Master Degree in Mechanical Engineering

 

Location: Ancona
Access: Open Access
Order: LM-33

Type: Master Degree (2 years)


 

The course of study in short

The Master's Degree Course in Mechanical Engineering trains a professional with specific knowledge and skills that find their natural scope of application in a vast national and international industrial landscape. The Master's degree programme in Mechanical Engineering offers a comprehensive and multidisciplinary vision of the integrated development process of products, systems and plants. In fact, it covers aspects related to the life cycle of products (from conception to design, production, testing, management and maintenance, including economic implications) as well as methodologies, techniques and tools, including computer, design, testing, production, analysis and control tools of every single engineering product.

Graduates from the Master's degree programme in Mechanical Engineering are able to work as professionals in the industrial sector in general and in the mechanical engineering one in particular, taking on roles of higher technical level and greater responsibility compared to those of graduates from the three-year degree programme.
Thanks to their scientific knowledge and versatile technical background, graduates from the MSc programme in Mechanical Engineering feel at ease in any technical context, even far from their specific cultural field, which often allows them to take on coordination roles in meetings involving also specialists from other disciplines, not only from engineering fields.
In particular, graduates from the programme are able to tackle advanced design issues, including highly complex ones, and take care of innovation and development of new products and new technological processes such as:
- computer aided mechanical design
- production management, organisation and planning
- the construction of mechanical components and complex mechanical systems
- the design of energy processes, systems and plants.
The skills gained through the programme make masters graduates in mechanical engineering qualified to work in the various fields of industrial engineering. Therefore, occupational opportunities for masters graduates in mechanical engineering are vast: they are not limited to manufacturing companies, where graduates can play a leading role and aim at the highest managerial levels, but they extend to service companies, research centres, public administrations, professional studies, engineering companies and freelance activities. A further opportunity for graduates is the enrollment in PhD courses.

The admission criteria to the Master's Degree Course include: Bachelor's degree (DM 509/99 - class X - Class of degrees in industrial engineering, or DM 270/04 -class L-9 - Industrial Engineering, for Italian students, or equivalents for students graduated outside Italy); an adequate number of credits earned in specific Scientific Disciplinary Sectors (SSD), detailed in the Course of Study (CdS) regulation.

The CdS is articulated into a common part and in four curricula (Mechanical design, Mechatronics, Production systems and innovative technologies, Energy), whose contents have been identified in close collaboration with representatives of the industrial sector.
Teaching method is based on frontal lectures, supplemented by the use of an e-learning platform (Moodle - Learning Management System) for the transmission of knowledge and skills.

Professions such as engineering, medicine, architecture and others carry out work which directly affects the lives of the public. In order to assure the public that these actions and decisions are carried out safely and ethically, graduates must possess specific competencies. To ensure that engineering education programmes produce graduates who can demonstrate satisfactory achievement of these competencies, they are subject to accreditation by their professional body or another accreditation agency which carries out programme-based accreditation. In order to ensure graduates the additional benefit of an international recognition of their academic qualification, CUCS -the Unified Council of the Study Programmes in Mechanical Engineering has applied for the EUR-ACE label for its degree programmes. EUR-ACE® is a framework and accreditation system that provides a set of standards that identifies high-quality engineering degree programmes in Europe and abroad. The EUR-ACE® label is a certificate awarded by an authorised agency to a HEI (Higher Education Institution) in respect of each engineering degree programme which it has accredited.
In countries where the engineering profession is regulated, EUR-ACE® labelled programmes meet the educational requirements for becoming a Registered or chartered engineer.
- The EUR-ACE® label facilitates graduate mobility as promoted by the EU Directive on Recognition of Professional Qualification.
- The EUR-ACE® label is the educational standard for the professional card as promoted by FEANI.
- FEANI automatically includes EUR-ACE® labelled programmes in its Index which lists educational requirements for the Eur Ing title (https://www.feani.org/feani/eur-ing-title/what-eur-ing-title).

 

Professional profile and employment opportunities

Mechanical Engineer

Function in a work context:

MSc graduates in Mechanical Engineering are able to carry out their work both autonomously and in team settings, having the necessary skills to take on coordination roles within groups made up of professional figures with specialist skills also in other disciplines. They are able to tackle complex design problems, sometimes inadequately defined or with contrasting specifications, by making appropriate decisions. They can take care of the development of new products in relation to new technological processes. They are able to carry out demanding modelling and functional and structural design tasks of highly complex mechanical systems and groups, even with coordination responsibilities

Skills associated with the function:

- Functional and structural design of mechanical systems in static and dynamic domains;
- Verification of the strength and assessment of the reliability of mechanical groups and systems under conditions of use and of the materials employed;
- Definition of the experimental processes and test methodologies for the evaluation and improvement of the functional, quality and reliability characteristics of products;
- Use of CAD systems and virtual prototyping to reduce product and process development times.

Employment opportunities:

- Industries that design, maintain and manufacture mechanical and electromechanical components and systems;
- Processing and manufacturing industries that use mechanical, metallurgical and electromechanical production systems;
- Energy conversion companies and organisations;
- Plant-engineering companies;
- Companies dealing with the movement of materials and people;
- Service and industrial consultancy companies;
- Public bodies with technical functions;
- Freelance work (subject to passing the qualification exam and enrolling in the Professional Engineers Register, section A);
- Continuation on to a PhD programme.

 

Energy Engineer

Function in a work context:

MSc graduates in Mechanical Engineering are able to carry out their work both autonomously and in team settings, having the necessary skills to take on coordination roles within groups made up of professional figures with specialist skills also in other disciplines. They are able to tackle new design problems, sometimes inadequately defined or with contrasting specifications, by making appropriate decisions, and carry out design, consultancy, works supervision, evaluation and testing activities of energy machines and plants. They perform modelling and design activities for fluid, thermal and hydraulic machines. They are able to draw up an energy project both in civil and industrial environments and use thermotechnical components for both heat and cold production.

Skills associated with the function:

- Thermo-fluid dynamic design and systems analysis in the energy sector as well as in building thermal physics and transportation for sustainable mobility;
- Assessment of thermal and energy performance of mechanical components and systems;
- Definition of experimental plans and test methodologies for the assessment and improvement of the functional, quality and reliability features of energy machines and plants;
- Detailed design of plants for the production, transport and end-use of energy in both the industrial and civil sectors, also by using numerical models in a critical way;
- Design of plants for energy generation and distribution.

Employment opportunities:

- Municipality-owned utility companies for energy management;
- Public and private bodies working in the energy supply sector;
- Companies that manufacture and market energy machines and plants;
- Engineering firms involved in the design, installation and testing of plants for energy production, transport and final use (e.g. thermal and refrigeration plants);
- Companies and civil and industrial institutions where the role of the energy manager is required;
- Freelance work (subject to passing the qualification exam and enrolling in the Professional Engineers Register, section A);
- Continuation on to a PhD programme.

 

Industrial and Management Engineer 

Function in a work context:

MSc graduates in Mechanical Engineering are able to carry out their work both autonomously and in team settings, having the necessary skills to take on coordination roles within groups made up of professional figures with specialist skills also in other disciplines. They are able to tackle new design problems, sometimes inadequately defined or with contrasting specifications, by making appropriate decisions, and take part in the design process of industrial plants and production systems taking on also coordination roles. They identify and design manufacturing processes, taking into account the latest technological developments. They manage complex industrial plants by defining the best management strategies considering economic and organisational aspects. They choose and implement the management and running strategies of production systems.

Skills associated with the function:

- Definition of the optimal layout of a plant, taking into account technological, economic and environmental constraints;
- Preliminary design and technical-economical management of a plant’s technical services;
- Choice of the best solutions for warehouses and internal transportation;
- Design of production systems and processing machines and identification of production systems according to the type of products and materials as well as to production volumes;
- Organisation of logistics and handling of materials within industrial plants;
- Definition of plans and coordination of maintenance activities for services and machinery;
- Definition of production strategies and coordination of production planning and material management in manufacturing companies;
- Design of production systems and machining machines;
- Planning and management of quality control processes and design of related systems.

Employment opportunities:

- Coordination and management of production departments in industrial and service companies;
- Technical offices in companies that deal with the production and / or supply of plants and technologies;
- Management and internal logistics departments in industrial and service companies;
- Technical and commercial departments in industrial companies;
- Consultancy firms, banks and insurance companies, public authorities and bodies with technical functions;
- Freelance work (subject to passing the qualification exam and enrolling in the Professional Engineers Register, section A);
- Continuation on to a PhD programme.

 

Mechatronic Engineer

Function in a work context:

MSc graduates in Mechanical Engineering are able to carry out their work both autonomously and in team settings, having the necessary skills to take on coordination roles within groups made up of professional figures with specialist skills also in other disciplines. They are able to tackle new design problems, sometimes inadequately defined or with contrasting specifications, by making appropriate decisions. They can design, develop and synergistically conduct systems characterised by the integration of mechanical, electronic and IT components. They carry out projects for the innovation and development of mechanical and mechatronic industrial products, with a design vision and ability typically oriented towards the systems created by integrating heterogeneous subsets. 

Skills associated with the function:

- Design, modelling and analysis of the operation of mechanical systems according to the type of load (taking into account activation and control);
- Development of control techniques for even complex systems, with the modelling of the mechatronic machine+ activation + control logic system;
- Ability to assess the performance of electronic components and systems used in industrial automation, also for the purpose of their selection in the course of the functional design of complex mechatronic systems;
- Competence in choosing the most suitable intelligent machine for an automated production context and evaluate its performance, including its possible applications in different technological fields;
- Choice and design of production systems in highly automated environments. Assembly, handling and storage in the flexible factory.

Employment opportunities:

- Companies that design, maintain and manufacture mechanical and electromechanical components and systems;
- Transformation and manufacturing companies that make use of automated production systems;
- Plant engineering companies;
- Service and industrial consultancy companies;
- Public bodies with technical functions;
- Freelance work (subject to passing the qualification exam and enrolling in the Professional Engineers Register, section A);
- Continuation on to a PhD programme.

 
 
 
+ Info from the Faculty
 
Single Annual Form

The SUA contains all the detailed information on the course; is a tool through which the course obtains ministerial accreditation.