Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering - Power, Propulsion and Environment

The Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering faculty have special interest and expertise in five thrust areas: dynamics and controls, fluid dynamics and propulsion, mechanics of materials and structures, systems and design, and thermal and transport sciences.

Research in dynamics and controls covers a broad multi-disciplinary area of theory and practical applications. The general aim is to model, analyze and regulate the behavior of dynamical systems in the presence of modeling errors, perturbations and disturbances, while ensuring a level of optimality in carrying out a sought objective. Additional challenges are introduced when the task is to be carried out by a collection of autonomous systems in a distributed, decentralized manner. Estimating parameters and learning while carrying out assigned tasks is yet another layer of increasingly more powerful capabilities becoming available with new technologies and availability of computational resources. Specific areas of interest include control theory and algorithms, autonomous and distributed systems, navigation and flight systems and machine learning.

The area of fluid dynamics and propulsion includes incompressible and compressible turbulent flows, multiphase flows, chemically reacting and other nonequilibrium flows, turbomachinery, electrosprays, aeroelasticity, aerodynamic optimization and aeroacoustics. Computational approaches include direct numerical simulation and large-eddy simulation, laboratories include wind tunnels, anechoic chambers, and high-speed jet facilities. Specific areas of interest include: aeroacoustics, aeroelasticity, biomedical flows, combustion theory, computational fluid dynamics, electrosprays, jet and rocket propulsion, multiphase flow, and turbomachinery.

Hold a bachelor's degree (or equivalent) from a recognized academic institution with degree standards equivalent to those of the University of California

For applicants to our M.S. program, we follow the campus criterion of a minimum GPA of 3.0 based on a 4.0 scale, however, because of the highly competitive nature of admissions, the cutoff can be considerably higher and is currently around 3.3/4.0.

For admission to the Ph.D. program, our expectation is for a GPA near 3.5/4.0 or higher. In addition to the GPA, the admissions committee scrutinizes grades in key courses related to your area of interest, particularly upper-division technical courses.

GRE is not required this year. Regarding the recommendation letters, we expect that at least two of the three required letters are written by academics (professors) who can provide an analytical evaluation of your scholarly performance and potential as a graduate student. Additionally, unofficial transcripts will now be accepted and official ones are only required if admitted.

The campus requirement for minimum TOEFL is 80 on the internet based test (IBT) and at least 550 on the paper-based test (PBT). However, our expectation is a TOEFL score of at least 95. In order to establish eligibility for appointment as a UCI Teaching Assistant (TA), international students who are not citizens of countries where English is either the primary or dominant language are required to pass an oral English proficiency exam approved by the UCI campus. Students can fulfill this requirement by passing one of the following exams: TSE, TOEFL (must have 26 or higher in Speaking portion), SPEAK, or TOEP.

IELTS - An overall minimum score of 7.0 for admission, with a score of no less than 6.0 on any individual module.