The Mechanical & Materials Engineering Department offers three masters degrees and one PhD degree. Each program is designed to help students achieve career goals, meeting industry, or research interests. Students who plan to work or who are currently working in industry have the ability to earn a master's degree by completing coursework and foregoing research. Students seeking research opportunities or advancement to a PhD program have the option to perform research with a variety of faculty members, and complete either a thesis or project.
Research areas include green buildings, sustainable water, wind energy, capillary fluids, controls, mechatronics, materials testing, nanofabrication and synthesis, and electronic packaging, among others. Information on faculty, research, and labs can be found here.
Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering
The Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering provides advanced coursework and research within the various facets of mechanical engineering. Strongly tied to local industry and international partnerships, the program supports research in microfluidics, fluid flow in microgravity, manufacturing, electronic packaging, engineering science and energy conservation in the built environment. Current faculty research areas include energy systems, electronic cooling, dynamic systems modeling, computational mechanics, thermo-fluid systems, and FEM applications in mechanical design.
Candidates must meet the requirements of the University and the Department for the MSME degree. The program offers three tracks: thesis, project and coursework-only. For all tracks, candidates must complete 45 graduate credits, which include ME 551 and up to 2 credit hours of ME 507.
Candidates pursuing the thesis option must complete 9 thesis credits (ME 503). Those pursuing the project option must complete 6-9 research credits (ME 501). All candidates can apply up to 17 credit hours in total of ME 501, ME 503, ME 504 (maximum 6 credits), ME 505, and ME 506 to their degree. Candidates may apply a maximum of 8 credit hours of approved non-mechanical engineering credits toward their electives.
All candidates must submit a study plan approved by their advisor by the beginning of their third term. Updates to the study plan may be requested by the advisor or the graduate committee. Student research (thesis or project) is conducted under the supervision of faculty and a final oral examination covering the thesis or project must be successfully completed.