Department of Mechanical Engineering

The MS in Mechanical Engineering builds on a strong undergraduate degree with close linkages to regional industries through faculty consulting and student projects. It is structured as a practice-oriented master’s degree. Programs of study are offered in all areas of mechanical engineering including a special thrust in manufacturing. Its primary purpose is to provide additional professional education to mechanical engineers employed in regional industry, business, and government.

The Mechanical Engineering Department also provides a professional Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering with an option in Industrial & System Engineering (ISE). This joint degree option, developed at UMassD by the College of Engineering and Charlton College of Business (CCB), is appropriate for engineers from a variety of disciplines.

ISE courses are jointly offered by the department and CCB, which provide practicing engineers with the knowledge and skills needed to advance their careers. Courses are scheduled to permit either full-time or part-time study, and are offered at convenient times for students employed in industry and government.

Resources

The Mechanical Engineering Department maintains a wide variety of research and educational laboratories in the areas of robotics, controls, mechanics, bioengineering, fluid and thermal science, advanced materials and manufacturing. Our manufacturing facilities include a fully equipped machine shop for student use, computer controlled CNC machines, desktop laser cutter and additive manufacturing equipment, and extensive materials testing equipment.

The robotics lab contains twelve instructional Rhino robots and a SCORBOT with a vision system for state-of-the-art applications in research and manufacturing. The controls laboratory houses instrumentation for various control applications in engineering education and research.

We have laser laboratories that include a clinical laser for the study of laser-skin interactions in medical treatment, and an optical properties measurement lab for studying biological tissues. Other heat transfer research equipment includes a cryopump capable of reaching 10K, differential thermal analyzers, and a wind tunnel.

In addition, the Laboratory for Marine Science, Environment and Technology; the Center for Scientific Computing and Visualization Research, the hub for computational scientific activity at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, and the Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (CIE)—described elsewhere in this catalog—are especially important for advanced students in engineering.

Admission Requirements

Admission to the MS program is competitive. Students possessing a bachelor’s or master’s degree from a recognized institution and a strong academic background in mechanical engineering or a similar discipline are encouraged to apply for admission. Typically, MS applicants with an undergraduate cumulative grade point average of 3.0 on a 4.0 grading scale for all engineering, math and physics courses will be considered.

Applicants to the ISE option must satisfy the following:
• Bachelor’s or an equivalent degree in engineering or a closely related field
• Applicants with a non-engineering undergraduate degree will be considered on a case-by-case basis and may be required to take some foundation courses.

Applicants for the MS in Mechanical Engineering and ISE option must submit the required application materials to the Graduate Office. In addition, Graduate Record Examination scores for the General Test must be submitted by applicants who are not or will not be graduates of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth or the Massachusetts Maritime Academy.

The department has established a fast-track BS-MS program permitting UMass Dartmouth Mechanical Engineering undergraduates to progress to the master’s level smoothly and at a savings of some overall credits. See the General Catalogue for information and special admissions procedures.

Graduate Financial Assistance

Inquiries regarding graduate student financial assistance should be made to the Director of the Graduate Program. For information about loans or other assistance, please consult the chapter on “Expenses and Financial Assistance.”

Many employers will assist employees in furthering their professional education; contact the personnel office at your place of work.

Course Availability and Offerings

Graduate courses are offered in the evenings to accommodate both full-time and part-time students.

BS/MS Undergraduate/Graduate Integrated Program Option

The department offers an integrated program that allows qualified UMass Dartmouth undergraduate majors in Mechanical Engineering to proceed directly to the master’s degree program and complete both degrees with a reduction in overall credits required. See the current General Catalogue for information on this option.

Faculty and Fields of Interest

Bhowmick, Sankha Professor of Mechanical Engineering (2002), BE 1992 Jadavpur University, MS 1996 Villanova University, PhD 2000 University of Minnesota. Specializations: Heat and mass transfer, bioengineering.

Shen, Caiwei Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering (2018), BS 2010 Tsinghua University, MS 2013, Tsinghua University, PhD 2018 University of California Berkley, Specialization: new materials and technologies for energy-related applications and various sensors, nanomaterials and the development of biomimetic sensors and actuators.

Chalivendra, Vijaya B Professor of Mechanical Engineering (2005), BS 1993, MS1997 Sri Venkateswara University, India, PhD 2003 University of Rhode Island. Specialization: Fracture mechanics.

Fowler, Alex Associate Provost for Research and Economic Development and Professor of Mechanical Engineering (1993), BA 1987 Wesleyan University, PhD 1993 Duke University. Specializations: Bio-active Materials, Bioengineering, Cryopreservation, and Thermal Fluids.

Huang, Wenzhen (Chairperson) Professor of Mechanical Engineering (2005), BS 1982 Jilin University, China, MS 1984, PhD 1987 Shanghai Jiaotong University, China, PhD 2004 University of Wisconsin Madison. Specializations: Manufacturing systems, Quality Control & Engineering, Applied Statistics, Tolerance Modeling.

Li, Jun Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering (2016), BS 2005 Shanghai Jiaotong University, China, MS 2009 UIUC, PhD 2012 UIUC. Specializations: Computational mechanics and materials, multiscale modeling of hierarchical and biological materials, composite materials and structures.

Laoulache, Raymond N Associate Dean and Professor of Mechanical Engineering (1988), ScB 1980, ScM 1983 Northeastern University, PhD 1987 Brown University. Specializations: Computational fluid dynamics, renewable energy.

Raessi, Mehdi Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering (2010), BS 1998 University of Tehran, MS 2003 PhD 2008 University of Toronto. Specializations: Fluid dynamics, multiphase flow, fluid-structure interaction, heat transfer and phase change, computational fluid dynamics, high performance computing.

Tandon, Amit Professor of Mechanical Engineering (1999), BTech 1987 Indian Institute of Technology, PhD 1992 Cornell University. Specializations: Fluid dynamics, physical oceanography, environmental and computational physics.

Contact

Dr. Vijaya Chalivendra
Graduate Program Director
Mechanical Engineering
Phone: 508.910.6572
Fax: 508.999.8881
Vchalivendra@umassd.edu

University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
285 Old Westport Road
North Dartmouth, MA 02747-2300