The Department of Mechanical Engineering offers Master of Science(MS) and doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees in both Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Mechanics.

Master of Science degree program students complete 30 credits of graduate work, including in most cases a Master’s thesis requiring 6-8 credits. The MS program can be completed in four semesters. Students with BS degrees in Mechanical Engineering, Engineering Mechanics or or a related area can be admitted into the MS program. M.S. students frequently apply and are admitted to the ME Accelerated Ph.D. Entry program.

The PhD Degree is a research-based degree with specific course requirements set by a research adviser and committee to support the student's area of research. Students complete both coursework and research requiring 2 to 5 years beyond the MS degree. Students with an MS degree, or equivalent, in Mechanical Engineering, Engineering Mechanics, or a related area can be admitted into the PhD program.

Most of our graduate students receive some form of financial aid, the majority of them in the form of research or teaching assistantships and fellowships. Graduate students appointed as Research Assistants (RAs) work in funded research projects sponsored by various industrial and federal agencies. This work is typically the basis for the student’s MS or PhD thesis. In the year 2007 the department recorded over $4M in research expenditures. In addition to research assistantships, some students have appointments as Teaching Assistants (TAs). Teaching assistantships enable many of our students to obtain both laboratory and classroom teaching experiences. Many of our graduate students start in their program as TAs, but quickly move to RA positions.

Almost all of our graduate students are involved in a research project. Most research activity in the department is organized around one of several world-class research laboratories which support a variety of experimental, computational, and analytical activities. These labs support research activities along three primary stems of engineering: mechanical systems, engineering mechanics and thermal-fluids engineering. Primary focal areas of research in the department include Automotive Engines, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Computational Solid Mechanics, Manufacturing, Fluid Mechanics, Heat Transfer & Thermodynamics, Mechanics, Systems & Controls, Turbo machinery, and Dynamics & Vibrations. Browse the faculty pages to learn what our faculty is doing in these areas.