Overview - The Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering is a rigorous degree program designed to establish an individual’s ability to conduct independent, innovative research. Typical careers are as faculty at a research university or as a researcher in an industrial or government research laboratory.

General program requirements and admissions information for the doctoral degree are available in the University Bulletin. It is expected that any candidate to the doctoral program have an outstanding academic record and already possesses a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or a related discipline.

All applicants to the Ph.D. program must document in writing their reasons for applying to the doctoral program and their tentative plan of study. A written statement from the proposed thesis advisor must support this statement. The Department gives substantial weight to these two documents in assessing applications to the program.

Financial Aid - Most full-time Ph.D. candidates receive financial aid as either Research Assistants (R.A.) through outside grants to faculty or Teaching Assistants (T.A.) through the Department.

The maximum amount of time that a Ph.D. student can receive a stipend as a T.A. is three academic years (6 semesters).

Current Tufts students who desire to go directly into the Ph.D. program following the completion of their Master’s degree must apply to the Graduate School using the regular application. However, the application fee is waived and in place of the letters of recommendation, the student must submit their personal and advisor supporting statements. The application must be submitted prior to the semester in which the student intends to begin her/his doctoral work.

Degree Requirements - The Ph.D. degree program can be viewed as having two chronological parts - the Qualification period and the Research period.  A Ph.D. degree tracking form (at http://ase.tufts.edu/mechanical under Programs of Study) should be used to track progress.

Qualification

The Qualification period has 4 parts:  establish breadth of knowledge, complete mathematical preparation, develop plan for proposed research, and seminar.

All doctoral students, full-time and part-time, must complete Parts 1 and 2 of the qualification process before the end of the fifth semester of their doctoral program enrollment. Part 3 must be completed by the end of the semester following the completion of Parts 1 and 2.  Part 4 is and ongoing process.  Students who have not completed these requirements within the time allotted will be asked to withdraw from the program.

1.  Breadth of Knowledge

In 2 of the 5 sub-disciplines listed below, for four courses taken after the completion of the Master’s degree, student:

must attain grades of A- or above in 2 of the courses listed under the sub-discipline

or

submit to a qualification examination in the sub-discipline administered during the Fall semester of each academic year.

1. Applied Mechanics

ME 122 - Advanced Strength of Materials

ME 128 - Structural Mechanics

ME 129 - Finite Elements Methods in Engineering Systems

ME 136 - Noise and Vibration Control

ME 137 - Advanced Vibrations

ME 138 - Advanced Dynamics

ME 139 - Acoustics

ME 221 - Introduction to Solid Mechanics

ME 222 - Applied Solid Mechanics

ME 225 - Advanced Structural Dynamics

2. Materials and Manufacturing Processes

ME 108 - Statistical Quality Control

ME 120 - Advanced Engineering Methods

ME 121 - Introduction to Biomaterials

ME 123 - Mechanics of Composite Materials

ME 125 - Manufacturing Processes and Materials Technology

ME 126 - Computer-Integrated Manufacturing

3. System Control and Design

ME 102 - Inventive Design

ME 180 - Modern Control Systems

ME 182 - Automation

ME 184 - Robotics

ME 186 - Electromechanical System Design

ME 280 - Advanced Engineering Controls

ME 285 - Thermal Manufacturing Processes

4. Thermal-Fluid Sciences

ME 112 - Advanced Heat Transfer

ME 114 - Solar Energy

ME 115 - Advanced Thermodynamics

ME 116 - Mass Transfer and Phase Transformations in Materials Processing

ME 118 - Advanced Data Acquisition and Image Processing

ME 145 - Powerplant Engineering Analysis and Design

ME 165 - Advanced Fluid Mechanics

ME 166 - Compressible Fluid Mechanics

ME 168 - Seminar in Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer

ME 212 - Computational Thermal-Fluid Dynamics

ME 213 - Radiative Transfer

ME 265 - Flow of Real Viscous Fluids

ME 268 - Multiphase Fluid Mechanics

5.  Human Factors

ENP 149 - Introduction to Human Factors & Ergonomics (required)

ENP 161 - Human Factors in Product Design

  or

ENP 162 - Man-Machine System Design

2. Mathematical Preparation

Each student must demonstrate through past coursework, or coursework during the qualification period, that they have mastered the concepts of advanced calculus, solution of differential equations and computational methods (e.g. content of ME 150 and ES 101).

3. Proposed Research

All Ph.D. students must submit a thesis prospectus summarizing the thesis problem and planned approach. The prospectus should also identify the four members of the thesis committee including primary advisor(s), other faculty members and an outside expert. The purpose of the prospectus is to inform the Department about the candidate's research program and those involved in a concise statement. The prospectus must be signed by all committee members and submitted to the Department before the end of the sixth semester in the doctoral program.  The suggested format is available online (at http://ase.tufts.edu/mechanical) and copies of past prospectuses are available in the department office.

Also before the end of the sixth semester, each student must give a presentation on the proposed thesis research area to a committee comprised of the thesis advisor(s), other Mechanical Engineering faculty and outside expert(s).

This presentation includes questioning by the committee and other faculty to assess whether the candidate has sufficient background to study the research area.  If the committee decides that the student has not passed the Part 3 requirements, then explicit requirements will be given before the student can attempt the Part 3 requirements again.

4. Seminar (each semester)

Regular attendance of the department's weekly seminar series is an integral part of full-time graduate study.  Undergraduates and part-time graduate students are strongly encouraged to attend.  The seminars, which are held on Thursday afternoons, feature speakers from both inside and outside of Tufts.  The seminars provide students and faculty with an opportunity to learn about the latest developments in mechanical engineering research and practice.

The seminar schedule will be posted and distributed via email to all graduate students. Important change:  All full-time graduate students are expected to attend at least 80% of the seminars and register and pass ME 291/292 for Int(N/2)+1 semesters, where N is the number of semesters a student is enrolled as a full time student.  That is, for a 4 semester MS program, seminar must be passed for 3 semesters; for a 6 semester PhD program, seminar must be passed for 4 semesters.  Attendance will be taken and the 80% rule will be rigorously applied.  Students should register for both ME 291 (Fall) and ME 292 (Spring) in order to receive proper credit.

Research

Following successful completion of the four part qualifying process, the student undertakes a research project under the supervision of a thesis committee. The candidate must complete a program of courses established by the committee, write and defend a doctoral dissertation, and fulfill the general university requirements for a doctorate.

1. Program of Study

 In addition to their research, each doctoral candidate is expected to pursue coursework during their research period either in direct support of their research or addressing recommendations made during the qualification period. In the interest of broadening the educational experience, it is recommended that each student take at least one graduate-level course in a technical discipline outside of the Department during the research period. The Department recommends that students consider the study of a language other than their native language in their course of study.  Demonstration of foreign language proficiency is not required.

2. Seminar (each semester)

Same requirement as Qualification part of the program.

3. Research

The preparation of a thesis represents are the central experience of the Ph.D. degree program. It provides the student with an opportunity to work independently on an open-ended problem, the particular solution of which is not pre-determined and which requires synthesis of knowledge and intellectual creativity.

ME 297/298 - Students are awarded thesis credit through their registration and successful completion of ME 297/8. ME 297 is offered during the Fall term and ME 298 during the Spring term. Students receive the grade of Y in these courses until the thesis is completed, at which time a grade for credit is given.

ME 501PT/502FT - A student must be registered, or be on an approved leave of absence, for every academic year semester otherwise he/she will be officially withdrawn from the University.  A continuation fee of $500 is assessed per semester to students who require additional time over the expected completion period - six years for most doctoral programs. Tuition scholarship cannot be applied to this fee.

Students whose research requires work beyond the semesters in which they are registered for ME 297/8, must register for either ME 501PT or 502FT. Please refer to the Graduate Student Handbook for more information. Students may not register for these no-credit continuation courses until they have received grades of Y in ME 297 and ME 298.

4. Dissertation Defense

All Ph.D. candidates must defend their dissertation in an oral examination, open to the community.  The candidate will be examined by a committee of at least four members, one of who is an expert from outside the Department.

Ph.D. Degree Completion - The Ph.D. thesis is completed upon a successful oral defense, open to the community, and the submittal of an approved thesis to the Graduate School. The oral examination committee has a minimum of three members including the advisor and one member from outside Tufts.

The student should consult the current year's Graduate Student Handbook available from the Graduate School office for the dates and deadlines involved in this process. Degree completion and recommendation to the Graduate School for the award of the appropriate degree involves a coordinated set of steps both within and outside the Department. In order to ensure that the student has completed all requirements, the Ph.D. Tracking Form (at http://ase.tufts.edu/mechanical under Programs of Study) should be completed carefully.

Special Note: As students complete the steps listed below, they should pay careful attention to the deadlines set by the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies for submitting theses and other degree related work for completing degree requirements in time for September, February or May degrees. In addition, international students may not take a leave of absence and remain in the United States.

Step 1:

The first step in the process is filing the "Recommendation For Award of Ph.D. Degree" form electronically which is also provided in the Graduate School Handbook and also submitting the Graduate School Exit Survey under the Student Services > Graduate Information link at  (http://gradstudy.tufts.edu/). The student fills out this form with their academic advisor and submits it to the Department Chair for approval. An academic transcript signed by the Department Chair must accompany forms for Ph.D. candidates. The Department will make a copy of the form for the student’s file and then send the approved form to the Graduate School for processing. The approval of this form places the student on the "Degree List" for the next degree awarding cycle (August, February or May).

Step 2:

The second step in the process is the scheduling of the thesis defense.  The student and advisor are responsible for selecting a date and a committee and reserving a room.  (Ask the department office staff for assistance.)  The thesis defense is a public presentation open to the entire community.  In order to provide adequate time for publicizing the event, the student must inform the department of the impending defense as far in advance as possible.

A minimum of TWO WEEKS before the defense, the student must provide the Department office staff with the following information in electronic form via email (lorin.polidora@tufts.edu).  There will be no exceptions.

q       Student’s Name

q       Ph.D. Thesis Title

q       Date, Time and Place of Thesis Defense

q       Committee Members and Affiliations including identification of thesis advisor(s)

q       100-200 word Abstract

Step 3:

The third step in the process is the finalization of the thesis in accordance with the examining committee's findings. The original and appropriate copies of the thesis are submitted electronically (http://dissertations.umi.com/tuftsase/) along with the appropriate paperwork as per the Graduate Student Handbook. The handbook also includes a detailed description of the thesis format and requirements.

Marching Only Policy at Commencement:  Engineering students are allowed to march at Commencement if they have only one lecture course credit remaining to fulfill all degree requirements.  All thesis and project requirements must be completed and approved.

 Graduate and Professional Studies Web Site