Illini football player joins M.Eng.ME program

When Michael Martin was making his decision about his future after graduation, he kept his two passions in mind—engineering and football. 

 

Martin graduated with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in December. As a long snapper for the Illini football team, Martin had one year of eligibility remaining. To make the most of his time, he decided to stay the extra year at Illinois to pursue an advanced degree while playing football. 

 

To his advantage, the MechSE department recently launched its Master of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering (M.Eng.ME) program. The 12-month industry-oriented program is geared toward students who wish to earn an advanced degree in mechanical engineering without the extra years and research usually associated with a traditional master’s degree. Students take a full course load of classes in the spring and fall semesters, followed by a capstone project in the summer.

 

Martin joined the program in January 2016, and he believes the degree will help him enter the industry side of engineering, which he has always wanted to do. 

 

“Something I have always heard is that there’s a gap between engineering and the business side, and the people who bridge that gap are the most effective in the industry,” he said. “That's a significant factor of what’s going to play into how well I do in this program and what I get out of it.”

 

Martin said he chose mechanical engineering as a major because it gave him a good range of options for his future. Engineering students have the resources to pursue many different careers, even in business and medicine, he said, and he wanted to have access to those opportunities. 

 

As both a student and an athlete, Martin said the most important lessons he learned as an undergraduate student were time management and problem solving. He also had to become proficient in communicating with his professors and coaches so neither of his two major commitments would suffer. 

 

“Mechanical engineering, you ask anyone, is not a walk in the park,” Martin said. “It’s a very intensive major. And my commitment to football is also very intensive. There were many nights when I did not get as much sleep as I should have, but those were the kinds of sacrifices I had to make.”

 

The M.Eng. program, Martin said, will also be very difficult, but he knows it will help him achieve his goals. He said it has been an eye-opening experience because it has given him the chance to take classes he was never able to before. Martin is enrolled in an aerospace engineering class as well as 500-level mechanical engineering courses and advanced math courses. 

 

He recommends this program to anyone who hasn’t had much research experience in engineering and is more interested in the industry side. He said he thinks it will be beneficial for people who aren’t as interested in research but still wish to have an advanced degree. 

 

“Pursuing grad school has given me the opportunity to expand my range of knowledge and deepen my understanding on topics that I studied during my undergrad,” he said. “I would recommend the program to anyone who wants to do either of these in their academic career before moving on to industry. While earning the degree will be very challenging, what I’m learning makes it worthwhile.”