School of Mechanical Engineering

Introduction

School of Mechanical Engineering was founded in 1983. The school provides 5 majors for undergraduate students, including “Mechanical Design, Manufacture & Automation”, “Packaging Engineering”, “Industrial Design”, “Process Equipment & Control Engineering” and “Material Shaping & Controlling Engineering”, and confers master degree of Mechanical Engineering which is approved to be first level discipline. Among them, Packaging Engineering and Mechanical Design, Manufacture and Automation are brand majors in Hubei province and the former is also ranked into the majors of the national level with its unique characteristics, Packaging Machinery is national superior-quality curriculum, Food Machinery and Basis of Mechanical Design are provincial superior-quality curriculums of Hubei province and Mechanical Design and Theory is key (characteristic) discipline of Hubei province. Besides, the school is responsible for the establishment of two scientific research platforms: “Research centre of grain and oil mechanical engineering technology of Hubei province” and “Research and development centre of generic technological food machinery equipment of small and medium-sized enterprises in Hubei province”.

At present, the school has more than 1400 students and a staff of 85 teachers, among whom there are 12 professors, 18 associate professors, 3 experts with outstanding contributions at provincial or ministerial level, 2 doctoral tutors, 18 master tutors, 12 teachers with doctoral degree and 32 teachers with master’s degree. The school now covers 7 teaching & research offices which are mainly responsible for studying “Engineering Graphics”, “Basis of Mechanical Design”, “Mechanical Design, Manufacture and Automation”, “Packaging Engineering”, “Industrial Design”, “Process Equipment and Control Engineering” and “Material Shaping and Controlling Engineering” respectively. Besides, it consists of 11 specialized laboratories, an engineering practical training center and a factory for metalworking practice. In addition, the school possesses various instruments and facilities including CNC Machining Center valued at more than 10 million yuan to meet the requirements of teaching and scientific research for both undergraduate and postgraduate students.

After two decades of construction and development, distinct characteristics of disciplines with inherent content enriched during the process of teaching and scientific research have been shaped in School of Mechanical Engineering. In the past 5 years, the school has taken a number of remarkable national major research projects and provincial or ministerial major scientific and technological R&D projects, gained more than 10 science and technology awards including 2 second prizes of national science and technology progress award, passed 20 plus science and technology appraisal projects, completed more than 60 horizontal research projects, obtained more than 30 national patents and published over 350 papers among which over 80 have been collected in SCI, EI and ISTP. Moreover, the school has formed distinct characteristics in the following disciplines: new type Grain and Oil, Feed, Food Machinery R&D, Full-automatic Packaging Machine R&D, Machinery Manufacturing Equipment and Technology, Characteristic Machinery Products Design Innovation and Industrialization Development, Packaging Dynamics Research and Design, and Product Model Design. Many technological results take the lead within the domestic same industry.

The school follows the education philosophy of “generic technology-oriented, industrial characteristic-oriented and engineering application-oriented”, establishing the teaching concept of “Taking the Education of People as the Basis and Giving Priority to Moral Education” firmly. The first priority goes to the overall improvement of undergraduate education proficiency through joint efforts of the whole faculty and control over the whole process of school-running. It is much to our delight to see the fruitful results after industrious efforts in the past two decades. The professional talents more than three thousand provided by the school have received universal recognition from the society and employers. Many large and well-known companies have reached long-term agreement with our school to employ our graduates and many other companies have set up alliances with our school to develop the integrated operation route of “production, study and research” and have become the regular off-campus practice bases of our school. Especially in recent five years, there has been a favorable situation of enrollment and employment in the school with the employment rate remaining 95% and above. In addition, the school has provided “211 project” universities such as Wuhan University and Huazhong University of Science and Technology with a lot of graduates to further their study as postgraduates, among whom, more than 30 have obtained doctoral degree. What’s more, students of the school always have given superb performances in all kinds of national and provincial science and technology contests among university students, and gained top ranks in various contests of university level in different fields such as culture, sports, science and technology etc.

With its profound discipline background, dynamic innovative thinking, efficient teamwork, harmonious relationship between teachers & students and ambitious objectives, the school closely links every member together. It is convinced that with the joint efforts of all the teachers and students, the development of the next five-year plan will become the most impressive chapter in the history of the school.