“This is an outstanding achievement for our school,” said Eckhard Groll, William E. and Florence E. Perry Head of Mechanical Engineering and Reilly Professor of Mechanical Engineering. “We are always striving to deliver the best educational experience in the country, and it’s gratifying to see that recognized by outside organizations.”

ScholarGPS includes detailed information pertaining to 30 million individual scholars at 55,000 institutions worldwide. They use machine learning algorithms and statistical analysis to offer unbiased, quantitative evaluation of academic institutions. According to their analysis, Purdue’s School of Mechanical Engineering is ranked #11 in the world, #7 in the United States lifetime, and #3 in the last five years — surpassing Stanford, Michigan, and UC Berkeley.

For many years, U.S. News and World Report has served as the de facto standard for university rankings. Purdue has achieved a fair amount of success in the U.S. News lists; both graduate and undergraduate Mechanical Engineering programs have been ranked in the top 10 for more than 30 years running. Purdue ME’s Online Master’s has been ranked #1 in all five years of that particular ranking. But Groll is encouraged to see similar results from a diversity of objective sources.

“Ranking our colleagues at these great universities is an impossible task,” he said. “There are many nuances and layers to each program. For years we’ve relied solely on the U.S. News and World Report rankings, but it’s great that we now have many alternatives to help people make these decisions.”

Highly Ranked Scholars

Beyond ranking institutions, ScholarGPS also quantifies the work of individual researchers. The most cited and significant individuals in their fields are highlighted as Highly Ranked Scholars. Purdue Mechanical Engineering faculty are well-represented in these lists:

• Jim Braun is the #1 scholar in the world for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. He works at Herrick Labs, home to the largest academic HVAC lab in the world, and the industry collaboration Center for High Performance Buildings.
• Issam Mudawar is the #5 scholar in the world for heat transfer, the #3 scholar for boiling, and the #1 scholar for both heat sinks and critical heat flux. Mudawar has long been one of the most highly-cited heat transfer researchers in the world.
• Yung Shin is the #4 ranked scholar for manufacturing, #5 for design, and #3 for machine tools. Purdue has a demonstrated history of excellence in manufacturing research.
• Andrea Vacca is the #3 scholar for fluid power. Vacca leads Maha Labs, the largest academic fluid power lab in the country.
• Babak Anasori is the #7 ranked scholar for all of mechanical engineering. Anasori recently joined the faculty of Purdue University in Indianapolis.
• Bin Yao is the #2 scholar for linear motors, #8 for motion control, and #1 for robust control.
• Steven Wereley is the #2 scholar for particle image velocimetry.
• Song Zhang is the #2 scholar for structured light, and #13 for lasers.
• Eckhard Groll is the #5 scholar for refrigeration.
• Xiaoping Du is #2 in survival analysis, #5 in uncertainty analysis, and #8 in reliability engineering.

ScholarGPS also recognizes the lifetime contributions of Purdue ME faculty who have passed away. Monika Ivantysynova, the founder of Maha Labs, is the #1 scholar lifetime in the field of fluid power. Ray Viskanta, the #4 scholar lifetime in the field of heat transfer, taught at Purdue for 39 years.

“I am so proud of my colleagues in the Purdue ME faculty,” Groll said. “They undertake world-changing research every day, and this analysis shows how crucial their work is to the foundations of science worldwide — and more specifically to our students, alumni, and industry partners at Purdue.”

Many Metrics

The larger institution of Purdue University also has appeared in increasing numbers of rankings and lists from outside organizations. Here is a sampling from the past year:

• Fast Company cited Purdue as the only university in its Top 50 Most Innovative Companies, ahead of NASA and Disney.
• Purdue was named the Best Value university in Indiana, and one of the best in the nation, by the financial services portal SmartAsset.
• For the third consecutive year, Purdue ranks among U.S. universities with the highest number of faculty selected for the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program.
• According to the National Academy of Inventors, Purdue is #5 among U.S. universities for number of patents granted for the third year running.
• Purdue is the number 3 most recognized public university in the US, according to American Caldwell’s Global University Visibility rankings.
• The 2024 Times Higher Education World University Rankings ranked Purdue the No. 33 university in the U.S. and No. 86 worldwide.
• The QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) World University rankings list Purdue as the No. 27-ranked university in the U.S., No. 10 among U.S. public universities.
• Forbes put Purdue in its top 3 best large employers among U.S. universities, and 47th overall among all large employers in the country.
• Eight Purdue University researchers were named in Clarivate’s 2023 list of Highly Cited Researchers an indication of research excellence and influence.
• More notable Purdue rankings can be found here

About Purdue University
Purdue University is a public research institution with excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities and with two colleges in the top 4 in the United States, Purdue discovers and disseminates knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 105,000 students study at Purdue across modalities and locations, with 50,000 in person on the West Lafayette campus. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition 12 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap, including its first comprehensive urban campus in Indianapolis, the new Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business, and Purdue Computes, at https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives. 

Writer: Jared Pike, jaredpike@purdue.edu, 765-496-0374