Question for anyone that might know...

[boneh3ad]

I am starting my M.S./Ph.D. program in the fall in Mechanical Engineering, but my interests really skirt the line between ME and Aero. Does anyone know how much interdepartmental research engineering departments usually do for graduate students? I found a really cool research group, but it is administered mainly by the Aero department, and I am in the ME department. Also, does anyone know how transferring departments works in grad school if I wanted to just do an AE degree instead of ME?

Any advice would be appreciated.

[yacobito]

In general it depends on the schools and the departments. Some schools thrive on cross functional research almost to the point where the only thing that defines you as a Mechanical, Electrical...Engineering is your class work and qualifying exam. Aero and Mechanical are typically partners in crime at research universities and in some cases the same department. I would think your department wouldn't even blink if you worked in Aero.

I did my Masters in Electrical Engineering at Case Western Reserve and my entire research group was in Materials Science Engineering. Now I am going to Boston University for my Ph.D. in Materials Science Engineering and the professor funding me is in the Physics department! This is just based on my experiences, maybe other people have direct knowledge of the school you are going to. Good luck!

[twocosmicfish]

Most engineering programs allow a lot of inter-disciplinary work - a lot of research needs to be. You need to keep a focus in your department, but you can apply that focus to other areas. For example, MIT's plasma science and fusion center has NucE's, EE's, Physicists, and Mathematicians all working together doing mostly the same stuff, but their theses use the skills of their own departments to answer questions related to plasmas and fusion.

[Jordan+AirForce1]

i think the two responses above are excellent.

Schools i've visited had either Aero and Mech combined into one department (MAE department) or very closely associated with each other. Not just aero, but i've noticed that many students do interdisciplinary work with other departments.