Northeastern University
Graduate School of Engineering
Boston, Massachusetts 02115
Overview
Founded in 1898, Northeastern University is a privately endowed nonsectarian institution of higher learning. It is among the largest private universities in the country, with six undergraduate schools and colleges, eight graduate and professional schools, and a number of continuing and special education programs and institutes.
In fall 2003, 18,759 students enrolled at Northeastern University, representing a wide variety of academic, professional, geographic, and cultural backgrounds. The Graduate School of Engineering had 813 students, 62 percent of whom attended on a full-time basis.
The Graduate School of Engineering offers degree programs designed to help students prepare themselves for technical positions in industrial organizations, government laboratories, research laboratories, and educational institutions. Graduates are employed around the world in a wide variety of fields, including aerospace, automotive, computer and information technology, electronics, environmental, and chemical, to name only a few. In addition, qualified master's degree students have the unique opportunity to participate in the Cooperative Education Plan.
The Location and Community
Boston, Massachusetts, has a rich cultural and intellectual history and is one of the premier educational centers of the country, with more than thirty-five colleges in the city region. Cultural offerings-including several world-class museums, art galleries, and the Boston Symphony-are diverse, and the city is home to people of every race, ethnicity, political persuasion, and religion. Boston is steeped in New England tradition and offers world-class restaurants and a range of outdoor activities.
Programs of study and degree requirements
The Graduate School of Engineering offers programs leading to the Master of Science degree, full-time and part-time, in chemical engineering, civil engineering, computer systems engineering, electrical engineering, engineering management, industrial engineering, information systems, mechanical engineering, operations research, and telecommunication systems management. The Doctor of Philosophy degree is offered in chemical engineering, civil engineering, computer engineering, electrical engineering, industrial engineering, and mechanical engineering. An interdisciplinary program may be arranged at either the master's or doctoral level in most programs.
The programs leading to master's degrees in information systems (M.S.I.S.) and telecommunication systems management (T.S.M.) are offered through the Graduate School of Engineering. The M.S.I.S. is for students with either technical or nontechnical backgrounds who seek career opportunities in the computer application and software fields. The T.S.M. degree is for current and future telecom professionals who seek to join or extend their expertise in the telecommunications industry. The Cooperative Education Plan, available to qualified full-time Master of Science degree students, presents the opportunity for integrating classroom theory with professional experience.
Facilities & Resources
University libraries contain 984,443 volumes, more than 2.2 million microforms, 160,834 government documents, 7,654 serials subscriptions, and 22,205 audio, video, and software titles. The libraries have licensed access to more than 12,950 electronic information sources. A central and a branch library contain technologically sophisticated services, including Web-based catalog and circulation systems and a Web portal to licensed electronic resources. The University is a member of the Boston Library Consortium and the Boston Regional Library System, giving students and faculty access to the region's collections and information resources.
Departments maintain broad-based research facilities, with special emphases on, among other fields, advanced materials engineering; civil infrastructure; environmentally benign technologies; information technology; microsystems and nanotechnology; sensing, imaging, and control; and biotechnology. The College of Engineering supports the Center for Communications and Digital Signal Processing, the Center for Advanced Microgravity Materials Processing, the Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems, the Nanomanufacturing Research Institute, and the Networking and Pervasive Computing Research Institute.
A network links users and facilities on the central campus and on three satellite campuses. At the university, students have access to a network of UNIX workstations, microcomputer labs, and an array of specialized departmental computing equipment.
Expenses and Aid
Tuition in the Graduate School of Engineering was $970 per semester hour of credit. Where applicable, there are special tuition charges for theses and dissertations. Other charges include the Student Center fee and health and accident insurance fee required of all full-time students.
Financial Aid:
Northeastern awards need-based financial aid to graduate students through the Federal Perkins Loan, Federal Work-Study, and Federal Stafford Student Loan Programs. The University also offers a limited number of minority fellowships and Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarships. The graduate school offers financial assistance through teaching, research, and administrative assistantship awards that include a stipend with tuition remission. The stipend is $15,800 for two semesters. These assistantships require 20 hours of work per week. Also available are a limited number of tuition assistantships that provide partial or full tuition remission and require a maximum of 10 hours of work per week.
Housing/Living Expenses:
On-campus and off-campus living expenses are estimated at $1700 to $2200 per month, with on-campus housing available on a limited basis to newly accepted students. A public transportation system serves the greater Boston area, and there are subway and bus services convenient to the University.
How to Apply / Application
Applicants must have obtained from a recognized institution a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering, or a field closely allied to engineering, with an acceptable quality of undergraduate work. Applicants to the M.S.I.S. and T.S.M. programs must have obtained a bachelor's degree from a recognized institution and must submit GRE scores. Applicants interested in full-time study should submit applications by January 15 to be considered for a graduate assistantship or fellowship award and by March 15 for fall admission. GRE and TOEFL scores are required of all applicants with undergraduate degrees from outside the United States.
Who to Contact
Graduate School of Engineering
130 Snell Engineering Center
Northeastern University
Boston, Massachusetts 02115-5000
617-373-2711
Graduate Programs, Faculty and Research
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
• Eric J. Thorgerson, Department Officer. Faculty: Gilda A. Barabino, Ph.D.; Daniel D. Burkey, Ph.D.; Rebecca L. Carrier, Ph.D.; Carolyn W. T. Lee, Ph.D.; Albert Sacco Jr., Ph.D.; Ronald J. Willey, Ph.D.; Katherine Ziemer, Ph.D. The department offers a graduate program at both the M.S. and Ph.D. levels emphasizing semiconductor materials, composite membranes, biochemical and biomedical engineering, transport processes, process design, biotechnology, and material science. The Ph.D. program involves advanced study in chemical engineering and an experimental thesis in a current research area.
Research is in transport processes (innovative equipment for heat and mass transfer, multicomponent phase equilibrium, selective separation processes, pervaporation), reaction kinetics (biochemical reactions, heterogeneous catalysis reactions, catalyst deactivation phenomena, aerogel catalysts), microgravity materials processing, carbon nanotubes, MEMS/NEMS, biological-physical interfaces, and biochemical and biomedical (in vitro fluid mechanics, tissue engineering, metabolic engineering, bioreactors, cell cultures, drug delivery) applications.
CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING
• Peter G. Furth, Ph.D., Professor and Chairman. Faculty: Akram N. Alshawabkeh, Ph.D.; Dionisio Bernal, Ph.D.; Haris Koutsopoulos, Ph.D.; Vladimir Novotny, Ph.D.; Mehrdad Sasani-Kolori, Ph.D.; Richard J. Scranton, M.S.; Thomas C. Sheahan, Sc.D.; Ali Touran, Ph.D.; Sara Wadia-Fascetti, Ph.D.; James V. Wang, Ph.D.; Irvine W. Wei, Ph.D.; Mishac K. Yegian, Ph.D. The department offers graduate programs at both the M.S. and Ph.D. levels in construction management, structures and materials, transportation, geotechnical/geoenvironmental engineering, and environmental engineering.
Current research areas are earthquake-resistant design of structures, dynamic instability and nonlinear torsion in earthquake response, nonlinear system identification, condition assessment of existing structures, soil dynamics, liquefaction, seismic design of earthen dams and waste containment facilities, seismic hazard and risk analysis, dynamic interface properties of geosynthetics, geotechnical laboratory automation, cohesive soil rheological behavior, groundwater flow and contaminant migration in soils, numerical modeling of contaminant migration in groundwater systems, hazardous-waste-site remediation techniques, electrokinetic soil treatment, leakage through composite landfill liners, point-of-use water treatment, groundwater oxygenation by hydrogen peroxide injection, bioremediation of priority organic pollutants, integrated waste management systems, waste treatment technologies, risk-based landfill management, ground and surface water quality management, risk management for hydraulic structures, simulation modeling of construction processes, bridge maintenance, heavy-equipment policy, transit data collection, traffic and transit simulation modeling, transit signal priority, and traffic signal control.
ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING
Fabrizio Lombardi, Ph.D., Professor and Chairman. Faculty: Dimiter Avresky, Ph.D.; Stefano Basagni, Ph.D.; David Brady, Ph.D.; Dana Brooks, Ph.D.; Soren Buus, Ph.D.; Anthony Devaney, Ph.D.; Charles Dimarzio, Ph.D.; Jennifer Dy, Ph.D.; Arvin Grabel, Sc.D.; Vincent Harris, Ph.D.; Jeffrey A. Hopwood, Ph.D.; Vinay Ingle, Ph.D.; David R. Kaeli, Ph.D.; Yong-Bin Kim, Ph.D.; Mieczyslaw Kokar, Ph.D.; Miriam Leeser, Ph.D.; Bradley Lehman, Ph.D.; Hanoch Lev-Ari, Ph.D.; Elias Manolakos, Ph.D.; Bruce A. McDonald, Ph.D.; Nicol McGruer, Ph.D.; Stephen McKnight, Ph.D.; Waleed Meleis, Ph.D.; Eric Miller, Ph.D.; Sarma Mulukutla, Ph.D.; Sheila Prasad-Hinchey, Ph.D.; Carey M. Rappaport, Ph.D.; Masoud Salehi, Ph.D.; Philip Serafim, Sc.D.; Bahram Shafai, Sc.D.; Michael Silevitch, Ph.D.; Alex Stankovic, Ph.D.; Gilead Tadmor, Ph.D.; Mehdi Tahoori, Ph.D.; Carmine Vittoria, Ph.D. Six concentrations are offered: computer engineering; communications and signal processing; control systems and signal processing; electromagnetics, plasma, and optics; electronic circuits and semiconductor devices; and power systems.
Research is in communications (advanced detection and estimation techniques for spread spectrum signals, local area networks with fiber-optic or atmospheric optical links, aerospace data transmission systems, adaptive filtering techniques for system identification and equalization of time-variant multipath channels), control systems, digital computers (microprocessor-based design and control, software engineering, theory of computation), digital signal image processing (recursive estimation of images, machine vision insights from biological systems, fast algorithms for linear filtering and prediction, VLSI architecture), electromagnetics (electromagnetic forces, strongly coupled plasma theory, high-voltage crossed-field discharge, dynamics of aurora ionospheric phenomena, RF intrusion sensing systems, antennas), instrumentation (telemetry systems), power systems (analysis, simulation, and optimum control of power systems; electromagnetic fields in electrical devices; special problems of electric machinery and power electronics), and radar.
MECHANICAL AND INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING
• Hameed Metghalchi, Sc.D., Professor and Interim Chairman; Emanuel Melachrinoudis, Ph.D., Professor and Associate Chairman. The department offers master's degrees in the fields of engineering management, industrial engineering, and mechanical engineering and Ph.D. degrees in both industrial engineering and mechanical engineering. In addition, the department offers an interdisciplinary master's degree in operations research in conjunction with the Department of Mathematics. The department also coordinates the CAD/CAM and engineering software design options of the CSE program. Industrial Engineering Faculty: James Benneyan, Ph.D.; Thomas P. Cullinane, Ph.D.; Nasser Fard, Ph.D.; Surendra M. Gupta, Ph.D.; Sagar Kamarthi, Ph.D.; Emanuel Melachrinoudis, Ph.D.; Ronald R. Mourant, Ph.D.; Ronald Perry, Ph.D.; Allen L. Soyster, Ph.D.
Current research includes production and manufacturing systems (design and analysis of flexible automated manufacturing systems, intelligent material handling, concurrent engineering, design of automated storage/retrieval systems using simulation), applied statistics/quality and reliability (steady-state estimation in simulation, validation of larger-scale simulation models, multivariate quality control development of a common-cause failure analysis method, analysis of dependent failures in redundancy optimization problems with multiple criteria), operation research (locating facilities using single or multiple criteria, simulations for tests of linear restrictions), mathematical programming and optimization, and computer systems engineering (decision-support systems development, artificial intelligence, design of a methodology for learning invariant functional descriptions, development and evaluation of models for designing). Mechanical Engineering Faculty: George G. Adams, Ph.D.; Teiichi Ando, Ph.D.; Ahmed Busnaina, Ph.D.; John W. Cipolla Jr., Ph.D.; Alexander M. Gorlov, Ph.D. (Emeritus); Hamid N-Hashemi, Ph.D.; Jacqueline A. Isaacs, Ph.D.; Gregory J. Kowalski, Ph.D.; Yiannis A. Levendis, Ph.D.; Constantinos Mavroidis, Ph.D.; Hameed Metghalchi, Sc.D.; Sinan Muftu, Ph.D.; Uichiro Narusawa, Ph.D.; Welville B. Nowak, Ph.D. (Emeritus); John N. Rossettos, Ph.D.; Mohammad E. Taslim, Ph.D.; Grant Warner, Ph.D.; Yaman Yener, Ph.D.; Ibrahim Zeid, Ph.D. Current research includes thermofluids engineering (nanoscale particle adhesion and removal, contamination-free manufacturing in semiconductor processes, microcontamination control, computational fluid dynamics and heat transfer, combustion of coal and coal-water slurries and pollution formation, gas turbine blade film cooling, heat transfer in rotating channels, incineration of waste plastics and hazardous materials, radiative transfer in high-temperature aerosols with thermophoresis, thermally stimulated nonlinear optics, thermofluids aspects of materials processing, processing and applications of metal-matrix composites, waste- and solar-power refrigeration, combustion of premixed flames, stability, flame speed and autoignition), mechanics and design (fluid structure interactions, flexible webs, gas lubrication, wave propagation in moving shells, contact wear and friction, modeling, analysis and simulation of the mechanics of lightweight flexible media, mechanics and tribology of magnetic recording systems, response of structures to moving loads, nonlinear finite-element analysis, CAD/CAM, design manufacturing, modeling and analysis of composites, NDE of adhesive joints, fatigue and impact behavior of graphite/epoxy composite materials, Mode III fatigue crack propagation in turbine shafts), and materials science and engineering (thin films to resist corrosion, diffusion, and wear and for electronic applications; mechanical behavior of engineering materials; intelligent processing of materials; powder metallurgy; metal injection; molding; debinding and sintering; CAD of materials processes).