Mechanical Engineering
Mechanical engineering has a purpose of design, manufacture and maintenance of mechanical systems and an engineer must have knowledge in many areas such as mechanics, kinematics, thermodynamics, physics and energy. Modern tools have benefited engineers such as computer aided engineering which allow 2D and 3D visualization of designs. The field of mechanical engineering can be thought of as a collection of many mechanical disciplines.
Mechanics engineering is the study of forces and there effect on matter, this allows the engineering mechanics to analyze and predict the acceleration and deformation of objects under known forces. In order to do this they use concepts such as statics, dynamics, mechanics of materials, fluid mechanics and continuum mechanics. All these different disciplines can be applied in the engineering process to facilitate design and final product success.
Mechatronics and robotics engineering works to integrate electrical and mechanical engineering to create hybrid systems. The most prolific use of these are in industries such as automation, servo-mechanics, sensing and control systems, automotive engineering and computer engineering. Through the development of robotic engineering they are able to create robots which are able to perform dangerous and repetitive tasks.
Structural analysis works in a slightly different manner in that it is the study of why objects fail to perform there task. Structural failures usually occur through static failure or fatigue failure. It is by studying why failures occurred that this branch of engineering can then correct and improve on previous flaws. Once again there are more areas such as thermodynamics, Kinematics and drafting within the category of mechanical engineering. New frontiers are also opening up in this discipline in the study of Mechatronics which merges mechanical engineering, electronic engineering, and software engineering. Also Nanotechnology becomes engineering in the smallest state and encompasses molecular engineering and nanotechnology working with molecules to form systems.