Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE)

[ undergraduate program | courses | faculty ]

STUDENT AFFAIRS:
180 Engineering Building II
Warren College
http://mae.ucsd.edu

All courses, faculty listings, and curricular and degree requirements described herein are subject to change or deletion without notice. The MAE department website is the best reference for up-to-date information and requirements.

The Graduate Program

The Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) at UC San Diego offers graduate instruction leading to the MS and PhD in engineering sciences in a number of specialized areas. (See mae.ucsd.edu/grad for more information.)

For more information, please contact MAE Student Affairs at mae-gradadvising@ucsd.edu.

Admission to the MAE graduate program is in accordance with the general requirements of the Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs. Applicants are judged competitively. Based on the candidate’s background, qualifications, and goals, admission to the MAE graduate program is in one of two categories: MS or PhD.

More information on admission to our graduate program is available on the MAE department website: https://mae.ucsd.edu/grad/graduate-admissions.

BS/MS Program (MAE Undergraduate Students Only)

Undergraduates in the MAE department who have maintained a good academic record in both departmental and overall course work are encouraged to participate in the MAE BS/MS program. Participation in the program will permit students to complete the requirements for the MS within one year following receipt of their undergraduate degree. Complete details regarding admission to and participation in the program are available on the department website: https://mae.ucsd.edu/bsms-program.

Master’s Degree Program

The MS program is intended to extend and broaden an undergraduate background and/or equip practicing engineers with fundamental knowledge in their particular fields. The degree may be terminal or obtained on the way to the PhD. The MS degree is offered under both the Thesis Plan I and the Comprehensive Examination Plan II (see “Graduate Admission: Master’s Degrees”).

MS Time Limit Policy: Full-time MS students are permitted seven quarters in which to complete all requirements. While there are no written time limits for half-time students, the department has the right to intervene and set individual deadlines if it becomes necessary.

Master’s Plan I—Thesis Defense

This plan of study involves both course work and research, culminating in the preparation of a thesis. A total of thirty-six units of credit is required: twenty-four units (six courses) must be in course work, and twelve units must be in research (MAE 299). The student’s MS program is arranged, with prior approval of their MAE faculty adviser.

Students must maintain at least a B average (3.00 GPA) in the courses taken to fulfill the degree requirements. All required courses for a degree must be taken for a letter grade, with the exception of MAE 299 research units, which may be taken as S/U only. A thesis based on the research is written and subsequently reviewed by the student’s MAE faculty adviser and two other members of the student’s defense committee appointed by the dean of Graduate Studies. The review is normally an oral defense of the thesis.

The thesis committee must adhere to the requirements outlined on the Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs doctoral and master’s committees web page.

Comprehensive Examination—Plan II

This plan of study involves course work only and includes specific Comprehensive Examination components. These Comprehensive Examination components are typically incorporated into the student’s final exam for that specific course (See the MAE MS website for more information). A total of thirty-six units of credit (nine courses) are required. The department maintains a list of courses on the department website (https://mae.ucsd.edu/grad/mae-master-science-program) for each specialization area from which the thirty-six units of course work must be selected. Each specialization area identifies five courses that include a Comprehensive Examination component. Students must earn a passing grade on three Comprehensive Examination components to satisfy the requirement.

Change of Degree: Upon completion of the requirements for the MS, students admitted as MS only or MS candidates are not automatically eligible for admission to the PhD program. MS only candidates who subsequently wish to pursue a doctorate must review these opportunities with their MAE faculty adviser (a faculty adviser is required to be eligible for MS to PhD transfer).

Questions about change of degree aim (MS to PhD) requests should be sent to: mae-gradadvising@ucsd.edu.

Master of Advanced Studies

Convergent Systems Engineering

The Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in partnership with the Rady School of Management and engineering professional education offers the master of advanced studies (MAS) degree in convergent systems engineering (CoSE). The MAS in CoSE program brings together systems thinking and social sciences; modeling, AI and machine learning, and analysis; systems and software engineering; and business principles to enable leaders to identify systemic problems and opportunities, and transform these into sustainable solutions.

The MAS in convergent systems engineering program includes specializations in:

Architecture-Based Enterprise Systems Engineering (AESE)
Cyber-Physical Social Systems (CPSS)
Value Supply Chains (VSC)

The MAS in convergent systems engineering program is a part-time or full-time, self-supporting degree program with a course schedule designed for working engineering professionals.

For more information on the MAS-CoSE program, please visit https://catalog.ucsd.edu/curric/MAS-gr.html.

Doctoral Degree Program

The MAE PhD program is intended to prepare students for a variety of careers in research and teaching. Therefore, depending on the student’s background and ability, research is initiated as soon as possible. In general, there are no formal course requirements for the PhD (but this does not mean that PhD students will never enroll in course work). All students, in consultation with their MAE faculty advisers, develop course programs that will prepare them for the MAE Departmental Qualifying Examination and for their dissertation research. However, these programs of study and research must be planned to meet the time limits established to advance to doctoral candidacy and to complete the requirements for the PhD degree. Doctoral students who have passed the Departmental Qualifying Examination may take any course for an S/U grade, except for any course that the student’s departmental or Senate Exam (UQE) committee stipulates must be taken in order to remove a deficiency. Details can be found on the MAE department website.

Doctoral Examinations: A MAE PhD student is required to pass three examinations. The first is a Departmental Qualifying Examination (DQE) that is intended to determine the candidate’s ability to successfully pursue a research project level appropriate for the doctorate. This first exam must be taken within the first six quarters of registration as a graduate student. The DQE is an oral examination by a committee of three persons (two of which must be in the MAE department) and is based on material taught over thirty-six units of course work as described on the department website. Students should work with their faculty adviser and their DQE committee members to identify suitable courses that will prepare them to make meaningful research contributions. The course plan must be approved by the faculty adviser and the DQE committee members.

Students should reference the department website for course requirements.

Obtaining an MS: Doctoral students may obtain the MS by completing the thirty-six units of course work requirements described on the MAE website and by passing the PhD Department Qualifying Examination (DQE).

Teaching Assistant Experience is required of all MAE PhD students prior to taking the dissertation defense. The teaching experience is defined as lecturing one hour per week in either a problem-solving section or regular lecture for one quarter in a course designated by the department.

The Senate Exam (University Qualifying Examination) is the second examination required of MAE PhD students. In preparation for the Senate Exam, students must have obtained a faculty research adviser, have identified a topic for their dissertation research, and have made initial progress. At the time of application for advancement to candidacy, a doctoral committee responsible for the remainder of the student’s graduate program is appointed by the Graduate Council. The doctoral committee conducts the Senate Exam, during which students must demonstrate the ability to engage in dissertation research. This involves the presentation of a plan for the dissertation research project. The doctoral committee may ask questions directly or indirectly related to the project and general questions that it determines to be relevant. Upon successful completion of this examination, students are advanced to candidacy and are awarded the candidate in philosophy degree (see “Graduate Admission” section in this catalog). The Dissertation Defense is the final PhD examination. Upon completion of the dissertation research project, the student writes a dissertation that must be successfully defended in an oral examination and public presentation conducted by the doctoral committee. A complete copy of the student’s dissertation must be submitted to each member of the doctoral committee approximately four weeks before the defense. It is understood that the copy of the dissertation given to doctoral committee members will not be the final copy, and that the doctoral committee members may suggest changes in the text at the time of the defense. This examination may not be conducted earlier than three quarters after the date of advancement to doctoral candidacy. Acceptance of the dissertation by the Office of Graduate Studies and the university librarian represents the final step in completion of all requirements for the PhD.

There is no formal foreign language requirement for doctoral candidates. Students are expected to master whatever language is needed for the pursuit of their own research.

PhD Time Limit Policy. Precandidacy status is limited to four years. Doctoral students are eligible for university support for six years (engineering physics, seven years). The defense and submission of the doctoral dissertation must be within seven years (engineering physics, eight years).

Evaluations. In the spring of each year, faculty advisers evaluate each doctoral student’s overall performance in course work, research during the past academic year, and prospects for financial support for the next year. A written assessment is given to the student. If a student’s work is found to be inadequate, the faculty adviser may determine that the student cannot continue in the doctoral program and will recommend dismissal to the dean of Graduate Studies.

Joint Doctoral Program with San Diego State University

The Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC San Diego participates in a joint doctoral program with SDSU. The program leads to the doctoral degree in engineering sciences (mechanical engineering). JDP students should be enrolled at both UC San Diego and SDSU every quarter, but with SDSU as their “home base.” Their dissertation research is carried out under the supervision of co-advisers from both institutions. Information regarding admission may be obtained from the departmental Student Affairs Office.

PhD in Engineering Sciences with Specialization in Multiscale Biology

The program aims to provide a unique interdisciplinary education at the interfaces between the biological, medical, physical, and engineering sciences. It is designed to allow students to augment their graduate training in their home discipline with interdisciplinary training in integrative and quantitative analysis across multiple scales of biological organization from molecule to organism in health and disease. Students who complete the requirements of their home department together with the requirements of this specialization will earn a PhD in (home program name) with a specialization in multi-scale biology, e.g., PhD in biomedical sciences (multi-scale biology).

The specific objectives of this program are

To train a new generation of cross-disciplinary scientists who have been actively engaged in life science research and training activities at the interfaces between established scientific disciplines via a formal collaboration between graduate programs from four divisions at UC San Diego.
To provide state-of-the-art training in specialized research technologies through a comprehensive hands-on graduate laboratory course curriculum co-taught by faculty and to students from more than one participating discipline. This curriculum exposes students to high-technology research techniques including mass spectrometry, electron microscopy, and MRI that are normally unavailable for formal graduate instruction, and create unique opportunities for students to work together in multidisciplinary teams.
To provide a unique education focus aimed at integrative and quantitative analysis across multiple scales of biological organization from molecule to organism in health and disease. This novel theme is highly complementary with many interdisciplinary research centers and projects on campus, but not an emphasis of any particular existing graduate program or specialization.

Students in the Interfaces Graduate Training Program must complete three or more of seven hands-on graduate laboratory courses taught by interdisciplinary teams of faculty members who will introduce students to state-of-the-art techniques studying living systems across physical scales from molecules to the whole organism. These labs introduce students to multiscale techniques for measuring, imaging, manipulating, and analyzing living systems.

The laboratory courses have been designed to train students for modern research opportunities in integrative, multiscale, biomedical science. An important goal of the Interfaces Graduate Training Program is not only to provide state-of-the-art interdisciplinary training but also to expose students to the language, culture, and technology of other disciplines and help them become effective cross-disciplinary collaborators and leaders. Courses taken toward the degree should be taken for a letter grade.

Course Title	Course Numbers	Quarter Offered
Multiscale Neurodynamics	BENG 260/BGGN 260/PHYS 279	Fall
Magnetic Resonance Imaging	BENG 278/RAD 278	Winter
Data Science for Multiscale Biology	BENG 219	Fall
Molecular Imaging and Quantitation in Living Cells	BENG 235	Spring
Numerical Analysis for Multiscale Biology	BENG 276/CHEM 276/MATH 276/PHARM 276	Spring
Supramolecular Structure Determination Laboratory	BENG 283/CHEM 283/BIOM 283	Spring
Tissue Engineering	BENG 277	Winter