Five-Year Plan

The Mechanical and Aerospace department provides a five-year plan of graduate course offerings for prospective and current graduate students. Our purpose is to help students plan their graduate degrees as best as possible. Unfortunately, while we may plan to offer a course there is a possibility that it will not make the schedule. Some of the reasons may be not enough interest or no faculty to teach the course.

View the MAE Five-Year Plan (Updated 5.9.2023)

Approved Math Courses

All graduate students are required to take a series of math courses. Both Master’s and PhD students must take MAE 692. Master’s students need to take one additional course and PhD students need to take two additional courses listed below:

SubjectCourse NumberTitleNotes
MAE 623 COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS I  
MAE 661 ADVANCED DYNAMICS Infrequently Offered
MAE 662 NONLINEAR DYNAM & CHAOS Infrequently Offered
MAE 671 CONTINUUM MECHANICS  
MAE 674 FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS I  
MAE 693 GRAD ENGR ANALYSIS II  
MAE 780 THEORY OF ACOUSTICS  
ISE 690 STATISTICAL METHODS FOR ENGINEERS  

Program of Study

Submit your plan during your first semester and meet with your advisor at least once a semester:

Submit your completed official program of study to the MAE staff assistant once you and your advisor/committee have signed.

PhD Qualifying Exams

The MAE department requires PhD students to complete two qualifying exams:

Part I

The MAE PhD preliminary exam is a demonstration through written examination that the student is proficient in the subject matter in the Program of Study. Students will take three topic exams.  This includes a mathematics exam (MAE 692) and two exams in the elective subject areas. It must be successfully completed either within one year from the start of the PhD degree program or prior to the completion of 12 semester hours of graduate course work (whichever comes later). Preliminary exam registration for the fall opens in September, and spring registration opens in January.

Part II

The second qualifying exam is a dissertation proposal review in which the student prepares a written report and makes a subsequent oral presentation describing the proposed dissertation research. Both the dissertation topic and expected approach(es) must be clearly delineated to the committee's satisfaction in order for a pass to be granted. You should schedule the second qualifying exam at least three weeks in advance.