Prof. Pier Marzocca and graduate student Keegan O'Donnell '07 discuss a novel wing design that can host up to 70 active flow control synthetic jet actuators. The SJAs can improve the performance of flight vehicles and wind turbines.

The Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering currently has 20 active faculty members and 47 graduate students. The department strives to maintain a close and friendly educational atmosphere. The size of our program enables individual attention to each student from the faculty.

The department is located in the CAMP building, which houses the departmental administrative offices, and instructional and research laboratories. Among the major departmental research facilities are labs for fluid mechanics, CAD, aerosol studies, microgravity studies, composite materials, metal joining, a class-10 clean room, a parallel computer and several computational laboratories. 

A wide variety of well-funded research projects are ongoing, serving both the United States government and private industry. Annually, the faculty obtain close to $1.2 million in external support grants for research. In a typical year, this research leads to more than 70 scholarly articles published in respected journals, and over 90 talks at various universities and national/international meetings. For more information on research topics, see Research Opportunities page.

Clarkson offers programs of study during the academic year leading to the Master of Engineering, Master of Science, and Doctor of Philosophy degrees. Graduate study in Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering at Clarkson University includes both thesis research and coursework. Research projects vary extensively depending on the interests of the particular graduate student, his/her faculty advisor, and the interests of outside funding agencies. The School of Engineering Graduate School Office can be contacted via e-mail at: enggrad@clarkson.edu or you may visit Clarkson's online application to apply now.  If you are still unsure about reasons to go to graduate school, please see 9 Reasons to go to Graduate School

Master of Engineering Program
This is a special non-thesis program offering advanced training in Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering. The program can be thought of as professional extension of the traditional four-year undergraduate engineering program.

• Financial assistance (partial tuition waiver)
• One calander year is typically required
• 30 credit hours beyond B.S. - course (24), seminar (2), and project work (4)

Note: An M.E. student has the option of continuing towards a Ph.D. degree if accepted as a candidate by the graduate committee.

Master of Science Program
This is a traditional graduate program where the student furthers his or her understanding of particular topic of interest through additional course work and research. Thesis topics are typically developed cooperatively with a faculty advisor, and are regularly aimed at solving a problem of industrial importance.

• Full tuition Research and Teaching Assistantships are competitively awarded. To be considered for an assistantship, apply before Jan. 31'st for admission in the fall semester and before Oct. 1'st for admission in the spring semester.
• Three semesters are typically required
• 30 credit hours beyond B.S. - course (18), seminar (2), and thesis (10)
• Oral presentation and defense of the thesis to a commitee of three faculty members

Ph.D. Program
This is a traditional graduate program where the student furthers his or her understanding of particular topic of interest through additional coursework and research. Thesis topics are typically developed cooperatively with a faculty advisor, and are normally aimed at the investigation of fundamental problems encountered in modern mechanical and aeronautical engineering fields.

• Full tuition Research and Teaching Assistantships are competitively awarded. To be considered for an assistantship, apply before Jan. 31'st for admission in the fall semester and before Oct. 1'st for admission in the spring semester.
• Three calander years are typically required
• 90 credit hours beyond B.S. - course (39), seminar (6), and thesis (45)
• Written qualifying examination
• Oral presentation and defense of the proposed thesis topic at least one calender year prior to completion of the thesis
• Oral presentation and defense of the thesis to a commitee of five (four MAE Faculty, and one individual from another department)

Note: There is no foreign language requirement for the Ph.D.