About the Department

The Department of Mechanical Engineering is one of the three departments created under Faculty of Engineering (formerly Faculty of Technology) at the inception of the Faculty in January 1978. The other two departments are Civil Engineering and Electrical Engineering. The pioneering Head of Department was Professor M. D. C. Doyle, from United Kingdom, who was at the helm from 1980 to 1988. The first indigenous Head of Department was Professor Abubakar Sani Sambo, whose tenure lasted for 2 years, from 1988 to 1989.

From inception till 1981 82 session, intake into the then 3-year degree programme was through the pre- degree programme of the Faculty. The pre-degree programme includes courses in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Workshop Technology. From the 1984/85 session, the Mechanical Engineering Department with other Departments in the Faculty started a 4-year degree programme, where majority of the intakes was from the one-year science remedial programme of the university. From the 1990/91 session, the Department began a 5-year degree programme which runs to date.

The Department of Mechanical Engineering offers two programmes at the undergraduate level, Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering and Bachelor of Engineering in Automotive Engineering. At the postgraduate level, the Department offers Postgraduate Diploma in Mechanical Engineering, Masters in Energy Engineering, Masters in Production Engineering, Masters in Materials & Metallurgical Engineering, Masters of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering, PhD in Energy Engineering, PhD in Production Engineering and PhD in Materials & Metallurgical Engineering.

Over the years, the staff strength of the Department has improved significantly. The Department has thirty-two members of academic staff, with over twenty-one of them with PhD degree while others are at various stages of completing their PhD programme in reputable universities abroad. The technical staff strength is also very impressive. Currently, there are eighteen technical staff handling the practical laboratory sessions.

The Department in addition, to the sound theoretical background given to the students in the lecture rooms, also exposes them to extensive relevant laboratory work and exercises. In addition, the students are trained through an 8-week Students Work Experience Programme (SWEP) in Level 200, a three month supervised Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES I) in Level 300, and a 6-month well organised Student Industrial Works Experience Scheme (SIWES II) during the whole of the second semester period for the Level 400 students.

Lectures received in the classroom are complemented with practical laboratory sessions in Thermodynamics, Materials Science, Solid Mechanics, Applied Mechanics, Machine Tools, Metrology, Manufacturing Processes, Control Engineering, Computer-Aided Design and Manufacture, Engineering drawing, Innovative Design, Fluid Mechanics, and others. The Department has enormous physical facilities and advanced research laboratories that are well equipped to support academic programmes and research.