Ph.D. Degree Requirements

Ph.D. Program Degree Requirements

Students in the Ph.D. program chose to major in one of the following concentrations:

Mechanical Engineering

  • biomedical mechanics
  • dynamics and control
  • energy and sustainability
  • fluid dynamics
  • micro- and nanoscale engineering
  • solid mechanics and materials
  • thermal science

Aerospace Engineering

  • aerodynamics
  • aerospace systems
  • biomedical mechanics
  • dynamics and control
  • materials and structures
  • propulsion
  • thermal sciences

Theoretical and Applied Mechanics

  • advanced composites and structures
  • dynamics and space mechanics
  • fluid mechanics
  • mechanics of materials
  • solid mechanics

Students must choose an advisor who represents their major field and concentration by the end of the first semester. They must choose their full committee, made up of at least three members of the graduate field faculty, by the end of their third semester.  

Students must take a Qualifying Exam (Q-Exam) in addition to those exams required by the Graduate School (A and B Exams). Students entering with a master’s degree typically take the Qualifying exam at the end of the first semester, those entering with a bachelor’s degree, at the end of the first year. 

All Ph.D. students in Mechanical Engineering and Aerospace Engineering must serve as a teaching assistant for two semesters; those in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics must serve as a teaching assistant for one semester.