The Department of Mechanical Engineering offers graduate programs leading to either the Master of Science (MS) or Master of Engineering (MEngr) degrees. The MS degree is a research-oriented degree that is available in either thesis or non-thesis options. The non-thesis MS degree requires completion of an independent study. The MEngr degree is an engineering practice oriented degree that requires completion of an engineering design project.

The department offers combined BS/Masters programs that allow a student to complete a master's degree in as little as one year beyond the bachelor's degree. The master's degree may be either an MS or MEngr. Interested students may apply for this program upon completion of 95 credits toward the bachelor's degree. All requirements for both degrees must be met, but up to six credits of prior-approved coursework taken subsequent to admission to the combined program may be counted towards both degrees. Courses required for the BS degree may not be counted toward both degrees but courses used as technical electives for the BS degree may also be counted toward the Master's degree.

Admission Requirements
1. Students who hold a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from an ABET accredited program and an acceptable GPA are accepted without need for the Graduate Record Exam (GRE).

2. Students who hold an undergraduate engineering or science degree other than Mechanical Engineering may be admitted to provisional or qualified status with an obligation to acquire additional background in mechanical engineering as appropriate.

3.The GRE general test will be required for those applicants with undergraduate degrees from other than ABET accredited programs.

4. Students seeking admission to the MS program must have an overall undergraduate GPA of at least 2.75 or a GPA of at least 3.00 for the junior and senior years of their undergraduate program.

5. Students seeking admission to the MEngr program must have an overall undergraduate GPA of at least 2.50 or a GPA of at least 2.75 for the junior and senior years of their undergraduate program.

6. Students seeking admission to a combined BS/Masters program must have a GPA of at least 3.0 at the time of admission.

Degree Requirements:
Master of Science - Degree Requirements
Thesis Option - completion of a research project and its presentation in a thesis.
Non-thesis Option - completion of an independent study.

Master of Engineering - Degree Requirements
1. Completion of a design project.

2. At least 12 credit of engineering design and at least 9 credits of engineering science, basic science, and/or mathematics.

3. The research project, independent study or design project my be from interdisciplinary areas such as bioengineering or environmental engineering, or they may be topics in design, manufacturing processes, vibrations, stress analysis, materials, power, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, thermodynamics, or combustion.

Course Offerings:
A minimum of one 500 level course will be offered each semester. The courses will alternate between the thermal science-fluids-energy areas and the mechanics-materials-manufacturing-processes area.

Courses
ME 514. Processing of Advanced Materials. 3 credits. Prerequisite: ME 311. Structural ceramics, metal matrix composites, metal matrix composites, superalloys are considered as advanced materials because of their high specific strength. Modulus and high temperature resistance. However, machining of these materials presents a big challenge to manufacturing engineers. The course will discuss in detail the latest achievements for cost effective machining of these materials.
ME 523. Advanced Machine Design. 3 credits. Prerequisite: ME 322 and ME 323. Advanced design and analysis of machine components; kinematic synthesis and analysis of mechanisms, force analysis, rotor dynamics,, gyrodynamics, stresses in thick cylinders and flywheels, lubrication, statistical considerations, energy methods, curved beams.
ME 526. Advanced Vibrations. 3 credits. Prerequisites: ME 426. Advanced vibration theory including the solutions of multi-degree of freedom coupled systems, continuous systems, energy methods, non-linear vibrations.
ME 529. Advanced Finite Element Methods. 3 credits. Prerequisites: ME 429 or consent of instructor. Computer-aided techniques for finite element analysis of engineering systems. Topics include solution algorithm for nonlinear methods, large deflection, inelastic and contact analysis, and analysis of vibrating systems.
ME 545. Fluidized-Bed Combustion Engineering. 3 credits. Prerequisites: ME 306 and ME 474, or consent of instructor. Fluidized-bed hydrodynamics and heat transfer. Design of fluidized-bed coal combustors. Combustion models and their significance.
ME 574. Advanced Heat Transfer. 3 credits. Prerequisite: ME 474 or consent of instructor. Advanced conduction in isotropic media in two or three dimensions steady and unsteady problems. Advanced convection including solution of Prandtl Boundary layers equations, Numerical methods, Fourier series, Bessel functions, LaPlace transforms, and error functions, Radiative heat transfer.
ME 590. Special Topics. 1 to 6 credits. Prerequisite: Departmental approval. Investigation of special topics dictated by student and faculty interests. May be repeated up to a total of 6 credits.
ME 591. Research in Mechanical Engineering. 1 to 6 credits.
ME 595. Design Project. 3 to 6 credits. Prerequisite: Restricted to Master of Engineering students and subject to approval by the student’s advisor. A three to six credit course of engineering design experience involving individual effort and formal written report. S/U grading only.
ME 416. Advanced Manufacturing Processes. 3 credits.
ME 426. Mechanical Vibrations. 3 credits.
ME 429. Intro to finite Element Analysis. 3 credits.
ME 446. Gas Turbines. 3 credits.
ME 449. Internal Combustion Engines. 3 credits.
ME 451. Heating and Air Conditioning. 3 credits.
ME 464. Computational Fluid Dynamics. 3 credits.
ME 476. Intermediate Fluid Dynamics. 3 credits.
ME 490. Special Laboratory Problems. 3 credits.