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George Mason’s College of Engineering and Computing’s Mechanical Engineering Department celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, with an event on May 5th in the university’s new Life Sciences and Engineering Building (LSEB) on its SciTech campus in Manassas. While department chair Leigh McCue's gears are turning – so to speak – considering the next 10 years, the department has many reasons to be proud of the first 10.
McCue is proud to be at the helm this landmark year. “We've grown from a bachelor's program to having multiple graduate certificates in naval ship design, responsible AI, and microfabrication,” she said. “And really it’s all being created to meet state-of-the-art industry needs.” McCue is eager to fully expand into the LSEB, where students are already taking classes.
The department’s growth was rapid, going from zero to 400 students relatively quickly before tapering out during covid in 2020. But McCue has lofty goals – in many engineering colleges, mechanical engineering is the largest program and McCue doesn’t see any reason why her department can’t be close to 1,000 students in the long-term.
The arrival in 2012 of Dean Ken Ball, a mechanical engineer, served as an impetus to get the department off the ground. Among faculty he recruited was Colin Reagle. “I was adopted by the ECE department when I came in as the first faculty member. They lent me equipment to teach a class in the CEIE lab to two students in the minor,” recalled Reagle. “When we got our first department suite, I spent a week sending photos of mechanical closets from around campus so that we could get a glass door like every other proper department. But I loved our local impact, fielding those first few calls from prospective students who had heard a rumor that they could stay in Northern Virginia and get an ME degree; that made it all worth it.”
Oscar Barton, now dean of the Morgan State University Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. School of Engineering, was the founding department chair. He said, “Who would have thought that ten years later we would be celebrating the success and growth of the department? Well, I did. Not from any form of arrogance but from the shared vision and supportive leadership that I received as inaugural chair from Dean Ball. Together, we were committed to a goal of building a department that would rival departments nationwide and one that meets the academic needs of Northern Virginia.”
The college is currently working hard to get a PhD approved by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. McCue said, “The PhD would be in robotics, which is a pretty hot topic for our students in preparing the workforce. It is a collaboration with electrical and computer engineering, computer science, and cybersecurity engineering.”
McCue is encouraged by how well-positioned the department is to prepare students for the future. “All the news coming out about AI and about advanced manufacturing – there are many topics where mechanical engineers play a role in how those goes forward. And how we end up using AI in robotic and autonomous systems in advanced manufacturing technologies will be exciting.”
McCue says the advanced manufacturing lab in the LSEB provides great opportunities for the future. “We've had a materials characterization instructional lab for some time, but now we've also added this advanced manufacturing piece, which I think is going to be really great.”