Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering

For students proceeding directly from B.S. degree to Ph.D. degree, the 90 credits should be distributed as follows:

For students proceeding from master’s to Ph.D. degree, the 60 credits should be distributed as follows:

Admission to Candidacy

Admission to candidacy will be granted when the student has satisfactorily passed two written subject exams and an oral research exam, as described below.

Written Subject Exams

The written subject exams will be offered twice per academic year – once in December soon after the end of the Fall semester, and once in May soon after the end of the Spring semester. In general, students must take the subject exams for the first time after being in the ME program for 2 semesters. The subject exams will consist of 2 subjects chosen by the student from the following list. The chosen subjects must be approved by the student’s research advisor. If a student does not pass both subjects on the first attempt, the student must re-take any subject(s) not passed, in the next offering of the subject exams. Only 2 opportunities will be given to each student to pass the subject exams. The following is a list of the subjects offered. For each subject, a specific course is recommended for preparation:

•    Heat Transfer - ME 516 Heat Transfer (typically offered in Spring semester)
•    Fluid Dynamics - ME 514 Fluid Dynamics (typically offered in Fall semester) 
•    Materials - ME 5312 Properties and Performance of Engineering Materials (typically offered in B term)
•    Structures – ME 5380 Foundations of Elasticity OR ME 5381 Applied Elasticity (typically be offered in A or B terms). These courses will be offered in alternating years, and either course can be used to prepare.
•    Dynamics - ME 5202 Advanced Dynamics (typically be offered in A or B terms)
•    Controls - ME 5220 Control of Linear Dynamical Systems (typically be offered in A or B terms)

Oral Research Exam
•    Students must take the oral research exam only after passing both the selected written subject exams.
•    Students will be given 2 opportunities to pass the oral research exam.
•    If a student passes both the written exams by May, they should take the 1st attempt of the oral exam in the following A term and the 2nd attempt of the oral exam (if needed) in the following B term. If a student passes both the written exams by December, they should take the 1st attempt of the oral exam in the following C term and the 2nd attempt of the oral exam (if needed) in the following D term.
•    The oral research exam committee consists of 3 faculty members, of which one is the student’s research advisor and the other two are faculty members selected by the ME Graduate Committee.
•    The student must work with the exam committee to schedule a date and time for the exam.
•    The advisor will provide 2 literature papers to the ME Graduate Committee, and the ME Graduate Committee will select one, on which the exam will be based. The deadline for the advisor to submit the papers to the ME Graduate Committee will be the first day of the term in which the exam will be held. The literature paper will be in the general area of research of the student and advisor, but may not be on the exact topic of the student’s potential PhD research or past experiences. A separate document will be provided to guide the advisors in selecting papers for the oral exam. If the advisor does not provide the papers by the deadline, the ME Graduate Committee will select a suitable paper from the literature.
•    2 weeks before the scheduled exam date, the student will be provided with the literature paper that has been selected by the ME Graduate Committee. The student will have 2 weeks to prepare for the exam.
•    At the oral research exam, the student must present (orally with the aid of slides) i) a literature review based on the assigned paper and at least 2 other relevant, related papers found independently by the student; and ii) a mock proposal for research based on the 3 (or more) chosen literature papers (including identification of knowledge gap, hypothesis, and approach). Note that the subject of this exam is not the student’s own PhD research plan, but rather a test of the student’s fundamental knowledge and ability to formulate and present a literature review and research plan. The student’s presentation is limited to a maximum of 25 minutes. The committee will then ask the student questions for up to 40 minutes to test the student’s knowledge on the topic, emphasizing fundamental concepts.
•    The student’s advisor, as a member of the committee, may ask questions, but may not answer questions on behalf of the student or provide help to the student. Furthermore, the research advisor’s time for questions will come after the rest of the committee has asked questions.
•    After the exam, the committee will deliberate to determine the outcome and communicate the outcome in writing to the student along with recommendations for improvement, if any.

Proposal Committee

Upon completing the oral qualifying exam, the student must form a proposal committee in consultation with their thesis advisor. The committee should consist of the following members:

1. Thesis advisor

2. At least 2 other faculty members from MME department

3. At least 1 faculty member from outside MME department

4. One ME graduate committee (GC) representative

Note: The ME GC representative can play a dual role as a committee member and GC representative. The only exception is that the GC representative cannot be an advisor or co-advisor of the student.

Dissertation Proposal

Each student must prepare a written proposal and make an oral presentation that demonstrates a sound understanding of the dissertation topic, the relevant literature, the techniques to be employed, the issues to be addressed, and the work done on the topic by the student to date. An important part of the written and oral proposal should be a description of the potential applications and societal impact of the research. In particular, the written proposal should include a chapter to define the topic of the PhD research, a chapter to review the state of the art, a chapter to summarize the proposed research plan and the preliminary data obtained to date, and any other chapters necessary to describe the proposed PhD research. The written proposal should be submitted to the committee 7 days before the oral presentation. The proposal must be made within 18 months of admission to candidacy. Both the written and oral proposals are presented to the dissertation committee and a representative from the mechanical engineering graduate committee. The prepared portion of the oral presentation should not exceed 30 minutes, and up to 90 minutes should be allowed for discussion. If the dissertation committee and the graduate committee representative have concerns about either the substance of the proposal or the student’s understanding of the topic, then the student will have one month to prepare a second presentation that focuses on the areas of concern. This presentation will last 15 minutes with an additional 45 minutes allowed for discussion. Students can continue their research only if the proposal is approved.

Dissertation Defense

Each doctoral candidate is required to defend the originality, independence and quality of their research during an oral dissertation defense that is administered by an examining committee consisting of the dissertation committee, and a representative of the mechanical engineering graduate committee who is not on the dissertation committee.  In addition to providing a summary of the relevant literature and a description of the techniques employed, technical issues addressed, and results obtained, both the dissertation and the oral defense should include a description of the potential applications and societal impact of the research.  The oral defense should be held in person whenever possible and should be moderated by the representative of the mechanical engineering graduate committee.  The defense consists of a session that is open to the public, which includes a 45-minute presentation by the candidate followed by audience questions; and then a closed session in which the general audience is excused and only the committee members, the representative of the mechanical engineering graduate committee, and the candidate are present, during which the committee has the opportunity to ask the candidate in-depth questions.  Committee members may ask general questions that are relevant to the public audience during the open session but should save substantial questions for the closed session.  During both the open and closed sessions, questions should be directed to and answered by the doctoral candidate only.  After the closed session, the committee and the representative meet without the candidate to discuss and determine the outcome of the defense.  At least one week prior to the defense, each member of the examining committee must receive a copy of the dissertation. At the same time, an additional copy must be made available for members of the WPI community wishing to read the dissertation prior to the defense, and public notification of the defense must be given by the mechanical engineering graduate secretary. The examining committee will determine the acceptability of the student’s dissertation and oral performance. The dissertation advisor will determine the student’s grade.