Mechanical Engineering Is on the Rise

Ewan Pritchard and Advanced Energy's plug-in hybrid school bus.

Research money is plentiful too, in part because of recent increases in National Science Foundation funding for the physical sciences and engineering. Silverberg says these have particularly favored M.E. "because so many of the critical problems in the forefront now lie in the area of mechanical engineering." His department's research expenditures increased 25 percent over the past five years to $8 million a year. Indeed, North Carolina State recently added two new graduate classes—one in nanomechanics, the other in biofluids—to accommodate M.E.'s increasing involvement in nanotechnology and the life sciences.

Anderson, meanwhile, should have her master's completed by spring 2009 and expects to eventually earn a doctorate, too. She's also adamant she wants to keep working at NASA: "It's better than I had hoped. I've really enjoyed it; I really feel it's the right place for me." Clearly, it's mission accomplished for Anderson's girlhood dream, thanks in large part to her mechanical engineering education.