Program type:

Major
Grad Track
Format:

On Campus
Est. time to complete:

7 years
Credit Hours:

192
Aim for the highest levels of academic achievement and get an early start on your Ph.D. in Mechanical and Energy Engineering with UNT's grad track.
Our Doctor of Philosophy degree is the first of its kind in Texas, and the innovative curriculum allows you to study and conduct research with world-class faculty members. This collaboration can lead to being published in professional journals, providing a validation of your hard work and strong research.

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Why Earn a degree in Mechanical and Energy Engineering?

UNT's Mechanical and Energy Engineering program is similar to a traditional Mechanical Engineering curriculum, however, UNT's curriculum focuses on energy related courses that target natural energy applications and materials.

The Grad Track option is an accelerated program for Mechanical Engineering undergraduate students, to earn their BS/Ph.D. on an accelerated time frame. The student can take a maximum of nine (9) credit hours of graduate courses while the student is completing the BS degree. These credits will be counted towards both the BS and MS degrees.

Within their first year, students take basic fundamental courses in Math and Science. These courses will lay the foundation for the advanced level classes of the students’ choice. Students will focus on the following areas of study:

  • Thermal science, fluid flow, and energy
  • Mechanics and materials
  • Dynamics, design, and controls
  • Environmental impact of energy production and use
  • Entrepreneurship

In their final year, seniors will participate in a Capstone Senior Design project that allows them to solve real-world issues, making meaningful contributions to an existing local business. The mechanical and energy engineering program also teaches students to be responsible industry leaders by giving them a global understanding of the environmental, ethical and societal impacts of the technologies they help develop.

The department's graduate programs build on the theme of Mechanical and Energy Engineering and Engineering Technology through course offerings, opportunities to engage in work experiences in faculty laboratories through directed study, theses, and dissertations.

In addition, you'll work with faculty members to develop a broad and in-depth knowledge for solving energy problems. You'll explore topics such as:

  • Bio-based green and sustainable products
  • Energy-efficient intelligent vehicles
  • Energy-efficient products and structures
  • Fundamentals of energy
  • Renewable and alternative clean energy
  • Solid mechanics and controls
  • Thermal energy and fluids

You can conduct research with faculty members in laboratories containing the most modern equipment in the nation. Among our facilities is the Zero Energy Research Laboratory where various energy technologies aimed at achieving net-zero consumption of energy are tested. The facility is the first of its kind in Texas. Other facilities include:

  • Bioproducts Lab
  • Center for Advanced Scientific Computing and Modeling
  • Composite Mechanics and Manufacturing Lab
  • Computer-Aided Design and Analysis Lab
  • Functional Cellular Solids Lab
  • Laboratory of Small Scale Instrumentation
  • Manufacturing and Engineering Technology Lab
  • PACCAR Technology Institute
  • Thermal Fluid Science Lab
Marketable Skills
  1. Mechanical design and development
  2. Manufacturing processes and system evaluation
  3. Team-based project management
  4. Problem-solving and troubleshooting
  5. Interdisciplinary research leadership
  6. Scholarly excellence
  7. Identify knowledge gaps
  8. Innovative research leadership
  9. Communication of complex problems /solutions
  10. Conceptualize/develop scientific reports/manuscripts

Mechanical and Energy Engineering Grad Track to Ph.D. Highlights

You will have opportunities that you won't be able to find at many other schools and will be able to partner with world-class faculty and local industry leaders to make an impact in both your field and your community.
The department offers state-of-the-art facilities ranging from a variety of instructional laboratories to research facilities where you can develop next-generation technology and solutions.
These facilities allow our faculty and students to work side-by-side on industry-sponsored, cutting-edge graduate research.
The University provides several services exclusively to graduate students. The Graduate Student Writing Support office can help you with writing, and the Center for Interdisciplinary Research offers assistance with statistical research.
A Dissertation Boot Camp and other specialized workshops are available through the Toulouse Graduate School®. Many of the workshops are available online for your convenience.
Many students seek internships or work part time in area industries given our proximity to the metroplex.

What can you do with a degree in Mechanical and Energy Engineering?

This degree prepares you for a career in:

  • Advanced materials design
  • Building energy efficiency
  • Energy management and conservation
  • Energy (oil, gas and nuclear) production and distribution
  • Heating, ventilation and air conditioning
  • Manufacturing and product design
  • Nanotechnology
  • Renewable energy
  • Vibration and control
  • Research and Education

 

Mechanical and Energy Engineering Grad Track to Ph.D. Courses You Could Take

Failure of Deformable Bodies (3 hrs)
Continuum mechanics approach to failure mechanisms in deformable solid bodies with their system design applications and use of engineering plasticity fundamentals to describe the permanent deformation in solids. The indentation hardness tests are related to plasticity. The fracture, fatigue, and creep modes-of-failure analysis seeks to explain the mechanism, the use in mechanical systems design, service reliability, and their interrelation.
Composites and Lightweight Structures (3 hrs)
Materials, mechanics and failure criteria of anisotropic materials (composites) and cellular solids.
Theory of Elasticity (3 hrs)
Analysis of stress and strain in two- and three-dimensions, equilibrium and compatibility equations, and strain energy methods; torsion of noncircular sections, flexure, and axisymmetric problems. Topics include kinematics, balance laws, constitutive equations, nonlinear elasticity, classical small-deformation theory, formulation and solution of boundary-value problems of linear elastostatics.
Impact Mechanics of Materials (3 hrs)
Stress wave generation, propagation and interaction with interfaces; uniaxial stress and uniaxial strain waves; formulation and derivation of 1-D stress wave equations in solids; experimental methods for high-rate material behavior characterization; split Hopkinson (Kolsky) bars; dynamic fracture and fragmentation of brittle materials.
Energy Harvesting Technologies and System Design (3 hrs)
Energy harvesting is the conversion of ambient energy present in the environment into electrical energy. Energy harvesting system has a wide range of applications, including energy efficiency enhancement for a system, embedded power source for wireless sensor networks, embedded power for biomedical devices. Introduces the design of energy conversion and storage systems from mechanical energy. Major topics include: vibration energy harvesting using piezoelectric materials, vibration energy harvesting using electromagnetic technique, thermoelectric energy harvesting, energy harvesting circuits, storage of harvested energy and selected applications of energy harvesting systems.
Nanoscale Energy Transport Process (3 hrs)
Microscopic heat carriers and transport; material waves; energy states in solids; statistical description of thermodynamics; waves; particle transport process; semiconductor materials; interfacial phenomena for non-conventional liquids.

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