Mechanical Engineering, PhD

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Admissions

PhD Program

Prospective students must have MS degree in Mechanical Engineering or any one of the following related fields: any Engineering Major, Chemistry, Computer Science, Material Science, Mathematics/Applied Mathematics or Physics/Applied Physics. Non-majors students without a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering may be required to take up to twelve credit hours of remedial coursework in Mechanical Engineering as a condition of admission.

Applicants must have at least a 3.0 upper-division GPA a GRE Verbal score of at least 150, and a GRE Quantitative score of at least 155 (or a minimum combined GRE General Test score of 1150). International students must take the TOEFL Exam and score at least 550 on the paper-based exam, 213 on the computer-based exam, or 80 on the Internet-based exam. Applicants must also submit a personal statement, resume, and three letters of recommendation. Please visit the department Web site for additional details.

Note: Effective August 2011, the GRE Revised General Test replaced the GRE General Test. To learn more about this test, go to http://www.ets.org/gre.

BS to PhD Program

In addition to the standard PhD program the department offers a direct BS to PhD program. This program is limited to students with excellent academic transcripts and demonstrated potential for advanced research. Applicants must submit strong letters of recommendation from professors or persons qualified to evaluate their academic potential. Finally, a member of the Mechanical Engineering faculty must recommend the student to the program. Admission to the program is finalized at the end of the second semester. During their first two semesters, student must maintain a minimum graduate GPA of 3.50. Final admission to the PhD program is granted by the Graduate Committee.

Students initially admitted to the master’s program may request a transfer to the BS-PhD program at the end of their second semester. The student must have maintained a graduate GPA of 3.50 or better during their first two semesters.

Degree Requirements

PhD Program

The standard PhD program requires forty-five credit hours of coursework, of which at least twenty-four credit hours must be dissertation hours. The remaining twenty-one letter-graded credit hours are divided into three areas:

General Engineering and Mathematics

Students must complete six credit hours of general engineering and advanced mathematics courses. One of those courses must be EML 5930 Special Topics In Mechanical Engineering . The remaining course must be from the approved course list. See department Web site for approved list.

Electives

Students must complete fifteen credit hours of electives. Courses may be taken in any engineering program, mathematics, and/or any science discipline.

BS to PhD Program

The BS-PhD program requires sixty credit hours of coursework, of which at least twenty-four credit hours must be dissertation hours. The remaining thirty-six letter-graded credit hours are divided into three areas:

General Engineering and Mathematics

Core Courses

Students must complete nine credit hours of core courses in their chosen depth area.

Mechanical Engineering Courses

Students must complete six credit hours of general mechanical-engineering courses.

Electives

Students must complete fifteen credit hours of electives. Courses may be taken in any engineering program, mathematics, and/or any science discipline. Students may substitute one elective course with a Directed Individual Study (DIS) course or Supervised Research (SR) course.

Additional Requirements

Preliminary Examination

All PhD students are required to register for and pass EML 8968 Preliminary Doctoral Examination before the end of their second semester (fourth semester for BS-PhD students). The exam is designed to evaluate a student’s grasp of a specified spectrum of Mechanical Engineering and their ability to think creatively. It consists of both written and oral examinations and is administered each spring. After passing the exam the student will be granted doctoral candidacy status.

Prospectus Defense

Within one year of obtaining candidacy status each PhD student must present to their Committee a prospectus on a research project suitable for a doctoral dissertation. A forty-five minute presentation of the proposed dissertation topic will be followed by an oral examination in the general area of the dissertation.

Dissertation Defense

Demonstrated ability to perform original research at the forefront of mechanical engineering is the final and major criterion for granting the doctoral degree. The candidate’s dissertation serves, in part, to demonstrate such competence; on completion it is defended orally in a public seminar before the doctoral dissertation committee, which may then recommend the awarding of the degree.