The Department of Mechanical Engineering offers graduate programs leading to Master of Science and PhD degrees in Mechanical Engineering.  Each graduate student, in consultation with his or her graduate committee, prepares an individual program of study. Current areas of research include:

• Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering
• Biomimetics
• Composite Materials and Structures
• Computational Mechanics
• Controls and Dynamic Systems
• Design Optimization
• Fluid Mechanics
• Heat Transfer
• Marine Renewable Energy
• Nanomaterials and Devices Offshore Engineering
• Reduced-Order Modeling
• Robotics
• Smart Materials
• Solar Thermal Energy
• Solid Mechanics
• Thermal Sciences
• Uncertainty Quantification
• Engineering Education

The Master of Science degree with thesis requires a minimum of six credit hours of thesis research in addition to 24 credit hours of acceptable coursework. The M.S. degree program will include courses from both the engineering mechanics and thermofluid science fields. For students with a strong interest in other disciplines, excellent opportunities exist for an interdisciplinary program of study in which up to 40% of the MS degree credit is earned in another department in the university.  

• The non-thesis Master’s degree requires a minimum of 30 credit hours of coursework and a comprehensive examination.

The Ph.D. degree program is more narrowly focused on a topic of interest to the student and the faculty advisor. Interdisciplinary PhD research is performed in collaboration with faculty in other disciplines as a part of a coherent graduate degree program in Mechanical Engineering.