Graduate Students
As a research graduate student at PERL, you can expect to conduct novel and ground breaking research on applications of plasma science and propulsion. As can be seen in the Research section, our work is varied and includes the fields of propulsion, energy, and materials. You will have opportunities to attend national and international conferences to present your work. You will also write journal papers for review by other researchers in the field. You may also have the opportunity to teach classes or lab. For Ph.D. students, I will also teach you to write research proposals, one of the most critical skills you will need in your career.
As your advisor, my goal is to teach you how to do good research, how to learn, and how to approach and solve new problems. The latter two are skills that are transferable to any job. To achieve these goals, I will provide guidance on course selection, research methods, technical communications, and securing a job. I can also advise on non-academic topic if desired.
As a student, you are expected to meet a number of expectations set by the university and by me. I will treat you as a professional as you have at least one degree already, and in any other circumstance or job, we would be colleagues. Thus you will be given a lot of freedom and responsibilities, and by extension I have high expectations. My main expectation of my students is that they are diligent and do good research. You can think of graduate research as a full time job, plus homework. Only by treating the time and tasks seriously will you succeed. In addition to doing meaningful research, you are expected to take the required courses and maintain the necessary GPA to complete the degree. Details are available on the MAE website and in the graduate handbook. Lastly, you are expected to treat others with respect. You will be working and interacting with students, both graduate and undergraduate, professors, and staff during your time here. Everyone is expected to treat each other respectfully irrelevant of race, creed, religion, gender, etc. If you see problems, please bring it to my attention.
M.S. Students
The MAE department offers two M.S. programs, a thesis and non-thesis version. Thesis students are expected to produce a thesis document (~30-50 pages) and defend the work to a 3 member committee at the end of their program. A majority of the committee, 2 out of 3 members must be MAE faculty. I generally recommend the last member be an external member from industry or government as that helps broaden your reach and network and can help you get a job. In addition, M.S. thesis students are expected to produce a journal publication from their work. Non-thesis degrees do not require research, and thus usually do not need advisors. M.S. degrees typically take 2 years to complete.
Ph.D. Students
The Ph.D. is a research intensive degree. Ph.D. students are expected to write and defend a dissertation document (100+ pages) by the end of their program to a 5 member committee. A majority of the committee, 3 out of 5 members must be MAE faculty. I generally recommend the last 2 members be external from industry or government as that helps broaden your reach and network and can help you get a job. In addition, I expect my Ph.D. students to publish a minimum of 2 journal papers, and more commonly 3-4. The average Ph.D. program lasts 5 years.
