Graduate Program
The Department of Mechanical Engineering offers a master of science program to select candidates. Students may also earn a master of science degree in mechanical engineering through the five-year bachelor of science & master of science in engineering program.
Information on how to apply can be found here.
Curriculum Requirements
Candidates for a master’s degree in mechanical engineering must complete a total of eight course credits, including seven graduate-level courses and a graduate thesis credit. Of these seven courses, one must be a graduate-level advanced mathematics course (ENGR 695 or equivalent) taken in the first semester; five must be 600-level courses in the Department of Mechanical Engineering; and one may be a graduate-level course from another engineering department, a math or science course approved by the student’s adviser, or an approved graduate-level independent study course that is not related to the thesis research.
Thesis Requirement
The master’s thesis is regarded as both an educational experience for the candidate and a contribution to public knowledge. The requirement of a 1.0 course credit for a written thesis in the mechanical engineering department may be satisfied by one of the following:
- An experimental or theoretical research project.
- An exercise utilizing novel approaches to solve a practical engineering problem.
Before registering for a thesis credit, the student must defend a thesis proposal. A final oral examination must be passed at least two weeks before the degree is to be conferred. While not a requirement for graduation, the submission of a peer-reviewed journal article stemming from thesis research is strongly encouraged.
Application
Research Areas
Faculty perform applied, computational, experimental and theoretical research in the following broad areas:
- Aerospace and vehicle systems
- Advanced fluid dynamics
- Alternative energy, biofuel combustion and energy conversion
- Biomechanics and mechanobiology
- Computational modeling and machine learning
- Mechanical design
- Dynamics, automation, control and robotics
- Materials processing and process optimization
- Mechanics and behavior of materials
Facilities
A wide range of equipment and facilities are available for graduate research, including:
- A fully staffed project development laboratory and machine shop
- Hybrid powertrain laboratory
- Tissue mechanics and mechanobiology laboratory.
- Motion analysis biomechanics laboratory
- Computer-aided engineering and design equipment and software for computational analysis
- Materials characterization, fracture mechanics and nondestructive evaluation laboratories
- Combustion and energy transfer laboratories
- Robotics and design laboratory
- Wind tunnel facilities
- Makerspace laboratories