Graduate program: Mechanical Engineering

This program has been designed to build upon a student's undergraduate background and provide additional depth and breadth in the challenging and versatile profession of Mechanical Engineering. Options of study are available in Power/Energy, Applied Mechanics, and Design. In addition to courses in engineering, technical electives may be chosen from a variety offered in mathematics, physics, and chemistry.

Topics for thesis research could come from areas such as solar and wind energy, heat transfer, corrosion, thermodynamics, IC engines, robotics, experimental stress analysis, finite element analysis, noise and vibration control, aerodynamics, design optimization, analytical mechanics. Part-time students from industry are encouraged to select, with their advisory committee chair, job-related topics.

Department of Mechanical Engineering Website

Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering requirements

The following three options are recommended by the Department of Mechanical Engineering for qualified students pursuing the M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering. Each option is selected to build upon a basic undergraduate background and to provide additional depth in that general area and requires 36 hours of formal course work plus 12 hours of credit for thesis, plus three hours of credit for graduate seminar courses. Only 12 hours of credit of below 500 level courses may be used in any plan of study (math courses excluded). Other plans of study may be selected subject to approval by the student's Advisory Committee and the Department chair. Suggested courses for the three options are listed below.

Power/Energy Option
CH 450 Air Pollution Control
EM 501 Topics in Fluid Mechanics
ME 402 Advanced Heat Transfer
ME 407 Power Plants
ME 408 Renewable Energy
ME 426 Turbomachinery
ME 427 Introduction to Computational Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer
ME 501 Advanced Thermodynamics
ME 502 Topics in Heat Transfer
ME 503 Viscous Fluid Flow
ME 510 Gas Dynamics
Plus approved Math electivesPlus approved technical electives from Engineering or Physics

Applied Mechanics Option
EM 403 Advanced Mechanics of Materials
EM 502 Advanced Dynamics
EM 503 Advanced Vibration Analysis
EM 505 Theory of Elasticity
ME 422 Finite Element Fundamentals
ME 506 Advanced Control Systems
ME 512 Lightweight Structural Analysis
ME 522 Advanced Finite Element Analysis
Plus approved Math electivesPlus approved technical electives from Engineering or Physics

Design Option
EM 503 Advanced Vibration Analysis
ME 422 Finite Element Fundamentals
ME 506 Advanced Control Systems
ME 513 Environmental Noise
ME 518 Advanced Kinematics
ME 520 CAD/CAM
ME 522 Advanced Finite Element Analysis
Plus approved Math electivesPlus approved technical electives from Engineering or Physics

Recommended Math Electives
MA 330 Vector Calculus
MA 366 Functions of a Real Variable
MA 367 Functions of a Complex Variable
MA 383 Engineering Statistics II
MA 385 Quality Methods
MA 431 Calculus of Variations
MA 433 Numerical Analysis
MA 434 Topics in Numerical Analysis
MA 436 Introduction to Partial Differential Equations
MA 444 Deterministic Models in Operations Research
MA 445 Stochastic Models in Operations Research
MA 471 Linear Algebra II
MA 485 Applied Regression Analysis & Introduction to Time Series
MA 487 Design of Experiments
MA 580 Topics in Advanced Probability Theory and Applications
MA 590 Topics in Mathematics

Recommended Physics Electives
PH 401 Intro. to Quantum Mechanics
PH 402 Intro. to Atomic Physics
PH 404, 530 Acoustics, Advanced Acoustics
PH 405/505 Semiconductor Materials and Devices I
PH 406/506 Semiconductor Materials and Devices II
PH 407 Solid State PhysicsPH 408/508 Microsensors
PH 425 Adv. Physics Laboratory III
PH 440 X-Rays and Crystalline Materials
PH 470 Special Topics in Physics
PH 512 Methods of Mathematical Physics
PH 514 Quantum Mechanics