The Council of the Faculty of Engineering in session on May 13th 2010, certificate 009 in which has been approved the initiative related to the modification of the Faculty Council Resolution No. 184 of April 23th of 2009 in order to include new proposals. In accordance with the Decision 144 of 2010, certificate 009 of May 13th, the Faculty of Engineering Council specified that the one hundred and eighty (180) credits required from the curriculum of the Mechanical Engineering programme of the National University of Colombia - Headquarters Bogotá, are distributed and characterized as follows:

• Basic Component: fifty-eight (58) credits required in which the student must approve fifty (50) credits corresponding to mandatory subjects and eight (8) credits corresponding to optional subjects in physics, that is with the aim of strengthening the student’s knowledge of this discipline. The 58 compulsory credits correspond to 32% of the total credits in the curriculum. The purpose of the Foundation Component is to give the student the theoretical basis that will allow him to acquire a more solid formation in subjects related to mathematics, physics, chemistry, mathematical modeling, analysis of complex systems, administration, project management, financial analysis, as well as fostering and stimulating oral, written and graphic communication skills, both in public and at a personal level.
• Disciplinary Component: eighty-six (86) credits required in which the student must approve eighty (80) credits corresponding to compulsory subjects and six (6) credits corresponding to optional subjects. The (86) credits correspond to 48% of the total credits of the curriculum. Within the Disciplinary or Professional Component, the following areas of training are established which reflect the specific aspects of the large field of Mechanical Engineering:
  • Materials Engineering: Its objective is to offer students the physico-chemical concepts that allow them to understand the internal structure of materials, establishing functional relationships between microstructure, composition, synthesis and processing of materials used in the solution of specific problems of Mechanical Engineering.
  • Manufacture Processes: Aims to develop students' ability to design, plan, select and optimize processes and manufacturing systems geared primarily to the production of mechanical components and systems, although they are also considered industrial products in other economic and application sectors. Within this approach, training in the area of processes is oriented towards meeting the requirements of environmental sustainability, resource efficiency, quality, cost, productivity and flexibility. Also considered are aspects of manufacturing design necessary to take into account within the environment of concurrent design of mechanical components and systems. Additionally, within this area the concepts of manufacturing management and automation necessary to achieve the requirements of modern production are also taken into account.
  • Mechanical Design: Its purpose is to support the training of the student in all the different topics that constitute the field of the design of systems and mechanical components. It begins with the study and training in the basic tools necessary for mastering and exercising the spatial representation of objects, continues with the study of the behavior of solids under the action of forces, whether at rest or in motion, bodies considered rigid or deformable and ends with the design of machine elements.
  • Thermal and Fluid Sciences: Its purpose is to study and develop technologies for the efficient, environmentally clean, and economically viable production, transformation, transport, storage and use of energy. It starts with a detailed study of the concepts and laws of thermodynamics and heat transmission, and goes further into the analysis of thermal installations and machines.
  • Automation and control: Given the current high degree of automation and control of machines and processes, it is essential that the future Mechanical Engineer has a good knowledge of subjects which in the past were considered to be the exclusive domain of other engineering firms, like Electrical Engineering and Electronic Engineering. This is why the curriculum includes subjects such as: Electrical Installation and Machines, Basic Electronics, Signals and Control Systems and Fundamentals, which train students in these subjects and place them competitively, within the current labour market.
  • Applied Engineering: With the aim of promoting structured thinking and constructivist training, the curriculum includes a block of four subjects, beginning in the first semester with the subject “Engineering and Sustainable Development”, in which the student is given a broad overview of what Mechanical Engineering is; it continues with “Interdisciplinary Project Workshop”, where the student has the opportunity to develop a project and apply the knowledge acquired with students from other engineering companies, then the student will have to design and build a machine working by teams with students from other disciplines of Engineering; that is in the subject “Applied Engineering Project”. Finally the undergraduate student will develop their Graduate Work where he/she will have to practice all the knowledge learned during the major.
• Free Choice Component: Thirty six (36) credits required that correspond to 20% of total credits in the curriculum. This component allows students to approach, contextualize and delve into topics of their profession or discipline and to appropriate themselves of tools and knowledge of different types of sources with a view to diversification, flexibility and interdisciplinarity aimed at comprehensive training.
  The objective of this component is to bring students closer to the tasks of research, deepening, extension, entrepreneurship and awareness of the social implications of knowledge generation. The subjects that integrate may be contexts, Faculty or Headquarters Chairs, deepening lines or postgraduate subjects or other subjects of undergraduate curricular programs of the National University of Colombia, or other universities’ subjects with which the relevant agreements exist. Figure 1 shows the curriculum of the Mechanical Engineering major.