Welcome from the Chair
Welcome to the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Baylor University. We are committed to providing our students with a transformational engineering education marked by a rigorous pursuit of knowledge, active interaction with faculty and engagement in professional societies, and enriching exposure to Christian worldview. We aspire to be a top Mechanical Engineering program in the nation with a distinct Protestant identity, whose graduates are well equipped technically and ethically to solve the grand engineering challenges of the 21st century.
Engineering at Baylor goes back to 1995 when the School of Engineering and Computer Science was first formed with the Department of Engineering and the Department of Computer Science. Since then, the school experienced a steady growth in size and stature, resulting in the establishment of the Department of Mechanical Engineering in 2006 offering both the Undergraduate program and the Master’s program, with the PhD program finally added in 2014. What we lack in tradition and history, we make up in our passion to breed a new cadre of ‘engineers with heart’ who are committed to serving the world.
Our faculty, 18 tenure track and 5 non-tenure track, are committed to providing our undergraduate students with the highest-caliber in-classroom learning and student engagement through independent research and student club mentorship. Many students are encouraged to connect with the global society and participate in some form of humanitarian/social engineering projects and Engineers with a Mission activities throughout their studies at Baylor, and these efforts are actively led by members of the faculty. Our graduates are heavily sought after by local industries in Texas and beyond, and top students go on to pursue graduate degrees in engineering, business, law, and medicine.
Our graduate program is small yet thriving and vibrant with many research-active faculty working on high-impact and cutting-edge research projects with 11 MS students and 47 PhD students (as of Spring 2023). Funding agencies sponsoring the projects span the whole gamut covering local industries and government agencies including NSF, FAA, NASA, and DOE. Active research areas include advanced materials and engineering, thermo-fluids engineering, and biomechanics and biomedical engineering.
The department is projected to add three faculty to strengthen existing areas of expertise and to expand into thrust areas such as materials science and engineering, power and energy systems, thermos-fluids engineering, and biomedical engineering. All this growth can only be fueled by a substantial growth in our PhD program, and we strongly encourage our prospective students to apply and join our PhD program. Also, I invite you to check out our top-notch research facility at the Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative (BRIC).
As Department Chair, I invite you to join me in my excitement for the future of our department. As you browse through our websites, I hope that you see the potential and the possibility that are within the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Baylor and join us to take the next step together.
Paul I. Ro, PhD
Chair and Professor of Mechanical Engineering
School of Engineering and Computer Science
Baylor University
Phone: 254-710-6858
Email: paul_ro@baylor.edu