The Department of General Engineering offers programs of undergraduate and graduate study that provide an approach to system engineering and engineering design that crosses traditional disciplinary lines. The M.S. degree program accepts students with B.S. degrees in general, mechanical, civil, and electrical engineering and computer science and is structured to emphasize planning and execution of large projects in engineering design and manufacturing. The backgrounds of the faculty are diverse, but the general focus of their research is in the area of integrated engineering design, decision making, communications, scheduling, control, Six Sigma processes, entrepreneurship and the business side of engineering. Currently this activity is divided into design of engineering systems, including decision making, reliability and optimization; engineering graphics; geometry and solid modeling; control and robotics; communication networks; manufacturing systems analysis; expert systems and artificial intelligence in the design process; nondestructive testing and evaluation; and biomechanics and rehabilitation engineering. Doctoral students in electrical, mechanical, and civil engineering and computer science are working with or being supervised by General Engineering faculty. The Robotics Laboratory features several research-quality robot arms, vision systems, and workstations with state-of-the-art robotics software. A Mechatronics Laboratory for the integration of electrical and mechanical systems is under development. The Nondestructive Testing and Evaluation Research Laboratory provides acoustic emission, ultrasonics, acousto-ultrasonics, eddy-current, magnetic particle, holography, and real-time microfocus x-ray equipment for nondestructive evaluation/characterization of a variety of materials and structures. The Decision Systems Laboratory focuses on the development of decision support systems utilizing both operations research and artificial intelligence techniques. In the Manufacturing Systems Laboratory, new modeling, decision making, and control techniques to improve the efficiency of large-scale manufacturing systems are investigated. The Illinois Genetic Algorithms Laboratory investigates the theory and application of genetic algorithms-search procedures based on the mechanics of natural selection and natural genetics. In the Algorithm Visualization Laboratory, the performance of numerical methods in engineering applications is studied using computer graphics.

• Bioengineering
• Biomechanics And Rehabilitation Engineering
• Communications Networks
• Control Systems
• Design Theory And Methodology
• Engineering Education
• Genetic And Evolutionary Computation
• Integrated Mechanical And Structural Design
• Microelectromechanical Systems (mems)
• Nondestructive Evaluation And Testing
• Operations Research
• Robotics
• Tribology
• Vehicle Dynamics
• Journals and Books
• Papers Presented at Conferences and Symposia
• Theses
• Awards and Honors