Program Overview

Energy and the Environment Option - Mechanical Engineering BS

Overview

The energy and environment option is focused on identifying, developing, and effectively utilizing alternative energy systems. This option is part of the mechanical engineering BS degree.

Advanced Electives

The energy and the environment option provide you with in-depth knowledge in mechanical engineering and its connections to the fields of energy and the environment. The option begins with a course sequence that starts in the third year of your mechanical engineering program. This ensures that you have developed the foundational mechanical engineering skills needed for specialization in more advanced course work that focuses on the principles and dynamics of energy and the environment. You’ll take an introductory course (Contemporary Issues in Energy and Environment) followed by courses in areas such as sustainable energy for transportation, wind turbine engineering, renewable energy, thermodynamics, and turbomachinery, among others.

Multidisciplinary Senior Design

Multidisciplinary Senior Design is a two-course sequence in your final year of study. It’s a capstone learning experience that integrates engineering theory, principles, and processes within a collaborative team environment. Multidisciplinary student teams follow an engineering design process, which includes assessing customer needs, developing engineering specifications, generating and evaluating concepts, choosing an approach, completing systems and subsystems designs, and implementing the design to the extent feasible, for example by building and testing a prototype or implementing a chosen set of improvements to a process. You’ll apply the knowledge you have learned in the classroom and from your co-op experiences to this design project. Students in the energy and environment option are expected to work on an energy systems design project.

Careers and Cooperative Education

Cooperative Education

What’s different about an RIT education? It’s the career experience you gain by completing cooperative education and internships with top companies in every single industry. You’ll earn more than a degree. You’ll gain real-world career experience that sets you apart.

Co-ops and internships take your knowledge and turn it into know-how. Your engineering co-ops will provide hands-on experience that enables you to apply your engineering knowledge in professional settings while you make valuable connections between classwork and real-world applications.

All engineering majors are required to complete nearly one year (48 weeks) of cooperative education experience. For students in the energy and environment option, your co-ops are expected to take place in energy companies or in organizations that focus on sustainable energy, alternative energies, and energy management. A sample of companies that hire RIT students for co-ops and for full-time employment includes BME Associates, Con Edison, Constellation Energy, Ostrow Electric, and National Fuel Gas Company, to name a few.

Admissions and Financial Aid

This program is STEM designated when studying on campus and full time.

This option is part of the Mechanical Engineering BS. Please visit the degree program page for admission requirements.

Financial Aid and Scholarships

100% of all incoming first-year and transfer students receive aid.

RIT’s personalized and comprehensive financial aid program includes scholarships, grants, loans, and campus employment programs. When all these are put to work, your actual cost may be much lower than the published estimated cost of attendance.