The Department of Mechanical Engineering offers graduate programs leading to Master of Science (MS) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees in Mechanical Engineering.  Students can choose to pursue a
concentration in Aerospace, Offshore Wind Energy, Robotics and Mechatronics, and Smart Manufacturing as part of their MS or PhD program of study. Current areas of research include 3D
Printing/Bio-Printing, Biomechanics and Biorobotics, Biomimetics, CAD/CAM, Composite Materials and Structures, Computational Mechanics, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Controls and Dynamic Systems,
Design Optimization, Digital Manufacturing, Fluid Mechanics, Heat Transfer, Energy and Sustainability, Passive De-icing, Marine Renewable Energy, Wind Energy, Offshore Engineering, Reduced-Order
Modeling, Robotics, Smart Materials, Solar Thermal Energy, Solid Mechanics, Surface and interface phenomena, Thermal Sciences, Uncertainty Quantification, and Engineering Education. Admission is
based on an appropriate bachelor’s degree (BS) and satisfying the requirements of the Graduate School at UMaine. Applicants holding a BS degree in another science or engineering discipline may be admitted;
however, some undergraduate courses may be required without graduate credit.

Each graduate student, in consultation with their graduate committee, prepares an individual program
of study. For students with a strong interest in other disciplines, excellent opportunities exist for an
interdisciplinary program of study. Interdisciplinary MS and PhD research is performed in collaboration
with faculty in other disciplines as a part of a coherent graduate degree program in Mechanical
Engineering.

The following table summarizes the credit requirements for all three graduate programs offered:

*Responsible Conduct of Research Training

The Department has a rolling graduate admission. However, for applicants seeking teaching assistantship, application submission deadlines are July 31 for the spring semester admission and February 15 for the fall semester.  Prospective students are encouraged to contact the mechanical engineering faculty to discuss their interest when submitting an application.  The department offers a limited number of teaching assistantship positions. Research assistantships may be offered by the individual faculty. Other forms of support through external fellowships are strongly encouraged. Faculty research interests are found on the departmental and individual faculty web pages
at: http://umaine.edu/mecheng/graduate-program/.

The Graduate School                             
5775 Stodder Hall Room 42                         
University of Maine                                           
Orono, ME 04469-5775                                 
207-581-3291
graduate@maine.edu                             

Dr. Andrew Goupee, Graduate Coordinator
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Ferland EEDC, 75 Long Rd
University of Maine
Orono, ME 04469-5711
207-581-3657
agoupe91@maine.edu
 
Graduate Faculty

Vincent Caccese, Ph.D. (Drexel University, 1985), Professor. Nonlinear finite element analysis, hybrid
connections, seismic behavior and vibration analysis and design, fatigue analysis, impact resistant
materials for personal protection.

Sheila Edalatpour, Ph.D. (University of Utah, 2016), Associate Professor. Near- and far-field radiative
heat transfer, computational heat transfer, electromagnetic wave scattering, high performance
computing.

Wilhelm Alexander Friess, Ph.D. (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1997), Professor. Engineering
education, energy efficiency in buildings, experimental fluid mechanics, sports engineering.

Andrew Goupee, Ph.D. (University of Maine, 2010), Donald A. Grant Associate Professor.  Simulation
and model testing of floating offshore structures, solid mechanics, structural optimization.

Babak Hejrati, Ph.D. (University of Utah, 2016), Associate Professor. Control and dynamic systems,
robotics, biomechanics, haptics.

Zhihe Jin, Ph.D. (Tsinghua University, 1988), Professor. Fracture mechanics, thermal stresses and
thermal shock behavior of advanced materials, energy efficiency of thermoelectric materials, mechanics
problems in geophysics.

Bashir Khoda, Ph.D. (University at Buffalo, 2013), Associate Professor. Digital manufacturing, bio-
manufacturing, advanced manufacturing processes, computer aided design & manufacturing (CAD&M),
3D printing.

Richard Kimball, Ph.D. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2001), Presidential Professor in Ocean
Engineering and Energy. Marine renewable energy, offshore wind energy, marine propulsion design,
diesel engines testing and emissions, advanced diesel fuel development.

Philip King, Ph.D. (Pennsylvania State University, 2023), Assistant Professor. Additive manufacturing,
convergent manufacturing, design for additive manufacturing (DfAM), sustainable manufacturing, large-
scale manufacturing, metal casting.

Justin Lapp, Ph.D. (University of Minnesota, 2016), Assistant Professor. Solar thermal energy and
thermochemistry; numerical heat transfer modeling for high temperature systems; thermal radiation;
material behavior under solar thermal cycling; and thermal material properties.

Christopher Mordaunt, Ph.D. (Pennsylvania State University, 2005), Principal Lecturer. Performance,
emissions and combustion processes in gas turbines.

Sharmila Mukhopadhyay, Ph.D. (Cornell University, 1989), Professor & Director of FIRST. Design,
synthesis, characterization and testing of multifunctional nanomaterials; compact lightweight
components for energy, environment, and biomedical applications; surface and interface phenomena;
multidisciplinary engineering research and education.

Olivier Putzeys, Ph.D. (University of California, Berkeley, 2007), Senior Lecturer. Combustion and fire
science; smoldering combustion and the transition to flaming; combustion in oxygen-enriched
atmospheres; thermal modeling of animals using infrared thermography.

Masoud Rais-Rohani, Ph.D. (Virginia Tech, 1991), Department Chair and Richard C. Hill Professor.
Structural and multidisciplinary design optimization, crashworthiness, lightweight and composite
structures, structural reliability and uncertainty quantification, reduced-order and surrogate modeling.

Senthil S. Vel, Ph.D. (Virginia Tech, 1998), Arthur O. Willey Professor. Solid mechanics, composite
materials, finite element and meshless methods, simulation-based design of advanced material systems,
smart structures, structural optimization.

Amrit S. Verma, Ph.D. (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2020), Assistant Professor.
Offshore wind turbine technology, structural testing and analysis of composite and sandwich structures,
leading edge erosion of wind turbine blades, probabilistic methods, structural response to impact loads.

Kewei Xu, Ph.D. (University of Miami, 2021), Assistant Professor. Computational fluid dynamics,
complex flow phenomena, unsteady flow physics, active flow control, co-flow jet, renewable energy,
ship airflow control.

Xiaoxiao Zhao, Ph.D. (Louisiana State University, 2019), Assistant Professor. Energy and sustainability for
applications in fluorine-free coatings, energy-saving windows, radiative cooling, drag reduction surfaces,
physicochemical tuning, colloids coating, re-entrant textures, and liquidlike polymer brushes.