The College of Engineering was instituted with the Mechanical and Civil Engineering programs in 1914, making the College and Department over 100 years old. The first department head for Mechanical Engineering was Dr. Fred S. Griffin, who served until 1952. In addition, the department has over 5000 alumni, beginning with 3 in the class of 1919, and adding 110 in the 2008-2009 academic year.

The department has 23 tenured/tenure track faculty and seven part time faculty supported by four technical and administrative staff. We currently have about 850 undergraduate students and in the last four years have grown by 55%. In a typical year, we award approximately 90 B.S. engineering degrees. We maintain full ABET accreditation in our eligible programs.