My group consists of all mechanical engineers so we have not been exposed to too much programming in our curriculum
I find this so hard to understand. I'm a Mechanical Engineer. I got my degree 34 years ago, and I took more than half a dozen programming classes during the 4 year program. I can't believe that as computers have become more prevalent, more powerful, and more indispensable, that programming is given even less attention now than 30 years ago. Perhaps it has more to do with your choices than the school's program?