Mechanical Engineering
PhD
Innovation in product design and manufacturing has become a major driver for industrial competitiveness and profitability in recent years. As enabling technologies become more easily accessible, engineers are faced with increasing demands for designing and producing more complex mechanical devices to serve the needs of the society. Next generation engineering products will be ‘smart’ with many functionalities; they will be made of new materials; they will increase energy efficiency and reduce environmental impact; they will vary in size from nano to mega scales; and they will be more closely integrated with information processing systems. Also as mechanical systems are becoming increasingly complex to analyse and expensive to experiment, more emphasis will have to be placed on computer aided analysis, design, verification and manufacturing. Our research program in mechanical engineering responds to these trends and focuses on basic research related to materials science and process engineering, product design, and information integrated manufacturing processes. In doing so applications to different physical processes are studied (e.g. energy systems, bioengineering, metal forming, polymer processing, discrete part manufacturing to name a few).
Degree Requirements
Applicants can apply to our PhD programs with a BS or MS degree. PhD students admitted with a BS degree must be completed at least 14 courses and 42 credits, as well as the seminar course, by the end of the sixth semester and take the qualifying exam no later than the seventh semester. PhD students admitted with a MS degree must be completed at least 7 courses and 21 credits, as well as the seminar course, by the end of the fourth semester and take the qualifying exam no later than the fifth semester.
In addition to the credit courses, students must complete the non-credit courses; MECH 695 - PhD Thesis, MECH 590 Seminar, ETHR 500 - Scientific Research Methods and Research and Publication Ethics, ENGL 500 - Academic Writing, TEAC 500 - Teaching Experience, KOLT 500 -Teaching in Higher Education and LIBR 500 - Library Researcher Development.