News Story
UMD Mechanical Engineering Retains Strong Position in Rankings

Ying Chen, a PhD graduate in mechanical engineering, works on a Smart Bra project led by Drs. Elisabeth Smela and Miao Yu. Chen is pictured working in the lab of Dr. Hugh Bruck, a collaborator on the project.
Mechanical engineering (ME) at the University of Maryland retains its strong position in the annual U.S. News & World Report undergraduate rankings, released earlier this month.
The 2022-23 rankings place UMD’s ME program at #12 among public universities and #20 overall, holding the position it received last year. Those figures represent a rise from the 2020-21 rankings, in which UMD mechanical engineering ranked #14 among public universities and #25 overall. More than 185 programs nationwide are ranked in the annual survey.
The quality of students joining the program, strength and excellence of the department’s faculty, and continued curricular innovations are major drivers of the department’s strong showing, said UMD mechanical engineering chair Bala Balachandran.
“We’ve had several faculty members earn prestigious recognitions this year,” Balachandran said. “There’s an exciting climate of research here that carries over into the undergraduate classroom and also fosters experiential learning opportunities in the faculty labs.”
One such professor is Katrina Groth, who received a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award. An expert on risk assessment, Groth is leading the way in the development of new strategies for assessing the hazards involved with large-scale facilities, such as nuclear power plants.
Published September 20, 2021