May 20, 2025  
2024-2025 Graduate Catalog 
    
2024-2025 Graduate Catalog

Department of Mechanical Engineering


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MS Program

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.

MS Program – ISE option

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 by UMassD’s 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.

Accelerated BS/MS Program (4+1 Option)

Outstanding UMass Dartmouth Mechanical Engineering undergraduates are invited to enroll in the department’s accelerated BS/MS degree programs, enabling them to complete both degrees within 5 years (4+1).

The BS/MS option allows our mechanical engineering undergraduates to complete both degrees with 9 fewer credits than if taken separately. See the General Catalogue for information and special admissions procedures.

Faculty and Fields of Interest

Sankha Bhowmick (Chairperson), BE 1992 Jadavpur University, MS 1996 Villanova University, PhD 2000 University of Minnesota, Heat and Mass Transfer, Bioengineering

Vijaya B Chalivendra, BS 1993, MS 1997 Sri Venkateswara University, India, PhD 2003 University of Rhode Island, Fracture Mechanics

Alex Fowler, BA 1987 Wesleyan University, PhD 1993 Duke University, Bio-active Materials, Bioengineering, Cryopreservation, Thermal Fluids.

Afsoon Amirzadeh Goghari, BSc University of Tehran, Masc 2006 University Of Toronto, Phd 2010 University Of Toronto, Fluid Mechanics, Heat Transfer, Mechanical System Design and Control

Wenzhen Huang, BS 1982 Jilin University, MS 1984, PhD 1987 Shanghai Jiaotong University, PhD 2004 University of Wisconsin Madison, Manufacturing Systems, Quality Control and Engineering, Applied Statistics, Tolerance Modeling

Hangjian Ling, BS2011 University of Science and Technology of China, MS 2013, PhD 2017 John Hopkins University, 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

Kihan Park, BS 2009 and MS 2011 KAIST, Daejeon, South Korea, PhD Georgia Institute of Technology, Medical Robotics, Micro-scale Sensing/Actuation

Mehdi Raessi, BS 1998 University of Tehran, MAS 2003, PhD 2008 University of Toronto, Fluid Dynamics, Multiphase Flow, Fluid-structure Interaction, Heat Transfer and Phase Change, Computational Fluid Dynamics, High Performance Computing

Hamed Samandari, BS 2008 Isfahan University of Technology, MS 2011 University of Tabriz, PhD 2014 Middle East Technical University, Computational Mechanics, Mechanical Systems Modeling, Nonlinear Vibrations, Nanoelectromechanical Systems, Biomedical Devices

Banafsheh Seyed-Aghazadeh, BSc 2007, MSc 2011 University of Tabriz, Iran, PhD 2015 University of Massachusetts Amherst, Fluid-structure Interactions, Flow-induced Vibration, Experimental Fluid Dynamics, Vibrations, Renewable Energy

Caiwei Shen, PhD 2018 University of California at Berkeley, Multifunctional Composites, Energy Storage Materials, Nanomaterials, Biomimetic Sensors and Actuators, Electrochemistry

Amit Tandon, BTech 1987 Indian Institute of Technology, PhD 1992 Cornell University, Fluid Dynamics, Physical Oceanography, Environmental and Computational Physics

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, computational multiphase flow, 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 Data Science 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 foundational courses.

Applicants for the MS in Mechanical Engineering and ISE option must submit the required application materials to the Graduate Office.

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 mostly in the evenings if possible to accommodate both full-time and part-time students.

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

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