ME-ENG - Mechanical Engineering (ENG)

Refer to University policy on Graduate Residency Transfer Credit

The Department of Mechanical Engineering (ME) is committed to academic advising to support graduate students’ scholarly and professional development. This advising relationship is most effective when it entails collaborative and sustained engagement between the advisor and the advisee. The advisor/advisee relationship and expectations should be periodically discussed and reviewed as a best practice to ensure mutual understanding. All advisors and the advisee are expected to maintain professionalism and integrity.

Faculty advisors guide graduate students in critical areas of their academic careers. An academic advisor helps guide student selection of courses and provides help in navigating policies and degree requirements. In the case of faculty advising teaching assistants, the relationship should include assistance with teaching pedagogy and practice development. If the advisor also serves as the primary research advisor, then the advising is much more extensive and includes research training, design, execution, and career planning (see also PhD section below).

In all cases, graduate students should be active contributors to the advising relationship, proactively seeking academic and professional guidance and taking responsibility for informing themselves of policies and degree requirements for their graduate program (including reading the ME Department’s Graduate Student Handbook). Graduate students conducting research should also strive to understand the method and goals of the research and the project’s contribution to the pertinent field.

The faculty Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) meets with all master’s and doctoral students at the start of their first year and is available year-round via email and by appointment. The department’s Student Services Office is also an essential part of the advising team; they inform students and advisors about university and department requirements, procedures, and opportunities and maintain the official records of advising assignments. Students are encouraged to talk with the staff of the Student Services Office, including the DGS, as they consider advisor selection or for advice in working with their advisor(s). Another excellent resource for students is the ME Graduate Student Committee. This student-run group organizes social, academic, and community events for the graduate student population in the ME Department.

See Graduate Advising for a statement of university policy on graduate advising. 

PhD and Engineer Degrees 

The ME Department provides academic advising in support of doctoral student scholarly and professional development. A successful advisor/advisee relationship is significant for students seeking a PhD in the department. The material in this section also applies to students pursuing the Engineer degree.

In addition to the goals listed above for all advisor/advisee relationships, the PhD advisor provides advice and guidance on developing research skills, choosing classes that help with the student’s research, identifying and planning research projects, dissemination/publishing the research, and exploring academic opportunities and professional pathways. The PhD advisor serves as the PhD student’s intellectual and professional mentor. Sometimes, a PhD student may be advised by two or more advisors. In these cases, each individual’s roles and goals should be made very clear to all involved. For example, the co-advisors in such arrangements should strive to coordinate and provide non-conflicting advice to the student. The advisee should work to improve and facilitate communication with the two advisors and provide feedback to and from their advisors.

In the ME department, PhD students can be admitted to be advised by a specified faculty member or accepted with a fellowship associated with the research rotation program. For the latter, the department initially assigns the student a program advisor. This faculty member provides initial guidance in course selection, exploring academic opportunities and professional pathways, and identifying doctoral research opportunities. Students are required to perform rotations until a PhD research advisor is identified, and they are strongly encouraged to explore research activities with two or three different faculty members during their first academic year. All PhD students seeking a PhD research advisor are encouraged to actively seek out, meet with, and discuss possibilities for PhD advisors. Ideally, these discussions should include possible research projects and the potential for and sources of sustained research funding.

PhD students must identify their doctoral research/thesis advisor (and vice versa) before the first year of study ends. Ideally, this should happen within the first nine to ten months. The research supervisor assumes primary responsibility for the student’s future direction, taking on the roles previously filled by the program advisor and the aforementioned research-related advice and ultimately directing the student’s dissertation. Most ME PhD students find an advisor from the department’s primary faculty members. However, the research advisor may be a qualified faculty member from another Stanford department who can provide both advising and funding for the duration of the doctoral program. When the research advisor is from outside the department, the student must also identify a program advisor, called a co-advisor, from the primary ME faculty to guide departmental requirements and opportunities. The co-advisor is also a member of the student’s dissertation reading committee.

See Graduate Advising for a statement of university policy on graduate advising.