ME Undergraduate Student Organizations
As a Purdue student, you have access to hundreds of student organizations across campus. Here are a sampling of groups that are popular with Mechanical Engineering students.
Leadership | Motorsports | Robotics | Space | Other
Leadership
Purdue Mechanical Engineering Ambassadors
The Mechanical Engineering Ambassadors act as delegates of the Purdue Mechanical Engineering program in promoting unity amount students, faculty, alumni, family, and organizations, as well as reaching out to prospective students, all in an attempt to bridge the Purdue Mechanical Engineering program to the local and global engineering world.
Website: http://engineering.purdue.edu/PMEA
Pi Tau Sigma
Pi Tau Sigma is a Mechanical Engineering Honor Society, instituted in order to establish a closer bond of fellowship among its members which will result in mutual benefit to those men and women in the study and in the profession of mechanical engineering. Pi Tau Sigma's core values are: Integrity (soundness of character and moral conduct), Service (serving the mechanical engineering profession and the community), and Leadership (being foremost and fostering initiative through example in a professional manner).
Website: https://engineering.purdue.edu/PTSBeta
American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Purdue University’s chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) has one goal: prepare its members to land the job or internship of their dreams! With over 7 different design teams developing projects such as Grand Prix Karts, Prosthetics, and Hydroponics, alongside CAD Training in collaboration with MILESTONES, ASME offers incredible opportunities to get hands on engineering experience. The chapter hosts weekly professional development sessions, an extensive network of company connections, FE Exam Prep resources, social events, and so much more. As the fastest growing organization on campus and Purdue’s Year of Excellence award winner, they strive to provide members of any major with first class opportunities for growth and leadership. Check out their website to learn more information and to join the Slack!
Website: https://purdueasme.com
Women in Mechanical Engineering
The mission of Women in Mechanical Engineering (WiME) is to build a supportive network of students that fosters scholarship, community, and professional growth. In addition to students supporting each other, we also draw from the experiences of all the female faculty and alumni who have been a part of Purdue Mechanical Engineering.
Website: https://sites.google.com/view/wimeatpurdue
Motorsports
Formula SAE
Members of the Purdue Formula SAE team create a well-designed car each year by combining the theory learned in class with hands-on skills. Students utilize engineering skills and state of the art tools to design and verify the new car. Our team is comprised primarily of mechanical engineering students, but we also welcome students from other majors.
Website: https://engineering.purdue.edu/fsae/wordpress
Baja SAE
At Purdue, Baja SAE means a year spent designing, building, testing, and finally racing an off-road vehicle. The competition give us the opportunity to apply the concepts we have learned in class to a real-world problem. We are exposed to many design techniques, like CAD and FEA. We must also excel in teamwork, planning, and advertising.
In the end, all the hard work pays off when we race a machine we can be proud of against other universities from around the world.
Website: https://www.purduebajaracing.com
Purdue Electric Racing
Purdue Electric Racing builds a Formula-style car with electric motors, powered by a 300-volt battery pack, going 0-60 in under 4 seconds. Our vision is to deliver the most competitive car by providing an environment for educational, professional, and personal growth.
Website: https://www.purdueelectricracing.tech
Purdue Solar Racing
Purdue Solar Racing is a student-run organization that designs, builds, and races solar-powered vehicles in national and international competitions. In addition to developing advanced vehicle systems, we participate in a variety of outreach events to educate the local community about the possibilities of sustainable transportation. Our multidisciplinary team consists of a diverse set of students who work in business, operations, and engineering functions.
Website: https://purduesolar.org
Indy Autonomous Challenge
The Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC) showcases the world’s fastest autonomous race cars, racing on world-famous tracks like the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Monza Circuit in Italy. Autonomous racing is the ultimate engineering challenge. The driver is replaced with an array of sensors that act as the eyes and ears of the vehicle, feeding data to a planning and control algorithm that students develop and tune. Machine learning (artificial intelligence) is often used to create humanlike behaviors and interpret complex sensor data. It is a complex mechatronic challenge that offers students hands-on experience in sophisticated systems development. Purdue AI Racing has competed in the IAC since its inception in 2021.
Website: https://engineering.purdue.edu/Initiatives/AutoSystems/PAIR
Electric Vehicle Club
Electric Vehicle Club (EVC) is focused on providing students with hands-on engineering experience through electric vehicle design projects. We are a multi-faceted organization with a variety of projects available to appeal to a wide range of student interests. Our flagship event is the EV Grand Prix, which is hosted by Purdue University each April. We are a competitive team in this event and are proud to have a history of championship titles, including this past season after returning from a several-year hiatus. We are motivated and excited by the work we do and can’t wait to continue growing our organization to take on increasingly more difficult challenges and providing our opportunities to as many students as we can!
Website: https://www.electricvehicleclub.org/
Purdue Grand Prix
The Purdue Grand Prix was born after a dream, inspired by a few enthusiastic students’ late night bull session became a reality. The students wanted a way for engineering students at Purdue to exercise their skills, knowledge, and enthusiasm. Since its beginning, the Purdue Grand Prix Foundation has matured into a successful and well-run organization that concentrates its fundraising efforts to provide scholarships to students. The Foundation centers on its motto of “students helping students.”
Website: https://www.purduegrandprix.org/
Autonomous Motorsports Purdue
Autonomous racing is the ultimate engineering challenge. Combining the mechanical design of traditional auto-racing with the cutting-edge software controls of driverless vehicles, autonomous go-karts are the perfect platform to design, build, and test the vehicles of tomorrow. Autonomous Motorsports Purdue (AMP) is a founding member of the Autonomous Karting Series (AKS), and hosts the AKS Purdue Grand Prix: An event where various universities design and build a driverless go-kart and compete against each other. Competing karts are tested for their performance and reliability. AKS offers a collaborative platform for teams to learn and apply their skills in an ambitious project. The goal of AKS is to make kart-scale, head-to-head autonomous racing accessible to college students.
Website: https://engineering.purdue.edu/AMP/
Motorsports at Purdue
Motorsports at Purdue (MAP) is one of the fastest-growing organizations, connecting students to various racing industries. MAP specializes in both Gas and EV Karting, fielding entries into events such as the Purdue Grand Prix and the Purdue EV Grand Prix. MAP alumni have gone on to work in professional racing, on teams such as NASCAR, IndyCar, IMSA and more!
Website: https://dbabby.wixsite.com/motorsports-at-purdu
Robotics
Humanoid Robot Club
HRC's mission is to engineer a walking humanoid robot with space exploration capabilities. The club provides students with hands-on experience in cutting-edge technologies such as robotics, human-robot interaction, and artificial intelligence, fostering an environment of innovation, collaboration, and growth. Through their ambitious project, the club seeks to push the boundaries of space exploration.
Website: https://www.humanoidrobot.club
Purdue FIRST
Purdue FIRST Programs (PFP) is a student organization that works to support the mission and vision of FIRST, primarily through mentoring students in the surrounding Lafayette and West Lafayette communities. Currently, Purdue FIRST Programs supports almost 30 elementary and middle school FIRST Lego League and FIRST Tech Challenge teams and 4 FIRST Robotic Competition teams. Purdue FIRST Programs also holds a fall qualifying tournament for FIRST Lego League with a FIRST Tech Challenge competition, a spring competition for FIRST Lego League teams, and an offseason competition for FRC teams. In addition, PFP also participates in outreach events throughout the year on campus and in the community. Purdue FIRST Programs inspires in youth and their communities an appreciation of science and technology, while developing life skills, passion, and leadership through mentoring and hands-on activities that provide opportunities for personal growth.
Website: https://www.purduefirst.org/
Purdue Robomaster
Purdue RoboMasters is a student-centered team focused on implementing cutting edge technology into the design, manufacturing, and programming of a team of six ground robots and one aerial drone for participation in the international RoboMasters competition. Students will need to transcend beyond their knowledge of engineering fundamentals to build a robust mechanical system, develop advanced autonomous control algorithms to enhance robot performance, and collaborate across disciplines.
Website: https://purduerm.org/
Purdue SIGBots (VEX Robotics)
Purdue ACM SIGBots is Purdue University’s VEX U robotics team, established in 2010. Every year, we participate in the VEX U Robotics Competition, and we have qualified for the World Championships each season for the past ten seasons— for those of you counting, that’s every season since the club has been around!
Website: https://purduesigbots.com/
Purdue Lunabotics
Purdue Lunabotics is a student organization that has been designing, building and operating lunar robots to compete at the NASA Lunabotics Competition for over a decade. This competition challenges university student teams to design and build a lunar mining or construction robot while applying system engineering principles.
Website: https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~lunabot/
Boiler Robotics (Robots to Mars)
Boiler Robotics Club encourages students to foster innovation through hands-on experience in the process of competing in Mars Society’s University Rover Challenge. Throughout the process of building Mars rovers, members build engineering, technical, entrepreneurship, and soft skills as well as meet other like-minded people passionate about space exploration, engineering, and innovation. BRC consists of five project teams (Communication & Intelligence, Robotic Arm, Chassis & Suspension, Drivetrain & Power, and Biological Payload) as well as a business team.
Website: https://www.purduebrc.org/
Autonomous Robotics Club
Autonomous Robot Club (ARC) build robots to understand, create, and innovate. We also organize events like the Robotics and Intelligent Systems Expo (RISE), focuses on pioneering innovations in robotics and autonomy. RISE immerses attendees in robotics and AI, aiming to spark interest among students and faculty through demonstrations, presentations, and networking sessions with industry professionals. The event highlights Purdue University's leadership in these fields and fosters connections among robotics and AI enthusiasts. Join us to explore Robotics and Operations!
Website: https://www.purduearc.com/
Space
Purdue Space Program
Purdue Space Program (PSP) unites Boilermakers from around the world to investigate and develop the future of the aerospace industry. We have competitive teams in rocketry and satellites that encourage students to get their hands dirty, to reinvent, and to take risks. Each of our teams focuses on different forms of propulsion and initiatives, offering a wide range of options for students to be a part of. PSP members also visit local schools and fairs to teach students of all ages about space and promote students to pursue careers in the space industry. PSP is the largest SEDS chapter in the country.
Website: https://purdueseds.space/
Purdue Orbital
Looking for fast-paced, hands-on design team experience? Come join the multidisciplinary engineering and business team solving problems in avionics, propulsion, GNC, rocketry, and orbital launch methods. We strive to provide our members not only with the opportunity to participate in exciting projects but also social and professional development that they will carry with them long after they leave the team. Through their work on the team and in the community, we hope to create a generation of bright minds that will inspire others to reach for the stars. As a colligate student organization here at Purdue University, we offer many unique opportunities for students to gain real hands on technical or professional skills before entering the workforce. From design, to manufacturing, to operations, to leadership there is always an opportunity to learn and to grow in Purdue Orbital.
Website: https://www.purdueorbital.com/
Purdue Space Day
Organized by students, Purdue Space Day is a one-day educational outreach program which provides school students in grades 3-8 the opportunity to learn about STEM by participating in age-appropriate activities with a space theme. Since 1996, over 10,000 grade school students have participated in PSD and over 3750 Purdue students have taken a lead in this exceptional program. One highlight of the day is the attendance of a Purdue alum astronaut!
Website: https://engineering.purdue.edu/PurdueSpaceDay
PURPL
PURPL is Purdue's dedicated propulsion club — we design, build, and test engines. We enable students interested in propulsion to gain hands-on experience in a collaborative environment.
Website: https://purpl.space
Other
Rube Goldberg
Were you wondering about the Boilermaker Rube Goldberg Team? Well you've come to the right place! While Purdue has had multiple Rube Goldberg Teams, our team is proud to be the longest lasting and to have won the national competition many times throughout its existence, the most recent of which was just this last year. We've also appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live back in 2014 and still hold the World Record for the longest Rube Goldberg machine set in 2012! If you want to learn more about us, stick around and Boiler Up!
Website: https://boilermakerrubegoldberg.com/
Purdue Drone Club
Purdue Drone Club is focused on drone racing, fixed wing flying, aerial cinematography, and building! We are a founding member of the Collegiate Drone Racing Association, and hosted the first ever collegiate drone racing championship in 2017.
Website: https://boilerlink.purdue.edu/organization/droneclub
Purdue 3D Printing Club
Purdue 3DPC was founded in 2013 with the goal of bringing the technology of 3D printing to Purdue’s campus. 3DPC accomplishes this by offering CAD design lessons, 3D printing expertise, and a 3D printing lab with over a dozen 3D printers for academic, research, or personal use. Membership is open to all of Purdue. No prior experience is required.
Website: https://www.purdue3dpc.org/
Purdue ASHRAE
We are the Purdue University Student Branch of the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). We are active on campus to advance the arts and sciences of heating, ventilating, air conditioning and refrigerating to serve humanity and promote a sustainable world. The society and its members focus on building systems, energy efficiency, indoor air quality and sustainability within the industry. Through our local chapter (Central Indiana Chapter), we are part of an international organization with more than 50,000 members.