Student Organizations

ASHRAE works to advance the arts and sciences of heating, ventilation, air conditioning, refrigeration and related human elements to serve the public’s evolving needs, ASHRAE members, and also promote a sustainable world. The international voluntary organization is for people involved in heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration.

The worldwide organization includes approximately 50,000 individuals from more than 100 nations.  The Society formed by merging the American Society of Heating and Air-Conditioning Engineers and the American Society of Refrigerating.

Members include students, consulting engineers, mechanical contractors, building owners, manufacturing company employees, educational institutions, research organizations, government agencies, and organizations concerned with environmental control.  Members range from students to longtime engineers and professionals in related disciplines such as architecture and medical research.

Founded in 1880, ASME helps the global engineering community develop solutions to real world challenges. The not-for-profit organization provides collaboration, shared knowledge, and skill development across all engineering disciplines while promoting an engineers’ vital role in society. ASME codes and standards, publications, conferences, continuing education and professional development programs provide a foundation for advancing technical knowledge and a safer world.

The organization’s mission is serving diverse global communities by advancing, disseminating and applying engineering knowledge to improve the quality of life, and to also tell the exciting story of engineering.  Our goal is to be the essential resource for mechanical engineers and other technical professions throughout the world for solutions to benefit society.

At SIU, mechanical engineering students have the opportunity for networking and resume building opportunities.

The Engineering Student Council is the governing RSO for the College of Engineering, Computing, Technology, and Mathematics. We serve as a representative council for the students as well as a conduit between the Dean’s Office, the College of Engineering, recognized student organizations, and individual engineering students. As an RSO, we strive to work for the betterment of the students and the student organizations within the College of Engineering.

The mission of the ESC is to serve the student body through identifying and addressing student and RSO needs, connecting the College with the University, and providing information on lucrative career opportunities through job fairs and outreach programs.

We know Moonbuggies. The SIU Rover team’s mission of designing, fabricating and racing a human-powered, off-road vehicle to compete in the NASA-sponsored “Great Moonbuggy Race” in Huntsville, Alabama, is highly successful. The annual event honors the lunar roving vehicle driven on the moon’s surface by Apollo astronauts in the 1970s. In recent years, our design team has earned sixth, seventh, and ninth-place finishes in the international competition, and our tea earned the Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong Best Design Award at the 20th annual competition in 2012. 

The competition challenges teams to build a vehicle for two riders that must be able to fold into a four-foot cube. The buggy is also raced around a three-quarter mile obstacle course built to simulate lunar terrain. 

Building the Moonbuggy is a fantastic way for engineering students to hone their design skills, work as a team, and learn advanced fabrication methods. 

With more than 35,700 members, the National Society of Black Engineers is one of the largest student-governed organizations in the country. Founded in 1975, NSBE now includes more than 394 college, pre-college, and technical-professional/alumni chapters in the United States and throughout the world. NSBE’s mission is “to increase the number of culturally responsible black engineers who excel academically, succeed professionally and positively impact the community.” The organization is dedicated to the academic and professional success of African-American engineering students and professionals. NSBE offers its members leadership training, professional development, mentoring opportunities, career placement services and more. NSBE is comprised of 242 collegiate, 70 professional and 82 pre-college active chapters nationwide and overseas.

The Southern Illinois University Carbondale Baja Team is a newly formed student organization whose mission is to design and build a mini Baja vehicle and compete in a national SAE competition. Engineering students will design, build, and compete in an off-road vehicle built to survive the severe punishment of rough terrain. The vehicle will compete in different events that test different aspects of the vehicle’s design and build quality.  One of the events is a four-hour long endurance race. Each year we compete in one of three regional competitions against collegiate teams from throughout the world.

The exercise gives students the opportunity to develop and showcase skills in applied engineering at a national level. In building a vehicle capable of conquering many different obstacles, students gain useful skills in designing, building, and testing that is a later benefit in the workforce.

The goal of this team is to design and build a complete Formula style racecar.  The team focuses on three areas: Reliability – designing the car to withstand the highest stresses with optimal function; Weight – making the lightest, most efficient vehicle possible, and Ergonomics – making the car understandable to many groups of people.  Students will understand the design process, general business practices, and be better prepared to achieve team-oriented projects and goals. Brent Smith, a product development engineer with Ford Motor Company said Formula SAE is the premiere collegiate design competition in North America. It is a Formula SAE team opinion that the FSAE competition is one of the greatest learning experiences in an engineer’s college career.

Formed in 2012, the aim of the SIU NDE Club is promoting Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) technique and knowledge to students and introducing them to several exciting career opportunities within the NDE field. This allows future generations of students the chance to continue doing NDE with the same goal of maintaining safety, reliability, and integrity of any infrastructures or structures, which is the American Society of Nondestructive Testing’s goal.

The American Society for Nondestructive Testing, Inc. (ASNT) is a technical society for nondestructive testing (NDT) professionals and governed by a board of directors and national officers. ASNT’s headquarters are in Columbus, Ohio, with 70 chapters in the U.S. and 14 chapters in other countries.

The SIU Carbondale chapter is comprised of students and faculty. Students have several opportunities to be involved with hands-on experiences and to connect with the NDE professionals around the globe. Students have the opportunity to attend ASNT local section meetings, national conferences and related events.

The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers was founded in Los Angeles, California, in 1974 by a group of engineers employed by the city of Los Angeles. Their objective was to form a national organization of professional engineers to serve as role models in the Hispanic community. The concept of networking was the key basis for the organization. SHPE quickly established two student chapters to begin the network that would grow to encompass the nation as well as reach countries outside the United States. Today, SHPE enjoys a strong but independent network of professional and student chapters throughout the nation.

The Society of Women Engineers offers an exciting array of training and development programs, networking opportunities, scholarships, outreach and advocacy activities, and much more for women. Founded in 1950, the not-for-profit educational and service organization empowers women to succeed and advance in the engineering field and to also earn recognition for their life-changing contributions as engineers and leaders.

Tau Beta Pi, the nation’s second-old honor society, is the only engineering honor society that represents the entire engineering profession. Founded in 1885 at Lehigh University, the honor society signifies distinguished scholarship and exemplary character by engineering students and alumni in engineering-related fields. There are 237 chapters at universities and colleges in the United States, in addition to 15 alumnus chapters with nearly 522,000 members.