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graduateprogram.welcome
The opportunity for leadership in engineering often depends on an academic background that includes graduate study. Graduate study both deepens the basic engineering knowledge provided by undergraduate programs and extends the engineer's capabilities for advancing that knowledge and applying it. Accordingly, engineers with advanced degrees not only have greater competence in their field, but also greater confidence in their capabilities.
Selection of the institution for graduate study should be based on the quality of its faculty and, to some degree, the setting. Quality faculty members are identifiable by their scholarly publications and the nature and extent of their research support. The setting includes factors such as laboratory and computer facilities, access to the faculty, particularly the advisor, and the general ambiance of the working environment. We feel that our faculty are outstanding in their several fields of research. The graduate program is of moderate size, and students are able to interact closely with the faculty, both in the small size classes and in one-on-one discussions. The University is located in a geographic area known for a very attractive quality of life.
The Department has outstanding faculty members working in areas such as controls, adaptive structures, acoustics, aeroelasticity, robotics, dynamics, and thermal and fluid systems. Other faculty members in the Department are internationally recognized as leaders in the emerging field of soft, wet materials. Research in the department covers a broad range of topics, as you will discover by reviewing the individual faculty entries.
Our graduate program is extraordinarily flexible and highly individualized. It is more oriented toward research, but a spectrum of advanced course work is offered. We feel the program permits each student to concentrate on his or her objective with minimal distraction. Students can pursue a Master of Science, Ph.D. degree, and a graduate Certificate in Biologically Inspired Materials and Material Systems.
We invite you to explore our program further through the listings on this website, as well as by inquiry through The Duke Graduate School Office or by contacting our department directly.
MEMS Graduate Student Research
May 8, 2008
DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering has received a gift of $5 million from an anonymous donor to establish a new undergraduate curriculum that will encourage students to think critically about problems that lack obvious solutions, like those they will encounter after graduation, President Richard H. Brodhead announced Wednesday.
The planned curriculum will be open to undergraduates from all majors.
“Duke’s strategic plan, ‘Making a Difference,’ calls for investments in programs that help students ...
January 30, 2008
Pratt Undergraduate Research Fellow Sebastian Liska imagines a day when airplane wings might fold themselves up during flight, not unlike the flexible wings of a bird. That quality would give planes the adaptability to complete complicated, multitask missions.
"You might enhance fuel efficiency with extended wings and increase maneuverability with shorter wings," Liska said. "As you change configurations, the plane would become more stable and efficient for particular conditions."
Liska is working in the laboratory of William ...
January 28, 2008
For the second year in a row, Professor Ana Barros led a freshman year experience Focus course cluster called Engineering Frontiers. Open to both engineering and arts and sciences students, this year’s cluster examines the planet earth as the life support system that sustains us.
Taught by engineering professor David Needham, one course in the cluster, Engineering 32F is Mapping Engineering onto Biology. Focus students had the opportunity to join into Needham’s ME/BME 265, Introduction to ...
January 28, 2008
Engineering students in Professor Linda Franzoni’s Fall 2007 ME 141 Mechanical Design course indulged in pizza and a no-holds-barred demonstration of their engineering design skills in an end-of-semester skee-ball contest. The players, however, were robotic ball launchers designed by student teams during the course.
For this skee ball competition, players had to launch small plastic balls into a nested series of rings set at an incline. (Normally, skee ball is a bit like bowling—where a ball ...
January 22, 2008
As a Pratt Undergraduate Research Fellow, Chelsea He is working on a project designed to deliver more peace and quiet to people traveling by air in the future. She is examining the structural acoustics of airplanes and experimenting with materials that might dampen the racket that results from the vibration of the aircraft, the engine and the flow of air over planes.
"I've always been interested in aerospace and aerodynamics and finding a way to achieve ...
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