MECHANICAL ENGINEERING GRADUATE PROGRAM RANKINGS RISE IN 2006

U.S. News & World Report’s "America's Best Graduate Schools 2007" ranks the Department of Mechanical Engineering graduate program at Maryland as one of the best in the nation. The Mechanical Engineering graduate program ranked 24th overall, and in the top 15 in graduate programs among public institutions. The department ranked just below Johns Hopkins, Ohio State and Texas A&M Universities (all tied at 20th), and ahead of UC–Santa Barbara, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Southern California. In 2005 the ME graduate program ranked 20th, and 24th in 2004.

The A.J. Clark School of Engineering as a whole rose to 15th, tied with University of California–Los Angeles (Samueli) and the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

In other rankings news, the department has consistently ranked in the top fifteen in total research and development expenditures for mechanical engineering at American colleges and universities, according to National Science Foundation (NSF) statistics. Research conducted in 1999 through 2003 and published in the National Science Foundation documents Academic Research and Development Expenditures: Fiscal Years 1999 – 2003, show that the department ranked 12th in total research and development expenditures, and 14th in Federal R&D expenditures in 2003. It is noteworthy that in 2003 the department's research and development expenditures were greater than & significantly ahead of those at Purdue, Texas A&M, University of Texas–Austin, Carnegie Mellon, Renssealaer Polytechnic Institute and Duke University.

Published April 15, 2006