Prospective Undergraduate Students
What is MAE?
Welcome to UCLA’s Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering (MAE) Department. The MAE department encompasses many disciplines, including:
- Design, Robotics, and Manufacturing
- Fluid Mechanics
- Micro-Nano Engineering
- Structural and Solid Mechanics
- Systems and Control
- Thermal Science and Engineering
Why MAE @ UCLA?
Our preeminent faculty continually invent and stretch the boundaries of knowledge, stewarding a vibrant intellectual community that constantly seeks new solutions to emerging and persistent global challenges. The applications of mechanical and aerospace engineering are quite diverse, including aircraft, spacecraft, automobiles, energy and propulsion systems, robotics, machinery, manufacturing and materials processing, microelectronics, biological systems, and more.
At UCLA MAE, our ‘robots to rockets’ curriculum seeks to strike an ideal balance of structured learning with creative, design-oriented opportunities. In both endeavors, our faculty and staff continually reassess how and what we teach, such as an increased recent emphasis on data fusion, machine learning, and sustainability. In all these endeavors, we strive to develop and maintain close, personalized interactions among students, faculty, and staff that persist beyond graduation into careers defined by lifelong learning and technological adaptation.
Why UCLA?
UCLA, often ranked as the 2nd best public university in the country, offers more than 3000 undergraduates courses in a large variety of fields including life and physical sciences, humanities, several disciplines of engineering, music, economics and hundreds of languages! UCLA students have won more NCAA championships than any other university, and the UCLA Education abroad program offers exchange programs with more than 30 countries. More than 5000 research projects occur at any given time with thousands of undergraduates participating. And if you need medical care, the UCLA medical center is ranked the best in the west!
Why LA?
Besides year-round warm weather, the ocean and nearby mountains and desert, Los Angeles has many first-class museums, restaurants, and a vibrant music scene. In addition, it is a very diverse city.
We have excellent contacts with local and national industry partners for you to obtain summer internships and jobs upon graduation. The Southern California region is home to many companies in space and aerospace engineering (SpaceX and Northrop Grumman for example), biotech (for example, Amgen), semiconductor (for example, Broadcom), telecomm (for example, Qualcomm), and a large number of startups. Actually, both Broadcom and Qualcomm started their trajectories as start-up founded by faculty from our own department. Even more, one area of LA is attracting so many startups, that it is now called Silicon Beach! Read these articles to find out more about the startup boom in LA!
http://www.inc.com/associated-press/silicon-beach-brings-tech-boom-to-los-angeles.html
http://www.fastcompany.com/3036552/then-and-now/the-snapchat-effect-how-los-angeles-startups-are-snatching-silicon-valley-talen
Where do our alumni go after graduation?
Our undergraduates are sought after and often secure jobs in the high tech, aerospace, and biotech industries. About 25 percent pursue graduate degrees in engineering, law, business, or medicine.
These are some of the companies where graduates from the classes of 2019 and 2020 are working:
Accenture (3)
ACCO Engineered Services (3)
Amazon (4)
Apple (4)
Applied Materials
ASML (3)
BiVACOR
Blue Origin (4)
BMW
Boeing (11)
Booz Allen Hamilton (2)
Chevron
City of Los Angeles (2)
Deloitte Consulting (2)
DMF Lighting
Ensign-Bickford Aerospace
Gilead
HRL Laboratories
Hyundai Motors
Illumina
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Johnson & Johnson (2)
Lam Research (2)
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (2)
Lockheed Martin (7)
Meggitt (2)
National Technical Systems
Northrop Grumman (25)
Pacific Gas & Electric
Phillips 66 (2)
Proctor & Gamble
Raytheon Technologies (10)
Rehrig Pacific
Rivian
Samsung
Sempra Energy
Solar Turbines (2)
SpaceX (2)
Teledyne
Tesla (3)
The Aerospace Corporation (2)
Tyvak
US Navy (2)
Virgin Orbit (2)
Volkswagen
Western Digital
These are some of the universities where graduates from the classes of 2019 and 2020 are attending or have recently completed graduate school:
Boston University
Caltech
Cambridge University Law School
Carnegie Mellon University
Columbia University
Duke University
ETH Zurich
Georgia Tech
Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta
Johns Hopkins University
Linkoping University, Sweden
MIT (2)
Northeastern University (2)
Johns Hopkins University (2)
Purdue University
Southwestern Law School
Stanford University (3)
Texas A&M
University of British Columbia, Canada
UC Berkeley (4)
UC Irvine
UCLA (57)
UC San Diego
University of Colorado, Boulder
University of Michigan
University of Southern California
University of Texas, Austin
University of Utah
University of Washington
Vanderbilt University