Careers in MAE Lecture Series

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Careers in MAE Lecture Series

• PURPOSE
• Educate you on your career options
• Motivate you to excel in your studies
• Enhance your exposure to the real world

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General Advice

• Be ambitious
• Be proactive
• Be diligent
• Embrace excellence
• Work for the best companies
• Go to the best graduate schools

YOUR ACTIONS NOW WILL DEFINE YOUR CAREER AND
LIVELIHOOD
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Todays Lecture

• GRADUATE SCHOOLAN IMPORTANT CAREER PATH
• Dimitri PapamoschouProfessor and
  ChairMechanical Aerospace Engineering

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Why Graduate School?
Because you are interested in

• Making a personal investment in knowledge,
  scholarship, and advanced skills
• Learning more, bettering yourself, and benefiting
  society
• Becoming expert and leader in a field
• Expanding you career options
• Achieving competitive positions and salaries

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What will you be doing?

• Taking advanced courses from experts in the field
• Conducting research under the supervision of
  faculty advisor
• Going boldly where no one has gone before
• Presenting and publishing your results
• Establishing a reputation as a researcher

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Decisions that will define your future

• Should I work before going to grad
  school?(ANSNO)
• Final degree (MS vs. PhD)
• Research area
• Faculty advisor

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MS Path
Courses-only (comprehensive exam)
optionTypically 12 months
Courses
Industry
Thesis optionTypically 24 months
Industry
Research
Thesis
Courses
Government
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PhD Path
Typically 5 years past BS, 3 years past MS
Industry
Research
Preliminary Exam.
Qualifying Exam.
Thesis Defense
Government
Courses
Academia
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Ingredients for success

• Genuine desire to learn
• Focus
• Commitment to excellence
• Hard work
• Superior knowledge of the fundamentals
• Expertise on the state of the art
• Communications skills
• Thinking outside the box development of new
  ideas
• Surpassing the expertise of your advisor.

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UCI Mechanical Aerospace Engineering

• 22 Faculty ( 3 NAE, 20 Fellows, 4 CAREER)
• 400 Undergraduate students
• 90 Graduate students
• World-class laboratories

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MAE Thematic Areas

• Energy, Transportation and Environment

• Aerospace Defense

• Biomedical Systems

• Design Manufacturing

From the nanoscale to the megascale !
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Energy, Transportation and Environment

• Fuel Cell Technology
• Turbomachinery
• Shear Flow Turbulence
• Sprays and Droplets
• Combustion and Propulsion
• Air Pollution
• Atmospheric Turbulence
• Jet Aeroacoustics
• Failure Prevention

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Aerospace Defense

• Damage Tolerance
• Aero-optics
• Thermal signature suppression
• MEMS Gyroscopes
• Guidance Control
• Aeroelasticity
• Microgravity Combustion
• Scramjet Mixing

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Biomedical Systems

• Bio-Robotics
• MEMS implants
• Bio-MEMS
• Neural Rehabilitation
• Aerosol Inhalability
• Acoustic Imaging

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Design and Manufacturing

• Theory of Spatial Mechanisms
• Robotics and Automation
• Microfabrication
• Net form manufacturing
• Fluid dynamics of multi-phase systems

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Computational Strengths

• Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) and Large Eddy
  Simulation (LES) of turbulence
• Computation of multi-phase flows
• Computational solid mechanics
• Multigrid / adaptive grid methods
• Computational turbomachinery (steady and
  unsteady)
• Fluid/Structure interaction
• Meshless methods
• Aerodynamic optimization using CFD and control
  theory
• Massively parallel computations

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Experimental Strengths
Fluid/Thermal

• National Fuel Cell Research Center
• UCI Combustion Laboratory
• Spray Combustion Diagnostics
• Wind Tunnel Facility
• Aeronautics and Fluid Dynamics Lab
• Atmospheric Turbulence Lab
• Supersonic Turbulence Lab
• Jet Aeroacoustics Facility

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Experimental Strengths
Systems Design

• Robotics and Automation Lab
• Microsystems Lab
• Integrated Nanosystems Research Facility
• Net Form Manufacturing Lab
• Acoustic Imaging Lab
• BioMEMS Lab (coming soon)

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How to apply

• APPLICATION PROCESS IS ELECTRONIC
• For intro to the MAE Dept. and instructions,
  visithttp//mae.eng.uci.edu and click on
  Graduate Program
• Or, go directly to Research Graduate
  Studieshttp//www.rgs.uci.edu/grad/prospective/a
  pp_online.htm
• BASIC REQUIREMENTS
• An applicant must
• hold a degree of bachelor of science (or
  equivalent) from a recognized academic
  institution.
• have a scholastic average of B (3.0 on a 4.0
  scale) or better.
• provide standardized test scores (GRE, TOEFL)

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Deadline
Complete applications for Fall 2003 must be
received by JANUARY 15, 2003
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What happens next

• Applications are reviewed in Jan.-Feb.
• Letters of admission and support go out in late
  February / early March
• Offers must be accepted by April 15

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Admission

• ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA IN TYPICAL ORDER OF
  IMPORTANCE
• GPA (gt3.0)TranscriptUniversity reputation
• GRECommunication skills
• Reference Letters
• Self Statement
• Other factors

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Financial support

• The majority of our graduate students are fully
  supported (stipend, fees, tuition, health
  insurance etc.)
• Support is contingent on satisfactory performance
  in courses and research
• B- is a failing grade!

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Financial support

• Most important factor GPA

Probability of support
Qualitative trend
1.0
0.0
GPA
3.0
3.5
4.0
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Types of support

• FellowshipsUsually no strings attached but
  student is expected to conduct research under a
  facultys supervision. Given mainly to
  first-year students.
• Research AssistantshipsStudent is supported by a
  facultys research funds. Must work on specific
  research projects and fulfill obligations of the
  contract/grant.
• Teaching Assistantships / ReadershipsStudent is
  assigned to specific course(s) for conducting
  discussion sessions, grading homeworks and exams,
  and helping students with their assignments.
  Foreign TAs must pass language test.

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Sources of funds
GovernmentNSF, NASA, DOD, DOE, EPA, FAA, etc
UniversityFellowship, RA, TA
Industry
U.S. Taxpayer
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Get an early start

• Learn about whats going on in our labs
• Get involved in MAE199s
• Consider the Accelerated Masters
  Program(http//ugsa.eng.uci.edu/policies/accelera
  tedmasters)

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Summary

• If you are interested in graduate school,
• Talk to us. Visit our labs. Meet our graduate
  students.
• Get some early exposure to research. Take
  199s.
• Seniors start preparing your application now.
  Take the standardized exams (GRE, TOEFL)
• If you are excellent you will be supported.
• Remember the January 15 deadline

THIS OPPORTUNITY COMES ONCE IN A LIFETIME