Mechanical Engineering Major, PhD

Requirements

All students must complete a minimum of 72 graduate semester credit hours beyond the bachelor’s degree. These must include a minimum of 24 credit hours in Doctoral Research and Dissertation. Specific requirements for required course work are:

• Students entering with an MS degree will be required to take a minimum of 12 credit hours of graduate course work, exclusive of ME 601, dissertation credit or seminar courses.
• Students entering with a BS degree will be required to take a minimum of 42 credit hours of graduate course work, exclusive of ME 601, dissertation credit or seminar courses.

This course work, including that taken for an MS degree, must include:

• A minimum of 9 semester credit hours of graduate work in mathematics courses numbered 400 or above with a minimum of 3 credit hours numbered 500 or above. The department may approve other courses with sufficient mathematical content to meet this requirement.
• A minimum of 21 credit hours of graduate course work in the major in courses numbered 500 and above. The department may approve other departmental courses to meet this requirement.
• A minimum of 6 semester credit hours of graduate course work is required at the 600 level. These are exclusive of ME 601, thesis or dissertation credit. The total number of approved course work and dissertation credit hours must meet the university’s requirement of a minimum of 72 credit hours.

Additional requirements for all students include the following.

• Registration and participation in the graduate seminar in the major program.
• Meet all departmental examination requirements, which include passing a written and oral comprehensive examination.
• Presentation of a dissertation proposal to the student’s advisory committee and approval of that proposal by that committee.
• Successful defense of the dissertation.