Department of Mechanical Engineering

The MS in Mechanical Engineering is a quantitatively rigorous program that prepares students for advanced engineering practice in industry or government or for further studies at the doctoral level.

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), focuses on engineering management, manufacturing and systems and is appropriate for students with a variety of educational backgrounds, as well as for students who are currently working.

ISE 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 research laboratories in the areas of multi-scale medical robotics, advanced materials for the preparation and characterization of multi-functional composites, biomaterial interactions and fluid structure interactions which includes a recirculating water tunnel and a subsonic 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.
• Applicants with non-engineering undergraduate degrees will be considered for the ISE option 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 (Chairperson) 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 Professor of Mechanical Engineering (1993), BA 1987 Wesleyan University, PhD 1993 Duke University. Specializations: Bio-active materials, bioengineering, cryopreservation, and thermal fluids.

Goghari, Afsoon Assistant Teaching Professor (2011), BS 1999 University of Tehran, MS 2006 University of Toronto, PhD 2010 University of Toronto. Specializations: Fluid mechanics, heat transfer, mechanical system design and control.

Huang, Wenzhen 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.

Ling, Hangjian Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering (2019), BS 2011 University of Science and Technology of China, MS 2013 Johns Hopkins University, PhD 2017 Johns Hopkins University. Specializations: Experimental fluid dynamics in turbulence, boundary layers, multiphase flow, super-hydrophobic surfaces and wetting dynamics, collective behavior such as bird flocks, fish schools, human crowds and cell colonies, 3D imaging technologies using digital holography and stereo-imaging.

Park, Kihan Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering (2019), BS 2009 Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), MS 2011 Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), PhD 2019 Georgia Institute of Technology. Specializations: medical robotics, micro-scale sensing/actuation.

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.

Samandari, Hamed Assistant Teaching Professor (2019), BS 2008 Isfahan University of Technology, MS 2011 University of Tabriz, PhD 2014 Middle East Technical University. Specializations: Computational mechanics, mechanical systems modeling, nonlinear vibrations, nanoelectromechanical systems, biomedical devices.

Seyedaghazadeh, Banafsheh Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering (2019), BS 2007 University of Tabriz, MS 2011 University of Tabriz, PhD 2015 University of Massachusetts Amherst. Specializations: Fluid-structure interactions, flow-induced vibration, experimental fluid dynamics, vibrations, renewable energy.

Shen, Caiwei Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering (2018), BS 2010 Tsinghua University, MS 2013 Tsinghua University, PhD 2018 University of California at Berkeley. Specializations: Multifunctional composites, energy storage materials, nanomaterials, sensors, electrochemistry.

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. Mehdi Raessi
Graduate Program Director
Mechanical Engineering
Phone: 508.999.8496
Fax: 508.999.8881
mraessi@umassd.edu

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