorado.edu.

Approved for the Biomedical Option and Biomedical Minor.

MCEN 4228/5228-010: Thin Film Materials — Jianliang Xiao

Read about Prof. Xiao’s work on flexible electronics and thin film materials
Career areas: electronics, wearable technologies, medical devices, prosthetics, optics, N/MEMS, and more!
This class is to give an introductory course to Thin Film Materials. The topics include: (1) Deposition and processing of thin film materials, (2) Theory of elastic beams, plates and 3D solids, (2) Film stress and substrate curvature, (3) Thin film on stiff substrates and applications to coatings, (4) Thin film on compliant substrates, and applications on flexible/stretchable electronics, (5) Modeling of adhesives, (6) Other applications. 
Prerequisite: MCEN 2063.

Approved for the Biomedical Option and Biomedical Minor.

MCEN 4228/5228-011: Mechanics of Snow — Franck Vernerey & Francois Barthelat

Learn about avalanches with National Geographic
Career areas: material science, climatology, snow or snowmaking engineering, ski resort planning, mountain guide/backcountry skiing/snowboarding
This course will introduce key concepts in the mechanics of snow over a wide range of time and length scales. Several concepts in solid mechanics will be covered in this process, including elasticity, viscoelasticity, micromechanics, failure criteria, damage mechanics, fracture mechanics, instabilities and cellular solids. Using these concepts we will describe the crystallographic structure of ice and snow, and how to connect this microstructure and its evolution over time to its mechanical properties. We will then discuss the concept of damage, where a weakening of the mechanical properties is induced by mechanical loading. We will also study how the weakening of snow around a defect can trigger a phenomenon called localization, that starts the fracture process. Criteria for snow fracture during avalanches will then be explored, both from a theoretical and experimental side, covering different trigger mechanisms at multiple length scales. We will then merge these concepts to better understand a number of phenomena in avalanche mechanics, such as the effects of localized load triggered by skiers and the topography of the mountain.
Prerequisite: MCEN 2063.

MCEN 4228/5228-012: Food Engineering — Carmen Pacheco-Borden

Read about how Prof. Pacheco-Borden got her start in the food industry
Career areas: Food Engineering,  Food manufacturing, Sustainability in Food Systems
Food Engineering is a multidisciplinary field of applied physical science which combines engineering, microbiology, chemistry and sustainability for food and related industries. Food accounts for more than 12% of household expenditures, and the food industry is one of the largest retail industries in the United States. Innovative and sustainable processes are needed to improve food quality and reduce energy, water, and other inputs in food processing. The objective of this course is for students to understand common unit operations and packaging materials used to manufacture foods and beverages with consistency, quality and safety. This course focuses on fundamental engineering principles and quantitative analyses of current and emergent techniques used in the processing of commercial foods and beverages. Topics include mass and energy balances, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics (e.g., water activity), heat and mass transport, thermal processes, acidified foods, frozen foods, refrigeration, drying, and packaging. To illustrate engineering applications, we will have a combination of entrepreneur guest lectures and industry tour visits including CU Boulder C4C Food Production, Pastificio Heriloom Wheat Pasta, UCCS Grain School, Colorado Grain Chain, Green Belly and Frescos, and Bru Chocolate.

Approved for the Biomedical Option and Biomedical Minor.

MCEN 4228/5228-013: Feedback Control — Lucy Pao

Learn about the Control Systems, Sensor Fusion, and Robotics Laboratory
Career areas: robotics, automation, guidance navigation and control 
Introduction to fundamental principles and techniques for analysis and synthesis of feedback control systems in the time and frequency domains. Laplace transforms, transfer functions and block diagrams. Stability, dynamic response, and steady-state analysis. Analysis and design of control systems using root locus and frequency response methods. Computer aided design and analysis. Introduction to state space representations and state feedback control.
Prerequisite: MCEN 4043.

MCEN 4228/5228-014: Renewable Fuel Cells & Engines — Greg Hampson

Career areas: renewable energy and and combustion
With the accelerated availability of Carbon Free and Renewable Fuels, we will explore high efficiency, low emissions Fuel Cell and Internal Combustion Engine energy conversion technologies, preparing students to enter the rapidly changing fields of power and propulsion on the path to Net-Zero Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Through Thermodynamics Modeling, Systems Engineering, and Requirements Flow Down, students will apply the fundamentals of thermodynamics, fluids and heat transfer, combustion and electro-chemistry for fuel cells and IC Engines.

MCEN 4228/5228-020/021: Mechatronics 2 — Derek Reamon

Check out the 2017 Mechatronics Showdown
Career areas: automated systems, robotics, controls, integrated systems
Continuation of MCEN 4115/5115, Mechatronics and Robotics. Focuses on design and construction of advanced microprocessor-controlled electro-mechanical systems. Lectures explore computer vision, machine learning, feedback control, multi-processor coordination and other advanced topics in mechatronics and robotics. Lab work reinforces lectures and allows hands-on experience with mechatronic design. Team-based design project integrates content into class-chosen design challenge. Robots from Mechatronics 1 can be adapted or refined for use in the new design challenge. Mechatronics 1 and 2 do not have to be taken in the same year.
Prerequisite: MCEN 4/5115 or permission of instructor.

MCEN 4228/5228-022/023: Nanomaterials — Xiaobo Yin

Learn about Prof. Yin’s work on nanostructures and nanomaterials
Understand fundamentals of the materials sciences and solid state physics that are uniquely associated with nanostructures and nanomaterials. To understand how the properties of a nanomaterial, such as mechanic, electronic, optical, and magnetic properties, can be affected and even substantially tailored by the size, geometry, composition and the structure of the nanomaterial. Understand the fundamental concepts in the design, manufacturing, characterization and application of functional nano-materials/structures. Develop the skill to be conversant in the multiple disciplines that involve nanomaterials and be aware of the social, ethical and environmental impacts resulting from the involved nanotechnology.
Prerequisite: MCEN2024.

MCEN 4228/5228 030: Thermofluids Lab — Jeffrey Knutsen

Learn more about thermo-fluids research
Strengthens understanding of how fundamental thermo-fluid concepts relate to real world energy systems through hands-on laboratories with solar-thermal heaters, refrigeration cycles, cookstoves, combustors and more. Integrates concepts from thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer. Also emphasizes measurement practices and technical communication.

MCEN 4228/5228-801: PBL in Rural Schools — Daniel Knight

Learn how the AQIQ project is bringing air quality experiments to rural Colorado
Career areas: education, environmental monitoring
Focuses on the use of low cost air quality monitoring tools, dubbed Pods, to implement PBL curriculum in high school environmental science classes in rural communities in Colorado.  Each student will be paired with a high school class and will serve as curriculum and technology advisors as well as science experts.  During the fall semester, students will be trained to effectively work in those roles and will also travel to their schools to be introduced.  During the spring semester, students will support high school teachers in implementing an existing PBL air quality curriculum with the Pods.  This will include monthly visits to schools in the spring and reporting back to the class.
Note: This is a full-year course.  Interested students should contact daniel.knight@colorado.edu to request enrollment access.

Approved for the Environmental Option.

MCEN 5022: Classical Thermodynamics — Jeremy Koch

Learn more about the role of thermodynamics in ME graduate studies
Accelerated graduate level course on classical thermodynamics from the mechanical engineering perspective, focusing on the fundamental principles of thermodynamics and their applications to practical systems. Course topics include first and second laws of thermodynamics, entropy and availability, cycle analysis, thermodynamic properties of pure substances and mixtures, property relations, chemical reactions and chemical availability, and energy systems analysis.

MCEN 5024: Materials Chemistry and Structures — Yifu Ding

Learn more about Prof. Ding’s research and teaching
Provides graduate level students with a comprehensive overview of the chemistry and structure of material systems, with a focus on chemical bonding., the resulting material structures and their properties. This course is intended to become one of the four core courses offered in the new Materials Science curriculum. Course topics include: bonding in solids, crystalline and amorphous states, basic group theory, diffraction, metals and alloys, ceramics, and an intro to mat. characterization.

MCEN 5042: Graduate Heat Transfer — Longji Cui

Watch screencasts associated with heat transfer
Career areas: power generation, aviation and space exploration (gas turbine blade cooling, space suits, radiation heat shielding), transportation (engine and motor cooling), biomedical (blood warmers, tissue storage, frostbite, hypothermia), manufacturing (heat treating, laser machining), renewable energy (solar collectors, thermal energy storage)
Studies development of equations governing transport of heat by conduction, convection, and radiation, and their solution. Includes analytical and numerical solution of initial and boundary value problems representative of heat conduction in solids. Describes heat transfer in free and forced convection, including laminar and turbulent flow. Also involves radiation properties of solids, liquids, and gases and transport of heat by radiation.

MCEN 5044: Mechanical Behavior of Materials — Rishi Raj 

Learn more about this course
This introductory-level graduate course incorporates relevant aspects of materials science, solid mechanics, thermodynamics and mathematics, and applies them to achieve a fundamental understanding of the mechanical behavior of crystalline and non-crystalline engineering materials.

MCEN 5045: Design for Manufacturability — Dan Riffell

Read about DFM on the Design Center Colorado website
Career areas: product design, manufacturing, and project management
Topics include general design guidelines for manufacturability; aspects of manufacturing processes that affect design decisions; design rules to maximize manufacturability; economic considerations; value engineering and design for assembly. Presents case studies of successful products exhibiting DFMA principles.  

MCEN 5055: Advanced Product Design 

Read about APD on the Design Center Colorado website
Career areas: product design
Introduces the processes and methods for designing products. Course content includes: need finding and need specification, ideation and idea selection, design thinking, user-centered design, human factors, sketching, prototyping, user feedback, design communication, design for manufacturing, materials selection, and intellectual property. Teams of 3-4 students will design and build a novel product throughout the semester. 
Prerequisite or corequisite: MCEN 4045. Enrollment is limited. Please contact Anna Guy, Graduate Advisor, for more details.

MCEN 5075: Graduate Design 2 — Gregory Whiting

Read about GPD on the Design Center Colorado website
Career areas: product design
Second part of two-course graduate product design experience in mechanical engineering. Includes refinement of prototype, design optimization, fabrication, testing, and evaluation. Students orally present the final design and prepare a written report and operation manual for the product. Entails a team product design, fabrication, and testing cycle of a sponsored project, leading to a fully-functional product.

MCEN 5161: Aerosols — Marina Vance

Learn how Prof. Vance’s work is leading to improvements in indoor air quality
Career areas: air quality, atmospheric chemistry, environmental engineering
Aerosols (solid/liquid particles suspended in a gas) are ubiquitous. They come in many forms, often described as dust, fume, mist, smoke, smog, or fog and they can affect visibility, climate, as well as our health and quality of life. Understanding the aerosol properties enables us to comprehend the production, transport, and fate of atmospheric particulate pollutants. This course covers physical properties, behavior, and measurement and sampling of aerosols. This course introduces atmospheric aerosols and properties of their distributions, followed by fundamental descriptions of single particle dynamics and populations dynamics. Particle sampling, respiratory deposition, thermodynamics, electrical and optical properties are also covered.

MCEN 5208-001: Industry Skills

Learn more about career development with Mechanical Engineering
Career areas: careers in industry, project management
This class consists of a series of seminars, workshops, and projects focused on various topics relevant to careers in industry, including project management, engineering ethics, communication skills, technical writing, resume preparation, budget preparation and management, leadership styles and philosophies, and interview skills. This class is required for all students completing the professional MS degree in mechanical engineering, although students in other degree programs may also find this course to be useful career preparation. 

MCEN 5228-015: Environmental Law for Engineers — Jana Milford

Learn about Prof. Milford’s research and policy work 
Career areas: energy, air quality, manufacturing, engineering management, law and policy
In Environmental Law for Scientists and Engineers, you will learn how environmental laws and regulations are developed and enforced by legislatures, state and federal agencies, and the courts. The course covers statutes and cases addressing air and water pollution, toxic substances, wastes, environmental assessment, and climate change. The course is designed for graduate students in engineering, environmental studies, and natural sciences. No legal background is required. The course is structured around reading and discussion, with students required to brief cases and contribute to discussion of current issues. Written assignments include critical analysis of pending regulations and recent court opinions.

MCEN 5228-016: Energy Materials Characterization — Chunmei Ban

Learn about Prof. Ban’s research into next generation energy storage systems 
Career areas: materials development and design for renewable energy and energy storage, morphology and structural characterization for functional materials
This course introduces the fundamental theoretical framework for diffraction, spectroscopy and imaging methods used in the structural and morphological characterization of energy materials. The content is designed for graduate students who are interested in using morphological characterization techniques such as electron microscopy, structural characterization techniques such as X-ray diffraction and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, to investigate the materials structures and their relationship with properties and functionalities. Representative case studies in fields of energy storage or conversion applications will be used to help students  learn newly evolved characterization techniques, and provide methodologies for design and optimization of materials in order to improve materials properties. This course will cover the characterization resources from National labs, and SEM training from CU Boulder COSINC-CHR. Three invited distinguished presentations on the applications of the SEM, TEM and XPS will be included here to help students better understand how to apply the characterization tools for materials development.  

Additional Options

Undergraduate students may use one of the following courses as an ME Tech Elective, provided their second ME Tech Elective is completed within Mechanical Engineering: APPM4350, ASEN4123, ATOC4720, COEN3210, CSCI3302, CSCI3308, any 3000/4000-level EMEN class, ENEN4600, GEEN3400, PHYS 3210, PHYS 3220, PHYS3320.

Fall 2021

Note: Junior, senior, or graduate level standing in mechanical engineering is required to enroll in any of the courses listed below. Listed prerequisites are for BS students. MS and PhD level students should have comparable preparation, but do not need to have completed the undergraduate level prerequisites at CU.

MCEN4032/5032: Sustainable Energy - Jana Milford

Read about Prof. Milford’s work in energy modeling and policy
Career areas: energy efficiency, renewable energy, environmental policy
Examines sustainability of our current energy systems, including transportation, using environmental and economic indicators. Uses systems analysis that addresses energy supply and demand. Explores the science and technology as well as environmental and economic feasibility of efficiency measures and renewable energy technologies. Additional emphasis is given to the global nature of the challenges and the potential for locally optimal solutions.
Prerequisites: MCEN3012, MCEN3021. Prerequisite or Corequisite: MCEN3022.

Approved for the Environmental Option and Energy Minor.

MCEN4115/5115: Mechatronics & Robotics I – Derek Reamon

Check out the 2017 Mechatronics Showdown
Career areas: automated systems, robotics, controls, integrated systems
Focuses on design and construction of microprocessor-controlled electro-mechanical systems. Lectures review critical circuit topics, discuss sensor and actuator component selection, microprocessor selection and programming, robotic systems, systems integration, and design strategies for complex, multi-system devices. Lab work reinforces lectures and allows hands-on experience with mechatronic design. Students must design and build an autonomous robotic device.
Prerequisites: [ECEN3010 or GEEN3010] and [CSCI1320, CSCI1300, COEN1300, or ECEN1310].

MCEN4117/5117: Anatomy & Physiology – Jessica Fitzgerald

Learn about the Tan Lab’s research on cardiovascular health
Career areas: biomedical engineering, medical devices, prosthetics
Explores human physiological function from an engineering, specifically mechanical engineering, viewpoint. Provides an introduction to human anatomy and physiology with a focus on learning fundamental concepts and applying engineering (mass transfer, fluid dynamics, mechanics, modeling) analysis.

Approved for the Biomedical Option and Biomedical Minor.

MCEN4127/5127: Biomedical Ultrasound - Nick Bottenus

Learn how the Bottenus Lab is using beamforming to improve ultrasound technology
Career areas: imaging technology, biomedical engineering
Covers the design of ultrasound systems for medical imaging and therapy, including the physics of wave propagation, transducers, acoustic lenses, pulse-echo imaging and cavitation dynamics, with an emphasis on current topics in biomedical ultrasound. Includes lectures on theory, practice and special topics; a laboratory on wave propagation; oral presentations on current literature; and a design project.
Prerequisite: MCEN3021.

Approved for the Biomedical Option and Biomedical Minor. 

MCEN4151/5151: Flow Visualization - Jean Hertzberg

Browse photo galleries and lecture notes on the course website
Explores techniques for visualizing the physics of fluid flows including seeding with dyes, particles and bubbles, and shadowgraphy and schlieren. Reviews optics and fluid physics, especially atmospheric clouds. Assignments are student-driven, to individuals and mixed teams of graduates, undergraduates, engineering majors and photography/video majors.  MCEN students who enroll in the ATLS, ARTS, or ARTF sections of this course will be dropped at the instructor’s discretion.
Prerequisite: MCEN3021.

MCEN4152/5152 Introduction to Combustion- Nicole Labbe

Read about how the Labbe Lab is making combustion processes more efficient
Career areas: energy efficiency, renewable energy, oil and gas, air quality
Focuses on the mechanisms by which fuel and oxidizers are converted into combustion products. Application to practical combustion devices such as Otto, Diesel, gas turbine, and power plant combustion systems. Consideration of combustion-generated air pollution, fire safety, and combustion efficiency.
Prerequisite: MCEN3012, Recommended prerequisites: MCEN3021, MCEN3022.

Approved for the Environmental Option and Energy Minor. 

MCEN4174/5174: Failure of Engineering Materials – Todd Murray

Learn about Prof. Murray’s research on materials characterization and imaging
Career areas: materials engineering, failure analysis, materials selection for defense, aerospace, biomedical, and electronics applications, design of high temperature components
Examines the fundamental concepts regarding the failure of engineering materials. Case studies are used to integrate a basic understanding of material failure mechanisms with analysis techniques and tools. Topics include the elastic properties (isotropic and anisotropic materials) and the origin of elastic behavior, viscoelasticity, plasticity (dislocation mechanisms, yielding criteria, strengthening mechanisms), creep, fracture and fatigue.
Prerequisites: MCEN2024, MCEN2063.

MCEN4228: Design for Community - Dan Riffell

Learn about the D4C design consultancy
Career areas: engineering product design, project management
Design for Community (D4C) will provide engineering students with practical experience in consulting while offering valuable engineering services to University and industry clients. Focuses on preparing students for the practice of engineering by acting as a consultancy for clients' engineering-related design and fabrication needs. Students may be expected to work in teams or individually under the supervision of project directors, depending on project scope. Each student or team will assist several clients during the semester. D4C will pursue the following goals for its students: provide a practical just-in-time learning experience for students interested in engineering consulting; prepare students for the practice of engineering design with underspecified real-world problem sets; prepare students for the professionalism needed to interact with clients; provide outreach that connects communities outside the Department of Mechanical Engineering and serves clients that would not have access to engineering resources otherwise.

MCEN4228/5228: Lean/Six Sigma Manufacturing - Jeni Blacklock

Note: This is a new course and the title is still pending.  Interested students should register for MCEN4228-003 or MCEN5228-003.
Learn more about Lean and Six Sigma certification
Career areas: manufacturing, quality control, management
This course focuses on Lean principles and Six-sigma methodologies for defining, measuring, analyzing, improving and controlling (DMAIC) processes in order to create more efficient processes. Skillsets that will be learned include; value stream maps, SIPOCS, statistical process control, GR&R studies, statistics, graphical representation, and Minitab. This course has shown to be successful in training your brain to think differently about processes through identifying wastes and improving processes to be more efficient. By the end of the class, you will have practiced these skillsets several times and should feel comfortable with implementing them in an industry setting. Students will be prepared to take the Lean Bronze certification and at least the Six-Sigma white-belt certification, depending on work experience, at the completion of this course.

MCEN4228/5228: Design of Coffee - Carmen Pacheco-Borden

Read about how Prof. Pacheco-Borden got her start in the food industry
Career areas: food engineering, sustainable agriculture
This class will serve as an introduction to how engineers use their disciplinary training to approach and solve problems outside of the traditional confines of their discipline, as illustrated by the roasting and brewing of coffee. In addition to focusing on the science and craftsmanship of making a cup of coffee from bean to cup, we will also study the global sourcing of coffee beans. We will examine farming practices to grow fair-trade and organic beans. The course will offer weekly hands-on experimental laboratories to demonstrate key engineering principles in subject areas such as heat transfer, mass transfer, thermodynamics, materials science, sustainability, water quality, biomedical engineering and device design evaluation. This class culminates in an engineering design competition where students design to make the best tasting coffee using the least amount of energy.

Approved for the Biomedical Minor and Global Engineering Minor.

MCEN4228/5228: Ceramics – Rishi Raj

Learn about Prof. Raj’s work and read the latest news from his lab group
This class is driven by projects which are defined by scientific, technological and aesthetic applications of ceramics. Examples are The Hubble Telescope, Corning Ware, Atomic Force Microscope, Fine Arts, Lighting, Ceramic Gas Turbines, Solid Oxide Fuel Cell, Volcanoes, Lasers, Jewels and Petrified Wood. The plan is for small groups to focus on one topic and advance it through the semester through collective discussions, and where possible, developing a touch-and-feel demonstration. The grade will consider fundamental understanding of ceramics developed through project experience, and project performance.

MCEN4228/5228: Intro to Microfluidics - Xiaoyun Ding 

Read about Prof. Ding’s work on microtechnology for health applications
Career areas: lab on a chip, biomedical microdevices, micro/nanotechnology
Microfluidics deals with the behavior of fluids in small scale. It is a highly multidisciplinary field at the intersection of engineering, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, nanotechnology, and biotechnology. This course is designed for a wide audience in Engineering and Science. It covers the fundamentals and fabrication of microfluidic devices, and their applications, particularly in Lab on a Chip. It includes lectures, team presentations, and possibly one laboratory on microfluidic devices. Mastery will enhance your understanding of Microfluidic technologies and their broad applications.
Recommended Prerequisite: MCEN3021.

Approved for the Biomedical Option and Biomedical Minor.

MCEN4228/5228: Feedback Control - Shalom Ruben

Learn about Prof. Ruben’s teaching and projects
Career areas: robotics, automation, guidance navigation and control 
Introduction to fundamental principles and techniques for analysis and synthesis of feedback control systems in the time and frequency domains. Linearization, review of linear system response, frequency response, transfer functions and Bode diagrams. Closed loop system analysis including root locus, Nyquist criterion, gain and phase margins. Compensation design with lead, lag and PID controllers. Translation of closed loop performance requirements into open loop constraints. Model uncertainty and robustness. Introduction to state space representations and state feedback control.
Prerequisite: MCEN4043.

MCEN4228/5228: Nanomaterials – Xiaobo Yin

Learn about Prof. Yin’s work on nanostructures and nanomaterials
Understand fundamentals of the materials sciences and solid state physics that are uniquely associated with nanostructures and nanomaterials. To understand how the properties of a nanomaterial, such as mechanic, electronic, optical, and magnetic properties, can be affected and even substantially tailored by the size, geometry, composition and the structure of the nanomaterial. Understand the fundamental concepts in the design, manufacturing, characterization and application of functional nano-materials/structures. Develop the skill to be conversant in the multiple disciplines that involve nanomaterials and be aware of the social, ethical and environmental impacts resulting from the involved nanotechnology.
Prerequisite: MCEN2024.

MCEN4228/5228: Modeling of Human Movement - Alaa Ahmed 

Learn how the Neuromechanics Laboratory is reverse engineering movement
Career areas: biomechanics, movement rehabilitation, robotics, computational neuroscience
Human movement analysis is used in a wide range of applications, from physical rehabilitation to sport training, human-robot interaction and animation. The course will provide a systematic overview of human movement on multiple levels of analysis, with an emphasis on the phenomenology amenable to computational modeling. Topics will include muscle physiology, movement-related brain areas, musculoskeletal mechanics, forward and inverse dynamics, optimal control and Bayesian inference, learning and adaptation. The focus will be on reaching and locomotion as representative human movements.
Prerequisites: MCEN2043 and [APPM2360, MATH2130, or MATH3130].

Approved for the Biomedical Option and Biomedical Minor. 

MCEN4228/5228: Mechanics of Soft Matter - Franck Vernerey

Learn how nature inspires science at the Soft Matter Mechanics Lab
Career areas: biomaterials, biomedical engineering, smart materials
This class will provide a general overview of fundamental concepts behind the mechanical behavior of soft matter. The term soft matter (which includes polymers, colloids, liquid crystals and surfactants, to name a few) is typically used to describe classes of materials whose structural unit is much larger than atoms, making their response more complex and often richer that of traditional solids. The objective of this class is to understand how chemical and mechanical forces between these small units yield macroscopic behaviors that one can observe in everyday life. Key engineering applications will also be discussed.
Prerequisite: MCEN2063.

Approved for the Biomedical Option and Biomedical Minor.

MCEN4228/5228: PBL in Rural Schools - Daniel Knight

Learn how the AQIQ project is bringing air quality experiments to rural Colorado
Career areas: education, environmental monitoring
Focuses on the use of low cost air quality monitoring tools, dubbed Pods, to implement PBL curriculum in high school environmental science classes in rural communities in Colorado.  Each student will be paired with a high school class and will serve as curriculum and technology advisors as well as science experts.  During the fall semester, students will be trained to effectively work in those roles and will also travel to their schools to be introduced.  During the spring semester, students will support high school teachers in implementing an existing PBL air quality curriculum with the Pods.  This will include monthly visits to schools in the spring and reporting back to the class. 
Note: This is a full-year course.  Interested students should contact daniel.knight@colorado.edu to request enrollment access.

Approved for the Environmental Option.

MCEN5020: Methods of Engineering Analysis - Peter Hamlington

Studies selected topics from linear algebra, ordinary differential equations, and Fourier series. Assigns computer exercises. Correlates with analysis topics in other mechanical engineering graduate courses, and emphasizes applications.  

MCEN5021: Introduction to Fluid Dynamics - Jean Hertzberg

Focuses on physical properties of gases and liquids, and kinematics of flow fields. Analyzes stress; viscous, heat-conducting Newtonian fluids; and capillary effects and surface-tension-driven flow. Other topics include vorticity and circulation, ideal fluid flow theory in two and three dimensions, Schwartz-Christoffel transformations, free streamline theory, and internal and free-surface waves.
Prerequisite: MCEN3021. Corequisite: MCEN5020.

MCEN5023: Solid Mechanics - Francois Barthelat

Introduces stress, strain and motion of a continuous system. Discusses material derivative; fundamental laws of mass, momentum, energy and entropy; constitutive equations and applications to elastic and plastic materials.
Prerequisite: MCEN2063. Corequisite: MCEN5020.

MCEN5055: Advanced Product Design - Janet Tsai

Read about APD on the Design Center Colorado website
Career areas: product design
Introduces the processes and methods for designing products. Course content includes: need finding and need specification, ideation and idea selection, design thinking, user-centered design, human factors, sketching, prototyping, user feedback, design communication, design for manufacturing, materials selection, and intellectual property. Teams of 3-4 students will design and build a novel product throughout the semester.
Prerequisite or Corequisite: MCEN4045.
Note: Professional MS students in the Design Track have priority enrollment for this course.  Students outside of that program can apply to participate by filling out this form.

MCEN5065: Graduate Design I - Greg Whiting

First part of a two-course graduate product design experience in mechanical engineering. Covers problem definition and specifications, determining design requirements, user feedback, alternative design concepts, engineering analysis, concept prototypes and CAD drawings. Students make several oral design reviews, a final design presentation and prepare a written report. Entails a team product design, fabrication and testing cycle of sponsored project.
Prerequisites: MCEN5055 and instructor permission.

MCEN5228: Fracture Mechanics - Rong Long

Learn about the Nonlinear Mechanics Lab
Career areas: product design, failure analysis
This course will introduce fundamental concepts, analytical approaches, and experimental methods to characterize the fracture of solid materials. Topics to be discussed include: linear elastic analysis of 2D cracks, energy flows and criteria for elastic fracture, experimental methods for elastic fracture, application of fracture mechanics in adhesion, introduction to elastic plastic fracture, and nonlinear fracture mechanics of soft materials.

MCEN5228: Intro to Nanoscale Transport - Longji Cui

Learn about Prof. Cui’s research
Career areas: research, modeling, design, system test/diagnosis, and manufacturing for the nanotech industry (microelectronics, heat transfer, nano-optics, MEMS/NEMS, quantum)
This course covers the basic concepts and methods to understand nanoscale transport phenomena that are ubiquitous in microelectronics, nano-enabled renewable energy technology, heat transfer, nano-optics, Micro/Nano-Electro-Mechanical-Systems (MEMS/NEMS), as well as emerging quantum technologies. Relevant laboratory and real-world applications and examples will be discussed. Topics include basics of solid-state physics and quantum mechanics, nano-electronic transport, nanoscale heat transfer, experimental techniques and instrumentations for characterizing/testing nanoscale materials and devices.

MCEN5228: Linear Systems - Xudong Chen

Learn more about Dr. Chen’s work in the Electrical Engineering Department
Career areas: robotics, controls, modeling of dynamic systems
Introduces the theory of linear systems, including vector spaces, linear mappings, structure of linear operators, state space descriptions of dynamic systems, stability, controllability, observability, state variable estimation and feedback control methods. Prerequisite: APPM 2360 or equivalent.  This is a challenging, graduate level course.  Undergraduates should contact the course instructor prior to enrolling.

MCEN5228: Advanced Dynamics - Sean Humbert

Note: This is a new course and the title is still pending.  Interested students should register for MCEN5228-025.
Explore the Bio-Inspired Perception and Robotics Laboratory’s work
Career areas: robotics, controls, modeling of dynamic systems
This course covers advanced theory for formulating and analyzing dynamical systems, including Newtonian, Lagrangian and Hamiltonian methods. Additional topics include equilibria, stability, Lyapunov functions, limit cycles, conservation laws and basic bifurcation theory.

MCEN5636: Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems - Victor Bright

Learn about the Multi-Disciplinary Engineering Microsystems Group
Career areas: software development, design engineering, electronics manufacturing, R&D
Addresses micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) modeling, design, and fabrication. Focus is on MEMS sensors and actuators due to significance of these devices in optics, medical instruments, navigation components, communications, and robotics.
Prerequisites: ECEN3010, MCEN4043.

Approved for the Biomedical Option.

MCEN6228: Wetting, Adhesion & Friction - Rong Long & Yifu Ding

Read about the Nonlinear Mechanics Lab and Nanostructured Polymer Lab
Career areas: surface engineering, thin-film processing, manufacturing
This course aims to discuss fundamentals of liquid wetting of a solid surface, adhesion and friction between two contacting surfaces.  These interfacial interactions are critical across a broad spectrum of applications from traditional field of rubber tire to emerging areas of designing anti-icing surfaces. The course will examine theories and findings for both conventional materials such as metal and ceramics and more complex soft materials.  

Additional Options

Undergraduate students may use one of the following courses as an ME Tech Elective, provided their second ME Tech Elective is completed within Mechanical Engineering: APPM4350, ASEN4123, COEN3210, CSCI3302, CSCI3308, any 3000/4000-level EMEN class, ENEN4600, GEEN3400, PHYS3320.