Revised on March 22, 2022

Autonomy is a multidisciplinary field encompassing robotics, dynamic systems, cyber physical systems, sensing, control, and network science. Applications include self-driving cars, medical and assistive robots for surgery and rehabilitation, industrial co-robots for human-robot collaboration, unmanned aerial, ground, and underwater vehicles, and among others. Due to its broad applications, and recent advances in technology that allow its adoption in a broad range of consumer, industrial, and research products and applications, autonomy is rapidly becoming a core subject of academic study and is being widely adopted in industrial manufacturing systems and autonomous vehicles. Industries have also invested substantially in funding for the development of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAV) technologies.

¹ Offered in even years only
² Offered in odd years only

¹ Offered in even years only
² Offered in odd years only.
³ At most, one general elective may be selected from:

• engineering courses that are required in another (non-ME) program,
• engineering courses at an upper level (e.g. ME courses numbered 4100 and above),
• mathematics, physics or chemistry courses at a more advanced level than those required in the ME curriculum, except MATH:3800,
• independent investigation in a mechanical engineering subject area, or
• courses that appear on a list of approved courses found at  https://engineering.uiowa.edu/mechanical-engineering-undergraduate-program/focus-areas

Substitutions are discouraged and will only be approved under exceptional circumstances requiring the approval of the advisor, FA coordinator, and DEO.

For further information, please contact Professor Cichella (venanzio-cichella@uiowa.edu), Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242.