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Graduate Programs

Among the available degrees are the M.Eng., which is perceived to be more practically oriented and consists of course work; the M.S., which is considered more scholarly or fundamental and must include a thesis; and Ph.D.

The department offers graduate programs in mechanical engineering, aeronautical engineering, mechanics, nuclear engineering, and engineering physics. To accommodate a student’s career plans and interests, the graduate programs are structured to allow great flexibility in choosing appropriate courses, while ensuring sufficient depth and breadth. The professor assigned to or chosen by a student as the adviser has the knowledge to make suggestions of specific courses to further the student’s educational goals.

Doctoral Programs
For the doctoral degree, 72 credits in addition to the bachelor’s or 48 credits in addition to the master’s degree are required. Usually, this means that 12 to 20 courses beyond the bachelor’s are needed, as specified by the adviser and the doctoral committee, in addition to residence and thesis requirements. Under the guidance of a thesis adviser, the student conducts advanced study and research. If a student chooses to do a thesis with a thesis adviser from another department, a Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering Department faculty member must be appointed co-chair and the doctoral committee must contain at least two department faculty members. After approximately one year of full-time study, the student should have a research adviser and be advanced to doctoral student status. To attain this milestone a qualifying examination is required. When thesis research has begun and after approximately two years of full-time study, the candidacy examination is taken. At the completion of the research project and after the dissertation has been written, the student must defend the thesis in an open presentation to his or her committee. The degree awarded is the Doctor of Philosophy.

This degree is awarded under the auspices of the Office of Graduate Education when the thesis is directed toward making an original contribution to fundamental knowledge in a particular field or in an interdisciplinary field. A dissertation that is scholarly, creative, original, and publishable may deal also with the relation of a discipline to educational problems and objectives within the field.

 

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