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Department History

Engineering Research Facility (ERF)

Mechanical and Industrial Engineering’s roots stem back to the beginning of UIC when it was called the Chicago Undergraduate Division of the University of Illinois, and was located at Navy Pier as a two-year temporary branch of the University of Illinois in 1946.

Due to the high demand for a permanent public university, the University of Illinois Chicago Circle (as it was then known) was established in 1965 and offered bachelor’s degrees in engineering with Mechanical Analysis and Design as a concentration.

In 1969, Industrial Engineering was added as a major field of concentration for a four-year degree.

For many years, there were four divisions and the curriculums offered by the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering department we know today were divided among the Energy Engineering, Materials, Mechanical, and Systems Engineering.

1982 

  • University of Illinois Chicago Circle merged with the UI Medical Center to be called University of Illinois at Chicago.
  • Mechanical Engineering was made into a department.

1983 

  • G.E.O. Widera was named the first department head.
  • Industrial Engineering was added to the name of Systems Engineering and was formally called Industrial and Systems Engineering with Herbert J. Stein serving as the department head.

1987

  • The Industrial Engineering curriculum was moved to the Mechanical Engineering Department.

1991

  • Krishna Gupta named acting department head

1992

  • Piergiorgio L.E. (George) Uslenghi named acting head.

1993 

  • Selcuk I. Guceri appointed as department head.

2000 

  • William Worek appointed department head of Mechanical Engineering.

2001

  • The Engineering Research Facility (ERF) opens at at 842 W. Taylor St., Chicago, IL 60607. The building houses the MIE department offices and research labs.

2002 

  • The department name changed to what we know it as today – Mechanical and Industrial Engineering.

2008 

  • The Master of Energy Engineering added to the department catalog of graduate programs

2009

  • Farzad Mashayek appointed as the department head.

2022

  • Houshang Darabi appointed as the department head.