Mechanical Engineering at NU

Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering

The discovery of new knowledge and technologies is the primary focus of the PhD program in Mechanical Engineering. Faculty members and graduate students are partners in this endeavor, with the former acting as mentors to the latter. Doctoral students are expected to not only pursue a rigorous course of study, but also to demonstrate scholarly distinction by advancing the state of knowledge in their chosen fields of research.

The PhD program requires six quarters of course work beyond the Bachelor's degree and the successful completion of a dissertation after at least six quarters devoted to research. Students entering the PhD program directly after completion of a Bachelor's degree are not required to obtain an MS but may choose to do so. The PhD program typically takes four to five years to complete.

PhD Degree Requirements

Course Requirements:

Number of post-BS courses: A total of fifteen (15) course units (excluding project/research units) are required towards PhD. Nine (9) course units within this 15 units must satisfy the MS course requirements.
MS from another school: Students admitted with a MS degree from elsewhere (those who were granted 3 quarters of residency credit by the Graduate School) may transfer a maximum of six (6) course units from the post-bachelor's degree study toward the 15 course requirement. The adviser, or the examination committee, must ensure that the student has a sufficient amount of ME course work.
Level: At least one half (1/2) of the course units satisfying the post-MS requirement must be 400-level courses.
Seminar: Regular seminar attendance is required during all quarters of the PhD degree.
Teaching practicum: Registration for the non-credit ME513 Seminar is required for one quarter within the first two years. It is strongly recommended that this seminar course be taken before PhD candidacy.
Approval: Students must obtain approval from their advisor for all courses in advance and submit a signed course form each quarter to the ME graduate program assistant before registration.
Timeline. The course work beyond BS should be finished within three years. The course work beyond MS should be finished within two years.

TA and English requirements

It is suggested that each student conduct at least one quarter of Teaching Assistance. International students whose first language is not English must pass the Test of Spoken English (TSE) with a minimum score of 50 or complete 3 quarters of English (Linguistics 380 or approved equivalent from the “English as a Second Language” (ESL) program offered by the linguistics department at Northwestern).

Residency

Nine quarters of full-time registration after the BS or six quarters of full-time registration after the MS are required. Full-time registration requires enrollment in a combination of course units and ME-590 (research) units for a total of 3-4 units each quarter. It is possible to satisfy the residency requirement in less than 3 calendar years by registering for a full program of research (ME 590) each summer.

After residency has been obtained, full-time registration is maintained at a reduced tuition by registering for ME 599 (Post-Candidacy Research, for in three quarters) or ME 503 (Resident Research Continuation). Three of the last six quarters of registration must be continuous and full-time as required by the Graduate School.

Qualifying Examination / Admission to Candidacy / Research Proposal:

Students are admitted to candidacy for the PhD degree by passing an oral qualifying exam. The oral qualifying examination will be based on (but not restricted to) a written research proposal (no more than 30 pages in total length, double spaced) prepared by the student and administered by the examination committee appointed by the department chair.

Students are eligible to take the qualifying exam when all but three of the courses required for PhD have been taken. (See GPA requirement below, however)

Students must take the oral qualifying examination no later than the end of the second year of full time study beyond the MS degree or the end of the third year of full time study beyond the BS degree. Students who fail the examination may, upon the recommendation of their committee, retake it within one quarter. Students who do not pass the re-examination shall not continue in the PhD program.

The examination committee is also the advisory committee of a student. Each committee should consist of at least three faculty members who are also members of graduate faculty. At least one of the members must be from outside of the ME department. The committee normally conducts the final examination for the PhD at a later date. The chairperson of the committee must be a graduate faculty member of the ME department and is generally the student's advisor. Any faculty member may request the privilege of serving on the committee for a particular student.

GPA requirement

GPA is determined by all post BS courses taken at Northwestern towards satisfying the course requirements above, excluding research and seminar units. All but one ME 499 may be used towards the overall GPA. Students whose GPA falls short of a 3.5 average, shall be required to take an oral and/or written preparatory examination prior to the oral qualifying examination. These examinations will be administered by a committee consisting of at least three faculty members appointed by the department chair. The student's advisor shall not serve on the preparatory examination committee. The committee will inform the students involved as to the form and content of the examination beforehand. The result of the examination will be decided by the committee in consultation with the student's advisor and the department chair. Students who fail the preparatory examination shall not continue in the PhD program.

PhD Thesis Dissertation

A written dissertation on the research project that is satisfactory to the student's faculty advisor, the advisory committee, and meets the University's requirements, is required.

Final Examination / Dissertation Defense

An oral examination by the examination committee of faculty including the student's advisor addressing the research is required. The written dissertation must be given to the members of the student's examination committee at least one week before the date of the scheduled examination.

Suggested course sequences in each of the five main sub-areas are below

Specialization in Design and Manufacturing
Specialization in Dynamic Systems and Control
Specialization in Solid Mechanics
Specialization in Fluid Dynamics
Specialization in Nanotechnology / MEMS

Specialization in Design and Manufacturing

The Department of Mechanical Engineering at Northwestern University has seven faculty members actively pursuing graduate level research in this area. These faculty members together with a very brief list of their respective research interests are given below:

Jian Cao Metal and Composite Forming

Herb Cheng Mechanical Design and Engineering Tribology

Kory Ehmann Metal Cutting, Machine Dynamics

Elmer Lewis Reliability Engineering and Nuclear Engineering

Henry Stoll Design for Manufacturability

Qian (Jane) Wang Mechanical Design and Engineering Tribology

Wei Chen Design Methodology and Engineering Optimization

Graduate study in the area of Design and Manufacturing is by its very nature highly interdisciplinary. As such, students should seek out the advice of their graduate advisor before determining an appropriate course of study for either the M.S. or Ph.D. degree programs. Students should have the equivalent of or plan to take the ME340 three-course sequence in Computer Integrated Manufacturing. A possible first-year course choice is shown in the following table (sample only):

Fall Winter Spring

ME340-1 ME340-2 ME340-3

CE 415-1 CE 415-2 ME366

ME425-1 ME425-2 ME495

ME446 ME443 ME442

Additional courses are determined in conjunction with the advisor to satisfy all departmental distribution requirements (see ME Graduate Handbook), typically including some of the following:

ME346 Introduction to Tribology

ME440-2 Product Manufacturing Engineering

ME359 Reliability Engineering

ME442 Metal Forming

ME363 Mechanical Vibrations

ME443 Metal Cutting

ME416 Non-Destructive Evaluation

ME446 Advanced Tribology

ME425-1,2,3 Fundamentals of Fluid Dynamics

ME448 Flexible Automation and Robotics

ME424-1,2 Computational Fluid Dynamics

ME460 Advanced Engineering Dynamics

ME439 Computer Control in Manufacturing

ME497 Rapid Product Innovation

(.5 credit) Intellectual Property in Manufacturing

ME440-1 Technology in Manufacturing

Additional courses from other departments are likely to be recommended. Please see your graduate advisor to specify a program of study. New graduate students without an advisor should see Professor Jane Wang to discuss their initial course of study.

Specialization in Dynamic Systems and Control

Courses on the following list are appropriate for first year MS and MS/PhD program. Courses in bold are considered fundamental. Unless taken at the undergraduate level, these should be treated as requirements. Check the Class Schedule at www.registrar.northwestern.edu to confirm availability of any course:

ME 314 Theory of Machines — Dynamics

ECE 328 Numerical Methods for Engineers (W)

ME 390 Intro to Dynamic Systems

ME 391 Fundamentals of Control Systems

ESAM 311-1,2,3 Methods of Applied Mathematics (F, W, S)

ECE 360 Introduction to Feedback Systems (S)

ECE 390 Intro to Robotics (W)

ECE 374 Introduction to Digital Control (W)

ME 448 Flexible Automation and Robotics (F)

ECE 410 System Theory (F)

CS 311 Data Structures and Data Management (F S)

CS 317 Instrumentation; Data Analysis

ECE 353 Digital Electronics Circuits & Systems (S)

CS 325 Artificial Intelligence Programming (F)

ECE 359 Digital Signal Processing (F)

CS 332 Introduction to Computer Vision (S)

ECE 418 Advanced Digital Signal Processing (W)

CS 336 Design And Analysis Of Algorithms (S)

PHYS 359-1,2 Modern Physics Laboratory (F, W)

CS 348 Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (S)

CS 351 Introduction to Computer Graphics (S)

Exceptions to required number of ME and 400 level courses are frequently granted (by advisor approved petition to the Graduate Studies Committee) in this specialization, for well-designed interdisciplinary programs of study. A typical course of study might be:

Fall Winter Spring

ME 448 ECE 390 ME 440 or 497

Phys 359-1 ECE 374 CS 317

ME 425-1 ME 314 ME 499 (research)

CS 311 ME 499 (research) ME 499 (research)

ME 512 ME E12 ME 512

Be aware that the courses listed above are provided as guidelines, and that this program is provided merely as a sample. Considerable variation exists among individual programs and special topics courses (395, 495) are frequently available. Course availability and scheduling change periodically, so confirm your intended schedule with the official Class Schedule for any given quarter. There are other relevant courses in ME, ECE, CS, and BME as well as in other departments that may interface well with your research study. Take advantage of these courses. Once you choose an advisor, all coursework should be discussed with the advisor in advance.

Specialization in Solid Mechanics

The Department of Mechanical Engineering at Northwestern University has approximately ten faculty actively pursuing graduate level research in the general area of Mechanics of Solids:

Jan Achenbach Nondestructive evaluation, fracture mechanics

Ted Belytschko Computational mechanics, finite elements

Cate Brinson Polymeric, composite and smart materials, micromechanics

Jian Cao Mechanics of metal forming, instability analysis

Isaac Daniel Experimental mechanics, composites, nondestructive evaluation

Leon Keer Stress analysis, fracture, elasticity, tribology

Sridhar Krishnaswamy Experimental mechanics, fracture, optical methods

Wing Kam Liu Computational fluid mechanics, fluid-structure interaction

Brian Moran Continuum and fracture mechanics, computational method

John Rudnicki Fracture and inelastic behavior, particularly geomaterials

CE 313 Exptl. Stress Analysis

ME 366 FE for Design

CE 318 Fracture Mechanics

CE 317 Continuum I

CE 417 Continuum II

CE 411 Micromechanics

CE 414-1 Composites I

CE 414-2 Composites II

CE 415-1 Elasticity I

CE 416 NDE

CE 415-2 Elasticity II

ME 365 Finite Elements for Stress Analysis

CE 426-1

ME 426-1 Advanced FE I,Comp. Mech. I

CE 426-2

ME 426-2 Advanced FE II,

ME 465 Wave Propagation

CE 429 Comp. Mech. Fracture

ME 466 Inelastic Const. Relations

CE 418 Continuum Theory of Fracture

For a first year MS or MS-PhD student, a typical program consists of 4 classes each term for fellowship students, 2 classes per term for RAs, 3 classes per term for TAs.
Engineering Science and Applied Mathematics offers many excellent courses, including ESAM 311-1,2,3 series, suggested for students who have not had mathematics beyond sophomore level differential equations. The series ESAM 411-1,2,3 covers more advanced topics.

The courses listed here are provided as guidelines. Course availability and scheduling change periodically, so confirm your intended schedule with the official ClassSchedule for any given quarter. Once you choose an advisor, all coursework should be discussed with your advisor in advance. There are many other relevant courses both in CE and ME as well as in other departments that may interface well with your research study. Take advantage of these courses.

Specialization in Fluid Dynamics

Recommended MS and first-year MS-PhD Program in Fluid Dynamics

Fall Winter Spring

ME 425-1[1] ME 425-2 ME 425-3 &/or ME 429

Elective or MS Core Reqt† Elective or MS Core Reqt† Elective

Mathematics Elective Mathematics Elective ME 499 or Elective

Elective ME 499 or Elective ME 499

Seminar Series: ME 512 Seminar Series: ME 512 Seminar Series: ME 512

Many students elect to cover the MS program in Fluid Dynamics over four to six quarters instead of three quarters. Students with research assistantships typically take two courses per quarter. No courses are offered in the summer quarter. Excluding ME 499, a minimum of five courses must be 4-level, and a minimum of six courses must be ME courses.

At least one elective should be in thermodynamics or heat transfer. Suggested courses are:

Seminar Series: ME 512 Seminar Series: ME 512

ME 379 Elements of Combustion Engineering

ME 427 Convection Heat Transfer

ME 428 Radiation Heat Transfer

ME 478-1,2,3 Combustion

ChE 404 Advanced Thermodynamics

At least two electives should be in mathematics. For students who have not had mathematics beyond sophomore level differential equations, ESAM C11-1,2 Methods in Applied Mathematics is suggested. Other appropriate mathematics electives are:

ESAM 311-1,2,3 Methods in Applied Mathematics

ESAM 411-1,2,3 Differential Equations of Mathematical Physics

ESAM 420-1,2,3 Asymptotic & Perturbation Method in Appl. Math.

ESAM 446-1,2,3 Numerical Solution of Partial Differential Eqns.

Suggested courses for the remaining electives are any courses from the two lists above or:

ME 424-1,2 Computational Fluid Dynamics I, II

ME 434 Random Data and Spectral Analysis

ME 489 Selected Topics in Cellular-Level Transport

ChE 424-1,2 Transport Phenomena

CE 356 Transport Processes in Porous Media

CE 455 Computational Methods in Subsurface Hydrology

ES APPM 322 Applied Dynamical Systems

ES APPM 346 Modeling and Computation in Science & Engineering

ES APPM 424-1,2 Mathematical Topics in Combustion

ES APPM 426 Flows with Small Inertia

ES APPM 427 Flows with Small Viscosity

ES APPM 429-1,2 Hydrodynamic Stability

ES APPM 430-1,2,3 Wave Propagation

Phys 359-1,2 Modern Physics Laboratory

Specialization in Nanotechnology / MEMS