Grad Profiles - University of South Florida Engineering

Overview
The University of South Florida opened its doors in 1960 and now has 50,819 students on four campuses. The Tampa campus is the largest, with 41,584 students. It comprises the Colleges of Engineering, Business, Education, Fine Arts, Arts and Sciences, Medicine, and Nursing and the School of Public Health. The campus is modern, airy, and attractive and provides a wide range of recreational facilities, including a golf course and a riverfront park.

The College of Engineering maintains close contact with local industry, where many of its students find part-time or full-time employment. The College is housed in three modern buildings.

There are 50,819 students at the University of South Florida, including 9,066 enrolled in graduate programs. The College of Engineering has an enrollment of 3,363, including 885 graduate students.

The Location and Community
The Tampa Bay area, with a population of more than 3.5 million, is rich in recreational, cultural, and athletic activities. The University is located approximately 10 miles from downtown Tampa and 35 miles from Clearwater and St. Petersburg. Symphonies and concerts in diverse musical genres, professional theater, and professional sports events are regularly available. Fine beaches and parks make Tampa Bay an elite resort and vacation spot. The area is undergoing rapid industrial growth and houses divisions of many internationally known high-technology industries.

Programs of Study and Degree Requirements
Graduate programs leading to master's and doctoral degrees are offered in chemical engineering, biomedical engineering, civil and environmental engineering, computer science and engineering, electrical engineering, engineering management, engineering science, environmental engineering, industrial engineering, and mechanical engineering. These programs cover engineering principles as well as applications at an advanced level and prepare students for careers in such fields as engineering design, operations, research, development, and teaching. Special interdisciplinary study is available through the engineering science graduate program. Advanced work in a major field of specialization may be combined with one or more supporting fields to develop individuals capable of creative, interdisciplinary work in engineering science and applications. Students are assigned to a major professor at the start of studies, and a supervisory committee guides them in their research activities.

Master's degrees require a minimum of two year's full-time study (33?36 semester hours) beyond the bachelor's degree. Programs with or without a thesis can be pursued in all departments. A final written or oral examination is required of each student. A maximum of 8 semester-hour transfer credits or three courses may be accepted as part of a master's degree program.

The Ph.D. degree normally requires four to five years of full-time study and research beyond the bachelor's degree, or two to three beyond the master's. Ordinarily, at least two full years are spent on course work. The remainder of the time is spent on a searching and authoritative investigation of a special area of the candidate's choice, culminating in the dissertation, which demonstrates the student's capacity for considerable original thought, talent for significant research and/or design, and ability to organize and present findings.

Students must achieve and maintain a minimum grade point average of 3.0 (on a 4.0 scale) in all courses taken for graduate credit. Courses with grades below 2.0 are not accepted toward a graduate degree.

Facilities & Resources
Graduate students at the University of South Florida have access to extensive computing capabilities. The University Computing Center operates an IBM 3090 vector facility. The College of Engineering facilities include Sun Enterprise servers, Sun and SGI Workstations, and Intel Pentium II- and III-based PC laboratories for student use. The Department of Computer Science and Engineering also operates an Intel Parallel Hypercube and Sun machines. Ethernet and ISN networks provide connections to laboratories and offices. An extensive CAD facility is available for VLSI and mechanical CAD, supported by analytical software with data visualization capability and automated test and data acquisition instrumentation. Laboratory inventories include compound semiconductor materials processing, thin-film and hybrid circuits facilities, extensive analytical and testing equipment, a software engineering laboratory, industrial robots, a Cyberwave Tyangulation Range Scanner, and a well-equipped machine shop. A scanning electron microscope with surface analytical capability is available.

Expenses and Aid
The in-state matriculation fee is $273 per semester credit hour; out-of-state students paid an additional tuition fee of $935 per semester credit hour.

Financial Aid:
Teaching and research assistantships, which require 10 to 20 hours per week, are available for well-qualified full-time students. Stipends for graduate assistantships range from $6825 to $25,000 for the nine-month academic year. Graduate assistants also receive a tuition credit worth up to $8000. Supplemental support for the summer term is often available. In addition, several prestigious fellowships are awarded each year to outstanding students.

Housing/Living Expenses:
The cost of living in the Tampa Bay area compares favorably with that of most other parts of the United States. Limited facilities for unmarried students are available on campus. A wide range of off-campus housing is available immediately adjacent to the University. Meal plans are available in the University's dining halls. Excluding tuition, books, and transportation, living costs are estimated at $3,765 per semester for a single student.

How to Apply
All applicants for a master's program in engineering must have a bachelor's degree in an accredited engineering or related program, with a grade point average of 3.0 or higher during the last two years of their undergraduate work and/or a GRE General Test score of 1000 or better (verbal and quantitative scores combined). All applicants must submit valid GRE scores. International students must obtain a TOEFL minimum score of 550/213. Individual programs may set higher minimum qualifications. Applicants for the doctoral program are expected to have an academic record that exceeds these minimum requirements. Applications for admission should be received by the University's Office of Graduate Admissions at least three months prior to first expected enrollment. Applications from abroad should be submitted at least five months prior to first expected enrollment.

Who to Contact
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
College of Engineering
University of South Florida
Tampa, Florida 33620

813-974-3780

E-mail: gradadm@eng.usf.edu

Graduate Programs

Chemical Engineering
• B. Joseph, Ph.D., Chairman. E-mail: joseph@eng.usf.edu. The Chemical Engineering Department offers graduate programs leading to M.S., M.E. (nonthesis), and Ph.D. degrees in chemical engineering, biomedical engineering, and engineering science. Faculty research interests cover a broad range of topics in reacting systems, thermodynamics, interfacial phenomena, system design and control, and polymers as well as applications in such domains as biomedical, materials, and environmental. The department has well-equipped laboratories for supercritical fluid technology, semiconductor materials synthesis and characterization, surface science, biomedical engineering, sensor development and instrumentation, process design and control, unit operations, and phase equilibrium.

Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Sunil Saigal, Ph.D., PE, Chairman. E-mail: saigal@eng.usf.edu. The department offers master's and Ph.D. programs in the areas of environmental engineering, including water supply, wastewater treatment, air quality management, solid and hazardous waste management, and environmental risk assessment; geotechnical engineering; materials engineering, including properties of materials, corrosion, and microscopic and macroscopic properties of concrete; structural engineering and structural mechanics; transportation engineering; and water resources engineering, including urban hydrology, computer modeling of aquatic systems, and geographic information systems. Some of the current research projects are development and application of computer models of surface and subsurface water systems, physical modeling of complex hydraulic systems, computer analysis of structures subjected to dynamic loading, experimental stress analysis of bridge models, monitoring systems for corrosion protection and corrosion control, cooling tower operations, reverse osmosis water purification, landfill liners, solid-waste landfill separation and degradation processes, organic soil characterization, computational studies of pavement surfaces, advanced modeling and simulation of transportation system, and impact of materials characterization on durability of concrete structures.

Computer Science and Engineering
• A. Kandel, Ph.D., Chairman. E-mail: msphd@cse.usf.edu. Master's and Ph.D. programs in computer science and engineering emphasize the design, analysis, and application of computer systems as well as theoretical aspects of computing. Research areas include software reliability and testing, artificial intelligence, neural networks, computer vision, image processing, biomedical imaging and medical informatics, computer networks, computer graphics and modeling, human-computer interaction, robotics, VLSI, computer architecture, and parallel processing. The Department of Computer Science and Engineering operates a 100Mbit local-area network consisting of SG workstations, PCs, more than seventy Sun Workstations, and multiple printers. Research labs provide access to special-purpose hardware and software, including high-performance servers; graphics workstations; various imaging sensors, including Cyberware; parallel machines; multiple robotics platforms; and specialized software packages. College of Engineering facilities available to the department include a second network of Sun Workstations.

Electrical Engineering
• D. Morel, Ph.D., Chairman. E-mail: eegrad@eng.usf.edu. Faculty research as an integral part of the graduate programs includes externally and internally funded studies related to microelectronic design, fabrication, and testing (VLSI, VHSIC, MIMIC, and ASIC design, microwave and high-frequency analog and digital circuit modeling and testability, interconnection systems); communications and signal processing (networks, packet switching, digital video and HDTV, ISDN, satellite communications, comm-software, comm-terminals); systems and controls; solid-state material and device processing and characterization; MEMS and nanotechnology; electromagnetics, microwave and millimeter-wave engineering (antennas, devices, systems); CAD and microprocessors; power systems; electrical vehicles; and photovoltaics.

Industrial and Management Systems
• Michael Weng, Ph.D., Graduate Director. E-mail: imse@eng.usf.edu. The department offers graduate work in the areas of operations research, applied statistics, reliability engineering, simulation, production and inventory control, quality, and manufacturing systems. Thrust areas include advanced manufacturing, nanotechnology, engineering the service sector, bioengineering, robotics and sensors, transportation and logistics, information technology, and transfer of technology.

• Dolores Gooding, Ph.D., Director of the Engineering Management Program. E-mail: imse@eng.usf.edu. This program develops technical management knowledge by combining qualitative approaches and quantitative techniques in a balanced curriculum, which strengthens engineering credentials and develops managerial competence. Research interests cover a broad spectrum of industrial engineering techniques.

• The department offers M.S.I.E., M.I.E., M.S.E.M., and Ph.D. degrees. The department also offers graduate certificates in technology management, quality management, and regulatory affairs. Information on M.S.E.M. and graduate certificate course work is available on the Internet.

Mechanical Engineering
• R. V. Dubey, Ph.D., Chairman. E-mail: megrad@eng.usf.edu. The department offers M.S., M.E. (nonthesis), and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering. Graduate research and course work are available in the areas of fluid dynamics, heat transfer, energy systems for space applications, HVAC, building energy conservation, thermal power generation, robot sensors, robotics, teleoperation, composite materials, advanced electronic materials, structural analysis, modeling and simulation, controls, tribology, vibrations, and rehabilitation engineering. Students have access to a large array of computers and software for data acquisition, analysis, graphical display, and artificial intelligence. The department has a subsonic wind tunnel and laboratories for heat transfer, fluid mechanics, vibrations, stress analysis, computer-aided design, computational fluid dynamics, HVAC, advanced materials, and robotics, as well as to a state-of-the-art electronic materials and nanomaterials research facility.

Nanomaterials
• Michael G. Kovac, Ph.D., Director. NNRC is a research center and University-wide user facility. The Center executes state-of-the-art research in microelectronics, nanomaterials, nanomanufacturing, devices and processes, design, prototyping, and testing and promotes the transfer of this technology to industry and government.

• Research focuses on the electronic and mechanical properties of nanomaterials; architecture, design, and test methodologies for VLSI/ULSI/WSI/MCM systems, high-speed test and interconnect technologies for wafer scale and hybrid ULSL; defect engineering in semiconductor materials; and development of in-line monitoring techniques for next-generation nanomanufacturing. Strong industrial interaction and partnerships are part of the NNRC research strategy, with several cooperative research ventures having already been established. NNRC currently has eight research laboratories: Microelectronics Design Laboratory, Microelectronics Test Laboratory, Device Engineering Laboratory, Microelectronics Processing Laboratory, Metrology Lab, Rapid Prototyping Laboratory, Reliability and Accelerated Life Test Laboratory, and Silicon Carbide Laboratory.

Urban Transportation
• Edward A. Mierzejewski, Ph.D., Director. The Center has a full-time professional staff of 50 research associates with backgrounds in economics, engineering, urban planning, public administration, and geography. CUTR's research program focuses on a variety of transportation issues, including public transportation, bus rapid transit, intelligent transportation systems, growth management, transportation finance, transportation safety, geographic information systems, specialized transportation, access management, alternative fuels, and public policy. CUTR houses the National Bus Rapid Transit Institute and the National Center for Transit Research, both federally designated. CUTR serves as the focus organization in an interdisciplinary transportation program for students in economics, public administration, and civil engineering. Through technical support, policy analysis, and research support and by identifying innovative solutions to transportation problems in the state and the nation and through publications, presentations, and seminars, CUTR also serves as an information exchange for transportation agencies on state-of-the-art solutions.