The core coursework is made of five required
courses spread over the first two quarters. The core courses include
Structural and Solid Mechanics, Finite Element Method I, Vibrations, Fluid
Mechanics and Finite Element Method II. Each of the above courses has 45
hours of instruction time and is equivalent to 4.5 quarter- or 3
semester-credit hours. Two additional research short courses are offered
each year from a list that includes Smart materials and structures,
Mechanical Models of Material Behavior, Random Vibrations, Perturbation
Methods, Turbulence and Turbulent Flows, Biomechanics, and Optimization of
Structures. Each of these short courses has 15 hours of instruction time
and is equivalent to 1.5 quarter- or 1 semester-credit hours. The thesis
research work will count for 1.2 quarter- or 0.8 semester-credit hours.
