BUTTE - Montana Tech’s mechanical engineering department is more sophisticated than your average gearhead garage.
“The end goal is to make a filter that will take out all the nitrogen in lakes and bodies of water,” said Montana Tech junior Ellie Ostermiller.
It’s this kind of quality that earn Montana Tech the rank of third place out of 393 universities by the Best Accredited Colleges for mechanical engineering.
“ I think it’s really cool and I think it makes sense because the faculty is so knowledgeable,” said Ostermiller.
Tech officials credit the school’s staff and intimate environment, which gives the students hands-on experience in their education.
“Engineers are ultimately supposed to improve the human conditions, so we teach: Work hard, be good, do the right thing and, you know, if ranking comes, they come from that,” said Engineering Professor Jack Skinner.
One thing that’s appealing to these engineering students is they don’t just do homework, they work on projects that find solutions to real-world problems.
“And I think that’s what’s fun about it. I think, getting to do it instead of hypothetically doing it through an assignment is really valuable,” said Ostermiller.
Montana Tech was edged out in the rankings by Michigan Technological University and New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.
