Category: NUS Mechanical Eng

Mechanical engineering involves the design, manufacture or operation of any product or system that moves and uses or produces energy. It is perhaps the most diverse and versatile of the engineering disciplines, with virtually every aspect of modern life being touched by mechanical engineering, from mobile phones and biomedical devices to aircrafts and power plants.

In ME, you build upon your knowledge of science and mathematics acquired in school to learn about solid and fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, heat transfer, control, instrumentation, materials, product design and manufacturing processes. The versatility of your ME training opens up a wide range of career possibilities, where you may design products, plan systems, or analyse and solve problems.

Besides the traditional aerospace, transportation, and manufacturing industries, you may also pursue a career in important emerging sectors such as robotics, biomedical technology and energy systems. Furthermore, the valuable skills you develop in creative thinking, critical analysis and teamwork are highly sought-after in non-engineering fields such as consulting, management, banking, and finance.

Head over to our Shop for more module content!

This module addresses the failure of engineering systems governed by the end service conditions. Commonly encountered service conditions are introduced in this module, including their impact on the service life of the individual components as well as the assembly of components. This module enables students to understand the deterioration of materials due to service conditions and how to minimize them. The topics are covered: Introduction to failure of materials; Service failure analysis practice; Failure due to overloading; Failure due to cyclic loading; Failure due to corrosion; Failure due to friction and wear; Failure at elevated temperatures, Failure of weld joints; Inspection and remaining life prediction techniques; and case studies.

Head over to our Shop for more module content!

NUS Mech Engineering Review: ME4223 Thermal Environmental Engineering

This module aims to integrate knowledge in thermodynamics, heat transfer and fluid mechanics to design and simulate air-conditioning systems, as well as to estimate and analyse the energy performance of buildings. Major topics include: Applications and basics; Psychrometrics; Comfort and health; Heat gains through building envelopes; Cooling load calculations; Air conditioning design calculations; Air conditioning systems; Air conditioning plants and equipment., Energy estimation and energy performance analysis. The module is designed for third and final-year students who are interested in the Cooling and Energy Efficiency of Buildings.

Head over to our Shop for more module content!

The module covers topics on: Linear elasticity in which the general equations of equilibrium and compatibility are derived and its applications are illustrated for complex problems; Unsymmetrical bending of beams; Stresses in pressurized thick-walled cylinders in elastic and elasto-plastic regions; Stresses in rotating members; Introduction to mechanics of composite materials; and Experimental stress analysis with particular emphasis on optical methods. This is an elective module and is intended for students in Stage 3 and 4 who have an interest in the stress analysis of isotropic and composite materials. The materials in this module are applicable to chemical, civil, mechanical and aeronautical engineering.

Head over to our Shop for more module content!

This course covers the fundamental engineering principles on kinematics and kinetics. The topics of rigid body dynamics and vibration will be covered, including the theoretical development and practical application to mechanisms and machinery. The salient features of dynamics to be applied for each instance will be clearly explained and the interpretation of the results obtained will be highlighted.

Head over to our Shop for more module content!

This module introduces students to the fundamental concepts of statics and mechanics of materials and their applications to engineering problems. At the end of this course, students are expected to be able to draw a free body diagram and identify the unknown reaction forces/moments; solve statically determinate problems involving rigid bodies, pin-jointed frames and cables; solve statically indeterminate axial force member problems using stress-strain law and compatibility equations; determine the shear stress and angle of twist of torsional members; draw the bending moment and shear force diagrams for a loaded beam; and determine the stresses and deflections in beams.

Head over to our Shop for more module content!

I found this mod particularly time consuming and challenging. Poly students (even in Engineering) will find that the depth of Physics covered is much deeper than that covered in Poly. Familiar topics such as Energy Conservation/ Thermofluids are tested in extremely great detail. New topics will be First/ second moment of area and CG of centroid. JC students will have an easier time if you’re good in H2 Physics new topics will be Thermofluids and calculation of CG and second moment of area of 3D objects. But overall this mod is SU-able and I thoroughly enjoyed it for its concepts and the perspective it gave me.

Pro tips:

– Do ALL tutorials/ optional tutorials before you go for them.(it’s normal to not even know how to start the question, if you’re here refer to point below)

– Seek weekly consultations from Tutors, they’re very good.

– Lecture was on Monday, 8am. I’d suggest webcasting it and rewatching webcast at least 3 times.

– Downloading extra topical exercises from online will be useful.

– Textbook is very good, has alot of exercises and explanations which are in escalating difficulty (I find this very useful as the tutorials are super hard and the textbook has questions that vary in difficulty with good explanations of answers)

– Do ALL questions in Mastering Physics (for the assignment itself you can find the answers online easily, be careful as they change the values in the questions sometimes)

– Clarify all concepts that you’re not sure of. Test and Exam test understanding of concepts. Questions very likely to be nothing that you’ve seen before in lectures/ tutorials but have similar concepts.

*The bell curve of this mod is pretty cool, if you’re doing above average, it’s very likely you’ll get a B+ or above.

Head over to our Shop for more module content!

This module teaches product design for manufacture and assembly. It covers the details of design for manufacture and assembly (DFMA) methods for practicing engineers and also allows for learning of concurrent or simultaneous engineering. The topics covered: Introduction, Selection of materials and processes; Product design for manual assembly; Design for automatic assembly and robotic assembly; Design for machining; Design for rapid prototyping and tooling (rapid mould making); Design for injection moulding. The module is targeted at students majoring in manufacturing.

Head over to our Shop for more module content!

This module equips students with basic knowledge in materials selection for mechanical design. The major topics are: Classification of engineering materials; Materials properties in design using case studies; Ferrous alloys (carbon and low-alloy steels, tool steels, stainless steels, cast irons); Non-ferrous alloys (Cu-, Al-, Mg-, Ti-, Zn-, Ni-alloys, etc.); Engineering plastics and composites; Engineering ceramics; Surface engineering and coating techniques; Joining processes; Material selection in design; Product costing and case studies. The module is aimed at students who want to specialise in mechanical product design.

Head over to our Shop for more module content!

This was by far my favourite module and I’m quite sure many felt the same way. I’m not entirely sure but I guess level 3000 modules are less theory and calculations but more application based? I enjoyed studying for this module as I found it really applicable to real life, knowing how most things around you are designed and manufactured. This time, two thirds of the mod is handled by Prof Seah Kar Heng while the remaining one third is taken by Dr Woon Keng Soon.

I must say NUS is rather fortunate to have such a cool and passionate Professor going by the name of Prof Dr MAJ (NS) Seah Kar Heng. Despite his age, he is an amazing person who evidently enjoys teaching and is well-versed in his field of research. Okay enough of the praises, let’s get to the review!

At the start of the mod, every student was urged to buy Prof Seah’s textbook authored by him ($16) which had something like A5 sized pages (edit 12/12/2020: oh god I can’t believe I mistook A5 for A3). The main reason for getting it is that Finals were open book. Personally, I got mine for $10 on Carousell. The textbook was kinda okay but it was nice to carry around and perfect to read on the go while travelling on public transport. Simply because of that, I’ve been constantly reading it whenever I have nothing to do and practically brought it everywhere I go outside during the sem. The book didn’t really have as many words as one might expect but it was a good read nonetheless. Its contents include metal manufacturing processes like Rolling, Welding, Forging, Casting, Powder Metallurgy and Electro Discharge Machining, each having different variations within their types. The textbook also includes Plastics and how they are manufactured.

It really is a comprehensive read as there are student FAQs included inside too but do add in your own notes if not make your own notes as there are things the textbook doesn’t cover. However, as Prof Seah mentioned before, everything tested in the exam can be found in the textbook. I don’t really buy that idea so I wrote my own extra stuff which didn’t help much for the exam but it’s fine because I enjoyed learning more things, however irrelevant they may be to the exam. Don’t forget to annotate the topics on your book with book labels or something if you want to be extra safe.

There also wasn’t any lecture notes for the first part of the mod, only videos of the manufacturing processes which were pretty old but still interesting in my opinion. I recommend watching them to understand the manufacturing processes better, especially for hollow extrusion. As usual, I attended almost all the lectures and they were the most relaxing ones to attend since we could simply sit back and listen without needing to struggle to understand the concepts being taught.

Head over to our Shop for more module content!