2022-2023 Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Graduate Study

For admission information, see Graduate Programs Admission.

The following introductory information is based on 2022-23 program requirements for UCLA graduate degrees. Complete program requirements are available at Program Requirements for UCLA Graduate Degrees. Students are subject to the detailed degree requirements as published in program requirements for the year in which they enter the program.

The Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering offers the Master of Science (MS) degree in Manufacturing Engineering, Master of Science (MS) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees in Aerospace Engineering, and Master of Science (MS) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees in Mechanical Engineering.

All new MS and PhD students who are pursuing an MS degree in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department must meet with their advisers in their first term at UCLA. The goal of the meeting is to discuss the students’ plans for satisfying the MS degree requirements. Students should obtain an MS planning form from the department Student Affairs Office and return it with their advisers’ signature by the end of the first term.

Aerospace Engineering MS and Mechanical Engineering MS

Course Requirements

Students may select either the thesis plan or comprehensive examination plan. At least nine courses (and 36 units) are required, of which at least five must be graduate courses. In the thesis plan, seven of the nine must be formal courses, including at least four from the 200 series. The remaining two may be 598 courses involving work on the thesis. In the comprehensive examination plan, no units of 500-series courses may be applied toward the minimum course requirement. Courses taken before the award of the bachelor’s degree may not be applied toward a graduate degree at UCLA. The courses should be selected so that the breadth requirements and the requirements at the graduate level are met. The breadth requirements are only applicable to students who do not have a BS degree from an ABET-accredited aerospace or mechanical engineering program.

Undergraduate Courses. No lower-division courses may be applied toward graduate degrees. In addition, the following upper-division courses are not applicable toward graduate degrees: Chemical Engineering 102A, 199, Civil and Environmental Engineering 108, 199, Computer Science M152A, 152B, M171L, 199, Electrical and Computer Engineering 100, 101A, 102, 110L, M116L, 133A, M171L, 199, Materials Science and Engineering 110, 120, 130, 131, 131L, 132, 140A, 140B, 141L, 150, 160, 161L, 199, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering 101, 102, 103, 105A, 105D, 107, 188, 194, 199.

Aerospace Engineering

Breadth Requirements. Students are required to take at least three courses from the following four categories: (1) Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering 154A or 154B or 154S, (2) 150B or C150P, (3) 155 or 166A or 169A, (4) 161A or 171A.

Mechanical Engineering

Breadth Requirements. Students are required to take at least three courses from the following five categories: (1) Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering 162A or 169A or 171A, (2) 150A or 150B, (3) 131A or 133A, (4) 156A, (5) 162D or 183A.

Comprehensive Examination Plan

The comprehensive examination is required in either written or oral form. A committee of at least three faculty members, with at least two members from within the department, and chaired by the academic adviser, is established to administer the examination. Students may, in consultation with their adviser and the MS committee, select one of the following options for the comprehensive examination: (1) take and pass the first part of the PhD written qualifying examination (formerly referred to as the preliminary examination) as the comprehensive examination, (2) conduct a research or design project and submit a final report to the MS committee, or (3) take and pass three comprehensive examination questions offered in association with three mechanical and aerospace engineering graduate courses. Contact the department Student Affairs Office for more information.

Thesis Plan

The thesis must describe some original piece of research that has been done under the supervision of the thesis committee. Students should normally start to plan the thesis at least one year before the award of the MS degree is expected. There is no examination under the thesis plan.

Manufacturing Engineering MS

Areas of Study

Consult the department.

Course Requirements

Students may select either the thesis plan or comprehensive examination plan. At least nine courses (and 36 units) are required, of which at least five must be graduate courses. In the thesis plan, seven of the nine must be formal courses, including at least four from the 200 series. The remaining two may be 598 courses involving work on the thesis. In the comprehensive examination plan, no units of 500-series courses may be applied toward the minimum course requirement. Courses taken before the award of the bachelor’s degree may not be applied toward a graduate degree at UCLA. Choices may be made from the following major areas:

Undergraduate Courses. No lower-division courses may be applied toward graduate degrees. In addition, the following upper-division courses are not applicable toward graduate degrees: Chemical Engineering 102A, 199, Civil and Environmental Engineering 108, 199, Computer Science M152A, 152B, M171L, 199, Electrical and Computer Engineering 100, 101A, 102, 110L, M116L, 133A, M171L, 199, Materials Science and Engineering 110, 120, 130, 131, 131L, 132, 141L, 150, 160, 161L, 199, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering 101, 102, 103, 105A, 105D, 107, 188, 194, 199.

Upper-Division Courses. Students are required to take at least three courses from the following: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering M168, 174, 183A, 185.

Graduate Courses. Students are required to take at least three courses from the following: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering C263A, C263C, 263D, C296A, M297C.

Additional Courses. The remaining courses may be taken from other major fields of study in the department or from the following: Architecture and Urban Design 227D, Computer Science 241B, Management 241A, Management-PhD 241A, 241B, Mathematics 120A, 120B.

Comprehensive Examination Plan

The comprehensive examination is required in either written or oral form. A committee of at least three faculty members, with at least two members from within the department, and chaired by the academic adviser, is established to administer the examination. Students may, in consultation with their adviser and the MS committee, select one of the following options for the comprehensive examination: (1) take and pass the first part of the PhD written qualifying examination (formerly referred to as the preliminary examination) as the comprehensive examination, (2) conduct a research or design project and submit a final report to the MS committee, or (3) take and pass three comprehensive examination questions offered in association with three graduate courses. Contact the department Student Affairs Office for more information.

Thesis Plan

The thesis must describe some original piece of research that has been done under the supervision of the thesis committee. Students would normally start to plan the thesis at least one year before the award of the MS degree is expected. There is no examination under the thesis plan.

Aerospace Engineering PhD and Mechanical Engineering PhD

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Design, robotics, and manufacturing (mechanical engineering only); fluid mechanics; micro-nano engineering; structural and solid mechanics; systems and control; thermal science and engineering.

PhD students may propose ad hoc major fields, which must differ substantially from established major fields and satisfy one of the following two conditions: (1) the field is interdisciplinary in nature or (2) the field represents an important research area for which there is no established major field in the department (condition 2 most often applies to recently evolving research areas or to areas for which there are too few faculty members to maintain an established major field).

Students in an ad hoc major field must be sponsored by at least three faculty members, at least two of whom must be from the department.

Course Requirements

The basic program of study for the PhD degree is built around major and minor fields. The established major fields are listed above, and a detailed syllabus describing each PhD major field can be obtained from the Student Affairs Office.

The program of study for the PhD requires students to perform original research leading to a doctoral dissertation and to master a body of knowledge that encompasses material from their major field and breadth material from outside the major field. The body of knowledge should include (1) six major field courses, at least four of which must be graduate courses; (2) one minor field; (3) any three additional courses, at least two of which must be graduate courses, that enhance the study of the major or minor field.

The major field syllabus advises students as to which courses contain the required knowledge, and students usually prepare for the written qualifying examination (formerly referred to as the preliminary examination) by taking these courses. However, students can acquire such knowledge by taking similar courses at other universities or even by self-study.

The minor field embraces a body of knowledge equivalent to three courses, at least two of which must be graduate courses. Minor fields are often subsets of major fields, and minor field requirements are then described in the syllabus of the appropriate major field. Established minor fields with no corresponding major field can also be used, such as applied mathematics and applied plasma physics and fusion engineering. Also, an ad hoc field can be used in exceptional circumstances, such as when certain knowledge is desirable for a program of study that is not available in established minor fields.

Grades of B– or better, with a grade-point average of at least 3.33 in all courses included in the minor field, and the three additional courses mentioned above are required. If students fail to satisfy the minor field requirements through coursework, a minor field examination may be taken (once only).

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

After mastering the body of knowledge defined in the major field, students take a written qualifying (preliminary) examination covering this knowledge. Students must have been formally admitted to the PhD program or admitted subject to completion of the MS degree by the end of the term following the term in which the examination is given. The examination must be taken within the first two calendar years from the time of admission into the PhD program. Students must be registered during the term in which the examination is given and be in good academic standing (minimum GPA of 3.25). The student’s major field proposal must be completed prior to taking the examination. Students may not take an examination more than twice. Students in an ad hoc major field must pass a written qualifying examination that is approximately equivalent in scope, length, and level to the written qualifying examination for an established major field.

After passing the written qualifying examination, students take the University Oral Qualifying Examination within four calendar years from the time of admission into the PhD program. The nature and content of the examination are at the discretion of the doctoral committee but include a review of the dissertation prospectus and may include a broad inquiry into the student’s preparation for research.

Note: Doctoral Committees. A doctoral committee consists of a minimum of four members. Three members, including the chair, are inside members and must hold appointments in the department. The outside member must be a UCLA faculty member in another department.

Fields of Study

Design, Robotics, and Manufacturing

The program is developed around an integrated approach to design, robotics, and manufacturing. It includes research on manufacturing and design aspects of mechanical systems, material behavior and processing, robotics and manufacturing systems, CAD/CAM theory and applications, computational geometry and geometrical modeling, composite materials and structures, automation and digital control systems, microdevices and nanodevices, radio frequency identification (RFID), and wireless systems.

Fluid Mechanics

The graduate program in fluid mechanics includes experimental, numerical, and theoretical studies related to a range of topics in fluid mechanics, such as turbulent flows, hypersonic flows, microscale and nano-scale flow phenomena, aeroacoustics, biofluid mechanics, chemically reactive flows, chemical reaction kinetics, numerical methods for computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and experimental methods. The educational program for graduate students provides a strong foundational background in classical incompressible and compressible flows, while providing elective breadth courses in advanced specialty topics such as computational fluid dynamics, microfluidics, biofluid mechanics, hypersonics, reactive flow, fluid stability, turbulence, and experimental methods.

Micro-Nano Engineering

The micro-nano engineering field focuses on science and engineering issues ranging in size from nanometers to millimeters and includes both experimental and theoretical studies covering fundamentals to applica tions. The study topics include microscience, top-down and bottom-up nanofabrication/microfabrication technologies, molecular fluidic phenomena, nanoscale/microscale material processing, biomo-lecular signatures, heat transfer at the nanoscale, and system integration. The program is highly interdisciplinary in nature.

Structural and Solid Mechanics

The solid mechanics program features theoretical, numerical, and experimental studies, including fracture mechanics and damage tolerance, micromechanics with emphasis on technical applications, wave propagation and nondestructive evaluation, mechanics of composite materials, mechanics of thin films and interfaces, analysis of coupled electro-magneto-thermomechanical material systems, and ferroelectric materials. The structural mechanics program includes structural dynamics with applications to aircraft and spacecraft, fixed-wing and rotary-wing aeroelasticity, fluid structure interaction, computational transonic aeroelasticity, biomechanics with applications ranging from whole organs to molecular and cellular structures, structural optimization, finite element methods and related computational techniques, structural mechanics of composite material components, structural health monitoring, and analysis of adaptive structures.

Systems and Control

The program features systems engineering principles and applied mathematical methods of modeling, analysis, and design of continuous- and discrete-time control systems. Emphasis is on modern applications in engineering, systems concepts, feedback and control principles, stability concepts, applied optimal control, differential games, computational methods, simulation, and computer process control. Systems and control research and education in the department cover a broad spectrum of topics primarily based in aerospace and mechanical engineering applications. However, the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering departments also have active programs in control systems, and collaboration across departments among faculty members and students in both teaching and research is common.

Thermal Science and Engineering

The thermal science and engineering field includes studies of convection, radiation, conduction, evaporation, condensation, boiling and two-phase flow, chemically reacting and radiating flow, instability and turbulent flow, reactive flows in porous media, as well as transport phenomena in support of micro-scale and nanoscale thermosciences, energy, bioMEMS/NEMS, and microfabrication/nanofabrication.

Ad Hoc Major Fields

The ad hoc major fields program has sufficient flexibility that students can form academic major fields in their area of interest if the proposals are supported by several faculty members. Previous fields of study included acoustics, system risk and reliability, and engineering thermodynamics. Nuclear science and engineering, a former active major field, is available on an ad hoc basis only.