Undergraduate Programs
Manufacturing Engineering is arguably the original engineering discipline taught at WPI, supporting for well over a century the technological base of one of the most important manufacturing regions in the world. Central Massachusetts is one of the cradles of the Industrial Revolution. Manufacturing in Massachusetts has been of critical strategic importance for America since the beginning of the boycott of British goods that preceded the War of Independence. The manufacturing technologies developed in New England lead the world in achieving quality and tolerances, enabling the implementation of what became known around the world as the American System for mass production. New England, Massachusetts and Worcester County continue to lead the nation and world in many critical manufacturing technologies. And in Worcester County 33% of the paychecks currently come directly from manufacturing payrolls.
In the 1980s WPI appropriately became one of the first schools in the country to offer an ABET accredited B.S. degree in Manufacturing Engineering (at that time called "Advanced Manufacturing Systems Engineering"). WPI also was one of the first schools in the country to grant a Ph.D. in Manufacturing Engineering. Currently WPI offers three degrees in Manufacturing Engineering, and is also one of the eight concentrations available to Mechanical Engineering majors.
Manufacturing engineers are the "integrators" of all the disciplines and the "problem solvers" in today's global manufacturing economy. Therefore, the faculty at WPI work closely with the students to help them learn the skills of problem definition, problem solution and solution implementation through our hands-on program of study.
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Last modified: February 16, 2011 11:35:28