Andrew Harmon, Class of 2011

Are You a Prospective UNH Student?

UNH has a phenomenal Mechanical Engineering department! The engineering building was recently renovated in 2007, and it offers a host of amenities including its own library, café, computer clusters with free printing, wireless internet, state-of-the-art classrooms, wind tunnel, and research laboratories.

While the campus is large, I feel that I've received the kind of academic attention I would have expected from a much smaller institution. Most of the faculty will come to know you by name, and there are endless opportunities to get involved in (often paid!) undergraduate research.

The program here will offer you a strong foundation in the fundamentals of math, science, and engineering; I feel that I have received an education that is on-par with that of engineering graduates from private institutions. We students are fortunate because we get the attention of a smaller institution with access to the resources of a much larger university! Your education is what you make of it. Get involved!

Come see our department and learn more about our program for yourself!

A More Serious Reflection for Current Students:

"Your education is what you make of it." Have you heard this before? I encourage you to think about what this assertion means to you. What are your dreams? What are your goals? Is studying engineering helping you achieve your dreams and goals?

To me, this statement relates to the idea of being invested for the right reasons. In my opinion, we engineers work harder than most other students at UNH. It is easier to deal with the challenges and rigors of an engineering curriculum when your heart is truly invested in the learning. Listening to your heart and following your dreams is fundamental to enjoying, appreciating, and thriving in school and in life.

While you are here at UNH, I encourage you to strive to be your best self. Channel your time and your energy. Be the best student and the best person that you can possibly be. Honesty, integrity, and respect are among the finest values that you can hold, yet they are down-played in the media of our generation. I challenge you to evaluate your own value system and to ask yourself how you can work to "be your best self."

I also encourage you to try to maintain a sense of balance. Achieving balance in life is a difficult process that requires constant attention. It's a closed-loop feedback system (seriously) and you need to take time to listen and to reflect. The demands of your education can be seemingly insurmountable until you take a few deep breaths and examine the bigger picture. Maintaining balance between your values, interests, and time is the foundation to living a happy and successful life. Our studies, relationships with family and friends, love, money, hobbies, social time, and other factors need to find a state of equilibrium. This equilibrium can be unstable and easily overturned, but it is possible to achieve.

An Invitation to Our Distinguished Alumni:

There is so much going on in the Mechanical Engineering department these days! If you haven't been around in a while, stop by and check out the new Kingsbury Hall! The old mural was preserved and has been given new life in the South Wing lobby!

The new Kingsbury Hall also boasts state-of-the-art research facilities with exciting projects funded by land, sea, and space grants. Back for homecoming? Come visit and check out what's going on with research in manufacturing, fluids dynamics, systems and controls, materials science, and ocean engineering! The latest hype surrounds the wind tunnel recently constructed in college woods; this low-speed boundary layer wind tunnel has a test section of 236 x 8 x 20 feet! It is currently the biggest wind tunnel in the world!

We hope to see you soon!