1 GRADUATE COUNCIL MEETING 18 January 2012 102 Kern ...

B. Justification Statement. A justification for changes made, such as updating instruction, together with an indication of
expected enrollments and any effects on existing programs.
• The range of research and educational expertise amassed by the ESM faculty has grown over the past several years to encompass
bionanotechnology, biophotonics, and neural engineering in addition to advanced materials, electromagnetics, nanotechnology,
and mechanics. With increasing collaboration across the boundaries of engineering science and mechanics, the ESM faculty voted
to unify the two separate degree-granting programs into a composite Master of Science degree program in Engineering Science and
Mechanics.
The proposed degree program will provide greater flexibility in meeting the diverse needs of the graduate constituency within the
ESM Department. Moreover, the new degree structure will simplify the course selection process. Currently, students must apply
for the M.S. degree in Engineering Mechanics or the M.S. degree in Engineering Science and then contend with two very different
and often confusing sets of course work options. As proposed and outlined above, the composite degree program provides a unified
course listing that can be tailored to suit the student’s educational objectives and research interests.
In the past, we have had 20-40 students annually pursue one of the two M.S. degrees offered by the ESM Department. Many have
continued toward the Ph.D. degree in Engineering Science and Mechanics as originally planned, or after realizing that they enjoyed
the research experience and wanted to continue to the next level. Introduction of the proposed degree program will support this
process and provide a venue for us to attract more high quality students to our Ph.D. program.
The structure of the new degree program will not impact existing course offerings or teaching loads. It will, however, facilitate
advising for the faculty and course selection for the students. As a result, the faculty will be able to concentrate on teaching and
the students will be able to concentrate on learning; both will be able to devote more time to research. As with all advanced
degrees, the student’s academic program and research efforts will be supervised by Graduate Faculty members within the ESM
Department and other Graduate Faculty as appropriate.
C. Written evidence of consultation with affected units. The consultation may be documented in the form of a grid in
the proposal as long as one copy of the actual correspondence is attached to the original proposal.
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• The following Engineering Departments were consulted (in alphabetical order): Aerospace Engineering (George Lesieutre);
Architectural Engineering (Chimay Anumba); Chemical Engineering (Andrew Zydney); Civil & Environmental
Engineering (Peggy Johnson); Computer Science & Engineering (Raj Acharya); Electrical Engineering (W. Kenneth
Jenkins); Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering (Paul Griffin); and, Mechanical & Nuclear Engineering (Karen Thole).
Consultation was also sought from: the Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Bioengineering (Herbert Lipowsky); the
College of Agricultural Sciences (Paul Heinemann); the College of Earth & Mineral Sciences (Gary Messing); and, Penn
State Harrisburg (Peter Idowu). E-mail excerpts and responses follow.
George Lesieutre, Professor & Head, Department of Aerospace Engineering (06/21/11). No problem here. It's interesting
that you don't treat materials as a subset of engineering science.
ESM Response. Actually – mechanics and materials are both considered part of the engineering sciences, but we retain the
three categories as part of the ESM heritage and core strengths.
George Lesieutre, Professor & Head, Department of Aerospace Engineering (05/02/11). The faculty of Aerospace
Engineering has no objections to this streamlining.
At first glance, and given the new title of the degree, the requirement to take a minimum of 3 credits in each of the areas of
Engineering Science and Engineering Mechanics seems a bit low. However, a number of courses (e.g. finite element analysis) are
listed in both areas, so maybe the distinction is not so clear in the first place.
ESM Response: This clarification was sent to George Lesieutre on 6/20/11 following a request for similar information from the
Graduate Studies & Research Committee, a standing committee of the Engineering Faculty Council. The Committee accepted the
clarification (and approved the proposal unanimously) as did George Lesieutre on 6/21/11.
The unified MS degree serves students specializing in one of three areas: mechanics, materials, and engineering science.
All students are required to take a math course - a 3-credit mechanics course, and two credits of seminar. (Total 5 credits)
For breadth and to recognize the interdisciplinarity of the engineering sciences, all students are required to take one course from
each of the three areas - mechanics, materials, and engineering sciences (in addition to the math course) (Total 9 credits).
Note: some courses are cross-listed in two categories.
Students then take the balance of their course work (12 credits) plus conduct their thesis - 6-credits) in one of the three areas -
mechanics, materials, or engineering science.
All students take at least 6 credits of mechanics.
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