Meet Miami U

World Engineering Day, celebrated on March 4, recognizes all that engineers do to create sustainable, economical, and safe solutions that improve lives and the well-being of our society — all while keeping a pulse on what’s next in technology. 

Here’s a spotlight on Zach Mentzer ’24, a graduate student in the Master of Mechanical and Smart Manufacturing Engineering program at Miami University, and how he plans to turn his engineering skills into opportunities to affect positive change in our world. 

Interest in Mechanical Engineering

“Mechanical Engineering is important because it allows us to figure out why certain materials behave in certain ways and the calculation of energies from one state to another. I’m really interested in Mechanical Engineering because growing up I was always very hands on and working on cars with my dad — and just figuring out how stuff works. And once I figured out about molecules and the basic building blocks of everything, I really wanted to learn more about material science.”

Choosing Miami for Graduate School

“I chose Miami for grad school because one of the classes I took in my undergrad was on advanced computational methods, and I really liked the professor that was teaching it. So, I went up to him after class one day and asked him if he was accepting graduate students.”

Graduate School Experience

“My grad school experience has been a lot of camaraderie. It’s really helped me excel in my classes by being able to study with other students in my program.”

Favorite Moments 

“My favorite moments have been in the graduate seminars and being able to learn more about other students’ research, and being able to present about my own research and be passionate about it for half an hour in a room full of other like-minded individuals. Those seminars have really taught me how to convey my research in common terms. Even though the room’s full of graduate students, everyone gets into their own niche field of mechanical engineering — so just learning how to communicate better.”

Growing as a Leader

“Miami — It’s helped me grow as a leader from my senior design project. We were on a JetCat project, which is a small jet turbine, and the project was assigned from the Air Force. So, a group of me and five other individuals all had to come together for a yearlong project on implementing thrust reversal.”

Building Community

“The community in the department is very diverse. Mechanical Engineering is a very broad field. So there is a lot of diversity in topics but also the students themselves. We have students from all around the world, and it’s really nice getting to meet those students and learn about their culture and share cultures and just hang out with them outside of school as well.”

Post-graduation Plans

“After I graduate, I plan on getting my Ph.D. in mechanical engineering. And after doing a post doctorate, I hope to become a professor myself. What I love about teaching is just helping the student reach their aha moment — and finally understanding the concept that was troubling them and just being able to be that helper for them.”

Because of Miami…

“Because of Miami, I have grown a lot as an individual and as a scholar.”

Mechanic Engineering Student Success

Miami’s College of Engineering and Computing makes student success a priority — and it shows with a 99.6% post-graduation success rate. (That means that those students were either employed, engaged in military or volunteer service, or pursuing advanced degrees within six months of graduation.) 

Mentzer mentions, “The special thing about Miami’s grad program is that you can tell that the advisors all really care about their student success.”

So thank you to all the current and future engineers and computer scientists out there for creating the resourceful solutions our world needs now.