Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering

Print Degree Planner (opens a new window) |

The faculty of the department strives to offer graduate courses that will challenge the students’ capabilities, inform them of cutting-edge innovations, and develop in them an appreciation of the beauty and history of our discipline. Toward these ends, our curriculum has three goals:

To ensure that all graduates possess a broad knowledge of the fundamentals underlying Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.
To ensure that all graduates have a depth of knowledge within their fields of study.
To provide sufficient flexibility within our program for interdisciplinary students, acknowledging the great diversity within MAE and its emerging areas.

Curriculum

Graduate students in our program choose a field of study from one of the following two tracks:

Mechanics
Thermofluids

Each track has a required core of 5 courses (15 hours). Every MS and PhD student must complete one of the tracks.

Mechanics Track

MAE 6020 - Continuum Mechanics with Applications Credits: 3
MAE 6210 - Analytical Dynamics Credits: 3
or
MAE 6250 - Multibody Mechanical Systems Credits: 3
MAE 6410 - Engineering Mathematics I Credits: 3
MAE 6100 - Thermomechanics Credits: 3
or
MAE 6310 - Fluid Mechanics I Credits: 3
MAE 6710 - Finite Element Analysis Credits: 3

Thermofluids Track

MAE 6100 - Thermomechanics Credits: 3
MAE 6310 - Fluid Mechanics I Credits: 3
MAE 6410 - Engineering Mathematics I Credits: 3
MAE 6020 - Continuum Mechanics with Applications Credits: 3
or
MAE 6210 - Analytical Dynamics Credits: 3
or
MAE 6250 - Multibody Mechanical Systems Credits: 3
MAE 6720 - Computational Fluid Dynamics I Credits: 3

Graduation Requirements

The graduation requirements also include completion (satisfactory grade) of

At least two semesters of MAE 7510 for an MS degree
At least six semesters of MAE 8591 or MAE 7510 for a PhD degree (seminar series courses taken towards an MS degree can satisfy this requirement).

Doctor of Philosophy Degree Requirements

PhD students must obtain the agreement of an Advisor to supervise a PhD dissertation

Course Requirements

36 credits of graduate coursework (21 hours of graduate course work beyond the core)
24 hours of MAE 9999 Dissertation Research
Completion of core courses described above
No more than 9 credits from 5000 level classes
No more than 6 credits from 5000 level MAE classes

Master’s Degree Requirements

The department offers two Master’s degrees: a Master of Science (MS), which requires a thesis, and a Master of Engineering (ME), which is a course-based masters degree requiring no research. Masters students enrolled in the MS program must obtain the agreement of an Advisor to supervise an MS thesis. ME students are assigned an Advisor to aid in course selection.

Master of Engineering - Course Requirements

30 credits of graduate coursework
18 credits from Mechanical and Aerospace (MAE) graduate classes
No more than 9 credits from 5000 level classes
No more than 6 credits from 5000 level MAE classes
No courses below 5000 level may be counted

Master of Science - Course Requirements

24 credits of graduate coursework (9 hours of graduate course work beyond the core)
At least 6 hours of MAE 8999 Master’s Thesis Research
Completion of core courses described above
No more than 9 credits from 5000 level classes
No more than 6 credits from 5000 level MAE classes
No courses below 5000 level may be counted

Publications

All MS and PhD students are expected to complete publishable original research. Regular publication and presentation of scholarly work is an expected part of any graduate level research program.