Programs

Individuals wishing to enroll in the M.Eng. or M.S. program should have a bachelor of science (B.S.) degree in mechanical and/or aerospace engineering from an accredited institution, should have graduated with a cumulative grade-point average of 3.2 (where A = 4.0) or better, and should have achieved excellent scores on the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). Applicants who have a B.S. degree in other engineering disciplines, or in applied mathematics, geology, meteorology, or physics will also be considered. Students in this category will be required to make up deficiencies in their backgrounds as a condition for their admission.

Admission into the Ph.D. program requires an M.S. in mechanical and/or aerospace engineering. Exceptional students with a B.S. degree may be admitted directly into the doctoral program, or may be admitted as doctoral-track master's candidates. Applicants who have degrees in a closely related discipline may also be admitted into the Ph.D. program. Students in this category will be required to make up deficiencies in their backgrounds as a condition for their admission. All applicants must possess excellent credentials in their prior studies and have achieved excellent scores on the GRE. The master of philosophy degree is available to doctoral candidates.

The M.Eng. degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering is a terminal professional degree, designed primarily for professionals working in industry or government. The M.Eng. program requires the completion of 30 course credits and a project. A final oral examination and written report based on the project is required.

The M.S. degree is a research-oriented degree. It can be considered as a terminal degree or may be used as preparation for, or as a first step in, the Ph.D. program. The M.S. program requires a minimum of 24 credits of coursework and 6 credits of research beyond the bachelor's degree. The writing and public defense of a satisfactory thesis based on the student's own research is required.

The Ph.D. program is intended for those individuals primarily interested in scholarship, teaching, and/or research. It requires a minimum of 48 credits of coursework beyond the B.S. degree and a minimum of 24 credits of research. The program requires successful performance on the Ph.D. qualifying examination, one year of full-time residence, and the writing and public defense of a satisfactory dissertation based on the student's own research. Proficiency in a foreign language is not required. Although a student may attend full time throughout his or her studies, the one-year residence requirement normally is satisfied after the student has passed the qualifying examination. The residency year is devoted mainly to research.

Study is offered in the general areas of applied mechanics and engineering science and design. There are seven major fields of study in mechanical and aerospace engineering. These are design and control, energy, fluid mechanics, solid mechanics, structures, materials, and thermal sciences. Because of the exceptional variety and large number of courses available in these areas and because of the wide range of research activities in the program, students have a unique opportunity to acquire a broad and thorough education and training.

Facilities for research include modern laboratories in acoustics, biomechanics, combustion, computational fluid dynamics, computational solid mechanics, heat transfer and thermal convection, computer-aided design, experimental fluid mechanics, internal combustion engines, optics, rapid prototyping, and robotics. The school's Engineering Computing Services operates two computer laboratories equipped with state-of-the-art workstations and a broad set of simulation software.   

Research areas in which the faculty of the program are engaged include acoustics, applications of artificial intelligence, biomechanics, boiling heat transfer, combustion, composite materials, computational fluid dynamics, computational solid mechanics, control systems, convective heat transfer, delamination mechanics, droplet dynamics, energy management, fracture mechanics, gas dynamics, geophysical fluid dynamics, hydrodynamical instability, internal combustion engines, incompressible fluid dynamics, kinematics and dynamics of mechanisms, mantle convection, material processing, mechanical design mechanisms, micromechanics, nanomaterials, nondestructive evaluation, numerical modeling, optimal design, particulate emission, polymer mechanics, plasticity, random vibration, robotics, smart structures, space structures, stability of structures, structural dynamics, thermal-stress analysis, turbulence, turbulent dispersion, and waves in solids.

Additional information may be found on the department website.