THEME DEVELOPMENT
The Mechanical Engineering – Engineering Mechanics Department comes to Monte each year with a theme in mind to begin content development and design. This year’s Annual Report theme was simulation. In recent years, the Department added on a simulation element to their curriculum, so students follow the industry-standard practices for engineering design in their coursework and projects: simulate, design, build, and test.

CONTENT CREATION
Once the theme was established, the Department provided Monte with a list of faculty and alumni, whose work aligned with the theme of simulation. Monte coordinated over 20 interviews with the alumni and faculty represented in the report to get a background on their work, their research, and their impact on the curriculum. During the interviews, the Monte team developed a broad understanding of how simulation has impacted each of them.
Next the Monte team of creative writers built a story about each interviewee and their role in simulation, from the software they create to the role of simulation in improving safety features.

BUILDING THE THEME
Once the interviews were completed and the articles approved by each interview subject, the Monte design team started working on the layout of the report; selecting colors appropriate for the year’s theme and adding in any design elements. This year’s report was broken into three sections: Alumni, Education, and Faculty, so pages for each topic were created, showcasing a photo relating to the topic, the circular design elements, and the content that aligns with each.
Fun fact: Monte has created the ME-EM annual reports since 2006

PHOTO DRIVEN
Each year, the center spread incorporates the enrollment and degrees for undergraduate and graduate studies within the Department. The Monte team scoured through the ME-EM’s photo collection from 2015 and 2016 to find a photo that featured faculty or student research being conducted within the Department. This year’s photo features Dr. Nina Mahmoudian, who was selected as the NAE Frontiers of Engineering for her work on marine robotics. Additional information about her research is also featured on the back cover of the report.

THE COVER
Many cover possibilities were discussed before the ME-EM Department decided to feature a student. Monte took test photos before photographing the final cover shot of a student holding an axel bushing that was developed using the simulate, design, build, and test workflow. The overlay on the photo shows the simulation created by the student of the part using Altair HyperMesh software. To make the theme even clearer, the circle elements from the pages of the report are incorporated into the cover design to show the process workflow in the curriculum.