Master of Science Degree
The Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering offers a Master of Science Degree in Aerospace Engineering and in Ocean Engineering. Each of these degrees has two options, a Master of Science with or without thesis. Although both degrees require the same number of credit hours for graduation, the thesis option requires some of these credits be devoted to a research project. The non-thesis option can be obtained by taking only course work, or it can include credits for a project and report. Such a project and report is generally not research oriented, but deals with other aspects of an engineering problem and may involve a team of students.
In order to ensure that all our students can communicate with scientists and engineers outside their primary field of interest, all students take at least one course in the general areas of aerodynamics, structures, flight mechanics and control, and numerical methods. In addition, students in the non-thesis program are required to take additional courses in their area of study. Students in this program have the opportunity to work on advanced research projects in the three areas mentioned previously as well as in the interdisciplinary arena where familiarity with two or more disciplines is required. As a result many of our students are in a position to satisfy the rapidly growing demand for well rounded engineers and scientists.
Students following the thesis route work with faculty that have both national and international reputations in their respective areas of research. These areas pose exciting new challenges to the students who have the opportunity to work closely with their faculty advisor on current problems. These problems reflect the latest interests in new advancements in science and technology by NASA, Navy, Air Force, and various aerospace and non-aerospace industries.
Our masters students do significant hands-on research and often work in teams with other masters and Ph.D. students on wide-range of topics, some focused in a newly developing area, and some multidisciplinary in nature. These activities include state-of-the-art research in aerodynamics, structures, flight dynamics and control, and multidisciplinary analysis and design. Students are encouraged to present their research results at conferences and in archival journals tied to industry and/or government or sponsored projects and include interaction with personnel and facilities from those organizations.
The requirements for the degrees focused on applied physics or applied mathematics are slightly different from those of the other categories in that some required courses from the Aerospace and Ocean Engineering Department are replaced with others from either Physics or Mathematics respectively. These programs are specially tailored for students whose backgrounds are from outside the engineering environment and are interested in applying their skills to solving aerospace problems. Such programs encourage interaction with disciplines outside the usual engineering environment and result in new approaches to analyzing and solving problems.
Master of Engineering Degree
The Aerospace and Ocean Engineering Department offers a Master of Engineering degree in Aerospace Engineering. This degree requires the completion of a project and report which in some cases is required to be in conjunction with other students.
For the Aerospace Engineering Degree, students are required to take at least one course in each general area of aerodynamics, structures, and flight mechanics and control. This requirement is to insure that graduates from this program can operate in a multidisciplinary environment. In all cases the Master of Engineering program focuses on engineering type problems and their solutions.
Doctor of Philosophy Degree
The Aerospace and Ocean Engineering Department offers a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Aerospace Engineering. This degree is a research oriented degree which can be focused toward one (or more) of several disciplines. These disciplines include Aero-Hydrodynamics, Dynamics and Control, Structures and Structural Dynamics, Ocean Engineering, Applied Physics, Space Engineering and Applied Math.
All of these degrees require an in depth research project which will serve as the subject of the final dissertation. Research projects have been carried out in the areas of computational fluid dynamics (CFD), experimental fluid mechanics (both high and low speed), instrumentation development, composite materials, structural optimization, flutter analysis, nonlinear flight control, pilot- aircraft interactions, aerodynamic modeling, computer aided design, interdisciplinary design and optimization, trajectory analysis and optimization, space mechanics and space vehicle design, to name a few. Many of these programs are tied to industry and/or government sponsored projects and include interaction with personnel and facilities from those organizations.
The requirements for the degrees focused on applied physics or applied mathematics are slightly different from those of the other categories in that some required courses from the Aerospace and Ocean Engineering Department are replaced with others from either Physics or Mathematics respectively. These programs are specially tailored for students whose backgrounds are from outside the engineering environment and are interested in applying their skills to solving aerospace problems. Such programs encourage interaction with disciplines outside the usual engineering environment and result in new approaches to analyzing and solving problems.
Students in the PhD program work with faculty members known nationally and internationally for their contributions in their research area. Opportunities exist to work on the very latest research projects in the areas of aerodynamics, structures, flight dynamics and control, and multidisciplinary analysis and design. Many of these projects are in support of aerospace and non-aerospace industry, NASA, Navy and Air Force initiatives and include both analytical and experimental components. Modern computational and experimental facilities are available to each student including four subsonic wind tunnels and one supersonic wind tunnel. Advanced instrumentation is available for taking measurements of all type in these facilities.
