The innovative curriculum at UC Merced provides hands-on education that exposes students to engineering fundamentals, laboratory work and the use of computational tools to solve realistic engineering problems. The program also prepares students to pursue graduate work in engineering or other disciplines. Mechanical Engineering is an evolving discipline that adapts to the current needs of society. Some of the exciting current areas of research include advanced energy systems, sustainable energy, autonomous vehicles, biomechanics and biosensors, nano/micro-technology, computational modeling, design optimization and complex systems.