CURRICULUM

Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering program requires a total of 153.5

credits. The curriculum includes 36 credits (23.5%) of basic sciences, 42 credits (27.4%) of
basic engineering, 45.5 credits (29.6%) of mechanical engineering design, and 30 credits
(19.5%) of humanities and social sciences. The program is bilingual and 30% of the courses
are taught in English. ME Undergraduate Program Committee is responsible for considering
possible curriculum changes and for insuring that the ABET requirements are satisfied. The
courses offered are monitored and assessed by the Quality Assurance Committee and by the
Course Development Committees of the Department.

Mathematics and Basic Sciences

In order to be prepared for the core curriculum, students are required to take 36 credits of
mathematics and basic sciences. In this area the curriculum contains,

18 credits of mathematics, including differential equations and linear algebra as well

as a 3-credit course in numerical methods.
Statistics within MAK 312 Measurement and Evaluation
A 4-credit general chemistry course
Four physics courses (total 8-credits)
A 3-credit basic science elective course in the junior year (MAK 336E Finite Elements
Method or MAT 271E Probability and Statistics)

Basic Engineering Courses

The bulk of the curriculum (42 credits) addresses to the engineering topics, including basic
engineering sciences and mechanical engineering topics. Mechanical Engineering students
take basic engineering courses, which are coordinated by the different Departments in I.T.U.
But for the Mechanical Engineering students, most of these courses are also taught by the
instructors of the Department; only few of these are offered by instructors from other
departments, such as Electrical &Electronic Engineering and Institute of Informatics.

The basic engineering courses are mostly scheduled in the second and third years:
 BIL 101E Introduction to Computers and Information Systems
BIL 104E Introduction to Scientific and Engineering Computing (C)
RES 105 Technical Drawing
MAK 112E Computer Aided Technical Drawing
STA 201 Statics
DNK 203 Dynamics
MUK 205 Strength of Materials
MAL 201 Materials Science
AKM 205 Fluid Mechanics
MAK 212 Thermodynamics
ELK 221 Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering
MAK 311 Heat Transfer
MAK 331E System Dynamics and Control

Mechanical Engineering Courses

According to the Program Criteria for Mechanical Engineering, mechanical engineering
graduates must have the ability to work professionally in both thermal and mechanical
systems areas. Thus, the Mechanical Engineering curriculum includes a series of courses in
each of these major stems. The following courses provide the students with the required
background in both areas:

MAK 111 Introduction to Mechanical Engineering

MAK 214E Engineering Materials
MAK 322 Machine Theory
MAK 341 Machine Design I
MAK 342 Machine Design II
MAK 351 Manufacturing Processes
Thermal Design Elective Courses
MAK 362 Applied Heat Transfer
MAK 366 Applied Thermodynamics
MAK 481 Project Design Principles
MAK 411E Experimental Methods in Mechanical Engineering
MAK 492 (MAK 492E) Senior Design Project
Options and Electives
After completing the junior year, students have to choose one of the 5 options (packages) in
which they wish to broaden their knowledge:
1. Design and Manufacturing
2. Energy
3. HVAC
4. Systems Dynamics and Control
5. Automotive
Each package has a course content of 15 credits, which consist of 2 compulsory and 3 elective
courses in senior level. These specific courses focus on the abilities required to develop
expertise in these areas. These options introduce a degree of flexibility into the curriculum,
giving students an opportunity to tailor their academic experience to meet their unique
educational goals, which may include immediate entry into industry or further study at the
graduate level. In addition to the options, students can choose 3 credits (one course) of free
technical elective courses in senior level. Students are free to choose this course from an
approved list determined by the Department.

General Education
The foundation for many of the broadening skills required for a successful career in
engineering is laid in general education. The mechanical engineering curriculum also requires
students to select 30 credits of general education compulsory and elective courses. These
courses, which are elected from department and university approved lists, are designed to
meet several needs important for mechanical engineering graduates.

All students are required to take the economics course EKO 201 in the sophomore year,
where basic concepts and laws of micro and macroeconomics are studied. Additionally
students must take a minimum of 18 credits (8 courses) from the humanities and social
sciences. Four of these credits are on two subsequent two credit courses on History of Turkish
Revolution. The goal of these history courses is to teach the students the fundamental
principles of Republic of Turkey and modernization. Besides that, students are required to
take 4 credits of Turkish courses to develop their linguistic abilities and communication skills.
In the two subsequent Turkish Language courses TUR 101 and TUR 102 (2 credits each)
taken in the junior year, fundamentals of linguistics, Turkish language and grammar, written
and oral communication skills in Turkish are studied, respectively.

Mechanical Engineering students have to take the one credit ETK101 Engineering Ethics
course which is offered by faculty members of the Mechanical Engineering Department.

The third, seventh and eighth semesters also include three 3-credit elective humanities
courses. The Department of Humanities and Social Sciences offers a large variety of courses.

Additionally, all mechanical engineering students are required to take 3 English courses, each
worth 3 credits.

ING 101 (English-I),

ING 102 (English-II),
ING 201 (Writing Research Papers), in subsequent order.
ING 103 Advanced English Program elective courses

Depending on the writing score in the English Proficiency Test, freshman students take either
ING 101 or 102. Students who have scored less than 75% on the Proficiency Exam initially
need to take ING 101 in the first term of the first academic year, then continue with ING 102
in the second term and finally complete the 9 credits by taking ING 201 in the second
academic year. Students who have scored more than 75% on the Proficiency Exam are
eligible to take ING 102 in the first term of the first academic year, followed by ING 103 in
the second term and finally ING 201 in the first term of the second academic year. The
equivalent TOEFL score to be eligible to take ING 102 directly is 79 (iBT).
ING 101 is a 3-credit pool course that general essay writing skills and technical English are
taught in it.

ING 102 is an Academic Essay Writing course bridging the two other courses in the program,
i.e., between the general essay writing skills and technical English taught in ING 101 and the
research paper writing covered in ING 201. ING 102 students are expected to produce
academic essays utilizing reliable external sources as well as their own background and
analytical thinking skills.
ING 201 is a course designed to utilize the writing and grammar skills learned in prerequisite
100 level courses and to teach the organizational and critical thinking skills necessary for
logical written expression. The end product of the course is a correctly-documented minimum
1,500 - word research paper based on at least 5 sources of information and written on a
subject relevant to students particular faculties.

The ING 103 courses are classes that introduce students to critical thinking and the
fundamentals of academic writing by emphasizing strategies within the writing and critical
reading processes. These courses encourage an appreciation for clear writing and practical
reading applications. On the whole; student curriculum focuses on reading comprehension
and written expression, organizational writing as well as verbal communication skills.
Some of currently offered Advanced English Program elective courses are as follows:

ING 103 A Creative Writing

ING 103AA Technical English
ING 103 B Business English
ING 103 I Short Stories
ING 103 N Film Studies
ING 103 G Business Communications
ING 103 P Poetry
ING 103 L Mythology
ING 103 O Psychology
ING 103 C Great Moments in Science
ING 103 H Public Presentation

On the bilingual education in ITU

Istanbul Technical University believes that communication skills in English are a fundamental
asset for a well-educated engineer; therefore its graduates are expected to acquire reasonable
competence in oral and written communication during their educational careers. Since 1997
all engineering and science departments of ITU have been instructing 30% of their
undergraduate curriculum in English. The first class under the new curriculum graduated in
June 2001. In this bilingual mechanical engineering program, the students who fail in the
proficiency examination must attend the intensive English program for one or two semesters
in English Preparatory School of ITU. In addition, during the first four semesters all students
are expected to take a total 9 credits of English courses on grammar, oral and written
communication in English.

Being aware of the advantages of education in the native language, most of the initial and
basic courses in our curriculum are instructed in Turkish, and vast majority of the courses in
English are the applied courses in the third and fourth years. These courses are given by the
faculty members who have international experience. Most of them have their PhDs from
universities in the United States and Europe and some spent long periods of time in those
universities as visiting scholars and thus they have a sufficient level of English.
Internationally accepted textbooks also help in this curriculum.

Internship Programs and field trips

In addition to engineering coursework requirements, the mechanical engineering students
prepare themselves for professional practice by undertaking internship programs (summer
trainings) in the first 3 years. The freshmen do their first internship in the machine shops of
the Department in MAK 200 course. The second and third year, students do their practice in
the industry and in addition to providing valuable industrial experience for our students, a
number of employers hire students who have previously worked as trainees for their
companies.

Through University-Industry Co-operation Program developed by the Department, students

can be enabled to do long term internship. These consist of 12 week apprenticeship, where the
student works on a project under a peer engineer to solve a certain problem of the factory or
the production process. This project may be extended as a Senior Design Project in the final
year.

The Department of Mechanical Engineering believes in the educational value of field trips,
both as a means to illustrate concepts taught in the classroom and to build a professional
awareness. There is a standing committee to organize such trips and to invite speakers from
industry to the Department to share their experiences with the students. This committee runs a
special program for the junior level students to be acquainted with the Turkish industry,
which includes conferences and factory visits.
Design Experience
Design is introduced early in the curriculum; students take a series of courses specifically
targeting design. They are prepared for a machine design practice by starting with the
technical drawing courses (RES 105 and MAK 112E). Design applications are distributed
throughout the curriculum and it is aimed to give the students an understanding of the
relationship between function, shape, strength, material, manufacturability and economics.
The basic engineering courses provide the necessary background in the first two years (DNK
203, MUK 201, MAK 212, MAK 214E).

The Department of Mechanical Engineering encourages the instructors to assign open-ended

problems in engineering courses and at least one assignment of sufficient complexity and
length to require the use of a computer. The open-ended problems increase in complexity so
that by the fall semester of the third year they are true design problems.

In the junior year, students have to take two Machine Design courses (MAK 341 and MAK
342). Most of the required engineering courses (MAK 351, MAK 322, MAK 331E, MAK
311) in the junior year are taught by Mechanical Engineering faculty members and have
design components. They also have to take one of the Thermal Design elective courses (MAK
366 Applied Thermodynamics, MAK 362 Applied Heat Transfer).

In the senior year, students are required to take a Project Design Principles course (MAK
481) and conduct a Senior Design Project (MAK 492/MAK492E). These courses incorporate
engineering standards and include realistic constraints such as economic, environmental,
service life, manufacturability, ethical, health and safety, social and political factors. The
topics included in the introductory course (MAK 481) are engineering economics, scaling,
considerations in materials substitution, competitive processes and feasibility studies,
professional and ethical considerations. Case histories are also covered. In this course, the
students are introduced to the design process with an emphasis on problem formulation,
decision making, forming and working in teams. The course serves as a means by which the
students learn the different aspects of design in detail.
In MAK 492 / MAK 492E, the students are given a major design problem. All of the projects
involve an assessment of technical feasibility and an economic analysis. Often they involve
evaluating competing materials or processes. Students work in teams on these projects. They
choose from proposed and announced projects and apply to take part within a project team. At
the end of the term they submit their written projects and make oral presentations. In every
case, students work in teams to design projects that depend heavily upon earlier course work.
Many projects are drawn from industry and many specifically incorporate issues related to
engineering standards. Each project must include realistic constraints that cover most of the
following considerations: economics, health and safety, sustainability, environmental,
manufacturability, ethical, social, and political aspects. Representatives from different
divisions of the Department are present during these oral presentations and they actively
participate in criticizing the students work. Some examples of projects conducted in the last 4
academic years are:

Design of an under-floor heating system

Design of a ground heat storage system
Design Practices for Washing Machine Vibration Problems
Solar energy heating and hot water supply of a four-storey house in Istanbul
Hybrid electric vehicle design
Modeling and finite element analysis of a new implant design of Posterior Claw
Technique to reconstitute Atlanto axial Stability
Assembly line balancing and Productivity improvement in a built-in oven factory
Maintaining uniform temperature distribution in the cooler compartment of a no-frost
refrigerator.
Spherical Robot Design and Prototype Production
Packaging optimization of a dishwasher unit
Virtual Implementation and Design Improvement of a Lumbar Vertebral Implant
Model of Degenerative Spondylolisthesis
Design of a tracked climbing robot using the stick to surface property
Active Vibration Control of a Cantilever Beam
Diesel to natural gas conversion of a 4-cylinder engine
Implant Design and Stress analysis in corpectomy
Effect of Vibrations on Human Body and Design of a Driver Seat
Roller Bearing Testing Instrument Design Project
Position Control of Solar Panels
Conditioning unit for Internal Combustion Engine Testing
 Design of the Remote Control System of a Mobile Robot for mine-scanning and
monitoring purposes
Formula-SAE Chassis Design and Optimization
Design of a single-seat Hovercraft
2 Axis Gimbal Camera Design
Design and Construction of a Two Wheeled Self Balancing Vehicle
Design of Isothermal Extrusion Press

There is also significant design content in other courses within the curriculum as well. In fact,
nearly all required ME courses have significant design content. In these, students will develop
engineering judgment through open-ended problems that require establishment of reasonable
engineering assumptions and realistic constraints.

Experimentation
Mechanical Engineering students take the chemistry and physics laboratory courses during
their first year. In addition to laboratory work in the basic science courses, the curriculum
requires the student to take laboratory work in Measurement and Control (MAK 312) and
Engineering Materials (MAK 214E). To meet needs in both thermal systems and mechanical
systems, students take the course MAK 312, Measurements and Control. In this course
students learn how to measure physical quantities and how to manipulate data by using
methods of statistics. This course serves well to combine elements of theory and practice.
They also learn how to collect information using computer-based data acquisition systems,
and analyze and interpret the data using statistical-based methods. In the senior year, there is a
Mechanical Engineering Laboratory course (MAK 411E Experimental Methods in
Mechanical Engineering) in which students have the chance of making hands-on experiments
in different fields of mechanical engineering and designing experiments related to their
Options. Students are given more responsibility in these courses with hands-on experiments,
including signal processing and modal analysis, manufacturing processes, strength of
materials, systems control, heat transfer, thermodynamics, IC engines etc., which broaden the
horizons of our mechanical engineering graduates.
Computer Skills
There are two courses in the first two years of the program where the students obtain basic
computer skills. They are encouraged to use these skills in assignments within most of the
courses of the curriculum.
until 2009;
BIL 106E Int. to Scientific and Engineering Computing (Fortran)
BIL 108E Introduction to Scientific and Engineering Computing
since 2009;
BIL 101E Introduction to Computer and Information Systems
BIL 104E Int. to Scientific and Engineering Computing (C)

Computer skills are further developed with homework assignments and applications within
different engineering courses. The CAD and FEM soft wares are taught in the compulsory
MAK 112E Computer Aided Technical Drawing and elective MAK 336E Finite Elements
Method courses, respectively. Students also develop their programming abilities in the
compulsory MAT202 Numerical Methods.

Student Chapters of Engineering Professional Organizations

Mechanical engineering students at Istanbul Technical University have the opportunity to
participate in a number of student clubs and chapters of engineering professional
organizations. The Department of Mechanical Engineering has a policy that supports all
students to be a member of engineering societies. Some examples of the student clubs (77
clubs) in the University and in the Department are:

University-wide;
ITU Mathematics and Computer Club
ITU Computer Aided Design Group
ITU Chorus
ITU Chess Club
ITU Mountain Climbing Club
ITU Photography Club
ITU Dance and Gymnastics Club
In the Department;
ITU Mech.Eng. International Mechanical Engineering Club (full member of BEST)
ITU Mech.Eng. Industrial Project Development and Cooperation Club (EPGIK)
ITU Mech.Eng. Humor Club
ITU Mech.Eng. Robotics Club
ITU Mech Eng. ASME Student Chapter
ITU Mech. Eng. Student Chapter of the Turkish Chamber of Mech. Eng.

Club activities and leadership opportunities are vital to the development of leadership,
teamwork and communications skills of our students.

The ITU Solar Car Team founded and sustained mainly by the students of our Program has
built four solar cars and has always been in the top two places in Formula G challenges in
Turkey since 2005. The last car (ARIBA IV) was also awarded with the "Best New Comer"
prize at the World Solar Challenge (WSC 2010) in Darwin/Australia.

The ITU Hydrogen Car Team, founded in 2005, has built two hydrogen cars (Hydrobee and
H2ydrobee) and participated with success in the Shell Eco-Marathon challenges in France.