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 masters 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 Materials Science and Engineering
The Master of Science in Materials Science and Engineering degree provides advanced coursework and research that blends basic materials science with fundamental engineering principles and practice. Closely tied to industry needs and applications, the program supports research in nanomaterials, semiconductor materials, biomaterials, composites, metallurgy, welding, micro-joining, manufacturing, computational modeling, materials synthesis, post-treatment, and characterizations. The flexibility of the program structure encourages students to explore research not only in conventional disciplines, but also in inter- or multi-disciplines. There are many research thrusts in this program that span a wide range of cutting-edge and cross-disciplinary areas.
Candidates must meet the requirements of the University and the Department for the MSMSE degree. The program offers three tracks: thesis, project, and coursework only. For all tracks, the candidate must finish 45 graduate credits. Among these credits, a minimum of three core courses selected from ME 513 or MSE 513, MSE 547, MSE 515, ME 527, ME 528, ME 529, ME 576, and ME 578 are required. One credit of seminar course of ME 507 is also required. If the candidate chooses the thesis option, a total of 6-9 MSE credits will be received after successful completion of the defended thesis. If the candidate chooses the project option, a total of 6-9 MSE 501 credits will be received after successful completion of the project report and a departmental-level presentation. For the rest of the credits, the candidate can obtain them from a set of specialty courses approved by the student program committee. If the candidate chooses the course-only option, a minimum of five core courses selected from the list mentioned above is required. The rest of the graduate credits can be chosen from electives recommended by the student program committee. For all tracks, a maximum of two credits of ME 507 or approved seminar can be applied to the degree.
Each student is assigned to an advisor upon acceptance to the program, and the advisor will be the primary contact for the student in the Department. The student program committee, a group of three faculty members, will meet with each student twice per year to review the course of study that the student and advisor have chosen and to monitor overall program quality.