2006–2007 - Florida Institute of Technology

Admission Requirements
A candidate for the doctoral program in aerospace engineering
will normally have completed a master’s degree in aerospace or
mechanical engineering and have adequate preparation in areas
of fundamental science and mathematics. Alternatively, a student
enrolled in the master’s program may apply to work directly
toward the doctoral degree after completing at least 18 credit
hours of graduate course work at Florida Tech with a cumulative
grade point average of at least 3.5.
Doctoral applicants should have superior academic records,
provide letters of recommendation and take the Graduate Record
Examination General Test.
General admission requirements and the process for applying are
presented in the Graduate Information and Regulations section of
this catalog.
Degree Requirements
The degree of doctor of philosophy is conferred primarily in
recognition of creative accomplishment and the ability to investigate
scientific or engineering problems independently, rather than
for completion of a definite curriculum. The program consists
of advanced studies and research leading to a significant contribution
to the knowledge of a particular problem. A student’s
research may have analytical, computational or experimental
components, or some combination of these. Each student is
expected to complete an approved program of study beyond that
required for a master’s degree, pass the comprehensive examination
(both written and oral parts), present a dissertation proposal
acceptable to the student’s committee, complete a program of
significant original research, and prepare and defend a dissertation
detailing the research work.
The program consists of 90 credit hours of study beyond the
bachelor’s degree or 60 credit hours beyond the master’s degree.
Candidates from both the thesis and nonthesis master’s programs
may be admitted into the doctoral program. However, students
from the second category must have demonstrated exceptional
potential for advanced study to be admitted. Of the 90 credit
hours, 36 shall be for dissertation registration, although six credit
hours of successfully completed master’s thesis registration will
normally be accepted into this category.
The purpose of the comprehensive examination is to cover the
student’s major field of study and related fields important to the
major field. The examination is given when, in the judgment of
the student’s advisory committee, the student has had sufficient
preparation in his/her field of study by completing significant
course work in at least three areas of specialization, as well as
in mathematics, and by initiating doctoral research. The examination
must normally be taken before the end of the student’s
fourth academic semester after admission into the doctoral
program. The written portion of the examination consists of
individual parts given by each member of the advisory committee.
These written examinations are intended to cover each of the
student’s areas of specialization and applied mathematics. The
written portion of the comprehensive examination is followed
by an oral component that provides the advisory committee an
opportunity to complete the examinations in each of the student’s
areas of study. Subsequent to completion of both written and oral
components of the comprehensive examination, a dissertation
proposal must be submitted to the student’s advisory committee
for evaluation. Upon determining that the proposed research is
of doctoral quality and that completion is feasible, the student is
advanced to candidacy for the doctoral degree.
General degree requirements are presented in the Graduate
Information and Regulations section of this catalog.
Curriculum
The doctoral program of study must be approved by the student’s
advisory committee and the department head. Considerable
latitude is allowable in course selection, although appropriate
advanced courses are expected to form a part of the student’s program.
A representative distribution of these courses taken beyond
the bachelor’s degree should include, as a minimum, five courses
in the major area and four, three and three courses (in any combination)
in the two related areas and mathematics. These choices
provide for the selection of three additional courses as electives.
The following illustrates a representative doctoral program of
study beyond the bachelor’s degree.
Major Area (Specialization) ....................................................................15
Two Related Areas (Specializations) and Mathematics ..........................30
Electives ....................................................................................................9
Dissertation (includes 6 credit hours thesis, if completed) .....................36
TOTAL CREDITS REQUIRED 90
Selected course offerings from other engineering and science
programs can be taken to fulfill the elective requirements. Each
student takes electives from the course listings and from mathematics
based on his or her areas of interest and in consultation
with his or her committee.
Research Activities and Facilities
The research facilities of the aerospace engineering program
include laboratories in energy research, fluid mechanics and
aerodynamics, combustion and propulsion, metallurgy and solid
mechanics, system dynamics and control, instrumentation and
applied laser research, computer-aided design and computational
research. Other laboratories around the campus can also be used
by aerospace engineering graduate students performing advanced
research.
Funded research activities of the aerospace and mechanical engineering
faculty have included studies of efficient heat transfer
and insulation mechanisms in building environments; combustion
in porous media; advanced heating, ventilation and airconditioning;
fuel systems; computations of radiative transport;
computational mechanics with emphasis on damage mechanisms
in laminated composite structures; crashworthiness of aircraft
structures; computation of flows in turbine blade environments;
turbulent boundary-layer structure with flexible roughness;
experimental studies of pressure- and/or temperature-sensitive
paints; material characterization using CW and short-pulse
lasers; analysis and computation of natural convection; study of
leaks in cryogenic seals; and turbulent transport of moisture contained
in air streams. Other studies have involved convection and
diffusion of radon gas in porous media, smart composite structures
with embedded sensors and optimization of composites.
Laboratories include the Fluid Dynamics Laboratory and
the Aerospace Structures Laboratory. The Fluid Dynamics
Laboratory features a low-speed, low-turbulence wind tunnel of
open-return type, with a square test section 0.535 m on a side
and 1.6 m long. The speed range is from zero to 42 m/s. The
mean turbulence level is a few hundredths of 1 percent at the
College of Engineering–Aerospace Engineering
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